by Cassie Rocca
Clover was right – he should just talk to her and put an end to it all, one way or another. Even though things might go wrong – and he was pretty sure they would – he could always just pack up and move back to Boston. He could start a new life, without having to see her every single day.
“And what if things go right instead?” his friend would always say.
But how could things go right? Zoe had never realized what he felt for her and that couldn’t simply be because of his talent as an actor. She just didn’t listen to him enough, she never really looked in his eyes. That’s why she had never noticed the devotion in his face when he looked at her. However there was also a chance that she did know and pretended not to.
Both options were pretty depressing. No, he couldn’t confess his feelings and risking ruining everything, the stakes were too high. He would embarrass Zoe and it would ruin their friendship and make being together uncomfortable.
He had to find a way to get her out of his mind.
The shop’s door swung open wide and, walking backwards while trying to close a big umbrella, a figure entered. Eric put aside his thoughts and tried to focus on his job.
The client turned out to be a very pretty blonde girl who was now approaching him with an apologetic look on her face.
“I’m dripping water all over your floor, I’m such a disaster!”
Eric smiled gently. “Don’t worry, you’re not the first to do that today. How can I help you?”
“I’m looking for a funny book for a friend of mine and someone told me that you have a good selection of strange titles here.”
“Oh yeah, we have quite a lot of strange things here,” said Eric as he accompanied her to the books section.
He helped her reach the ones which were on the highest shelves and after reading through the blurbs on the back of several, the girl decided on one and then gave him a curious look.
“You know, you look familiar… Do we know each other from somewhere?”
“I wouldn’t know. I meet so many people every day that it’s kind of hard for me to remember them all, despite my analytical mind.”
“You look like a guy who used to attend the same classes as me at M.I.T. Is your name Morgan?”
“Yes, Eric Morgan.”
The pretty blonde smiled and held out her hand. “Steffy Parker. You helped me with a project once.”
“Parker… Yes, that sounds familiar,” lied Eric. “I’m sorry, but M.I.T. was so long ago…”
“Oh don’t worry about that, I understand – and I’ve changed a lot since then, too.” Steffy put the book on the counter and waited while Eric gift wrapped it properly. “I’ve only just arrived in New York, and I never thought I would bump into a familiar face so soon.”
“I’ve already lived here for five years. It was always my plan to move here.”
“Yes, I remember that.” When the girl noticed the perplexed way he was looking at her, she waved a hand and blushed adorably. “We talked a few times. I… had a crush on you. I always used to try and sit near you and I used to make notes in my diary about any conversations we had, even the completely unimportant ones. Anyway, now you know. Are you happy?”
Eric opened his eyes wide behind the lenses of his glasses. “Well… I don’t get to hear things like that often, so I’d say yes, I’m happy about it.”
His reply made her laugh, and that made her look even prettier.
“You were already pretty cute back then but you’ve got even cuter, even though you haven’t changed much. You’ve still got the same adorable nice guy look.”
“Now, that’s the type of compliment I get more often,” mumbled Eric, with an amused smirk. “But if you’d told me that my nice guy look could have an effect on female hormones I would have passed out, so I guess it’s for the best that you didn’t.”
“Maybe it does,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes. “For some girls, being sweet is much more exciting than a lot of other things.”
Eric hoped he hadn’t blushed. Was this girl actually trying to hit on him? It wasn’t the first time that a girl had done, of course: some girls actually seemed to find him attractive despite his serious bespectacled look, but this girl was really pretty…
“I didn’t mean to embarrass you, Eric,” mumbled Steffy, biting her lower lip. “I’m sorry if I did.”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry, you can say whatever you want. I mean… I don’t mind.”
“And would you mind if I invited you out?” Eric didn’t reply right away so Steffy pulled in her shoulders. “Look, I mean, no big thing, we could just have a chat. Like I said, I just moved here and I don’t know anyone yet… It would be fun, don’t you think? I mean, if it’s not a problem for you, of course.” Suddenly a look of shock appeared on her face and her green eyes opened wide as an awful thought occurred to her. “Oh my God! Please tell me that you don’t have a girlfriend already and save me from looking a total idiot!”
Did he have a girlfriend?
He suddenly thought of Zoe and felt his stomach clench agonizingly, but feeling guilty for cheating on someone who didn’t even notice he existed was just plain ridiculous and there was no way on Earth it could be a valid reason to turn down the invitation of a very pretty girl who was interested in him.
“No, I’m not in a relationship,” he managed to mutter. If he wanted to forget about Zoe, he should really welcome some distraction, and this blonde was not bad – not bad at all.
“OK.” Steffy Parker leaned on the counter, picked up a pen and looked him squarely in the eyes. “I’m going to give you my number. Do you have a piece of paper?”
“Err…” A panicked Eric looked around him in confusion, but Steffy was quick to react. She grabbed his hand while still staring at him, then pushed up his sleeve and rapidly wrote her telephone number on his forearm.
“There you go. This way you’ll have to call me soon, otherwise you’ll end up washing it off,” she said, with a smile. “And if you don’t call, I can always tell myself that it’s because the number got washed off by mistake and not because you’re not actually interested in me.”
She gave him a wink.
Eric nodded, distracted by the footsteps he heard coming from the stairs. He had learned how to recognize the sound of those sensual, confident and unhurried steps very well.
“Lib says that it’s OK with her and that it’ll be a good way of getting our name out there! I really can’t wait to…” said Zoe, before shutting up as soon as she reached the counter. She had apparently noticed the blonde girl’s hand still holding Eric’s forearm, the pen in her hand and the telephone number on his skin. “Ah, sorry for interrupting you, I hadn’t realized we had customers.”
Eric pulled his arm back. He hated himself for feeling guilty about having let Zoe walk in on that situation.
“She’s a friend from back at college,” he said vaguely while he finished wrapping the book.
The blonde offered her hand to Zoe. “Hi, my name’s Stephanie Parker. My friends call me Steffy.”
Zoe fluttered her eyelashes, then smiled and grasped the girl’s outstretched hand. “Stephanie! I think I’ve already heard about you.”
“Have you really?” said Stephanie, giving Eric a look.
In that moment he wished he could vanish into the shelves behind him. Damn it all to hell! When he had told Zoe about his unreciprocated crush a little earlier, he’d just said the first name that had come into his head because he hadn’t wanted her to realize that he was actually talking about her. And the name he had come up with had been none other than Stephanie!
Zoe must be convinced that she was meeting Eric’s old flame…
“I’ve known Eric since college too,” continued Zoe, “so he probably mentioned your name to me.”
“Yeah, that’s probably it. Though he didn’t seem to be too interested in me back then,” said Steffy, giving Eric a smile. “But, hey – things can always change, can’t they?”
E
ric coughed and handed her the wrapped package. “Here’s your present.”
“Thank you. So… Speak to you soon, then.”
“Sure,” he mumbled, feeling Zoe’s eyes staring at him.
Zoe gave Stephanie a friendly smile. “Drop by and say ‘hi’ to us.”
“I will!”
Once Stephanie had left the shop, Zoe leaned on the counter and stared at Eric. “So was that her then?”
“What?” he said, trying to play for time while he tidied up the counter top.
“I guess it must have been, seeing how jumpy you are. It’s absolutely crazy: you mention her to me and a moment later she pops up in our shop as if you’d summoned her!” Zoe sighed. “That is really romantic.”
Eric didn’t reply. He couldn’t admit that he didn’t even remember the girl, because that would shatter all his good intentions about moving on from Zoe. Stephanie could be a real help in proving to Zoe that he wasn’t just some idiot who was always at her beck and call, but it was a real struggle for Eric to lie about things so shamelessly.
“She’s really pretty. I didn’t know you were into blondes. You’ve always dated brunettes so I thought you preferred them. Or maybe you didn’t go out with blonde girls because they reminded you of your first love, is that what it was?”
“Quit overthinking it. I couldn’t care less about hair color. When I go out with a girl it’s because it feels like there’s something special about her.”
“She wrote her number on your forearm, that’s a pretty clear message! If all she was interested in was just being friends with you, she’d have asked for a piece of paper or she’d have used her mobile phone, but she didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to touch you. She wants you,” said Zoe. Then she frowned, and started playing with a pen. “I’ll confess, I’m a little jealous.”
Eric felt his heart do a backflip in his chest.
“What?”
“Yeah. I mean, we’ve been friends for so long and you have always been there for me every time I’ve needed you… Now your big love re-appears from the mists of time and she’s going to get all of your attention. I won’t have you all to myself any more.”
“Real friendships don’t just end because one of you gets romantically involved with someone,” said Eric without looking at her.
“Wow, are we really talking about getting romantically involved already? This Stephanie is really lucky to be loved so much,” she muttered. “Anyway, you’re right, friendships don’t just end. But I always noticed how all your exes used to glare at me like they hated me. Girls don’t like me, you know that. She’ll ask you to steer clear of me.”
“Ok, but did anyone ever manage to keep me away from you, though?” joked Eric. All his ex-partners had instinctively felt an aversion towards Zoe, perhaps because they understood his real feelings for her. Luckily for him, none of them had ever decided to avenge themselves by telling Zoe the truth.
Zoe took his hand, unwittingly sending his heartbeat rocketing.
“No, you’re right. None of them did, and I’m truly thankful for that – you’ve always been a really wonderful friend.”
Eric grunted some reply, and when Zoe pushed up his sleeve, lightly touching his skin with her smooth fingers, he gasped slightly. “What are you doing?”
“Write down that number before any of it gets rubbed off, giving you a good excuse not to call her,” she said gently. “Fate’s given you a second chance, so don’t waste it: you deserve it.
If you really think that I’m so wonderful and if you’re so damn envious of the girl of my dreams that you feel jealous at the idea of losing my attention, then why the hell you don’t want me for yourself? thought Eric in frustration.
For a moment he felt like saying it out loud just to see what would happen. He was sure that her initial reaction would be shock. But then? How would she react after the initial surprise?
The same old doubts started tormenting him and forced him to abandon the idea.
Feeling like a complete idiot, he quickly wrote Stephanie’s number down on a post-it.
Chapter 5
Everyone always has such high expectations of Hollywood stars, and that had certainly been the case with Cade Harrison the first time he had entered Giftland looking for Clover. Everybody had expected him to be somehow ‘different’, but in the end he had turned out to be a charming, easy going, funny, regular guy who – apart from being rich – seemed to be just like everybody else.
And it seemed that Brooke Samuels was equally pleasant and easy going. She was tall and blonde with a face that was just as capable of seducing you in person as it was on TV. She arrived at the shop wearing a huge pair of sunglasses and a baseball hat over her curly hair and had walked straight over to Eric, giving him a frank smile.
“Two attractive blondes smiling at me in less than twenty-four hours,” thought Eric when he saw her approaching him.” They must have sprayed something strange in the air.”
“Hi, I’m Brooke. I was supposed to be arriving tomorrow, but I took an earlier flight and I just couldn’t resist coming to meet you in person,” said the actress in a carefully modulated voice that made it clear why there would have been no point trying to dub her voice in movies. “Cade told me that you can help me.”
“Of course, Ms Samuels. It’s a genuine pleasure for us,” smiled Eric, coming round from behind the counter to shake her hand.
“Please, call me Brooke. Ms Samuels makes me feel so terribly old.”
“Whatever you prefer.”
“So should I talk about my calendar idea with you?”
“No, not with me – with the photographer, Zoe. She’ll be down any minute.”
With perfect timing, Zoe appeared from the second floor, her camera hanging from her neck. She recognised the actress immediately and came running down the stairs, trying to fix her clothes and untie her hair from the very small ponytail she had tied it up in as she went.
“I thought I heard someone say my name,” she said as she approached them.
Eric introduced her to the actress. “Brooke has arrived a day earlier than expected and would like to know if she can talk to you about her project.”
“Of course! I will be done taking pictures with my client in about ten minutes, then you can have my undivided attention, Brooke.” Zoe held out her hand to the woman in greeting, and Eric stared at the pair of them: a blonde and a brunette, both fabulous looking. His friends wold have paid anything to have been in his place. The truth was that they were always pestering him about his attractive friends and trying to get him to hook them up with his colleagues, but now Clover had a boyfriend and Liberty had been engaged for a while. And Zoe was, of course, totally out of the equation.
She went back upstairs, leaving him alone with Brooke. Eric noticed that she was looking at the objects around her with interest so he forced himself to try and make conversation. He was usually very discreet and preferred to let his colleagues keep the customers entertained, but he couldn’t let Brooke Samuels hang around killing time and not even try to keep her company.
“Cade told us something about your idea for the calendar,” was the first thing that came to mind as an attempt to try and get the woman’s attention.
“Did he? Well, what happened is that my friend Sydney was dumped by her idiot boyfriend just a week before they were supposed to be getting married. She was really cut up bad about it, but finally, a year later, she’s starting to go out and meet people, and that’s why I wanted to get her a funny present – something to distract her from the unpleasant anniversary of the break-up,” smiled Brooke. “Cade told me a lot of good things about this place… Although I think part of his enthusiasm is due to a particular woman who works here and has managed to make him totally lose his head!”
“Yes, Clover can have that effect,” Eric joked. “She’s got so much energy.”
“Yes, Cade told me that too. He’s completely besotted with her.”
“I really hope s
o. Clover’s like a sister to me – knowing that he feels the same way about her as she does about him makes me really happy.”
“Oh, you can bet that he does. What’s your name?”
“Eric Morgan.”
“And do you own the shop?”
“No, the boss is Liberty Allen. Zoe, Clover and I are just her devoted slaves.”
“This place is just enchanting,” said Brooke, looking around her again in amazement. “You have so much cute stuff!”
Eric nodded. Giftland was truly a paradise for anyone who was looking for a present – a place where you could always count on finding an endless amount of funny, original ideas to surprise your friends with. Apart from selling all kinds of objects, they also offered special services upon request: he would create videos and short films using material provided by the clients, Zoe would take photographs to use in a hundred different ways; Liberty, who managed the shop, could also write poetry and stories, and Clover’s job was to accompany and advise clients while she took them shopping for the perfect gift. They were a team, and the shop’s reputation was based on their ability to work together. And since Clover had stolen the heart of Hollywood’s prince, moreover, their business had increased significantly. Brooke Samuels was their second celebrity client, and that could only bring them even more good publicity.
“So what kind of calendar were you thinking of for your friend?”
“Something funny that’ll make her laugh. What I want to do is bring her here on some pretext and then surprise her with a photo shoot designed exclusively for her. I’m sure she’ll be comfortable with it – Sydney is a model, so she’s used to being photographed.”
“And I am sure Zoe will manage to come up with something original that’ll put a smile on your friend’s face. She’s an amazing photographer and on top of that she’s a woman, so they’ll understand one another perfectly. It’s a bit of luck that it’s not up to me to think it up – I wouldn’t have the first clue about how to console a girl with a broken heart.”
“You wouldn’t even know how to break a girl’s heart in the first place,” said Zoe as she came back down the stairs. “You’re too darn nice to be able to hurt anyone.”
