“Are we clear that you’re buying this for me as an apology?” I asked. “I don’t owe you anything after this. You aren’t earning the right to do anything to me or have me do anything for you. Right?”
“Thought I made it clear I only wanted your company,” Lucas said.
“Just checking,” I said. “Oh… and I want something actually good. Don’t go trying to dump some horrid shit on me that no normal person would want.”
I was pretty sure he hadn’t been planning to give me that big smile of his this time around. I’d surprised it right out of him, and I liked realising that far too much. He was going to find I wasn’t anything like that confused little girl he’d managed to steamroll over years ago.
“I am going to buy you something fucking amazing,” he said. “Now get in.”
“Are you going to actually open the door for me?” I prompted.
Lucas shook his head, and leaned back. “I’m going to sit here and watch you try not to flash your panties while you climb in.”
“I am fairly sure that what I wear under this skirt isn’t entitled to be referred to as ‘panties’,” I said.
“Oh,” Lucas said, “that’s tantalising.”
And I managed to hold onto the mystery while entering with strategic use of my school backpack. Lucas might be an average eighteen-year-old who wanted more, but he was going to learn before I was done with him that he couldn’t just have it through being a bit of a sleaze.
I hadn’t even been in a store to buy my last two phones. My dad had just asked me what colour I was interested in, and then he went in and selected something that wasn’t even close to what I’d said I liked. Underneath the purple phone case I’d gotten for my birthday one year, my current (well, current until that morning) phone had been this awful lipstick-pink. Just peeking at its real colour made me queasy.
I winced as I spotted a whole row of garish colours two steps into the store. But Lucas grabbed my elbow and steered me past those, towards the back of the store. The phones there were all behind cases, in muted and metallic colours, and a shop assistant in a very neat blouse and skirt patrolled up and down. I felt a bit dizzy when I focused on some of the price tags: I didn’t see anything under four figures in front of me.
“I assume based on what you’ve currently got you’re not an Apple girl,” Lucas said. He put his hand out as the girl watching the displays started to approach, halting her in her tracks. It seemed a bit rude, but I had to admit I liked the strategy. No need to awkwardly explain you were just browsing.
“No, I don’t buy Apple,” I said. “Ca
n’t afford to.”
“That’s not really an issue right now,” Lucas said. “But, we will stick with what you know. The phone brand you choose is a very personal matter, and it’s not for me to push you into making a change.”
I stared at him. He wasn’t smiling at all, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a joke somewhere buried in the remark.
“Why are you looking like that?” he asked, with an actual squirm as if it made him uncomfortable.
“I just don’t get the joke.”
“I’m serious,” Lucas said. “You don’t fuck with someone’s choice of device. It’s meant to say something about them.”
“All mine usually says about me is I’m too poor to purchase from the top shelf,” I cracked, but even that didn’t get a laugh.
“Yes,” Lucas said, “and that’s a statement in itself. Isn’t it?”
“Hate to admit it,” said the blouse-and-skirt girl, who had come up behind us, “but he’s right. This is the modern world we live in. We’ve all just got to get used to it.”
She’d smiled at me when I first looked at her, but most of her eye contact was for Lucas—whether that was because she’d realised he was the guy with the bank account or because he was just the nicest to look at, I couldn’t say. All I knew was it was very strange thinking of Lucas as someone who could go into shops and have attendants see him as a man with a bank balance instead of some kid who might smash something and try to run. In his bloody school uniform, too. I just felt like I should pull my skirt down or tidy my hair or something.
“You’re very keen to make a sale,” was all Lucas said, to which she busted out a smile that made me realise she was not actually that much older than either of us. Lucas was a perfect match for her, the way he balanced that confident energy with an occasional big-kid smile. Me… I just looked like a big kid.
“Isn’t making sales what it’s all about?” the salesgirl said to Lucas now. She was completely ignoring me, and I didn’t actually think it was like that thing you read about where a girl would freeze out another girl to assert her authority over her. I was pretty sure she had just completely forgotten I was there.
Was she flirting with him?
“It can backfire on you,” Lucas said, “if you play it the wrong way. I could walk out of here this instant and go to another store.”
He stood still, holding her gaze. Definitely not on the edge of walking out of the store.
Was he flirting with her?