Could Have

Chapter 17: The Gift Shop

Sept 1st 2008

In the blink of an eye I felt the summer fly by. It had lived up to my expectations and gave me much better memories than the one previous. 

Callie and I spent many days hanging out at the beach by the river with Lena and Avery. We went camping a couple times up in the mountains. Callie’s Dad took us off roading and fishing a couple times with her younger brothers. I spent my days walking along different beaches and trails picking up rocks, looking for crystals that I thought were cool: I had developed quite the little collection in my room. 

Callie and Dylan spent many days inviting me out to join them, but there was only so much third wheeling I could take.

It was really nice to watch Callie have a summer fling, although now that the school year was less than a week away Dylan definitely wanted to continue dating... Callie I wasn't so sure about.

Watching the two of them together was only slightly painful. I kept my promise and managed to keep Kalen out of sight and out of mind.

Every now and then I would see pictures Melanie would tag him in. He seemed to have his hands full partying hard all summer. He had sent a couple late night "hey" s which I resisted with every fibre of my being to answer until the next day. My reply would either be followed up with "sup?" Or I would be ghosted completely.

Thankfully my will to resist Kalen was met with a reward. August had brought me a new co-worker: Drew.

The last two weeks of work before the lead up to school was when Drew started working at the gift shop.

In the last week our schedules changed and I would open and he would close. Our 8 hour shift overlapped by 6 hours- 6 hours spent together in a gift shop of a small museum that hardly anyone wanted to visit during the summer.

At first, I wasn’t too keen on having to work with him because he made me nervous. He was significantly taller than me. He had gorgeous dark almond eyes. He had caramel skin, his father was from Fiji and his mother was British. I also noticed two small holes in his lip where there must have been piercings...  He casually mentioned piercing his own lip on a dare during one shift. I had also asked him if he had pierced his ear... He had an industrial piercing.

His reaction?

"I wasn't stupid twice, I went to a professional for that one.'"

I had started to get to know him well enough to feel his absence between our shifts.

Denise insisted on a  ‘dress code’ of all black plus our brown aprons to wear. Drew managed to charm her into letting him wear his bright green converse.
One thing that bothered me was the fact that he always wear long sleeves, even in sweltering heat. Thankfully the Gift Shop had great AC because the summer had been ridiculously hot.

“It looks like we have a box of novelty pens coming in today,” Drew stood at the checkout computer and pulled a sticky note off of the screen that read ‘PENS TODAY! - Denise’.

“Wow, busy day,” I flashed a cheeky smile as I rearranged the postcards in the swiveling rack by the front door. I tried to keep myself busy or else I would be stuck trying not to look into Drew's eyes whenever he spoke to me.

"I don’t know how we’re going to manage,” Drew sighed sarcastically, “I have so much to do.”

“I don’t know if I can take on a whole box of pens by myself,” I cheekily challenged. I relished our time together, Drew laughed at my jokes and we liked to feed off of each other's humor.

“Hang on,” He grabbed a rag from under the front counter and then wiped the top of the counter clean. “Well, I have done the one important thing that was required of me today.”