by Angela Blake
“Oh alright. Apologies, I was not aware.” the man replied, his face still containing that evil smile.
“Well now you are, sir. And as you can see, I’m busy with a customer, try to book an appointment before coming next time.” Chris said, and carried on with the boxes, expecting the man to leave.
Roxanne’s breathing was getting heavier, and she was looking to Chris with helpless eyes.
“If you say so, then I can certainly do that.” the man replied, adding, “Although…..”
“Yes?” Chris asked, getting impatient.
“….I definitely like the look of this piece you are showing to the lady.” he moved closer to the table while saying this, causing a rise in Roxanne’s discomfort at the same time, something that Chris could not miss even if he wanted to.
Chris got up from the sofa, one hand raised as if telling the man to stop in his tracks.
“Sir, I said, you can come some other time. I’m busy with a customer at this moment, and you are intruding on a private session.” Chris said with sternness in his voice.
The two men had a stare down after Chris’ last statement, and Chris stood firm and tall, deciding to budge only if the man turned around.
And so he did. After putting his hat back on and giving Chris a nod, he walked out the door, leaving Chris and Roxanne in the uncomfortable silence of the shop.
After making sure the door was locked this time, Chris walked to the seating area slowly, not knowing how to apologize for what had just happened.
“I am so sorry for this, I’ve never encountered anything like this. I apologize for all the inconvenience caused.” he said, looking to her for forgiveness.
“Um…..” Roxanne said frantically, as if it was getting difficult for her to speak.
“Yes?”
“Don’t apologize. Just, thank you for making the man go away.” she replied.
“There’s no need to thank me, what he was doing was wrong. I should’ve locked the gate, it’s my bad.”
Roxanne was overwhelmed with the cuteness on his face, him forcing a smile to contain the guilt.
“No, you won’t understand. Just take it.” she said.
“Why would I not understand?”
Roxanne broke off eye contact as soon as he asked that, and started fidgeting with her fingers. Chris was afraid that he had upset her, and regretted taking that line of questioning too far, but in his heart was curiosity about one thing which he could not shake.
“It might be very stupid of me to say this, and please slap me if it is, but it seemed like you and him have some history, possible even bad blood if I was to take a wild guess.” he said reluctantly, having no idea where he was taking this conversation, or whether it was even right for him to be making those assumptions about her.
Roxanne became clearly more tense hearing this, her breathing heavy and fast enough to seem like a panic attack.
“I’m sorry….you don’t have to answer…..” Chris tried reassuring her, wondering whether he could hug her to comfort her.
“The man has been following me I think, but I’m not sure.” she replied, hoping that this would be the end of it.
“My god. If you want I’ll go deal with that guy right now….” Chris said in anger, his rage boiling up in response to what she had just told him.
“No!” she cut him off, and added, “Don’t do anything, please. Just leave it.”
Chris felt confused for a bit, but wanted more answers, not understanding why she would not want to do anything about a guy following her creepily.
“When did he start following you?” Chris asked, not expecting the reaction that he got.
“God. I said leave it. Why can you not understand…” Roxanne snapped, and after picking her purse up, ran out the door while breaking down.
Christ sat there on the sofa alone, wondering what he did wrong. He regretted this experience altogether, feeling like he ruined his first ever meeting with the prettiest girl he had ever seen.
Chapter 3
Roxanne headed straight home after meeting with Chris, breaking down in the taxi on the way.
Upon reaching her home, she ran straight to her room, and crashed on her bed, beating her fists down on the soft mattress. She couldn’t believe that of all places, he showed up there. Yes he had been following her, trying to get in touch with her, but for him to show up at such a random place, which she saw as more of an errand, was heart wrenching.
It was a difficult situation she found herself in, receiving absolutely no support from her family. All of her family members blamed her for what went wrong, and in most cases even refused to believe her, blaming her for making up stories to tarnish his image and tip the scales in her favor.
She lay there on her bed until evening, when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.” she said in a soft voice.
The door opened, and her sister’s head popped in.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” she mumbled into the mattress.
“Did you get the necklace mom told you to?”
“No.”
Amber sighed.
Amber was Roxanne’s eighteen-year-old sister, a total of eight years between them, but in her whole family Roxanne was closest to her. They had a brother aged twenty-one, who was currently off at college, and mostly missing from the day to day affairs.
Amber entered the room and closed the door behind her, then went and sat on the study desk, her legs dangling.
“What do you want?” Roxanne asked.
“Help. With applications.” Amber replied blankly.
This was something Roxanne loved about their dynamic, and it always managed to pull her out of a low mood. The two would always talk to each other in a frank matter of fact way, sticking to the point. Not that they didn’t have emotional conversations, but just the understanding between them was such that most of the times not much had to be said to communicate.
“I’ll come to your room in a bit.” Roxanne replied, still lying down and covering her face.
“Are you okay?” Amber asked, noticing that Roxanne’s mood had shifted drastically since the morning.
“Not really. I’ll update you.” she answered, and lifted her head to look at her sister.
The boy cut, multiple piercings, eye liner. Amber was the exact opposite of Roxanne, the latter finding her quite hip, sometimes even thinking that Amber was way cooler than she could ever be. Roxanne had a soft spot in her heart for Amber, having played a role in her upbringing as well, and often the two would end up being each other’s therapists as well.
“Take your time. I’m here for you.” Amber comforted Roxanne, and left the room, hoping she hadn’t disturbed her elder sister.
Amber felt angry at herself as well. It had been ages since she had such a nice conversation with a cute guy. For David to suddenly appear in that moment was the last thing she was expecting.
*****
Chris on the other hand had locked his shop up from the inside, and sat on the same sofa, smoking cigarette after cigarette. He realized that he took a liking towards the girl, Roxanne, and wanted to get to know her more.
He felt utter rage towards the man who was stalking her, primarily because of the discomfort he must have been causing her, but also because he had interrupted a conversation that was going so well.
Chris had no idea whether he would get to see Roxanne again, and hoped that she would come back for the necklace which she never bought. He felt incredibly guilty as well, fearing that towards the end he might have upset her by asking too many questions.
Observing that his mind was falling into loops, Chris decided to forget about the situation for a while. Getting his car keys, he headed straight to the neighborhood bar, and on the way called his boys to join him as well.
Once getting to the bar, he decided to treat the incident in the afternoon as ‘work’, and now he was in his ‘p
ersonal’ life, so he disregarded any worries or confusions till the morning after.
At the bar, so reckless was Chris in his effort to escape his struggles, he downed half a bottle of whisky. Somewhere in the middle of the night, this random girl started to flirt with him, dropping obvious hints in conversation and getting close to him. Initially Chris responded positively.
“Oh wow. That’s such an amaaazing profession!” the girl giggled while saying, quite drunk herself.
“Haha I don’t know. Most people would get bored looking at stones all day.” Chris replied.
“But you’re such a gem, I’m sure if anyone was to work for you they’d have the time of their lives.” she replied flirtatiously, and jerked him back and forth at the last few words of the sentence.
Chris could see that by now, Lana, the name of the girl trying to get into his pants, was looking for any and every reason to touch him, and most of the times a reason was the last thing in that moment. This had always been hard to believe for Chris, being so attractive that he barely ever had to do anything. Only a smile here and there and ladies would come sprawling at him, throwing their legs open.
Despite being drunk out of his mind, for some reason, that night Chris decided to sleep alone instead.
Chapter 4
Chris woke up to a hangover, along with a groggy feeling in his mind and heart. He couldn’t stop thinking of the man who had interrupted their meeting, and wanted to beat himself up for putting up with that menacing smile of his.
He could still remember details of the dream he had just had, the reason behind the boner he woke up with despite the hangover. In the dream, Chris was back to the period of his life with Tania, one of the times when she tied him up to the bed, and had her way with him. In his dream though, instead of Tania, there was Roxanne, still wearing the loose shirt she had walked into his shop with, except no tank top under it.
After having gone on for a while, it was when the dream reached her riding his cock, her pussy sliding up and down his erection, that he started feeling this nausea. Suddenly the dream floated away, and he opened his eyes.
It was a struggle getting out of bed, and Chris had to curse all the possible gods in order just to move his limbs. Eventually realizing that this was not a day he was going to be his most productive, he allowed himself to sleep for a few minutes more, but right as he was about to fall back into deep sleep, his message ringtone rang.
He opened his eyes in disbelief, expecting something or the other to have gone bad again. He picked his phone up and was surprised enough to drop his phone upon discovering that the message was from Roxanne.
‘Hey Chris. I sincerely apologize for yesterday, and hope you don’t think low of me. I was thinking of coming to get the necklace again, let me know if I can do that, if yes, when can I show up. Thanks.’
Chris’ heart did somersaults while reading those words. In one second, the hangover seemed to have disappeared, and he sprang up on his bed. With dizzy vision, he wrote a message in reply.
“Hey Roxanne, there is absolutely no need to apologize. The only thing I feel about yesterday is guilt for not locking the door, or not helping you once he was inside. I was wondering myself whether you were planning on stopping by again to purchase a necklace. Please show up whenever is convenient for you, the shop timings are nine to five for weekdays, and nine to three for Saturday. Looking forward to meeting you again. Regards, Chris Bradley.”
He only had to wait a few seconds, and his phone buzzed again.
‘It’s great to hear that. I’ll be coming in a bit if that’s okay.’
‘Yes, perfect.’ Chris replied.
After pressing send, Chris immediately ran into the shower and woke himself up with some piercingly cold water. He cleaned himself in less than five minutes, and then stepped out and dried his body. It took him almost no time to put on his clothes, comb his hair, dab some cologne, and tie his shoelaces. In less than half an hour after sending her the last message, Chris was standing inside his shop, cleaning the jewelry.
Of course it helped a lot that Chris lived in the apartment right above his shop. He often wondered whether he was ever going to take one of the customers upstairs, but would always tell himself that he wasn’t supposed to shit where he ate. Regardless, in the midst of all the glamour and beauty, it was hard for Chris to keep his mind from getting distracted.
He had made his way downstairs, and very quickly conditioned the whole shop, running a quick cloth over the shelves. He waited on the sofa with the three necklaces he had shown Roxanne still lying on the table, while he sipped his coffee.
Suddenly he remembered that he hadn’t checked for other appointments before telling Roxanne that she could come. He quickly grabbed his laptop from the drawer under the counter, and sitting back down on the sofa, rummaged through his emails, confirming that he was indeed free that morning.
He did have a client coming in at four o’clock, but he decided to reschedule it for the next day, having no idea where the meeting with Roxanne was going to go, or how long it was going to take. He sent that client an email, apologizing profusely and offering a discount as compensation. As much as he liked Roxanne, he wasn’t going to compromise on his customers’ experience, or his own credibility.
There was a nagging thought of whether this time the man was going to be following her, but just the fact that she was coming again was enough to flush his mind of all other thoughts. Soon enough, there was a shadow behind the frosted glass of his shop door, knocking at the door of his heart ever so slightly.
With a straightened spine and a puffed-out chest he went to open the door.
“Hey there. Good to see you again!” he said, forcing a cheery smile.
“Um, hi. I hope I’m not disturbing anything. I completely forgot to ask whether you had other clients in.” she said, brushing her hair aside kittenishly.
In that moment, Chris was quite glad that he had checked the emails before she arrived, and dealt with the required processes of the shop in time. Had he not done so, the aura of manliness that he carried would have disappeared at her statement, and he wouldn’t have sounded as reassuring when saying no.
“Don’t you worry about a thing.” he replied, adding, “I told you to come today, of course I had time otherwise I wouldn’t have.”
Roxanne smiled at him, admiring for the first time the pale blue color of his eyes.
“Thank you very much. I wanted to apologize for the last meeting as well.” She said while looking down at the ground in shame.
He could not bear to see guilt on her face on top of the unbearable innocence, the way she pursed her lips, and looked to him sadly for forgiveness. He saw no need for her to apologize at all, and was confused about why she was blaming herself for a creep following her.
“Are you kidding me? It wasn’t your fault. I’m glad I could help, and that you weren’t alone.”
Her eyes glistened while hearing this, and her face became relaxed and calm. He took notice of her clothing, this time she was wearing a red skirt falling to her feet, and a blouse like black shirt over it. He felt an attraction to her that didn’t seem to match her look at all, and wanted to curse himself for thinking of her that way.
But he couldn’t stop imagining how it would feel to hold this delicate piece of art in his hands, to kiss her, to make love to her. But he was surprised how hot she looked in his imaginations, in which he was spanking her, tying her up, fucking her rough, doing all the things he would do with Tania. But the thought of Roxanne in those settings was turning him on like nothing else.
“Thank you very much for that by the way, I would not have been able to deal with him on my own at all.” she replied, gratuitously.
“I assure you there’s no need for that at all. Why don’t we skip all these formalities and get to the main part?” he said with a slight flirty hint in his voice, and directed her inside.
*****
The two were se
ated back on the sofas, and Chris started defining the details of the jewelry he was presenting to her, where they were from, when he got hold of them, and so on. In the description of these objects and their histories, Chris delved briefly into his sexual affairs in other countries, but noticed that Roxanne exhibited a certain averseness to the topic, and hence withdrew.
“I really like these, you have an amazing collection!” she said, quite impressed by how knowledgeable and passionate he was about his art.
“I’ve barely even showed you anything so far, but thank you!” he replied.
“Really? I would definitely like to see more.” she said, unable to contain the attraction she was starting to feel towards him.
She found it strange that she was getting so comfortable with a shopkeeper, simply because he saved her from trouble, though she had to consider that not everyone would have been up to intervene in that circumstance. She could sense that he was looking at her as more than just a customer, and was enjoying the attention quite a bit.
“Well you can come by whenever you want. So have you decided which one you’re buying?” he replied.
“Ugh I’m really bad at this. Can you help me out? Which one do you think I should get?” she said, getting flustered.
He smiled hearing this, and replied, “Well you were going to try them on, no? Before we got interrupted I mean.”
The two laughed at this comment, relieved that the incident yesterday was not going to create any awkwardness between them.
“Oh right, you even got the mirror. I apologize.” she said, and picked up the Chinese necklace after Chris informed her with a nod that it was okay to touch it. He could see just how clean, pure, and delicate her skin was, how it was completely harmless to any precious gem one could find.
He could see that she was having trouble managing her hair along with putting on the necklace, having forgotten to tie her hair today. He went to the counter and got a hair tie, one of the many specifics he had learned that were what really counted in attracting customers.
