𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙊𝙉 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙇𝙁 | Marcus White

Valentines day

"Attention shoppers. It's Valentine's Day, and love is in the air, along with dust, pet dander, and toxic mold spores, so pick up a SuperCloud air purifier and convince yourself it's making a difference, which it's not, 'cause it's just a fan."

Swinging your legs over the edge of the countertop, you sat facing the store, head turned as you engaged Garrett in small talk about any Valentine's Day plans you had. Though you'd denied having any plans to your friends face, you couldn't wait for your shift to end, knowing at the other side of it was a date night with Marcus; in the warmth of your apartment with some romcom and a whole bunch of Chinese food.

"Excuse me, everyone." Miles, one of your coworkers who you rarely saw, your shift patterns never lining up, snatched the microphone from Garrett's hands, buzzing it to life.

"Dude." Garrett cried, his hands thrown up in the air at the sudden lack of intercom in his hands. "You know what? I don't care."

"Two Aprils ago, I was new here, and someone special came over to help me on register. And, Lisa, you didn't just bag groceries. You bagged my heart."

"Ooh, this is a bad idea." Garrett cooed, his head leaning into his hand as he perched on the edge of his seat, anxious to see what was about to go forward.

"Lisa Beth-Ann Donatella Lopez-Fitzgerald, if you'll make me the luckiest man in St. Louis, I'll show you the time of your life."

Miles ripped off his cloud 9 vest, throwing it to the floor before springing away from the customer service counter. A dozen other regularly dressed customers suddenly ripped their clothes off, a sea of baby pink dresses and leather jackets flooding the store.

"This makes me genuinely sad." Jonah huffed, leaning against the side of the deli counter across from you, arms folded across his chest as he stared at the flash mob that was currently happening.

"I don't know." You pondered, approaching the group that had stopped to watch the performance in the cafe, all with judgmental looks. "I think it's kind of cute. I'd personally throw up if it happened to me though."

"Flash mob proposals are so lame." Amy huffed, quickly straightening up and turning to Cheyenne with a sweet smile. "Except for the one that Bo did for you. That was unique and very cool."

"Literally the cutest thing ever." You added, watching as a dancing Miles's eyes filtered across the crowd for a hopefully happy Lisa - though she seemed nowhere to be found.

"Yeah. Yeah, but flash mobs stopped being cool, like, a year ago." You laughed at Cheyennes words, not surprised that the coolness of flash mobs worked in her favour.

Jonah was on the same train of thought, a short laugh bubbling past his lips as he shared a look with you. "Yeah, they were cool one year ago."

The flash mob was well in its midst now, Miles looking around frantically with every step he took in search of Lisa and her reaction to his proposal; though it never came.

"Where's Lisa? We need Lisa." Glenn ran past you, eyes scanning the crowd of customers and employees alike in search of Miles's blonde-headed sweetheart.

"She's in the bathroom." Dina shouted over the sound of "(I've had) The time of my life" that was blasting over the intercom and throughout the store, the flash mob stumbling to a stop at the confirmation Lisa hadn't seen anything yet.

Garrett's voice buzzed to life over the intercom, the song briefly fading into the background as he spoke. "Is it a quick bathroom break or more of a hunker-down-watch-YouTube-videos situation?"

"Hard to say. Her body language going in oh, wait, here..."

A very confused Lisa walked into the centre aisle, her hands coming out from her pockets as she meekly waved as a star stuck Miles, his eyes wide and frightened. With sudden haste, Miles ushered the members of the flash mob away, back to their previous position and began to run back towards the customer service desk. "Go back. Go back. Places, places."