She jumped at the sound of someone rapping on the large glass window behind her. She turned quickly, her eyes full of innocent confusion. She immediately knew the shape through the glass. Then almost simultaneously, her whole body filled with excitement and her sudden joy filled her cheeks when she saw who it was. Even as she knew her energy and expression would give her mind away, she couldn't stop the all too familiar "happy dance" of her feet and the cheese-y waving.
It took her only a split second to glance at the rest of them and her eyes were back on him, following his shape into the store. With uncharacteristic grace, she darted forward to hug her friends as they came in the door, but the world slowed as his turn for a hug came up in the queue.
Was it just what she wanted to see, or was his smile as big as hers? She kept her arms low to hug around his absurdly high midsection, but ignoring this he bent his six foot four down low enough to scoop up her five foot frame in one fluid movement. For a moment she forgot to breathe and the following few moments he held her there. Her eyes met with one of the other females who had come along but she closed her eyes to treasure the moment, forgetting to hide her mind yet again. The moments passed too quickly of course and she could feel him lowering her back to the ground.
She took a step back away from the four familiar faces, keeping her blue eyes locked on his hazel ones always a bit longer than the others.
"Let me guess," she teased, "You need me to find you The Godfather."
"We are here for The Godfather," he confirmed, his voice all too familiar to her ears.
She flashed them all her toothy grin and bounded towards the shelves or movies with some walk in her skip. The others made their way into her store with more normalcy than she could dream of mustering; partly because she was always this energetic, and partly because he was there.
"So are you thinking action or—" he called out to her.
"Action, maybe. But I'll bet on Drama first." She was already making her way to the Drama section of the DVDs. It took all of her focus to keep her mind on the task at hand, instead of letting thoughts of him cloud her head. GO – GO – GO. The Godfather II. There. The Godfather.
Elated, she spun on her heel to see if he was behind her. The sparkle in her eyes must have dimmed as she realized he was not only not behind her, but ten feet away in the alphabetically wrong section of Drama. Recovering quickly and wearing a mischievously cocky grin, she flounced up the few steps and around the DVD shelves that separated them. Hoping the smile that came so naturally when he was around would 'dazzle' him, she playfully pushed the DVD case to his chest.
"Found it for ya," she heard her voice say to him, "Is that all you were looking for?" She continued, her mannerisms tittering between sales girl and flirt.
"Yep, this is all." He moved to the side of her as they turned toward the front counter and registers. In attempt to slow the beat of her heart, she slowed her steps and to her joy, he slowed to match her pace. What came next, though, surprised her so much so, that she wondered if she had slipped into a dream.
He held his hand out for hers.
"Do you need something else?" she asked him, dazed, automatically lifting her hand too, but still confused as to what he was aiming for.
"No. Just walk." He replied with such cool and calmness as he took her hand in his, it just dazzled her more.
In a matter of heart beats, her mind was everywhere and nowhere all at once. On one hand she was feeling emotions of all sorts: exhilaration, confusion, comfort, disbelief, completeness. She didn't know if this was him finally trying to make a move to shift their friendship into something more or whether it was another sign of just how solidly she was in his 'Friend Zone,' just as all of her gay boys were in hers. And yet at the same time her mind went clear and she truly felt what it meant to be on 'cloud nine.' Like this they walked at the pace of a romantic stroll to the counter at her register and it almost broke her heart to leave the comfort of holding his hand to round the counter.
The opposing side of the counter felt cold, hard and almost alien compared to the way she felt when she was at his side. With a breath so close to a sigh, she shook off the cloudiness in her head and reluctantly shifted into the role of sales girl and advancing through the process of checking out his movie.
