Chapter Five

 

“That’s a little too conservative, I think.”

I looked up and stared at Dana, the tall, blonde bombshell who worked the weekend night shifts with me at MerryWorld Books & Travel. She’s a struggling belly dance teacher aspiring to set up her own studio someday but while that hasn’t happened yet, she works the weekends here and in the last three years we’ve been working together, she and I have developed quite a comfortable friendship—comfortable enough for me to know that her definition for ‘conservative’ is anything below mid-thigh.

“This is a bookshop, not a bar,” I argued, sketching the last few details of the MW B & T uniform that I was designing. “I want something comfortable and attractive—something anybody would wear regardless of their concept of conservatism.”

“Hmmm… You do have a point,” she agreed reluctantly with a scrunched up nose, glancing over at my sketch again. “It does look quite elegant. I like the puffed sleeves. It’s very feminine.”

I smiled and held the sketch further away. It could get boring here in the evenings especially on a Saturday when parties and dinners are what’s on everybody’s mind and we entertain ourselves with random little clean ups, chats and several sketches of possible uniforms that we know the owner will never consider getting for whatever staff he’s got.

I did like this particular design—it had a silk, button-down blouse with flowing puffed sleeves that cuffed just right below the elbows and over it was a dark, corset-like bustier. It was paired up with sleek, dark straight-cut pants with a small, ribbon for a belt that was tied loosely on the right hip.

“Are you going to show Sadik the designs you came up with?” Dana asked, reaching forward to straighten a small stack of in-store promo flyers. “You’ve been sketching and sketching for years now and you can almost build an entire wardrobe with the number of designs you made.”

I grinned sheepishly and shut the sketchbook close. “Nah. He’ll just laugh and muse loudly why we ever saw the need for uniforms in this not-so-sophisticated-job. Plus, if he ever agrees to it, he’s still going to make us pay for it and I don’t want to do that.”

“Maybe you can sell your sketches or something then,” she suggested. “You draw so well and the designs are awesome you can probably earn a fortune from them.”

I laughed and put the sketchbook away. “And who’s going to be interested in bookstore uniform designs? None of the major fashion houses, that’s for sure. It’s just a hobby. But I’ll probably make you a dress for your birthday next month—as my present.”

Dana brightened significantly and went to squeal and hug me. “Really? Oh, Ali. I’d love to! That’ll be such a sweet gift!”

I blushed and rolled my eyes. “I did that for your last birthday too so I can’t really see why it’s such a big deal now.”

Dana’s eyes widened. “You mean, you don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?”

“I scored a spot in a dance exhibit at the Gilliad Museum on the night of my birthday!” Dana squealed, jumping to hug me in almost feverish excitement. “The city is doing a celebration of dance history and they recruited several individual dancers and groups to each feature a genre of dance. I’m doing belly dancing of course with one of my good friends and colleagues Jonathan. And I’ve been trying to come up with the perfect outfit. I can’t believe I didn’t think of you at all!”

I couldn’t resist smiling and hugging Dana back. “That’s an amazing opportunity, Dana! The press will be all over it, I’m sure and you can get your much-needed publicity. We need to make you stand out! I’d love to help you.”

Dana beamed and blinked back what seemed to be the start of tears. “I really appreciate it, Ali. We’ll go out for coffee this week and I’ll tell you the look and fit that I’m going for and you can take it from there.”

We looked at each other again and burst out into excited squeals until we heard someone clear his throat.

“Well, this is a rare event,” the all-too-familiar-voice said, not bothering at all to conceal his amusement. “Ali skipping up and down, grinning and giggling. I am stunned.”

Dana turned and a sexy, flirtatious smile immediately blossomed on her lips. “Well, hello there. How can we help you?”

The expression on my face soured as I turned around and found Seth standing across the counter, a big grin on his face. “And what in world are you doing here?”

He quickly held up a thick, hardbound book. “I’m buying this.”

I raised a brow and grabbed the book from him. “The Guinness Book of World Record for 2006 interested you so much that you dragged yourself here in MerryWorld Books & Travel on a Saturday evening when everyone else is out partying in stretch limos and top-down Porsches with sparkling champagne in their fancy wineglasses imported from France?”

Dana snorted. “Uhm, that was quite a mouthful, honey.”

Seth couldn’t suppress an even more amused smile. “I agree. She’s quite articulate when she’s mocking my ‘kind’. She doesn’t miss a beat at all.”

He and Dana laughed and Dana eagerly extended a hand to him. “I’m Dana, by the way. Ali here has forgotten her manners.”

“Seth Wallace. I go to the same university as Ali. Nice to meet you.”

I didn’t care to change my reaction as I rang the book into the till and put it down on the counter. “That’ll be five-fifty. Do you need a bag?”

“Sure, thanks. Credit card?”

I took the card he handed me and printed out the receipts for him to sign and keep. “Sign this and be off. I’m sure you can hardly wait to read this very-outdated book.”

I slid the book into one of MerryWorld’s yellow green medium bags and turned to hand it to him when I saw a big, brown box sitting there on the counter. I glanced at Dana who was too surprised to react.

“What’s this?” I demanded.

“They’re Monte Darschan truffles!” Dana finally sputtered, her eyes bulging wide as she leaned closer to peer at the intricate script writing on a small square area on top of the box. “They’re like, one of the best and most expensive chocolates ever! Each one actually contains a truffle mushroom—oh my God! That’s so sweet!”

I groaned and gently shoved the box in Seth’s direction. “Please take this back.”

Dana gasped out loud in disbelief and Seth’s smile dimmed by several watts.

“It’s my treat for you. I didn’t bring anything to our study picnic this morning and I felt bad. You’d like these chocolates. They’re very good.”

I scoffed. “Oh, I hope they are if you paid, I don’t know, eighty dollars for them—“

“They’re two hundred dollars apiece so a box of twelve’s about twenty four hundred bucks,” Dana interrupted to my utter shock that my eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

I raised a brow at Seth. “I already feel bad buying a bar of Snickers when I feel like one ‘coz I don’t want to spend unnecessarily and now you give me this? What in the world am I gonna do with a twenty-four-hundred-dollar-box of chocolates?”

Seth exchanged uncertain glances with Dana and looked back at me again. “Uhm, eat them?”

I groaned. “You just don’t get it, do you? I don’t want them and you have no reason to give them to me so please take them back to the store and get your money refunded.”

“But I don’t want my money back,” Seth argued, starting to look exasperated now. “It’s not even about the price. It’s my treat after you brought food for me as well today. Take it and say thank you.”

“I’ll take it and say thank you,” Dana blurted out only to yelp out loud immediately when I elbowed her side.

I picked up the box and pushed it towards Seth. “You can tell me thank you for the food and that’d be enough. You don’t need to give me back anything. Okay?”

He looked at me so helplessly for a full minute before sighing and nodding. He picked up the box and nodded his goodbye. “Fine. I’ll go. Have a great night. Nice to meet you, Dana.”

Dana beamed and rigorously waved goodbye. “Nice to meet you too, sweetie! Come drop by again next time.”

“Thanks for the loyalty, Dana,” I grumbled.

“What do you mean loyalty? I wasn’t taking sides!” Dana defended with a dramatic arch of her arm. “How could I when there was no battle? It’s not like he was doing anything bad to you or anything like that. The poor guy was just trying to give you some very expensive chocolate. You were the one who was shooting him down one attempt after another. You were heartless.”

My cheeks burned. “You sound like you mean that.”

Dana rolled her eyes. “Of course, I meant it. I’ve never met a boy as sweet as that one and you were just vile to him. I’m surprised why he likes you enough to keep taking it. If I were him, I would’ve walked out right away. I mean, he’s got looks, an adorable personality and obviously tons of money. He can have any girl he wants.”

I pouted. “I never said he couldn’t. We’re not like that, okay? We just like to fight and banter because he won’t leave me alone although he’s nice enough that I can tolerate it most of the time.”

Drama queen extraordinaire, Dana sighed, closed her eyes in resignation and finally gently put her hands on each side of my face, lifting it up so I can look into her eyes. “Oh, my dear friend. You’re so smart yet so naïve at the same time. Let me know when it’s dawned on you at last. I have to go to the back now to start cleaning. We’re closing in half an hour.”

Then she left me there, stunned and silenced.

What the hell did she mean by that?

I never got to think about it again. We got a handful of customers who walked in as they usually do when you’re just about to close—I don’t know, maybe just to annoy you. When Billy, the big guy who works the stock in the back, finally let us all out, I hugged Dana goodbye and walked through the narrow, well-lit alley in the back to make my way to the main sidewalk which will take me to the nearest bus stop.

I just emerged from the alley when I spotted him right away.

“What are you still doing here?” I asked him, approaching slowly. “You’re borderline stalker now, Seth.”

He laughed and straightened up from having leaned against the side of his car. “I know. It’s beginning to creep me out too.”

I noticed the pink on his cheeks and the slight vapor from his breath. He looks like he’s been out here for at least an hour now. The city’s usually pretty warm but the temperature drops pretty dramatically in the late evening.

I felt a pang of guilt. “Look, Seth. About earlier…”

“Ali, I just…”

We both stopped speaking at the same time and shared an awkward moment of silence. I tucked my backpack up my shoulder and looked down on my shoes.

He shifted and all of a sudden, the box of truffles appeared in front of me again.

I stepped back but he just quickly pulled my hand up and placed the box there.

“Seth—“

“Good night and be careful on the bus,” he murmured so gently before cupping both of my ears and pressing a kiss on my forehead.

I stood there, stunned again, watching him jump back into his car and quickly peel out into the road.

I looked down on the box again and noticed a yellow post it on top of the square spot where the name of the chocolates was. I peered at the writing and it simply said, in Seth’s small, scrawled handwriting:

I guess I should’ve thought of your favorites a lot more than what I thought was impressive. Enjoy and thanks again for today. – Seth

I opened up the box and inside was an assortment of Snickers, Maltesers and a whole bunch of more common, less expensive chocolates. I couldn’t suppress a grin which only grew wider as I closed the box and started for the bus stop again.

That guy can truly be surprising sometimes.