By the fourth parking meter Regina had had enough. Holding her sister's hand as she moaned over her injured foot, she broached the topic they had both been refusing to talk about for several months now.
"You need to get glasses." Although this time it was less of a question and more of a statement.
Zelena looked up through slightly teary eyes and mumbled out, "no I don't."
"Yes," Regina insisted. "Yes you do. By my count you have bonked your poor head on seven poles, you have walked into six doorframes, kicked three garbage cans, fallen onto eight chairs, and now almost broken your toe on four parking meters. It has to stop. You live right by a glasses shop and it's not like you don't have the money or the prescription. This is just stubbornness and it has to stop."
Zelena frowned and let go of her sister's hand, folding her arms. She was a grown-ass adult but her vision was a matter of pride that she refused to seek help for. Regina saw the resolve settle in her sister's blurry eyes and decided that was it.
Grabbing and tugging on her sister's hand, she forced her into the passenger's seat of her car, ran around to the other side and locked the doors. Ignoring her sister's increasingly insulting protests, Regina drove to the glasses shop and parked, pulling her sister out.
Then she got back into the car and began to drive away, yelling out the window, "You can't get home until you buy some, now go!"
Unlike her sister, Regina's vision was in tiptop shape and the finger her sister shot her was all too clear. Zelena didn't need Regina to give her a ride home, she did live in an apartment nearby, but that would involve crossing a few streets and even her reckless sister wasn't crazy enough to try and cross them with faulty vision. It was about time.
Zelena, left standing alone on the sidewalk, growled her frustration into the back of her throat, then shouldered her pale green purse and pushed through the doors of the glasses shop, already fuming.
Through the blurs of movement of the people inside, Zelena made out the front desk and walked purposefully towards it, the attitude ruined slightly by several close calls with large wooden cases of frames that were the same color as the floor.
The woman at the desk smiled at her, although it was really quite difficult for Zelena to tell. Her outline was kind of fuzzy.
"What can I do for you miss?"
Zelena sighed. "I'm here to buy some glasses. Can you look up my prescription if I give you my optometrist's name?"
"We sure can miss. What's their last name?"
"Doctor Simon. Doctor Jennifer Simon."
"Ah yes, Dr. Simon often sends her patients here. She's one of the best in the business. And your name miss?"
"Zelena Mills."
"Alright, here you are. Dr. Simon actually put in an order for you quite some time ago so we have the lenses in the back, all you need to do is pick out some frames. I'll have someone bring the lenses out and some frames to go with. If you'll sit down at one of our stations he'll be right with you."
Zelena nodded and made her unsteady way to the other long table in the room, sitting down at one of the slightly closed off areas and gazing vaguely at the gigantic mirror on a stand that was set off to the side.
She had just set her purse under the chic looking wooden chair when a man came bustling out of the back room and sat across from her. She still had difficulty making out anyone's face in detail but she could tell he was about her age and had blondish hair. It was especially fuzzy around the edges and she wondered if that was the lighting or whether it was actually that fluffy.
He held out his hand across the table and she shook it. His hands were pleasantly cool with lots of calluses on the tips and joints from working with the tiny tools that went into the glasses trade.
"Hello Ms. Mills. My name is Hades, I'll be helping you today. I have your lenses right here and a couple of frames we generally try out for this type of lens. If you have any specific preferences I can always go back and get them."
Zelena smiled, it was nice to meet someone with such genuine customer service. He held up a spindly frame out to her.
"This one is thin, covers the entire lens, and is a kind of chocolatey brown. It comes with nose pads, not slick, and is the most basic type of lens you'll generally see in the movies."
She still couldn't see him all that clearly but she could hear the smile and the barest hint of a laugh in his voice. He was so obviously comfortable with what he was doing.
She reached out for the bare frames but embarrassingly her fingers skimmed them. However, he didn't laugh, and gently leaned across the table, sliding them behind her ears with care so as not to poke her.
"Hmm," she heard him muse.
"Yes?" She questioned.
"It's your choice Miss Mills but personally I don't think brown is really your color for frames. It's close, but not quite. The style is nice, though I might want a bit more squareness to the frame…"
He trailed off, still staring at her face. She almost flushed at the overt feeling of his eyes combing her features, especially when she couldn't pay him back in kind.
"We can try something else," she allowed and removed the frames, setting them in his hands.
"Yes, yes. We need something that brings out your beautiful eyes."
Her lips parted a little and she did flush, shocked at the sudden compliment. He didn't seem to notice, already picking up another frame.
"These ones are a bit more the style I'm thinking of, not exactly rectangular, more like rectangular with rounded corners, and the legs are thicker, and black."
He didn't force her to reach for these and slid them right on. She waited in silence for his opinion.
"The style is perfect but I don't like the color."
Zelena nodded.
"Black doesn't look very good on me when it comes to accessories."
"Au contraire, and glasses are more than just accessories. They become part of your face so it's especially important to get it right. Perhaps these last ones."
Zelena's phone rang and she scooted the chair back to pick it up, saying to Hades, "sorry, I'll turn this off."
She lifted the screen painfully close to her face and made out her sister's name. Snorting in disgust she touched the hangup icon and set it back in the bag. Hades waved her apology away and lifted the third frame he had brought out.
"These are the same rectangularish style, but in a kind of reddish orange, subtle, but strong, and the thickness is the same as the first pair. I have a feeling these ones will be it so I'll pop the lenses in for you right now."
He pulled out two small clear objects and a couple of spindly looking tools then bent over the frames. With several small and secure snapping noises the lenses were in and he put the tools away. He didn't reach out for her and she realized that in answering her phone she had moved too far away for him to reach.
She quickly moved the chair as close to the desk as she could and leaned forward. Her lack of depth perception caused her to have no idea how incredibly close they were but he took it in stride, sliding the frames on with the same care he had shown earlier.
She blinked as he came into focus and her breath caught in her throat. Maybe it was his attitude, maybe it was the joy of seeing in such sharp clarity after days of blur, but he looked unbelievably gorgeous.
His face was set with gentle but serious angles and his hair really was as fluffy as she had imagined if not more. Just looking at it made her wonder how soft it was and begin to imagine what it would feel like sliding through her fingers.
He had a single small silver stud in his right ear and his eyes were almost as strikingly blue as hers but a little more electric.
He, on the other hand, was also experiencing a bit of shock. It was really just his luck to be helping an almost painfully beautiful customer that day, but now looking at him with clarity for the first time, her pale blue eyes shining behind frames that just emphasized her fiery red hair, he felt his heart speed up but he couldn't tear his eyes away.
After several moments that felt like eternity to the two, he managed to choke out, "yep. These are the ones."
In an attempt to rip himself out of her tantalizing gaze he gestured to the mirror.
"Why don't you have a look."
She turned away from him, also with reluctance, and regarded her own appearance. The glasses were obvious but not gaudy and they did compliment her hair rather nicely. Unconsciously she fluffed it up a bit, peering into the reflective glass more closely.
Hades could have sworn he had a heart attack right there. He had a supermodel sitting across the table already, then she had to go and rake perfectly manicured nails through her hair, brushing it up into the air. He could smell her perfume from here, a kind of flowery yet powerful scent, meant to be noticed.
Pleased with her reflection, Zelena smiled and turned back to her helper, trying hard not to flush as each look brought her eyes to more of his features like his light pale lips, his perfectly tailored tight black vest, and the blue tie just a shade darker than his eyes with such an intriguing fire pattern down the length of it where it disappeared into the buttons of the vest. Combined with the black button-down into which he had inserted rhinestone cufflinks, he looked every bit the delectable gentleman, ready to sweep anyone off their feet despite the mischief belied by his all-too-bright eyes.
"I love them," she breathed, enjoying the way his lips curled and she saw just the hint of shiny white teeth before he stood and led her over to the counter. The girl there offered to ring her up but he shoed her politely away, laughing at her call of "try hard," before she disappeared into the back.
His laugh was one of the most delightful things Zelena had ever heard, so pure and free.
She was so very reluctant to hand the frames over for even a minute for he would turn fuzzy again and she wouldn't be able to see him. However, she did eventually do it, and paid appropriately, slipping the frames back on as soon as she could. He laughed at her speed, the glint in his eyes slightly teasing. Well if that was how he was going to play it.
There was no one behind Zelena in line and the store was quite quiet so she leaned slightly over the counter and ran her hand down Hades' arm, drawing it towards her.
He didn't resist so she pulled out a marker from the nearby container and pushed back his sleeve, scrawling her number onto his arm in long looping numerals. She let him go with a wink and was pleased to see the tips of his ears light up a bit.
She turned in her heels and walked away, trying to hide the large smile that crept up her face.
At the door she paused and looked back, only to see him lean over the counter so no one on the sides could see him and make a little telephone with his hand, shaking it by his ear.
His grin was smug as all get out and she quickly rushed out, feeling the flush already creeping up her neck.
When she reentered her apartment she texted her sister and invited her and Robin over for dinner.
Needless to say, they were quite pleased with her new frames, and she was quite pleased with the call she received from a certain handsome glasses seller the very next day.