Three months. That's how long the man had been coming to the jewelry shop on a weekly basis. He came in every Thursday, stayed for somewhere between fifteen minutes to an hour, bought something, and left. That's just how it was. It happened so regularly that Marco even knew the man's name, face, and even he sound of his footsteps as he walked into the shop by heart. Jean Kirschtein, most likely rich, and the finest piece of ass Marco had seen in a long time outside of movies.
He was nice, too. He would always smile at Marco and greet him by name as he walked in. Among the boring, annoying, or just plain rude customers Marko talked to oh so often, Jean's general niceness was a welcome change. Not that Marco minded the view when Jean had his back to him, either.
Of course, Marco never even thought for a second to hit on Jean. By the amount of jewelry he bought on such a regular basis, Jean had a very doted on significant other. It was a bit upsetting, but Marco didn't mind. At least he knew that Jean wasn't a complete asshole.
"Hey, Marco. You look kind of out of it. Is everything alright?"
Jean's voice brought Marco out of his very gay thoughts. He shook his head a bit and smiled as he took the object Jean was buying that particular day. That time, it was a simple silver ring, sleek and elegant with a single heart-shaped ruby embedded in the metal. It was sweet and simple, but it got the point across.
As he rang up the price, he casually attempted to find out who was getting all expensive jewelry. Out of pure curiosity, of course.
"So, are you ever planning on marrying them?" Okay, so subtly definitely wasn't Marco's strong point.
"What do you mean?"
"The person you buy all this for. Are you ever going to marry them?"
Jean looked up from staring at his credit card, staring at Marco incredulously for a moment before bursting out laughing. Marco felt his ears start to burn; he didn't know what Jean found so funny. It had seemed like a perfectly valid, if a little blunt, question to him.
Marco stood awkwardly as Jean laughed, and was just as awkward when he stopped. He was still waiting for an explanation.
"Marco, you have the completely wrong idea about what's going on. I'm buying this stuff for my mother."
Marco could feel it as every inch of skin on his face lit up bright red. He was embarrassed beyond what he had thought was emotionally possible. Jean started laughing again. Marco groaned and hid his face in his hands, absolutely mortified. "Oh my God. I am so sorry."
"Nah, its fine. You're cute when you blush." In response to Jean's words, Marco's face went an even brighter shade of red, which prompted Jean to start laughing for a third time.
"Stop it; you're embarrassing me." Marco groaned into his hands.
"Oh, come on. You're adorable; don't sell yourself short."
Marco whined plaintively, then squeaked when Jean leaned forward and kissed his forehead. Shocked, Marco just stood there and stared as Jean grabbed the ring box and sauntered smugly out of the store.
It was an hour later that Marco realized that Jean had slipped a card into his pocket. On it was a phone number and a heart.