The Problems With Radios
It's been ages since I've done a Carley/Lee fic so I decided to do one today! (It's a one-shot)
This is based in modern day/no apocalypse ;)
If you enjoy, please review as I love to hear your guys's thoughts!
Lee's TV was busted again and his favourite thing to do while working at home was to listen to the latest music and keep notified on the latest news happening in both Macon and the world as a whole. Because Lee couldn't be bothered to fix the TV as he already had enough on his mind, he decided to take some time off and buy a radio, to satisfy his needs until he got his TV up and running again.
There was a small village not too far from his apartment which had one large store full of electrical appliances and things for the home. This store was called: 'Home Warehouse'. The name was tacky as the store was closer to looking like a supermarket rather than a warehouse, but Lee said nothing by it... It was a decent store, full of decent things to buy. Needless to say, the items inside were reasonably cheap and Lee had nothing to complain about.
At around 11:20am, Lee was up and ready to leave. He grabbed his keys, opened and locked his apartment door and made his way downstairs.
Once outside, Lee let out a sigh of satisfaction as the warm sun made itself present. The birds were chirping, the wind was light and today in general was the definition of a fine day. What was better was that it was the weekend, and Lee finally had a somewhat 'break' from teaching at school. Yes, he still had schoolwork he needed to mark and homework to assign, but this was the weekend, and weekends should mean freedom.
Lee strolled across the small parking lot and to his red mini cooper, all while humming a catchy tune he heard in a commercial before his TV went bust. Yes, he was disappointed he would need to get that fixed, but this meant he could finally leave the house and drive round the village for a bit... even if that only meant buying a radio from some tacky named electrical appliance store. Again, Lee had nothing against what was inside the store, only it's quickly thought of name and stupid slogan: 'Get all your home stuff, in our home warehouse!' Yet again, the store was not a warehouse...
After ten minutes of casual driving, Lee finally approached Home Warehouse. He pulled himself out of his car, locked the doors and made his way over to the front doors of the store. One thing Lee hated about these doors were that they had a sticker stuck on the glass saying 'pull' but you really had to 'push'. He remembered an old lady tugging on one of the doors for what seemed like hours until she finally had the right mind to 'push'. Lee couldn't blame her however...
Once Lee got to doors, he pushed both open and headed straight to the aisle containing all the different types of radios. Of course, Lee did his usual head nod and friendly smile to a man behind one of the counters. His name was Doug, and was a very kind individual. He also knew a lot about technology and anything relating to it. He could even go into depth with explaining every possible thing about chalk... yes, chalk.
Not too long after, Lee eventually found the towering shelves full of radios. (The layout of the store constantly changed...) The aisle was practically empty despite one woman who was fiddling around with a small pink coloured radio. She wore a white long-sleeved blouse and a black pencil skirt which came below her knees. She had short brown hair, just below her shoulders and from what Lee could tell, tan skin.
The woman lifted and turned her head to look towards Lee. The new presence startled her for a moment, but she soon went back to looking over the radio in her hands. Lee smiled gently towards the woman, in which she did the same before Lee walked past her in order to get to the more standard looking radios.
As Lee stopped to pick up a radio to test it out, he couldn't help but to feel intrigued by the pleasant smell of flowers to the left of him. He guessed it was some sort of nice smelling perfume coming from the woman, so he looked over casually to brunette lady only to see that she was already watching him! Lee awkwardly smiled in which the woman quickly looked away, her face somewhat flushed with a rosy pink from what Lee could quickly catch. She immediately went back to fiddling with the pink radio and Lee went back to his.
Lee liked the look of the radio he was holding. It was simple, grey in colour and had few buttons which automatically made his life easier, as he was no good when it came to technology, with several little buttons for all different things. He tested the radio out by flipping up the antenna and pressing the 'ON' button. Automatically, some news report started playing and Lee fiddled with the volume in order to fit it to his liking.
Meanwhile, the sound of a radio working not too far beside her, caused the woman to look up towards the same man she was somewhat staring at just a moment ago. She didn't understand. How did he get the radio to work? She had been standing here, looking like a fool trying to get this cute pink one to work, but it simply didn't...
She decided to ask him.
The woman awkwardly coughed to gain the mans attention before speaking.
"Um, not to be a bother but, how did you um... get that radio to work?" the woman asked nervously as she looked down at the man's radio, fully alive and now playing a tune.
Lee glanced towards the woman before turning the volume to mute. Already, Lee could see that she was indeed, a very pretty woman with gentle brown eyes.
"Don't worry, you're not bothering me. Um, I just pulled the antenna up and turned it on with the 'ON' button. It might say 'POWER' but that's the same thing." Lee explained sincerely as the woman listened carefully.
"Right, thanks." the woman replied with a small smile. She then proceeded to flip the antenna up and press the 'POWER' button. Nothing happened.
"Hm, that's strange." the woman says as she pressed down in the same button again.
Lee's eyebrows knitted together in confusion at first, but he then offered to help.
"Here, let me take a look." Lee says in a friendly manner as the woman gave a smile of appreciation and held out the pink radio. Lee placed the radio he was currently holding, back on the shelf before reaching over and taking hold of the pink one.
"Thanks, I wouldn't know what to do!" she replies with a small chuckle.
Lee chuckles in response as he started looking over the radio. He pressed random buttons but nothing came out of the contraption.
"I'm Carley by the way..." Carley says while watching Lee mess around with the radio.
Lee looked up at Carley for a brief second.
"Lee." he replies, the corners of his mouth forming into another one of his friendly smiles.
Carley nods in return, taking in the man's features. Not too bad looking... was the first thought that entered Carley's mind.
"Ah, got it." Lee says after a few moments of silence. He flips open a small compartment in the back of the radio and examines the emptiness inside.
"You do? What did I miss?" Carley questions as she looks over the radio with the same confusion as before.
"You do know there aren't any batteries in this thing? This one is for show and not a tester..." Lee explains with a small smirk as the woman stares blankly at the empty battery compartment.
"I uh...of course! No batteries, right!" Carley replies quickly all while stammering in embarrassment.
Lee chuckles before flipping close the small flap which kept the batteries secure inside.
"I can find the same radio with batteries in, if you like?" Lee says, placing the radio back on the shelf and scanning around with his eyes to spot another identical radio.
"No, no, no it's fine! I've had enough of radios for today!" Carley replies while laughing at her own 'stupidity'. Her face burnt up in embarrassment as Lee continued to smile warmly down at her. (She was a lot shorter than him.)
"Are you sure?" Lee asks while Carley nods her head.
"Sure." Carley answered.
It was awkward for a few moments. The two adults just stared at each other with small smiles on their faces while Carley especially, blushes fiercely. Lee couldn't help but to notice. To reduce further awkwardness, Lee strikes up a casual conversation.
"So, what do you do for a living?" he questions with curiosity.
"I am a news reporter, shitty job I know..." Carley responds with a light hearted laugh.
"Sounds interesting." Lee says in which Carley smirks.
"It's not, trust me. How about you?" she questions, leaning up against the shelf.
"I'm a History teacher." Lee answered with a smile to show that he was happy with his job.
"Wow, I would've never thought, you with all that muscle!" Carley responds in a surprised manner. However, she quickly blushes again when she realises what she had just said.
"Sorry, that uh... that just slipped out." the brunette stutters embarrassingly.
Lee found himself chuckling at the woman's behaviour. Already he seemed to take a liking to her... Thank God he came out today, huh?
"No worries, so you live around here?" Lee asked.
"Yeah, about ten minutes away. Johnson's apartments... you heard of that?" Carley replies, however the name 'Johnson's apartments' rang a bell in Lee's mind.
Johnson's apartments... he lived in them!
"Wait, I live in them!" Lee says soon after he came to realise he lived in the same apartment as Carley.
"You do? How did we never meet before?" Carley questions, also just as astonished.
"I honestly don't know... I'm on the 4th floor." Lee says after thinking on whether he recognised Carley from before. However, her name and looks were defiantly new to him.
"Ground floor, haven't been any further than the 3rd floor, this was meant to be a temporary place to stay as I used to travel a lot around the states because of work." Carley explains with a smile as Lee listened.
"Well this got interesting." Lee said.
Carley giggled like a young girl before finally speaking what had been swimming through her mind ever since she started talking to Lee.
"You seem like a pretty cool guy, Lee..." Carley said, grinning as she could make out a small blush forming on Lee's face.
"You too... um, I know it's quite early but do you want to go get something to eat? Coffee? We could maybe get to know each other better..." Lee suggested as he nervously twiddled his thumbs.
"I- I would love to, Lee..." Carley replied, smile widening as her cheeks burnt up.
"Great, you like...Starbucks?" Lee questioned as Carley stood back up straight, rather than leaning on the shelf full of radios.
"Love it!" the brunette woman replied almost excitedly.
"Awesome, I'll pay." Lee said as he started making his way down the aisle and towards the exit, Carley following beside him.
"You don't have too, I have money." Carley replies, guilty.
"I insist." Lee grins. This only made Carley blush more. Had she found the perfect man already? Lee thought the same. Had he found the perfect woman already? Carley was very pretty in his eyes, kind and funny...
...
In the end, Carley must've been something if Lee had totally managed to forget his plan on buying a radio...