“Do you wanna look in here for your clothes?” I said as we reached the entrance to Surf Clothing Co.
“Yeah, this looks fine.”
“I’ll wait out here if you’d like.” I said, referring to the seat.
“No, I want you to come in and help me pick out a pair.” He said, grabbing my hand and dragging me into the store. We walked through to the guy section and looked at the boardshorts on the wall and the racks. “Pick out a few and I’ll try them on.” He said, having already pulled a pair off the wall.
“Okay, any particular colour or style you want?” I asked him, scanning the wall.
“Nope.” He simply said.
I looked some more and pulled out a pair that had a royal blue at the top and faded to a white as it went down the shorts. “Hey Lance.” He looked over at me and I noticed he already had a lot of boardshorts already in his hand. I handed him the one pair of shorts for him to try on. “Here, those should keep you busy for a while.” He grabbed it and headed for the change rooms.
“Wait outside here and I’ll come out and show you.” Lance said, closing the door behind him. As I waited for him, I was looking at some hats that were there on a rack. I heard the door open and I saw Lance standing there in just the boardshorts and his sneakers. “What do ya think?” He gave a little turn.
He was wearing the first pair I picked out. The blue down to the white. “Hmm,” I said, “next pair.” He turned and walked back into the changing room. I spotted a carousel of necklaces. I looked at them all and then I spotted a silver cross and a chain. I picked it up and held it in my hands to take a closer look. I held it up to my neck and had a look in the mirror that was on the door where Lance was getting changed. While I was admiring the necklace, the door opened and Lance came out in a pair he picked out. They were fully yellow. He did his little turn around and faced me again. “I know yellow boardshorts all too well. They go see through once they are wet. Next pair.” I said, Lance then turned around and walked back in. I only just realised that I had kept my hand there with the necklace around my neck. I put it back down onto the carousel. I turned the carousel, looking at all of them. Lance soon came out with a pair of black shorts with red flames up from the base. Yet again, he did his little spin. “They’re better. What else ya got?” He turned and walked back into the dressing room.
“This is the last pair!” Lance yelled out as he got changed. I just stood there and laughed as a few people looked in my direction. He finally came out in the same style shorts as the black ones before, but this time, the flames were green. After his turned, he walked a bit closer. “So which ones?” I looked at his eyes, they seemed to be greener.
“Well, you are wearing them. Which ones do you like?” I asked him. He turned and faced the mirror, looking at the shorts.
“I really like the two with flames on them. I think the red ones look really powerful, what do you think of the green ones?” He asked, turned back around to face me.
“Well, the green ones bring out the green in your eyes, but the red ones are really you.” I said, looking at him.
“Well in that case, I’ll buy both of them. One for me and one for my eyes.” I stood there and laughed at his comment, and so did he. “I noticed you liked that necklace.” He said, when he was back in the change room, getting changed back into his cargo pants and black button down shirt. He came out with all four pair of shorts on hangers.
“I did but I can’t wear it.” I said as I took the two off him that he wasn’t going to buy.
“Oh, and why’s that?” he said as he put his sunnies and hat back on.
“I can only wear pure silver. I don’t like gold, so yeah. I have an allergic reaction to fake silver and gold.” I said, joining him. “You said you wanted a hat?” I said, pointing to the rack of hats I was looking at earlier.
“Ah yes.” He said, looking at the dozens of hats. After a long time of trying on many hats, he finally settled on a bright green Jetpilot cap. He took his stuff to the register and paid for them. We walked out of the store and headed up to the fourth floor of the Myer Centre to go to Harvey Norman. We walked to the mobile phone section and I wandered up the isles until I got to the phone charger section.
“What type of phone do you have?” I asked him.
“Umm, a Nokia 8210.” He said.
I roamed my eyes over the tags until I found a charger for Lance’s phone. “Here ya go.” I said, handing him the charger. I walked to the computer section and walked to the modems. “Do you know what size modem you want?” I asked him, looking at the many varieties.
“Umm, a cable would be great.” He said, sounding astonished that I knew so much about electronics.
“What?” I asked him, noticing the look he was giving me as I handed him a cable modem for laptops.
“I’m just surprised that you know so much about computers and electronic stuff.” He said, looking at the box.
“Yes I made sure that it had both phone line type outlets and inputs and it’s also got a modem card, incase your laptop doesn’t have an actual modem outlet.” I said, smiling at him.
“You know this how?” Lance asked.
“It says so on the box.” I said, laughing and pointing at where it said all of that.
“Oh right.”
“You think, that because I’m a girl, that I wouldn’t know a lot about computers, is that right?” I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
“Yeah, well...” He started.
“Yeah well nothing. I know my fair share of computers.” I said. I walked in the direction of the cash register and Lance followed close behind. He paid for his things and we then walked out. “Do you want me to carry anything for you?” I offered.
“Could you?” He said, handing me the bag with his boardshorts and hat inside. “Thanks.” He said as I took them off his hands.
“Hey, no problem.” I said as we walked out and down the escalators.
“One day, you and me have gotta come back in here and go on that.” He said, pointing up.
I hadn’t noticed the dragon rollercoaster that runs around the top of the whole centre. It was seven stories off the ground. I hadn’t been on it for three years. “Okay then. Trust me, it’s nothing to overly exciting.”
“Who cares, I still wanna go on it.” He said. We walked out of the Myer centre and across to Woolworths.
When we were inside, we wandered up and down the isles, with Lance picking out something off the shelves, every so often. We finished with half of the trolley full of food, so we then made our way over to the register. The guy at the register scanned all the items and told us the total. “That comes to $43 exactly.” Lance pulled out his credit card and handed it to the guy. “Okay,” he said, swiping the card, “credit or savings?” He asked.
“Savings.” Lance replied.
The guy turned the machine and faced it to Lance. “Please enter your pin and press okay.” Lance entered his pin, pressed okay and turned the machine to face the guy. It only took a few minutes to process as we waited for the docket; we put all the bags into the trolley. “Thanks have a good evening.” The guy said as we were leaving.
“You too.” I replied. I placed the bag I was carrying in the trolley on top of the food, while Lance did the same. Lance was pushing the trolley and I was walking beside him. I was now dark and the sun had just set, we spent all the afternoon shopping and I glanced at my watch and saw that it was already 7:15pm. “I better call my mum so she doesn’t worry about me.” I said to Lance as I pulled my phone out of my jean back pocket. “Yeah, hey mum, it’s me... yeah look, I’m still in town with Lance, I had to take him food shopping and he had to get a few other things... yep... oh, okay then... yeah that’s no problem... yep, talk to you later... love you, bye.” I said and hung up the phone.
“That sounded like a good conversation except for that whole bit were you said something along the lines of ‘oh, okay then’. Am I right” Lance questioned me.
“It was good, the only reason why I said that was because my parents were about to go out with some of their clients and my brother is over at a mate’s house, so it’s just me when I get home.” I said, returning my phone to my back pocket.
“Well, do you wanna stay with me tonight?” He asked me.
“You serious?” I asked, double-checking if he said it right.
“Yeah, well, it’s the least I could do for saying thankyou for taking me out shopping today and picking me up from the airport and all.” He said as we reached my car.
I unlocked the boot and started loading it with bags of groceries. “Okay, I guess.” I said.
“Cool, I’ll even cook if you’d like.” He said, sounding really excited over the fact that I accepted.
“I know this is going to sound stupid, but can you cook? I have a brother who says that he can cook but all he can cook is burnt pasta and charcoal sausages.” I said, looking at him, waiting for his reply.
“Why? Do you wanna cook?” He said, as he loaded the last bag into the boot.
“I can cook anything except for things that involve heating oil.” I said, remembering what happened in the kitchen four years ago.
“What do you mean? Tell me the story that goes with it too.” He said, as he placed the trolley next to the wall and as I climbed into the driver seat.
I waited until he got into the car and had shut to door. “Well,” I said, starting the car, and putting it into reverse and drove out of the carpark. “we would have only been in the house we are in for only about two months or so, we’ve been in the house now for four years. My mum asked me to cook dinner while she helped my brother reverse the trailer into the garage. Knowing me, I read the directions on the pasta sauce bottle, and it said to heat some oil. I put the oil into the frypan and turned the element on. The next direction said to brown 500 grams of mince. I think we had about 800 so I measured to get 500, in the meantime, I forgot about the oil, and the next thing I know, the whole thing caught on fire. I smothered it with the pizza tray that was just sitting on the bench. We had to throw the pan out, but it only left carbon on the cupboard and the over head thingy.” I told him my story and he burst out laughing. “Shut up.” I said, taking a quick glance at him.
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
“Don’t worry, it’s cool. I think it’s funny when I think about it now, but then, I was shaking all over, I had to sit down otherwise I would have of fallen over or something.” I said as we pulled into the main drive of the hotel. I then turned to head to the carpark under the hotel. “Key please.” I said to Lance. He reached into the side pocket of his coat and pulled out the key. As I pressed the button, my window rolled down and I stuck my hand out and swiped the card in the slot on the little box. A little green light turned on and the huge door in front of us opened. I handed him back the key and drove in and found a car park. We grabbed all the bags at once and trudged over to the elevator. With some difficulty, I pressed the up button and we stood there and waited for the elevator.
“Any requests for dinner?” Lance asked me while we waited.
“Umm, a prawn cocktail for my entree, and then a big red lobster, served with a garden salad and then for dessert a Pavlova.” I said, in a dreamy tone.
“Well, to be honest, I can’t make the entree, don’t have time or the ingredients for the lobster, I can do the salad and what on earth is a Pavlova?” He asked, looking at me like I was some sort of alien.
“What?” I asked in disbelief. “You don’t know what a Pavlova is? Oh my, I guess I’m gonna have to get you accustomed to our Australian food.” I said. The doors then opened and we both walked in. I put the bags on the ground and press the number 29 button.
“Umm, okay then.” Lance said, still looking at me with a funny looking expression.
I turned put my back up against the wall. “I’ll tell ya what, after we get all of this stuff unpacked, I am going to head down to the cheesecake shop, and pick us up a pavlova.”
We reached the twenty-ninth floor and I picked up my bags and followed Lance down the hall. “Well, what’s it made of?” Lance asked as we reached his door.
“Umm, let’s see,” Lance placed his bags on the floor, pulled out his key, unlocked the door, opened it and we both walked in. I shut it behind me with my foot. “The base is made from egg white and sugar and on the top is a variety of fruits such as strawberries, kiwi fruit, orange, pineapple, passionfruit, trust me you’ll love it.” I said, placing my bags onto the counter.
“If you say so.” Lance said as he placed his bags onto the floor because there was no room left on the bench. “How about you go get us this Pavlova, I stay here, cook dinner and it should be ready by the time you get back, or close to it.” Lance said as soon as we finished putting the groceries away.
“Okay.” I said, grabbing my purse off the table and walking towards the door. “Opps,” I said, turning back around, “I need the key Lance to get back in.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled the key out. “Thanks.” I said, and turned and left.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“What am I doing here?” I asked myself as I stood in the Cheesecake shop.
“Getting a pavlova.” The lady behind the counter said.
“Oh yeah. Sorry.” I said, and handed her the money and waited for the changed. I turned, left the shop and headed to my car.
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