Chapter 3
Bonding at the Mall
It's early in the day following the park outing, and the sun is still low in the sky—much earlier than my normal wake-up time. My phone begins to ring, and at the top of the display, the caller ID informs me that it's Misty. She wasn't kidding when she said that she wanted to see me soon. I answer the call and am greeted by a familiar friendly voice.
“Hey! How are you?” she asks.
“Not bad. I just woke up,” I answer in a tired voice.
“Oh, sorry for waking you up. I was just wondering if you’d maybe like to go to the mall with me.”
“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’m actually kind of glad you did so because, otherwise, I'd just end up sleeping until the afternoon, which is never a good thing. And yes, I’ll go to the mall with you.”
“Awesome! I’ll come by and pick you up soon then.”
“See you soon,” I say after giving her my address.
After pushing the end call button, I take some time to get ready, and shortly after I'm done with that, I wait for Misty outside. Before she's on her way, she sends me a text message to give me an estimate of when she'll arrive. At around the expected time, I see a silver car pull up right in front of me.
“Hey there!” she says in her usual excited expression, clearly happy to see me again.
Once I'm comfortably seated in her car, we're off to the mall.
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We arrive after a relatively lengthy drive, but it'll hopefully be worth it. We enter through the large glass doors, which open for us automatically when we approach them. Neither of us has ever been to this mall before, and we're both surprised by how spacious it is. The rhythmic tap of Misty's high heels striking the marble-tile floor reverberates throughout the large, open hallways with each step. Looking at it more closely, the floor also has glittery silver bits ingrained into it that sparkle with the sunlight coming in from the high-up ceiling windows. Misty’s beautiful, reflective blonde hair also shines in the rays of light with a beautiful golden luster.
For our first stop, I suggest we give the electronics store a visit. We acquire a paper map and orient ourselves. I'm not particularly good at that sort of thing, so all I can really do is stare at the thing without making much sense of it. I'd definitely spend three times as much effort wandering around and looking for where to go if I was by myself, but Misty seems to figure it out quickly.
Once we enter, we're met with a flashy display of various pieces of technology. I heard from Andy that an interesting new smartphone was released last week, and I'm curious to see it in person. I have an old one from a few years ago and am beginning to get tired of it. We walk over to one of the tables, and I pick up the phone to begin demoing it. It feels spectacular in the hand, with smooth curves all around its glass body on the back and a glossy display on the front to match. It's very clear that this manufacturer knows how to produce a high-quality handset. I press a button on the bottom to take me to the main interface and flick through the pages of icons. The screen's output is just as nice as the body of the device.
“This is really cool. I’d get it now if it weren't so expensive,” I remark to Misty.
We walk around and look at some of the other gadgets briefly before we leave the electronics store. Shortly afterward, out of the corner of my eye, I see an ice-cream shop.
“I could really go for some ice cream right now,” I declare.
“Yeah, let’s go get some!”
“Out of curiosity, what’s your favorite flavor?”
“That’s a hard choice. Hmmm… I like strawberry, chocolate, or cookies and cream.”
“Cookies and cream is a great one. That might actually be my favorite as well.”
We get two cookies-and-cream-flavored ice-cream cones and then find an empty table to sit at. The most enjoyable part, besides for the delicious ice cream, is the sight of Misty’s eyes looking back at me from across the table.
Once we're done eating, we begin walking around, and eventually, a store with stuffed animals displayed at the front gets Misty’s attention.
“Ooo, I want to see those plushy toys!” she says excitedly.
Even though it's probably not somewhere I'd actively decide to go on my own, I'm willing to do so with Misty. Besides the plush animals, there are various other small toys here, the most interesting of which, to me, are the twisty puzzles of various shapes, including cubes, pyramids, and octahedrons. They have a three-by-three cube on display, and I can easily see that it doesn't have the ordinary solid-colored stickers that peel after a week; instead, it uses nice-looking tiles. I haven't played with one in several years, but I used to be able to solve these in around thirty seconds. I pick the puzzle cube up off of its stand, giving it a few turns. Unlike some that tend to grind and lock up with every turn, this is smooth as butter. Because it's been played with, it's in an unsolved position, so I try to solve it.
“I haven’t done one of these in a while,” I remark to Misty. “Let’s see if I still can.”
Misty watches in awe, and it's done after a minute.
“Wow, that was amazing!” she cheers.
Misty then goes to admire the aforementioned stuffed toys sitting on the shelves that line the walls. She picks up a fluffy, round penguin and hugs it. Seeing that makes me wish I were that stuffed penguin right now, but I still feel very lucky to even be at the mall with such a dreamy woman. I zone out for a bit but regain my focus when Misty says something.
“Awww, this is such an adorable teddy bear.”
She squeezes and holds it for a few seconds before putting it back on the shelf. I can see why she likes it so much. The white fur is soft, and it's holding a pink heart between its front paws, which are themselves composed of little red hearts with three ovals above them. It also has a big nose on its round muzzle that's flanked by two large eyes.
We stay for a few more minutes, looking at some other things, such as a tiny billiard table, before leaving the shop. For the next item on our agenda, Misty wants to visit a clothing store. As we walk, we stay close together and hold hands. When we enter, she begins browsing through the various articles of clothing around. After picking up and holding out a few items in front of her by a mirror, she chooses a navy-blue button-down shirt, and in another section of the store, she finds a pair of jeans to match it.
“I’m going to go try these ones on in the dressing room,” she says. I stand outside, waiting for her to change. When she emerges, she asks, “How do I look?” and spins around for me to show off the outfit from different angles.
“You look very cute in those,” I compliment her.
“Awww, thanks, babe!”
The way she says that line and smiles at me makes me feel very warm inside. She picks two more outfits, which include a light-yellow and an emerald-green shirt-and-shorts combination that perfectly match her light-blonde hair and dark-brown eyes, respectively. I don't know a thing about fashion, yet she still seems to pick out things according to my taste—she's choosing them because she wants to look beautiful just for me.
She goes to the cash register with the items, and her face takes on a sad expression when she sees the relatively expensive total.
“I’m not sure if I want to spend that much,” she says glumly.
“Hey, I could buy them for you if you'd like,” I offer.
“Oh, no—you really don’t have to do that.”
“Don't be silly. I think you should have them.”
“Well… Okay, I guess. That’s so kind of you. I appreciate it a lot!”
The sum is paid, and the items are put into a bag for her. After we exit the store, she comes up close to me, putting her arms around me. She thanks me sincerely as also I put my arms around her in response. While we remain in our embrace, I forget about everything else around us and become lost in the moment. Bonding at the mall some more, we continue to walk, visiting other places all around. When we come across a large fountain that shoots wat
er up nearly to the ceiling, we sit down together on a nearby bench to watch it.
“Hey, would you like to come over to my place? I can show you around,” Misty says a few minutes later.
“Sure, that'd be cool.”
We stand up and begin retracing our steps back toward the exit, to her car, and then to her house.