Mickey Stone never backed down from a challenge, it was a fact, and he wasn't going to back down from this one either. He looked down at the troublesome object in front of him and sighed. He picked it up again and turned it around in his hands. Both Sean and Emma had made this look incredibly easy.
"Having trouble Mr Stone?" came a flirtatious voice from behind him.
"No Miss Kennedy I'm not." Mickey replied, slightly pissed.
"Oh, come on Mickey, it's a Rubik's Cube, not a bomb!" Emma held out her hand and Mickey placed the infernal object onto her palm. "Look, it's easy when you know the algorithms," Mickey gave her a look of disbelief. "Right, first you need to pick a side to complete first, I always go with white, don't ask why, I just do, and then you need to start by making a cross with the white squares."
Emma continued her explanation of how to solve the cube slowly so Mickey could learn alongside her. After 10 minutes of slow turning, the cube was complete, all the sides the right colour. Mickey nodded, finally thinking he had grasped the movements Emma had dictated to him. Now it was his turn, Emma sat with him, and prompted him if he stuck, and then Mickey smiled. He had completed a hell inducing cube of death.
"Right then, I'm going shopping. I'll see you later." Emma announced as she stood up. She leaned down and kissed Mickey gently. When they broke apart, Mickey had a mischievous smile on his face.
"Do you need company on this shopping trip?" he asked her huskily.
"You wish." Emma winked at him and walked to the door. "See you later, if you're lucky, I'll give you a show of what I got." Mickey swallowed loudly as he watched her leave.
Emma slowly walked through the men's section in a department store off of Oxford Street. Her fingers gliding across the fabric of the shirts she was looking at. She had taken note of Mickey's shirt and collar size and was trying to find him a new piece to add to his wardrobe. At a rack of pastel blue shirts Emma was looking at the sizes when she felt a presence beside her. She looked up and saw a man, around 30 years old looking down at her.
"Er, Hello." Emma greeted.
"Now, ma'am, who would you be buying for?" the gentleman asked her, "your father, brother, maybe a friend?"
Emma smiled, "actually he's more my," Emma searched for the word she could use to describe her relationship with Mickey, "lover."
"I see." The man looked at the shirt Emma had in her hand, and looked at the size. "Looks like he's a large guy."
"He's well built." Emma responded as she walked past the man and headed towards the ties. The man followed her, which seemed odd; maybe he was an employee trying to help her that was it.
She looked at the shirt again then looked at the ties available, trying to find the right colour to compliment the cotton. She held a light grey tie to the shirt and smiled at the two together. She picked up a box containing the same tie and walked toward the area with socks. Sean was running out of socks without holes in them, and as his big sister, Emma had decided that it was her job to buy him some new ones, well, it was more he had asked her to grab some.
Just as she was approaching the socks, she glanced around her and saw the man again. This time he wasn't as close, but he still had his eye on her. That's when she saw something perfect for Albert. She picked up the new chain and headed over to the socks, picked up a pack of neutral colours and set them on top of her pile of clothing, with consisted of dresses for her, some bits Ash needed and the stuff for Mickey.
"You seem to be buying a lot for your lover." The man was back.
"Actually, the socks are for my brother, the chain is for my," Emma thought of a word that didn't sound too out of place, she couldn't say "Roper" could she? "Granddad and the other bits that aren't for my lover are for me and my" she paused, "dad." Yeah that sounded appropriate for Ash.
"I see, that's a lot of men." The mystery man commented.
"That's what happens when you live with four men." Emma looked up at the man to gauge his reaction. He looked intrigued.
"Wow that's a lot. Well it was nice meeting you…?" He paused, waiting for her to tell him her name.
"Emma and thank you for the conversation…?" she did the same.
"Jack. Jack Lawrence."