Author's note: This is my first story, please enjoy, and any feedback would be much appreciated! Enjoy.
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There was a wedding coming that weekend, and Ryan had to get a suit. Otherwise, he would have been home in his apartment, drinking coffee to combat the cold November weather, and watching whatever didn't seem to be too awful on Netflix. No such luck for him though, yet the service was expedient at the shop, and the blazer, 44 long, did not need any tailoring.
"Another benefit of staying fit through the pandemic," Ryan mumbled to himself, standing in the mirror box at the suit shop. The tailor worked dutifully away with a tape measure and a fragment of tailor's chalk. Even with his pants desperately needing a hemming, he enjoyed the way he looked with when gussied up.
Ryan's hair rested helter-skelter on his head. "Windswept" would be a generous term for it, but the dark and thick waves were a highlight of his physical charm. It would need a trim, as would the short beard under his mask, before the wedding, though Ryan enjoyed his borderline wild-man look.
The door chimed as he left, just as it had when Ryan had entered the store, and he went to his vehicle after being told the alterations should take just about an hour. With that hour to kill, and the weather being too cold to take a walk around the numerous strip centers, Ryan's eyes were set on the shopping mall across the street.
The pandemic and general capitalistic decline had done it's work on the mall, but Ryan was surprised to see that it was not terribly empty. Aimlessly, he wandered the halls of the mall, occasionally attempting to smile (with his eyes if not his masked mouth) at any pretty thing he saw making their way through the mall.
Eventually, he found himself plodding though the sporadic aisles of what his parents would call a "hippie store", though the corporate backbone of this particular chain was probably nowhere near aligned with the radical ideas of the hippies. Still, the aesthetic was one Ryan enjoyed, if not dabbling in himself, but to see on others and to occasionally imagine an easy-going lifestyle like the one portended by the store.
He found himself perusing a vast selection of incense. There were cones, sticks, loose powder, holders, and all the possible accoutrements he could imagine. Sandalwood sounded nice, and it was a hell of a lot cheaper than the candles from the Bath & Body works that neighbored the store, so he picked up a box. The workers, which he hadn't payed any notice till now, were busy stocking the shelves and repricing the items, and the counter was maned by a young lady with a streak of green in her blonde hair, who was busy fumbling with a set of long and sheer dresses.
Ryan didn't want to seem rude, and gently called out. "Excuse me, could you check me out?"
The worker turned, but before she could answer, another worker came around the edge of the counter from behind Ryan. "You keep going, I've got this," she said to her coworker.
The new girl was short and petite, and her shoulder length dark hair also had a splash of color in it, this time a deep lavender. Her clothes was typical of most modern free spirits, with a dark eschew that Ryan often found he quite enjoyed. Above her green mask was a piercing that ran lengthwise just under her eyebrow line, and tattoos peaked out from numerous places on her exposed skin.
"Anything else?" said the tiny goth as she returned the change, making eye contact with Ryan for the first time. Her eyes were a gorgeous blue, subtly dark enough to be interesting, but made to pop from the army green mask. Ryan very nearly said "No, thank you," a mistake that would have haunted him if he could know what his night would end up becoming.
"Actually yes," he said slowly, trying to come up with something clever on the spot, and remembering a shelf of crystals that he had passed by. "I don't know too much about crystals, but I hear they can really boost quality of life. Is that true?" An open-ended question, good job, man, thought Ryan.
It may have been his hopeful imagination, but Ryan thought he saw the young woman perk up, and show a little more than a passing interesting in helping him, whether that be from a genuine interest in the crystal arts, or the chance to interact a little longer with him, though, he couldn't say... but he could hope. She rounded the corner of the desk, and Ryan got a chance to get a look at her. The woven cardigan she wore trailed behind her, revealing an ass that was more than pleasant to look at, and hips that swayed fluidly back and forth. Ryan followed dutifully.
At the shelf, the pale-skinned beauty went to her tiptoes to reach for a popup sign that gave a quick and dirty description of various crystals on display. Her eyes went to the paper as Ryan drank in the soft subtleties of the skin that trailed down a thin neck and was pulled taught over exposed collarbones. Further down, he could tell by the patterning of her tee shirt that she was wearing a bra with some lace, and that the bra held breasts that were not exactly large, but filled out well, especially on her petite frame.
"There are crystals for every kind of need. Love, dreams, hope," she traced her cranberry painted nail down the bulleted list in her hand. "Anything specific you'd like help with?" Her eyes rose from the paper, and Ryan thanked whatever force serendipity belonged to that he was looking for her blue eyes at the moment and not tracing the curves of her.
He took a beat, and switched his glance from one of her eyes to the other, and back again. "Confidence. Is there a crystal that would help with a boost of confidence?"
She did not break the eye contact immediately, but the smile lines at their corners deepened slightly before she glanced back down. "Let me see... Citrine, it says." Her voice was quieter, and it seems that a blush was growing in her ears as she tucked a couple locks of hair behind them after returning the popup board. She grabbed up a hemp cord that ended in an opaque beige crystal, palmed the stone, and presented it to Ryan sheepishly.
Wouldn't have pegged her for the shy type, blushing at just a bit of eye contact, thought Ryan. Not that he was complaining. He plucked the crystal from her palm between finger and thumb, and looked at it significantly.
"So, how does it feel?" said the sheepish voice behind the green mask.
"Oh, uh, wonderful." Ryan said, formulating his next few sentences. "In fact, I think it's working already!" he said with in such a way to make sure she could hear his smile. He nodded his head. "Oh yeah, definitely. Just what I needed. Hey, could I get your phone number?" Ryan produced his phone from his pocket and presented it to the woman whose lips he hadn't been able to see yet.
She chuckled adorably at the game he was playing, and with a quiet "Sure," she received the phone and deftly put in her name and number. Her voice was now so quiet Ryan took a half step closer. "I'm Missy, by the way," she said as the phone was returned.
Ryan reestablished eye contact and smiled. "I'm Ryan, nice to meet you."
"Um," said Missy, the blush now walking down her neck and into her chest, "so do you want to buy the crystal?"
"Nah, not this time," was the response, Ryan returning the crystal to its display, "I got what I wanted from it."
