This choice: Dani shrinks at the mall... • Go Back...Chapter #5Dani visits the mall and gets cursed by a stranger by: Unknown It all started with a wrap.
To give it credit, the wrap looked really good on the menu. The description boasted fresh veggies, mozzarella, toasted sesame, and an artisan tortilla. And pesto. Pesto was the tipping point for Dani. It helped her decide.
Minutes later, she was standing at the bus stop and eating the wrap on the go, and until someone told her, she was completely oblivious to the fact that the wrap lacked structural integrity at the bottom - and was leaking said pesto all over the place. Her white pants and leather pumps took the brunt of it. Oily green spots bloomed on formerly pristine articles of her attire.
Dani was an aspiring lawyer. She could not afford to show up like that. Period. So she called in, apologized for being 30 minutes late and ran home. She managed to change in time and had a completely normal workday. In the evening, she washed the pants. She managed to save those. But not the shoes. The oil seeped into the leather, staining it forever. Cursing didn't help the situation one bit.
And that was why during the weekend she had to go do some shopping.
Whenever Dani went to a mall, she always spent about five times as much time there as she initially planned to. This time around was no exception. Her only plan was to look for new pumps. She had a couple of stores in mind, and she was going to visit each one, identify the best options and then try to decide on something. But the mall was full of distractions. She spent some time looking at the new jewellery collection at Pandora (didn't end up getting anything), remembered that she also needed a couple of new t-shirts for the gym, then saw that the local cafeterium had a new seasonal dessert... which ended up being so sweet that she felt the need to sit down at a Caffe Nero to have a big cup of green tea... while she sipped on the tea, she decided to chat to her friend Anna, who was going through a tough breakup, and the call took about an hour in total.
"Men are dumb", Dani told her friend at the very end. Some heads turned in her direction. She scoffed and returned to the call. "His loss. Come to the Golden Terrace, will you? I'm out here shoe shopping. We can walk around together. The have "Shark Attack Four" screening in their cinema at two. We'll do that, we'll shop..."
"I can't make it there by two", Anna said, sobbing. "He is coming to pick up his stuff then".
"...then we'll go to the bar in the evening and get some schmuck to treat us to drinks... What? Just throw his shit out..."
"I'll think about it", Anna relented. "I'll text you. Thanks, Dani".
"Always there for you."
With that, Dani stood up from her seat. Not bothering to leave a tip for the waiter, she walked away from the table and walked towards the exit of the coffee shop. With her head held up high, she failed to notice someone's leg extending from under a table and stumbled on it. She involuntarily leaned forward, thrown off balance. For a moment she lingered there on her tiptoes, then took a panicked step forward, then another one, and another, and she flailed her hands trying to find something to hold on but found nothing, and there was no one to help her out, so she finally fell to the dirty floor.
Her face went red in an instant as she hurriedly picked herself up. Someone said "oh no", someone was asking "are you alright?", someone definitely snickered. She looked around and found him. There was a man seated at that table, and his leg was still extended into the aisle. He wore a polo, dark jeans and loafers. She immediately noted he must have been very tall and quite athletic. Bronze skin, dark hair and heavy eyebrows gave him a bit of a Mediterranean look. Maybe even Arabic.
She could have sworn that when she looked him in the eye, she saw a glint there. And that his lips were ever so slightly moving. Like he was whispering something. Naturally, she interpreted it as something offensive. Or, perhaps, a curse word.
"Watch your fucking legs", she wanted to say, but didn't. The words just didn't come out of her mouth. Her blood ran cold as utter confusion flooded her head. Desoriented for no apparent reason, Dani looked around herself. Most people already weren't looking. The guy still was, though.
Something came over her then. "Sorry", she heard herself say.
He nodded.
Dani rushed out of the Nero. Her knees were shaking. She only came to her senses when she already turned a corner twenty feet away from the cafe.
"Why did I apologize?" she wondered briefly, angry at herself. "He should have been the one saying sorry!" But it was too late to go back now. That would have been ridiculous. And she had other things to do. Anna would be here soon and they would go shopping together.
Dani carefully looked over herself, making sure her clothes didn't get dirty when she fell. They didn't. She calmed herself down and walked back into the central corridor, confidently striding now in the general direction of the next place she wanted to visit. As she walked, though, she noticed something was off. Everyone around her was quite a bit taller than usual...   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
<<-- Previous · Outline  · Recent Additions © Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.
yourpetlady has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work within this interactive story. Poster accepts all responsibility, legal and otherwise, for the content uploaded, submitted to and posted on Writing.Com. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
