He Who Wants A Rose, Must Respect The Thorn

Candy....

After the interesting few days, I was glad to get back to some normality. Work, work and more work. Well, that may be a little white lie...I was heading back there from my brothers house. He needed me to pick up some paperwork for a meeting he had later on, with me in attendance, so I was driving down the road, singing along to the radio when a familiar place came into view. Obviously I knew it was en route back to the offices, and obviously I had to make a pit stop there to stock up on some tasty treats... yep, I was back at my favourite little candy store...

Now, even though I'd only ever visited the place once, it was undoubtedly my favourite store of candy. 1, it stocked the best selection of candy both American and English; 2, the elderly owners were ironically the sweetest couple ever and 3; it was where I met Julian... I smiled fondly at the memory as I passed over the threshold of the store.

There was a woman behind the counter today who gave me a warm smile as I picked up my little woven basket. "good morning" I smiled at her as I then descended down the aisle to grab some favourites of mine, and to see if I could uncover some new ones.

I picked up a box of Peeps and some Skittles and was scanning the shelves for the location of the English sweets. I couldn't remember where they were last time I was here, but as I got towards the back of the store, I saw him. Standing by all the English sweets and chocolate. My heart beat erratically as I smiled, watching him looking between the chocolate bars in his hands. He looked like he was making the hardest desicion of his life right there.

"that's quite the dilemma you have there" I said with a grin. Julian visibly jumps, making me stifle a giggle as he looks around to see who said that. When his eyes met mine he smiled, noting that he blushed a little too. "personally I'd go for the Milkybar" I said as I slowly walked toward him. "but the Dairy Milk is a good choice too" I said, standing beside him now, looking down at the bars, that looked so small in his large hands. "I'm thinking of getting both." he said, then dropping them into his basket, along with the Rolo's that were already sitting in there. I giggled, "I seriously fell in love with those tiny tasty things" he said looking down at them. I laughed, "I know you did, my place was like a shrine to them when you came over" I laughed remembering the packets littering my flat back home. He chuckled, looking at me, his eyes holding that spark I'd not seen in a little while. "how are you?" he asked me, making me smile gently, "good. You?" he looked down briefly at the basket in his hand and nodded, "I'm okay." he replied. "Nicki's gone back home. It's quiet now" he said, making me laugh a little. "I can imagine" I laughed, making him chuckle. "you're a little out of the way from your place" I said, noting it was his off day from practice. He smiled and nodded, "I figured it felt like a candy day today" he grinned, making me smile. "so are you uh, visiting your brother's place or do you live round here or..." he asked me, scratching the back of his head, like he did when he was feeling uncomfortable. "I wish it was a day off" I laughed, "I've just had to pick up some paperwork up from my brother's house, so I figured I'd pick some sweets up on my way back" I smiled, making him laugh. "He's making me sit in on one of his meetings this afternoon so I need something to ease the pain" I added, making him chuckle more. I had missed that sound. The conversation died down a little after our laughter did, and we just seemed to stand there holding each others gaze, until a crash from the front of the store made us both come out of our trance and I blushed, Julian scratching his head and coughing a little. Us both looking anywhere but at each other for a few seconds. "so uh, I won't keep you if you gotta get back to work" he said, looking from me to his basket, and I felt my stomach roll at how adorable he was being. "well," I said, "I've got an hour before I need to get to my meeting. Fancy a coffee?"