Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The next day I found myself back in the mall, surrounded by that busy and loud Christmas spirit. During yesterday's conversation with Dr. Shimmon, the one after I had successfully delivered the teddy bear while unsuccessfully revealing myself, we concocted a new plan. Or… it was new to me; apparently, he knew I would fail to show my face to her. Tell me, how pathetic is having one's own patheticness predictable? Pretty pathetic.

So, what was this forethought plan? Allow me to present it in order:
Step 1 – give myself a reason to be at Sara's house

Step 2 – approach Sara's house, present the gift, but…

Step 3 – FAIL

Step 4 – repeat steps 1-3 until…

Step 5 – deem myself ready to present myself confidently

Step 6 – talk to her, face to face

Goal: BEFORE Christmas

We stopped the steps there, assuming that I'd get there at all. It's all right, we've made a plan, we'll just take everything one step at a time…

So what am I doing in the mall? Step 4 – repeating steps 1-3. Basically, I'm looking for another gift.

Walking through the mall, my eyes fell upon that gorgeous necklace I saw yesterday, but my feet didn't want to give my eyes such a pleasure. Or, my feet wanted to save my yearning to do my pocket some major damage. Sure, this whole plan was going to be expensive, but better to have enough money for gifts till Christmas, worst case scenario, than to run out tomorrow. Although, I'm curious to know if Dr. Shimmon would allow himself to execute such an expensive plan…

Yesterday, I got her a teddy bear. What else do girls like? I looked around me, observing the crowd as I meandered. I saw many women: young, old, middle-aged, toddler, single, taken, quiet, loud… it took a girl to throw a tissue in a garbage can for me to realize that girls like things that smell good.

"Hello! Welcome to Bed, Bath, and Beyond; how may I help you today?" I was greeted by an awfully bubbly girl who looked like if she stretched that fake smile of hers any further, she'd rip her face open.

"Uhm…" I stuffed my hands in my pockets and scanned the store. To say the least, it was very colorful, "I'm… well…"

"May I interest you in our latest lotion?" I saw within seconds a sea foam green lotion with sparkles darting towards my eyes; I'll admit, it made me flinch. This girl was scary.

"Uhm… no," I pushed a finger to lower the bottle away from my face, "But I would be interested if you could recommend some items?"

"Oh, sure," she replied dejectedly, "what sort of product are you looking for?"

"I… don't know."

"A particular scent?"

"What smells good?"

"Are you shopping for yourself?"

"What, me? No!" I felt slightly offended, I'm not quite sure why. Nothing against soap; I love soap. Soap saved me many-a-time from the horrid dumpster dives. Surprisingly, the girl was expressionless, all except a smug-lip.

"Right this way…" Following her deeper into the store, I found many vibrant and subtle scents tickling my nose. It was a nice sensation. Felt very clean, very calming, very intimate.

"Our products range from soaps to facial scrubs to lotions to sprays… if you think you'd put it in the bathroom to apply later, you'd probably find it here. All except for shaving gel, of course."

"Well, I'm shopping for a –"

"Stocking stuffer?"

"Uuuh… no. I'd like it to be a presentable gift."

"Oh. Mother?"

"Friend."

"I see. A girlfriend?"

"You're awfully nosy." I was getting annoyed from all these questions. All I wanted was to get Sara's gift and get out of there. But right after my remark, I couldn't help but feel a little ashamed, "… sorry."

"It's fine. So—" I snapped my fingers happily (yet I'll admit rudely). At that moment, I remembered Sara mumbling one day about a few scents.

"Do you have anything lemon or vanilla scented?" I think I may have made the vanilla-recollection up.

"Yes, we have both."

"Can you show me?"

She led me to the corner of the store, filled with an assortment of spring colors – I guess for some people "Spring" correlates with "clean" because, essentially, everything in Spring is new, and new is, knock-on-wood, clean. She left me to find the two scents myself, however, and shuffled away somewhere. I could care less, since I had made some progress to establishing a gift.

It was when I reached the line that I realized why she had asked if I was shopping for myself: I was standing behind a homosexual couple, apparently not too rare in San Francisco. This realization made me smile...

I eventually left the store with an assortment of vanilla and lemon scented items – I had a gut feeling she'd like those scents; if you think about it, they're pretty neutral scents. I decided I was going to place them all nicely in a basket. I've seen nicely wrapped and presented items in baskets with nothing but colored plastic wrap. How hard could that be? Worst comes to worst, I can pay someone to wrap it nicely for me.

And, as it turned out, worst did come to worst because it took me forever to find a basket that did not have Santa's face painted on it, or in crazy, clashing colors. I finally found a classic, natural weave basket, but right next to it was a padded, feminine-looking box – the only thing that constituted it as "feminine" was that I wouldn't own it. Maybe Hodges would, but I wouldn't.

Hmm… Hodges. Without an extra thought, I grabbed the weaved basket and moved to purchase it, finding clear plastic wrap as I approached the aisle. As soon as I paid, I'd go to the food court for some lunch, then set off to make this gift look pretty. I remember seeing a gift-wrap center somewhere along the mall. Surely there would be a long line, but I wouldn't mind waiting. I'm going to do be doing a lot of that. Waiting.