Never Marry An Icon

2~ Come Home With Me, Baby

I sighed softly tonight as I began packing up to go home. Once again it was snowing, and it was already dark outside. It was about five o'clock and I was supposed to leave at 5:45, but since there weren't many people in the store at the moment, my boss said I could go home if I wanted. And of course I wanted to. As I looked around once more to see if there were any people nearby to assist before I left, I noticed a tall man with the same black perm as the person I helped yesterday. He was in the corner near the bedspreads and such. I gathered up my jacket and purse and quickly walked over to him, hoping it was the right guy. Once he caught sight of me, he turned his head and smiled warmly. "Oh, hi."

"H-hi...! Um... haven't I seen you before?"

"Well yeah. I was here yesterday,"

"No, that's not what I meant. Aren't you like a singer or something...? I swear I've seen you on MTV or somewhere,"

He fully turned his body so he was facing me, and he was holding a pair of white bath towels with a little yellow duck on each of them. He arched an eyebrow. "MTV...? Yeah, I've been on there. What was I singing?"

"Um... I think it was Brand New Lover... the video with the western looking theme,"

This time he softly chuckled. "Indeed. What did you think?"

"Wh-what?"

"The video. What did you think of the video?"

"It was great, I... I liked it," The reason why I kept stuttering in front of him was because he was such a beautiful man; his hair, eye makeup, fashion sense, eyes (even though the color was fake), smile, and just about everything else about him was just perfect. "You have a really nice singing voice... Pete," I felt strange talking directly to him. It was an interesting feeling.

"Why thank you. May I ask your name?"

(Oh god why does he want to know my name)
"I'm... I'm Jenny. It's nice to meet you again,"

He smiled once more. "Same to you," He began looking me up and down. I was a normal looking girl with a curly blonde perm that sat atop my shoulders with choppy bangs, large, thick framed circular glasses, pale skin but not as pale as Pete's, thick dark brown eyebrows (my hair was its real blonde color, and my eyebrows were real as well, the color they grew in didn't make any sense though), grey blue eyes, and today I was wearing a purple cable knit sweater with blue skinny jeans and dark brown furry boots. Pete today was wearing a heavy leather jacket that went down past his knees almost, black skinny pants again, and the same tall boots. I couldn't see if he was wearing a necklace or what shirt / sweater he had underneath. "You know... the more I look at you, the prettier you become. You're very attractive," He said to me, placing one hand in his pocket as he held his ducky towels with the other hand. "Are you doing anything tonight?"

"Um... I don't think so... why do you ask?"

"I'm not doing anything either and, well, you're just so beautiful. I don't want to miss seeing your beautiful face again. I guess you can say I'm asking you out on a date. So is it a deal or no?"

I felt my cheeks wildly blushing. "I... well, okay. You're quite handsome," I said under my breath, smiling shyly. "So where are you going to take me...?"

He looked around and began walking off, with me following. "Well it's about 5:30... and first I have to buy these towels. Do you want to grab dinner or something?"

"Yeah... sounds great. There's a self - checkout register all the way at the end over there if you'd like," I said, pointing over to the left once we got up to the line of registers. "What kind of food do you like?"

"Anything really. Anything but salad and Indian food. I can't handle the spice and I don't like chewing on leaves." He replied, making his way through the almost dead store and towards the first self - checkout register. Quickly, he checked out, threw his towels in a bag, and walked out of the store with me. "But this isn't about me. We can get whatever you want for dinner."

"I was thinking Chinese food, but that's kind of cliché for a first date, don't you think?" I asked. I didn't have to look for a car because my flat was about five minutes away, walking distance.

Pete smiled. "I like Chinese. I haven't had it in a while. We can get takeout and go back to your place if you want. I really like pork dumplings actually. And fried rice is good, too."

°•--○--•°

"Got any good movies?" Pete asked as we walked through the door of my apartment. He placed our newly bought bag of Chinese food on my kitchen table and then removed his jacket to reveal a black and white striped v - neck sweater.

"I don't have many movies... all the ones I have are in the cabinet under the TV. Check if you want, I'll get our dinner out and ready." I quickly passed him and began to unpack our Chinese dinner, placing Pete's pork dumplings that he wanted so badly and his fried rice near an optional plate. He also ordered some stir - fried vegetables which I placed near his rice. I ordered a small container of lo mein, some fried shrimp, and a roll of veggie sushi. Since I wanted to use my plate, I carefully opened all of my little white containers and dumped them onto my plate, careful not to get the sushi mixed up with everything else. Once I was done, I called to him. "Pete, dinner is ready. Come sit down and eat with me."

He turned around and walked over to me, pulling out his chair to sit. "Looks good. What did you get again?"

"Lo mein with fried shrimp and a veggie roll... they even gave me a pair of chopsticks. I love Chinese food,"

"It's pretty great. Hey, do you have any soy sauce...?"

"In the fridge. I also have some bottles of water in there. Can you grab me one? You're welcome to have one as well if you want."

He left his chair and went into the kitchen. "Alright. Don't eat without me." In a matter of seconds he came back with two bottles of water and the small bottle of soy sauce, which he proceeded to drown his dumplings in once he got back to the table. "So, Jenny... tell me about yourself. All I know is that you work in a department store and that you're really pretty... educate me."

I nodded, swallowing my first fried shrimp. "Well, I'm twenty -  five years old, I once tried to have my own business because I'm pretty good at baking... it didn't work well, I like to paint but I'm not good at it, I like going to clubs with friends because I like singing karaoke, and I'm an avid record album collector. I have some cassettes as well but records are more my thing. They're more fascinating."

He nodded, cutting a pork dumpling in half with his fork because he didn't want to use his chopsticks. "Very interesting. Maybe you can bake something for me some day. I'd like to try your food."