ELECTRIC FEEL ↝ Schmidt

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

NICK HADN'T LIED when he promised that the following days would be very busy for Elise, who had hands full of work at Comic Planet. Obviously, advertising the shop had paid off and now, the place was crowded and Elise had trouble fitting all of the money into the cash register. Instead of being frustrated with the endless amounts of people and constant smiling at the customers, Elise was happy and utterly grateful to Nick, whose great ideas had worked like magic and led into business going better than ever. Perhaps Elise would eventually have the chance to move into an apartment of her own, or at least pay rent for her current home.

Most of the rush and hustle came to an end eventually, though people still came and went in a steady pace but at least Elise could breathe and sit behind the counter. In a few weeks only, her situation had flown up with no intention to come down any time soon and it caused the smile on her lips as she stared at all of the money in the register, before shutting it. A ping by the door alerted Elise again, and she looked up to see a tall, somewhat intimidating man approaching her with a large smile plastered on his face, and Elise felt her usual awkwardness rise to the surface. Forcing a shy smile, Elise looked at the man, who walked over to the counter and leaned against it with his smile earning a rather flirtatious shade to it.

"Hi. Can I help you with anything?", Elise asked nervously shaking, and cut off the eye contact for a couple of seconds to wish a leaving customer a good day, before bringing her eyes back to the tall man in front of her. She could tell the man had specific intentions in mind, and luckily it was more flattering than creepy, but there were two reasons why Elise felt her mind shutting down on her and her thoughts turning into a mess. One — she had no clue how to talk to men, not even after Schmidt had taught her. Two — she was desperately in love with Schmidt himself, and therefore, as this man winked at Elise, she felt uneasy under the intent gaze he was admiring her with.

"Yeah, actually, I'm on my way to meet my cousin and his roommates and since I heard about this new comic book store, I thought I'd bring something to them. But now that I know what's really the best thing around here, I was wondering if I could have your phone number?", the man grinned smugly, obviously proud of himself for saying that but Elise wasn't very talented when it came to flirting, and in this case she wasn't very willing either. Her face lost its color and her eyes widened as she tried to find the right words to speak, but in the shocked state, she found herself unable to form proper sentences.

"I... Uh... I—I don't have a... I don't own a phone...?", Elise stuttered out a lie she immediately regretted due to having her phone on the counter, where they could both see it. The man glanced down at Elise's hand as she grabbed the phone and tried to hide it, but her plan miserably failed as it started to ring and the Arctic Monkeys song played throughout the shop loudly, earning every customers' attention instantly. Silently cursing at whoever was calling her, Elise flashed a radiant, innocent at the stranger on the other side of the counter and murmured an awkward apology before answering the call.

"Hey, Ellie", Winston beamed from the other side of the line. "Happy Thanksgiving, girl. Jess' parents are here and they're dying to meet you, so come here as soon as your shift ends, yeah? Also, I think one of Schmidt's relatives is coming over too", he explained, and after having barely any time to recover from the previous shock, Elise fell into panic again at the mention of Schmidt's relatives. Would it be his father? His mother? And on top of that, she would have to make a good impression on Jess' parents too. The pressure was real. Yet, Elise managed to sigh and smile, forcing herself to deal with it like she always did.

"Of course, Winston. I'm closing the shop in an hour or so. See you then", Elise replied and ended the call once she was certain Winston had said everything he felt the need to. Carefully placing the iPhone on the counter, Elise gave an innocent smile to the man, who was staring at her with disbelief but luckily, understood to be rejected.