Iris & Mason

4. Mason

Mason.

Sometimes life sucks. Like when your car breaks down or your goldfish dies. Today life is the exact opposite for me. Life is great, and I'm about to tell you why.

After I took Iris out to the coffee shop with good tea, I insisted on walking her back to work. We hadn't made much conversation other than small talk, but that was alright with me. Something about being around her made me feel better than I had in a while, and I couldn't really pinpoint what it was.

I had a feeling that she felt the same way about me considering the conversation I had overheard between Iris and her friend. It was clear that she was really embarrassed about the perfume thing, which is why I dropped it. The weirdest thing about this all was that Iris and I were strangers yesterday, and here we are walking side by side in the city like we've known each other for years.

Since I was kind of leading the way, I decided that we would take the longer route to the record shop, just so I could hang out with Iris some more. I couldn't believe the whole- paying for dinner and having her go out with me again to 'repay' me- thing worked. I had spent that entire meal at the Chinese restaurant trying to come up with a way to see her again, and that was the pathetic plan I came up with.

"So how come you try to act like an ass when you're really just a nice guy who kind of reminds me of a little penguin or something?" Iris asked out of the blue.

A penguin? Great.

"What about me reminds you of a penguin?" I scrunched my nose up and watched as she bit back a smile. God that was really cute.

"Just how nice you are." She shrugged.

"How do you know penguins are nice?"

"I don't, but they just seem like nice animals, okay? Now back to my question. You look like the player type who has five girlfriends at a time, or the type of guy to not tip a server or egg someone's house. But I don't think you're like that at all, unless I'm wrong." Iris rambled.

"You are wrong." I laughed at her random assumptions. Looking back at it now, our first encounter was a mistake on my part. I was trying to be funny but it set a weird tone for us. I didn't think I'd see her again to be honest.

But I was grateful that I did.

***

"Looks like I have to go back to work." Iris huffed as we neared the front door of the record shop. I looked up at the flashing sign that said Spins in neon pink letters. We had spent at least twenty minutes bantering playfully back and forth on the walk, and I was sad to see the sign that signified that our fun was coming to an end. Despite that, I knew I'd see her again.  "Thanks for taking me out. It was nice."

I smiled at her. "You're very welcome." I sped up my walking so I could open the door for her like a gentleman should and followed her inside the shop. 

"Look who's back!"Iris's friend with the silver blonde hair clapped her hands together. "Did you two have fun?"

"Yeah, lots of fun." Iris replied, glancing at me.

Then there was this really awkward moment where no one really knew what to say next, and it was like they were both waiting for me to head out. "Well I've got to get going, but uh, I guess I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Yeah." Iris smiled as her cheeks displayed a rosy tinge.

"Here," I fished out my phone from the pocket of my jeans and handed it to her, "Put your number in there and I'll text you."

Her friend, who was watching us with a giant toothy grin on her face, let out this gasp that made Iris and I turn our heads to look at her.

As soon as she noticed what had just happened, she grabbed the nearest thing which, surprise, happened to be a record, and slammed it violently on the counter in front of her.