"So, what exactly are you looking for?" Emily questioned on the other side of the phone call. The camera looked out at her as she continued drawing the antagonistic character.
"Um, I don't really know," I replied, looking at different online retail stores as I tried to find something that really spoke to me. The camera on my phone looked back at me as I scrolled through the different products.
"Well, I mean, you have to know what you're looking for if you're going to get something," Emily retorted, looking up from her screen and towards me. "Do you have any ideas on what she likes?" I paused, sitting there quietly as I thought about the things she enjoyed. All these different moments flowing through my head like a river flowing downstream.
"Her and I like playing chess together," I explained, Emily smiling slightly to my response.
"Okay, then get her something chess related," she replied, my finger moving towards the search bar at the top of the website. Typing out the word chess and pressing the magnifying glass, the website took me to a list of so many different chess products. Scrolling down the page, there soon became a problem with what I was seeing.
"Huh," I muttered, grabbing Emily's attention.
"What's wrong?" she questioned, continuing her focus on the drawing, her eyes taking a quick glance towards me.
"Well, there's just a whole bunch of chess boards on here, but she already has a chess board," I explained,
"Do you want to get her a new one then?" Emily questioned, my head shaking in defiance.
"No, not really," I began, "her chess board is really nice, so I don't want to get her something that she already has." Emily, nodding her head, continued drawing against the pad. With a sigh, I closed my camera and laid my phone against my chest, my eyes looking up towards the ceiling as I rested my head against the pillow. "How's the drawing?"
"it's going good, I'm coloring the last little bit of the character," she replied, her voice sounding excited with the anticipation of completion.
"What do you think you're going to work on next?" I asked, Emily pausing for a second.
"Well, I would have to see if I got any customers. But if I haven't, then I might do a landscape drawing," she explained, my hand picking the phone back up and opening the screen.
"What type of landscape?" I asked, a humming sound protruding from Emily's lips as she thought about it.
"Well, maybe a romantic night sky," she began, a warm smile crossing her face as she thought about it. "Two people could be sitting out by a lake, looking over the stars glistening against the water while the moon reflects off of it." I paused, my heart stopping as she said those words.
"Stargazing!" I exclaimed loudly, pressing the home screen to leave the full screen camera.
"Well yeah, I guess they're stargazing," Emily explained, surprised by my sudden burst of energy.
"No, Janine likes to stargaze," I explained, opening a retail store website before typing away at the search bar.
"Oh, does she really? That's so cute!" Emily exclaimed, gushing at the sudden realization. Pressing the magnifying glass, it took me to all the different products related to stargazing. Different telescopes and books appeared across the screen, alongside the handful of jewelry related to the night sky.
"You think I should get her any jewelry?" I questioned, Emily and I pausing in silence.
"I've never even seen her wear a wristband," Emily joked, my mind drawing blank as the realization came to me.
"You should ask her," I called out, Emily pausing and looking into the camera.
"Me?" she exclaimed, my head nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, ask her something along the lines of 'I need help finding a necklace, you think you can help?'" Emily stared at me, eyes wide with nervousness as she sat there.
"But I don't like jewelry."
"Janine doesn't have to know that. You just need to ask her if she likes necklaces and such," I explained, Emily pausing to think about it.
"Well yeah, but I could just ask her if she likes jewelry upfront," Emily replied before explaining her idea. "If she asks why I questioned this, then I'll just tell her some random explanation to get her not to think about it." A long pause subsided over the two of us, my heart beating faster than ever as I sat there, thinking about the last time I had done this.
"Ok," I muttered, nervously sitting there as Emily typed away at her phone. After a long moment, the sudden dinging of Emily's phone cut through the air, her eyes looking towards it.
"Oh, she likes jewelry," she read aloud, lifting her phone to respond to the message.
"Okay, then I'm going to look for a necklace with the moon on it," I explained, the sound of someone on Emily's side calling out to her.
"Oh shoot! That's my mom, bye!" she exclaimed, hanging up the phone without giving me a moment to respond. I sat there, looking at the screen as I typed out the object I was looking for. Upon pressing the search bar, there came dozens upon dozens of results, each necklace looking almost identical. Each necklace had the same base model, a silver-colored chain that held onto a crescent moon.
Scrolling down the page, I looked at each of the necklaces, noticing the similar design of each necklace. They were beautiful in their own rights, but they didn't speak to me in the way that they felt special. The dread of defeat started weighing on my shoulders as I exited the website, looking at my home screen before closing the phone. Despite the sense of defeat that swept over my shoulders, I still felt the relief of knowing that at least I had found what I wanted to get her. Laying there, the image of her beautiful smile inspired me to keep searching, even if it led to inevitable disappointment.
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𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓇𝑔𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓃𝑔 (Stargazing)
العاطفية"There's always a light at the end of a dark tunnel." Kevin is now a husband and father, but as he looks through the attic, a necklace brings him back to his former years. Thinking about the impact the people back then had on him, he explains to hi...
