Best In Show

two

"What? Showing off humans?" Ella says, her voice a little on the loud side. "I don't understand."

The man immediately takes a large step forward, making the space that they had between into nothing at all. His eyes intensely stared into Ella's, and see observes that his eyes aren't just a simple color of blue, yet different shades going from dark to light starting from the iris.

"Shh!" he hushes, his head frantically looking around. "Don't speak loudly about it."

"Sorry," Ella whispers.

The man smirks at her reaction. "This is work," he declares.

"What will work?" Ella questions. "I don't understand anything you're talking about, you don't make any sense, at all."

"Call this number," the man demands. He rips a coupon off the shelf from a coupon dispenser and quickly jots down a number after demanding for Ella's pen out of her apron pocket. "I'll explain everything here, but you have to call this number, alright?"

Ella nods, taking the coupon into her hands before folding it in half and placing it securely into her apron pocket along with the pen.

"Tell me that you understand, now," the man orders.

"Calm down there, mister, I understand. I'll call," she assures.

The man's upper lip twitches and Ella doesn't know for sure, but she thinks she sees eagerness in his eyes. "Oh this is going to work, it's going to work just fine. I'll be waiting for your call, Ella."

With that, the man turns on his heels and leaves the aisle seven with no rope at all.

"Wait!" Ella calls out. "I didn't get your name."

"Nicholas," the man replies, still walking away and leaving the hardware store. Not once does he turn around.

❁ ❁ ❁ ❁

"Ella! Do you know where my black leather leather skirt is?" Carly Hope, Ella's apartment roommate, calls from their joint closet. "You know the one with the lace skulls? Not the one that has the lace crosses."

"My side, next to the boxes labeled shoes with spikes on them," Ella answers her from her bed.

Cradled in her lap is her British Literature textbook, and unfortunately, Ella's still on the same page she's been on since she chocked on the turkey sandwich earlier that day. Not once has she looked at the words, or even the pages. In fact, she might not even be on the right page.

No, instead she's been staring at the coupon in her hand.

It's a local number, Ella observes. So the number could be real and not fraud.

Ella didn't always have these doubts, she was ready to call Nicholas, the very attractive man that gave her his number and agree to what he had offered her. But as she continued throughout the day, unpacking more shipment and eventually switching to a cash register when someone quiet, her mind dwelled more on the thought of what Nicholas says he does.

'Let's just say that the Best In Show that I'm involved in isn't about showing off your best dog, it's about showing off your best human.'

Your best human? What does that mean?

The more Ella thought about it, the more she became more confused while she pushed the number deeper and deeper into her apron to were she nearly broke through the thread. Finally she realized she couldn't do it, she couldn't call Nicholas and agree just like that. That's absurd.

"Ella!"

Her eyes flash up to Carly standing a few feet away from her, waving her arms around like a scared flamingo.