Perks of the Job

Chapter Seven

The next day at work, the universe decided to try its hand at playing with fates again. I was surprised when I heard upon walking in that I was not going to be covering the fitting room that day. Instead I was to work 'infield' which pretty much just meant helping out customers and doing anything Maxine asked me to.

Infield days were normally the days I would hang with Danny and chat with him while we organized the clothes, and today would have gone the exact same way, the only problem was that Danny wasn't in. I wondered if Maxine would send me off onto the sales floor by myself, but my uncertainties were cleared up a little later on.

It was about half way through my shift when I felt someone next to me. This wasn't exactly an uncommon feeling considering it was a clothing store where people shopped and moved around a lot, but there was something different about it this time.

Whoever it was, he seemed exceptionally tall. I could tell that it was a boy by the scent of his cologne and the fact that I could see his large hands sorting through clothes beside me. I didn't know many guys who shopped in the women's section, so there was really only one other explanation.

"Hey, Nick," I said without even looking up from my sorting, confident that it was him next to me. "Maxine send you to help me?" I asked before he had the chance to even say hello back. "I guess," he answered, his eyes moving to me for a split second before focusing back on the clothes and the task of organizing them.

We both moved around the section of clothes, sorting through them and pulling out anything that didn't belong and moving things back into their proper places. Admittedly, I'd worn a skirt that day, despite the frigid weather, for the sole reason that I'd be seeing Nick, so I wanted to look extra cute. My job wasn't the kind where you couldn't wear what you wanted, Maxine's only rules being that blue jeans and shirts with logos weren't allowed, so a skirt was no problem.

I couldn't help but notice, and this may have all just been in my head, but all night, Nick seemed to be looking at me. Every time I'd pass by him, he'd look up from what he was doing and give me a look over, almost as if he liked what he saw. This was why I wondered if it was all in my head; no one ever looked at me like that. Besides, Nick and I barely knew each other, and just because I'd started to have some feelings for him, didn't mean he felt the same about me.

I'm not quite sure when it hit me, but I was fairly certain that I'd fallen for Nick. My stomach will fill with butterflies every time I saw him, despite me trying to suppress them. I forgot how to talk, and I stumbled over myself whenever I was near him. It was clear at this point that it had graduated from a fascination, to an infatuation, to a full blown crush.

I tried my best to push away the thought of Nick's eyes being on me for the sake of keeping whatever we had platonic. There wasn't really a word I could think of to describe our 'relationship.' As far as I was concerned, we just worked together. I figured that eventually I'd get over my little crush on him and things would have a great possibility of being very normal, but for now, I was more focused on not falling for him any deeper. Putting the thought of him possibly feeling something for me into my own head was just about the worst thing I could have been doing to myself in this situation.

The shift was relatively quiet between the two of us, the only time a word was spoken by either was generally toward a customer. As the night went on and the flow of people coming in and shopping began to thin out more and more, the lack of talking became much more noticeable.

I guess Nick found this to be a problem, so he initiated some conversation. "So, did you bring that list?" he asked, practically the first thing I'd heard him say all night. I looked up to him with a guilty face. I'd forgotten it at home. My skirt didn't have pockets so I hadn't even thought about what I would have put inside them if it did. The list was still folded up on my night stand next to my bed, ready for me to give it to Nick, but forgotten in my attempts at looking cute to impress him.

"No," I said in a small voice. "I forgot it."

Nick raised his eyebrows at this. "You actually wrote one?" I smiled shyly and nodded back to him. "Wow, you were serious. I just made a mental one; I thought actually writing one seemed too desperate." Excuse me?

What did he mean by 'desperate?' This would be a question that would haunt me for a fair amount of time, but for now I just brushed it off as not to make things awkward, but that certainly didn't mean I'd soon forget about it.

"Oh yeah, well, I was just thinking about it last night and I didn't really have anything better to do." I tried to play it off all cool like so as not to give into the fact that writing the list actually was a desperate thing to do. "I guess I'll just give it to you next time I see you." To this he nodded, my nonchalant response giving him nothing to tease with.

I'd show him desperate.