Four days passed since Shawn dropped me off at my parents. He took me on another date, but after that, I slowly started to dodge him. I would reply late to his texts and even answered only two of his five FaceTime calls. But even then those calls were cut short with some lame excuse he managed to buy. ("My cat is throwing up! I'll call you back." "Hold on, I'm getting another call from my dad. I'll call you back!") For some reason I felt odd about talking to him and seeing him when all I could think about was his face between my thighs.
How do you look someone in the eyes after that? How?
The shop bell tolls at the door and I look up to greet the customer. My smile turns into a tight and shy smile as I see the boxer I had begun to dodge standing in front of me. He's casually dressed in Nike shorts and shoes, a black shirt, and a deep navy windbreaker. Shawn wears a backwards red baseball cap and has his hands in the pockets of his shorts.
"Jasmine, take care of the customer." Paige says. She stands behind the register and winks at me. I turn my head back to face the tall boy.
"Hi, welcome to Lush." I say.
"Is this your trick?" Shawn asks me.
"What trick?" I ask.
"You get the guy hooked on your innocence, prove you're not so innocent, and then leave them out to dry?" I can't tell if he's being serious or just sarcastic.
"Do you want to try a face mask?" I ask, hoping he'll remember that's how we got away with having a conversation last time. Shawn nods and picks up five tubs of face masks with one hand and places them at the counter besides us.
"Yes, I do." He nods. Shawn steps closer to me I begin to test out a sample of the first tub on the back of his hand. "So why are you dodging me Jasmine? You get me hooked on Fleetwood Mac and then disappear? And to think I was ready to take it to the next level and give you the aux cord."
I crack out a smile and can ease up knowing that he's being sarcastic. I laugh and place my hand at his abdomen to gently push him. Shawn takes my hand in his and he manages to knead his thumb into my skin in a gentle massage.
"So how come you completely disappeared on me?" Shawn asks.
"I don't know how to tell you." I shrug. "It's stupid. Don't worry about it."
"I am gonna worry about it. I like you. I don't just give my aux cord to anyone ya know."
"Oh my gosh, I feel so honored." I say.
"I'm gonna worry about it, Jasmine. Now would you please tell me what's wrong?"
"I'm too shy. I'll feel embarrassed."
"I know hand holding makes you shy but you haven't noticed that I've intertwined our hands."
I look at our hands and realized that they're in an embrace. Our fingers are intertwined and it went completely unbeknownst to me. "Huh," I say, "look at that."
Shawn let's go of my hand and I cross my arms under my chest. "Look, I get off work at six thirty. If you're still interested you know where to find me."
"Oh trust me, I'll find you." Shawn winks before leaning in and kissing my forehead. "Have a good day."
I watch him walk off as he exits the store and then turn around to find Paige behind me. Her presence startled me a bit and I give a small and quick gasp.
"He's kinda hurt that you've been avoiding him, ya know." Paige says to me. "He told Jack and Jack told me. But of course he won't actually say it to your face. It's his pride."
"What'd he tell Jack?" I ask.
"It's not really my place to say. I mean, yeah, it kinda is, but if you really want to know so badly, you should talk to him." Paige replies.
