A LITTLE LESS SIXTEEN CANDLES; A LITTLE MORE TOUCH ME // Karl Jacobs X Reader

4

Two weeks later, he came back. 

It had been a normal workday up until then, with the occasional group of middle school girls looking for hand sanitizer and fruity perfumes and a few middle aged women stocking up on their favorite hand creams and body washes. You had been just milling around when he walked in, earlier than last time.

Your eyes snapped up as soon as you spotted fluffy brown hair in the corner of your vision, and there he was, perusing the candles and looking just as lost as he had before. 

You whipped out your phone and snapped a sneaky picture when his back was turned, sending it to Noah with a bunch of exclamation points. She would get the idea. 

Right now, you had business to attend to.

You slipped out from behind the counter and made your way around the store for a moment, trying to seem nonchalant and unassuming, like you weren't dying to make a beeline straight over to him. When you did eventually make your way over to him, you smiled. He was subtly staring at you as he pretended to shop.

You stepped up beside him. "Hello again." You greeted. 

"Hi." He said, a little crack on the edge of his voice. Your heart melted a little on the inside - the weeks between when you had first met him and now had diluted his adorableness in your mind, but seeing him again brought it to the forefront of your experience. 

"Need some more candles?" You asked, gesturing to the display he was looking at. 

"Actually, yeah." He said, smiling sheepishly. "Do you think you could help me again?"

"Of course!" You chirped, reaching over to grab one of the shopping bags from the rack and handing it to him. "I would love to."

"Thanks." He said, taking the bag. 

"We actually got a new bunch of candles and I think there's one you would really like." You said, heading off in the direction of a new display. "You liked the kind of ocean-y scents, right?"

He looked a little surprised when you said that. "Yeah, you remembered."

"Of course I remembered." You said easily. "How could I forget?" You let the implication hang in the air. The boy looked at you, the tips of his ears flushing red slightly and a small smile playing on his lips. Your heart beat a little faster and you could feel your face heating up. 

You quickly spun around and grabbed the candle you had been thinking about. When you had first taken a look at the new arrivals, this one had made you think of candle boy immediately, the sweet and fresh watery scent connecting in your mind with all the other beachy candles he'd picked. 

You handed the candle for him to try, and he popped it open, taking a whiff. "Wow... that smells really good." He said, dropping it into the bag. 

"I thought you might like it." You said, smiling. "It reminded me of the other ones you picked."

The boy smiled, his attention falling somewhere over your head. You followed his gaze to the wall behind you and the variety of candles displayed there. You couldn't pick out which one he was looking at, but strangely, you didn't see any clean and watery scents in the bunch.

"What's that one smell like?" He pointed at one of the candles higher up on the wall. You jumped up to get it, and handed it to him. 

"It's kind of vanilla-y." You said. "I didn't think you would want to try that one." 

He took a sniff anyway, his eyes fluttering closed for a moment. "I actually really like this one." He said. "And the design on the glass is the same color as your eyes." 

"O-oh." You stuttered out, butterflies erupting in your stomach. "Thank you, that's very nice of you to say."

"Well, it's true." The boy said softly, dropping the candle into his bag. "You have nice eyes."

You thought you were going to explode. That was definitely flirting. Or he was just really nice and very oblivious, but he had seemed to get your little aside earlier. This flirting business was hard.

Still, you weren't about to get all flustered in the middle of a sale. You led him over to another group of candles, pulling a breezy linen and fresh rain scent from the shelves and handing them to the boy.

"These are kind of along the lines of the first one I gave you, but if you want more vanilla kind of ones, I can grab some of those too."

"That would be nice." He said, dropping the two you had handed him into the bag. 

"You don't want to check them?" You asked. 

He shrugged. "I trust your judgement."

 You were really trying to hold onto the nerves that were aflutter in your gut, telling you to squeal or jump or do something. This had to be illegal.

You grabbed another vanilla sort of scent and handed it to him. This one he did pop open, his eyes fluttering shut again as the sugary scent wafted over him. "This smells exactly like my mom's sugar cookies- I need two of this one."

You laughed, and pulled another one from the shelf, dropping it in the bag he was holding. "How many candles did you want?"

He glanced down into the bag. "This is good, I think."

"Great." You led him over to the cash register and slipped behind the counter as he started pulling the candles from the bag. You scanned each one, and were about to use your employee discount when he pulled out the coupon you had given him last time.

"Is this still good?" He asked.

You scanned the coupon. "Looks like it is." You said, knocking a little extra off the price as well. You bagged his candles and printed the receipt. For a second, you wanted to write your number down, but you decided against it, too nervous while he was watching. Instead, you just folded it, tucking it into the bag and handing it to him.

"See you around." He said with a smile as he took the bag. 

You hummed in agreement, watching him go with a wistful look on your face.