Go shopping alone.

There’s a shopping mall in town. You briefly consider inviting the girls, but this is kind of a rare opportunity. You’ve been spending a lot of time with Emily and Megan, and almost every weekend with Emma since you started dating. Of course, you still love spending time with them, but maybe going out alone for once would be nice?

You get ready and leave your shed. It’s either a 10 minute ride by bus or a 30-minute walk from your place to downtown, but you decide to walk anyway. Your body feels a bit tired, but not extremely so. A light, calm walk is nothing for you now. Good riddance.

Once in the shopping mall, you start to walk around. You stop by the bookstore and get a couple of interesting-looking books, something you wouldn’t have done if the time investment to read them wasn’t as high now. Though actually, they’re for Emma. You’re just going to read them before giving them to her. Is that okay? Is it not like wearing clothes before giving them away? But never mind that, if you’re giving Emma a gift, you have to make sure to get Emily and Megan something as well, but what?

You keep walking, browsing through the first, second and third floors, since the fourth is a movie theatre and… a bowling alley? There’s one here? You wonder if any of them are into bowling. You’d like to come here with all of them, if possible.

Now, focus! Gifts… gifts… It doesn’t have to be fancy. It’s not like it’s their birthday. Quickly pushing aside, the panic rushing through you when you realize you don’t know when their birthdays are and making a mental note to ask at a later date, you resume your task. Then, you see a small shop selling hand-knit sweaters, dresses, wooden rings and simple metal jewelry. In short, handicrafts.

You look around and see something they might like. Resting on a wicker bowl, there’re these nice bracelets made of knit leather strips and fitted with small glass marbles of different colors. Should you get them matching ones? Should you get only one bracelet and get the other something different?

…

Okay, you officially hate shopping now. Never again.

You settle for getting a white leather bracelet with pink marbles for Megan and a black leather one with sky-blue marbles for Emily. Maybe it would be a good idea to give it to them before their first tournament match? You pick them up and bring them to the cashier.

“I’d like to take these pleasssssssse…” You say, trailing off as you see the person behind the counter.

Trying to avoid your gaze, and failing spectacularly at it, is none other than the Brazilian beauty, Jessica Ramirez. You’re stunned not only because you didn’t expect to see her here, but because, well… Okay, she’s either doing it on purpose or they just didn’t have her size, because her breasts stretch her black, short-sleeved blouse enough to show some of her midriff. Add to that that the wide V-neck shows just the right amount of cleavage and that her light blue-jeans accentuate her hips and legs even more and you have a recipe for a drooling David Walker. Okay, you’re not drooling. Your mouth IS half-open though.

When Jessica clears her throat and says “Yes, of course”, you’re brought back to the real world.

You awkwardly hand her your money, and she just as awkwardly drops it on the counter. Should you say something? You should. You did say you didn’t want to be on bad terms with her.

THIS IS SO AWKWARD THOUGH!

“So… you work here?” Yes, yes. Brilliant.

“Not really.” She says, leaning forward on the counter. You try your absolute hardest not to glance at her now even more exposed cleavage. “This is my mom’s shop. I help here from time to time.”

“O-Oh. That’s nice of you.”

“Wish she’d pay me though.”

You involuntarily snicker at that, but it seems that helped relieve some of the tension. Jessica smiles when she sees you laugh. “Sorry I can’t give you a discount, but mom would kill me.”

“Don’t worry. They’re cheap enough.”

She eyes the bracelets as you put them on the same bag as the books. “Gifts for your girls?”

Your heart skips a beat when she says it. Then you remind yourself she just means Emily and Megan. She doesn’t know about Emma.

“Yeah. Just a little something to compensate for not being with them today.” You say, a bit sheepish as Jessica eyes you curiously. “Well, I have to go. See you at school.”

“Wait!” She says as you turn to leave. You look at her with the same curious expression. “If you’re not too busy… can we talk now?”

You only have to think about it for a second. “Sure.” You answer. You did tell her you wanted to be friends, if possible.

She smiles, excitedly. It’s weird how you’ve seen more emotion from her in the past few days than you saw in half a semester. “Let’s go inside. I’ll ask mom to cover for me for a while.”

She leads you through a curtain behind the counter and into what’s been arranged into a small resting area with a brown couch, a matching coffee table and a TV on the wall. There is a woman who resembles Jessica on the couch watching the news. She seems to be in her 50s or so.

“Mom. I need to talk to a classmate. Can you watch the store for a bit?” Jessica asks.

The woman frowns in annoyance, but still turns the TV off and stands up. “You need to stop looking for excuses to escape work.” She says and walks behind the curtain.

“Do you skive often?” You ask jokingly.

“Yup. Whenever I can.” She answers seriously and sits down on the couch. “I really do want to talk to you though.”