A new week, a new girl, and a new perspective

Sam sighed. This was going to be one of those days.

It was always a mess at the boutique, with herself being the only employee on deck to attend to customers, but today was downright chaotic. Her place of work was a small boutique shop, sandwiched between two bigger stores in a random hall of the local mall, and it had been inundated with customers today, for some godforsaken reason. And, to make things worse, she had been left there by her boyfriend, whom she had asked to run her errands for the day, and then bring her coffee. By the end of it. Her decaffeinated brain was truly a genius sometimes. Genuinely deserving of a Darwin award.

Well, he called himself her boyfriend, she hadn’t been able to quite change his mind about that, but at least she called him something else in her head…

“Sam, is everything ok? Do you need anything else?” her manager came to check in on her between his sales. Again. For the fourth time today. Sam waved him off with the most bored expression known to men, and assured him, if she ever needed anything, she would call him.

He had been kind to her before, a late thirty-something nerd, a bit overweight and balding, he had been nothing but sweet and gentle for the month she had been working there, but earlier that week she had decided to make him her boyfriend and he had become completely obsessed with making her feel good and comfortable all the time, everytime. She broke things off, but every now and again the obsession flared up, like an instinctive behavior that hadn’t quite been forgotten. A lesson to take from this whole debacle, she supposed.

Fortunately, after another hour of this chaos, while there had been no sign of her boyfriend returning, the number of customers seemed to be winding down, with only a couple people left in the store.

Where is he?! Sam thought to herself. She was getting hungry by this point, but hadn’t had a chance to take a break to snack or check her phone because of the incessant waves of customers, even with her manager helping with the sales.

Thankfully, they had managed to whittle it down to the last few remaining. He had finished with his last customer and retreated to his office, but not without assuring Sam she could call him whenever. As for herself, she was just finishing with the last customer in the store, and hopefully would get a long deserved break after this.

“So, how much will this be? Your bangs are so cute, by the way.”

What? A complement?! Here? By whom?! Sam scrambled to put her hungry, un-caffeinated brain to work and process what the woman was saying. Her bangs? She supposed. Sam caught her own reflection on one of the many mirrors in the shop. Her bright pink bangs framed her face and colored every tip of her straightened out blond hair, they really did draw the attention of the eye. She felt like it complemented her snow white skin, her blond hair so clear it was almost white, and her soft features. She liked her bangs ever since she decided to try them on and hadn’t lived a day of her life without them since.

Sam then saw a very visible shade of red cover her round cheeks as she realized a beautiful woman in a flowery sundress had just complemented her. Sam pushed in her glasses in an effort to refocus, their frame so thin and fragile they could almost be invisible, if not for the fact its dark material contrasted nicely with her clear skin.

“Thanks, thank you! That’s very nice of you.”

Yes, saved it! Sam thought to herself as she began scanning the woman’s items.

“Yeah, I always thought bangs were a beautiful thing to see on women, but I never had the courage to do it myself. Say, do you think I would look cute with a single pink bang, like yours?” The woman absentmindedly twirled a finger around a mesh of her auburn hair.

The question **** Sam to truly look at the woman, and she had to **** herself not to stare. Her beautiful dress flowed gracefully on her tanned skin, the thin straps framed her chest nicely, and they also revealed the thinnest traces of bikini lines. The woman twirled her finger around a lock of hair as she contemplated different hairstyles and Sam could not stop thinking of how cute that made the woman look, with her hazel eyes and easy smile.

“Y-Yeah, I think you’d look cute. I think you could look cute on anything.”

“Why, thank you! I might just try it someday!”

Sam **** herself to look down and finish scanning the woman’s items. She was almost positive her increasing blush was hard to miss, but she had to focus on something else, anything else, to take her mind off of it.

“Here you go.” Sam slid a bag with a couple make up items across the counter. The woman thanked her and went to grab her purchase, but Sam put her hand over hers before she could pull back.

This is it now, time to shoot your shot.

“Say, I could show you how to do bangs later if you want. If you give me your number, I could show you… how to do all sorts of… different things…”

Smooth sailing. Crash landing.

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mean to send the wrong idea, but I have a girlfriend, sorry.” The woman was trying to apologize to her! Her anxiously apologetic look just made her seem even cuter in Sam’s eyes, which did not help things at all. “Actually, we are having our one year anniversary this weekend, and I didn’t know what to choose because I thought she’d love and look great in all of these, so I decided to go big and grabbed them all. Sorry if I sent you the wrong message back there, I just get giddy when I think of her.”

“Oh no, it’s ok…” Sam fixed her posture, straightened her glasses. But she couldn’t hide the disappointment on her face.

“I should just go, I’m sorry I made you feel bad.” The woman was already making her way out the door. If Sam wanted to do this, she would have to make the call now.

“Wait!” her yell reverberated on the empty store.

The woman stopped with a foot out the door, but turned back to Sam.

“If you really want to impress your girlfriend on your anniversary, might I suggest our necklace collection?” Sam moved from the register to the jewelry stand. Her hands were sweaty, they couldn’t decide if they rested on the glass top, if they opened the drawer to pick up a necklace, or if they should just shove themselves inside her pockets. She couldn't look the woman in the eye either.

Hopefully she thinks I’m still nervous from before. There’s no way she knows what I’m about to do. Right?

The woman approached the counter, intrigued by what Sam had to show her. “Wow, there are so many options. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Sam closed her fists over the glass. She steeled herself. She was doing this. “It is truly about what you want here. What would you want to see on your girlfriend? Or even on yourself?”

“I don’t know…” the woman ran a fingernail around the base of her neck. She’s perfect. “What do you suggest? What would you want?”

“Oh, that’s easy.” Sam’s hands moved swiftly, taking a necklace out of its case. She locked eyes with the woman. “I want…”