Because of the fire.

chapter seven

"what was that?" I shot a look at Earl as we walked towards the car.

He grinned, "nothing you should worry about. Just enjoyed the look on your face."

"what look?!" I said in alarm.

"the one you have on right now," he said looking straight in my eyes.

I quickly looked down. He just chuckled, "you look extra pretty when you blush," and with that he unlocked the car and put the bags in the back.

If I had been blushing before, I'm sure  I'd turned into a really ripe tomato. After putting the bags in the car we went back inside, but a different store this time. I picked jackets, cardigans, knitted jerseys- ignoring Earl's comment of how they were old school- , a really warm coat and a formal blazer along with the slacks- the whole outfit-. Then came the part I'd been dreading ..choosing underwear. Not being comfortable with Earl's presence, I decided to pick swimwear first. I took a decent looking one-piece swimsuit and put it in the basket. As expected, Earl put it back on the rails.

"what?" I turned to face him.

"what do you mean "what?", shouldn't you be getting bikinis in the first place?"

I crossed my arms in defence, "no, I'm not comfortable in bikinis."

He looked at me in surprise, "what? Ok... Still doesn't mean you have to pick that really tight swimsuit you won't breathe in, get something with less weight," he handed me a black swimsuit from the rails.

I scrutinized the swimsuit which seemed to be more strings than cloth, "I don't know Earl, this looks so skimpy."

"very funny how you say that when you haven't put it on. It's really less restricting -in terms of swimming movements- I mean, take it from me..."

I quickly cut him, "oh yeah? Because you're like some Olympic swimmer?"

He smiled, "I didn't really want to give myself compliments but I'm really good. Swimming is what I do, they got it at Fairwood right?"

I looked at him and decided that he looked like a pretty good swimmer. Not that I knew how good ones would look like but his body was well toned so... "I think so, Mr Phelps."

"You do have a great sense of humor though I'm sure I'll break Michael Phelps' record one of these days," he laughed.

"well it hasn't happened yet right? You should consider my calling you Phelps a compliment."

"right."

I ended up getting bikinis and two other fancy swimsuits all because of Earl's influence. Then I walked over to the underwear section with Earl following behind.

"it surely shouldn't take that long," he said after I spent a lot of time fumbling through the rails.
I'm not comfortable with you around!!

I shot a deadly look at him, "remind me why you're shadowing me again because I'm pretty sure you said you wanted to check out the mall not women's clothing."

He put his hands in the air in retreat, "whoa, slow down Tracy. It's really cool, take your time."

I was grateful that he didn't offer any suggestions cause I'd just be sooo embarrassed.

"okay, we're done with most of the clothes. What's left? "

"shoes, your beauty products and accessories, bags, stationery... It's still a lot. Why don't we break for coffee or something?" Earl complained.

"we're almost done. Let's break later, then I'll show you around," I put on my best smile.

"that smile got me, let's do it."