Addicted To You

5 - Flower-ed

We walked through the concourse of the Rockefeller Center, passing store after high-end store. These were the stores where I could only afford to window shop, but he was not phased. The Swarovski store caught my eye, I do adore all things sparkly.

"I can tell you want to go inside."

"Yes, but it is so out of my budget. I'll just admire them from here."

"Come on. I want to go inside because you want to go inside." He smiled and steered me into the shop. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. The salesperson hovered nearby the whole time. She greeted us and then let us browse. Everything was so pretty and so sparkly. I looked at everything, touched nothing. If I touched it then I would want to buy it. I finished looking and led him to the door.

It didn't matter that they had given me a credit card for my expenses and had included some spending cash. I was not mentally prepared to purchase earrings that cost half of my car payment. And that certainly didn't qualify as an expense.

"You aren't buying them?" he asked like it was nothing. "That's what the card is for."

"Um no. Those are gorgeous, but way too much for me. Both in style and price. I'm not going to take advantage of the card for that kind of thing." I smiled at him and kept walking. "But thank you for indulging me, boyfriend." I giggled. He smiled.

We stopped in a few more shops, and he did make a couple of small purchases. He got some gifts for his family. It was sweet. We passed Tiffany's and I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a bracelet in the window display that reminded me of one my mother had worn when I was young. Seeing the bracelet brought back those memories and a lead weight fell in my stomach.

I had been handling it pretty well for a while, but my mom was my hero and I missed her so much. She had only been gone for a year and I hadn't fully come to terms with it yet. The bracelet was just too much.

Minhyuk saw me tearing up and put his hand on my shoulder. Leaning in close to me, he asked if I was alright. I nodded and told him I would explain later when we weren't in public. There were Monbebes following us, and I needed to keep up the smiles. I took a deep breath, and we kept walking.

He insisted on holding my hand and I wasn't going to argue. We found the FAO Schwarz store and had to go inside. We played with the toys and we laughed. He bounced around the place like he owned it. He made funny voices with the stuffed animals, he posed the dolls, he played with the basketballs, and he made me forget all about the sadness I had been feeling.

He bought me a little stuffed cat keychain that looked like Jinki, and I hugged him. It felt like I was actually hugging my boyfriend. I stepped back and felt awkward suddenly. He just smiled and took my hand as we ventured on to the Nintendo store.

We battled each other in video games. We were both competitive, so it was a battle to the death. When I won, I held my arms up triumphantly and realized it made my skirt ride up. I dropped them quickly and blushed. I caught a rather wicked glint in his eyes, and he smiled. It was that sideways smile with the tongue peeking out at the corner of his mouth. That one always has a way of melting me. He accepted my win without protest, unlike when one of the guys beats him at something.

We went to the ice-skating rink area and I was surprised to see people on roller skates. I looked around and pictured how it would look at Christmas. I pointed out to him where the giant Christmas tree would be and described how the whole thing would look magical when the lights and decorations were up.

He took my hand and asked if I wanted to skate. I said yes and we went to get tickets and skates. I hadn't skated in years, so I would be moving very slowly. I also did not want to fall since my skirt was on the shorter side. I didn't plan for this.