He shook his head and stopped by Jillian's. A small eye clinic east of a vet shop. He pushed the door and the glass rattled but it didn't open, her windows displayed old documents and her glasses flashed from the inside and she smiled waving a gloved hand.
Dr Jillian Foster had straight black hair, brown eyes, well-defined cheekbones and pink lips and small stature, in her white coat, lilac shirt and brown pants.
She tapped the letters with a cane and he covered his eye reading them.
"Y-O-U...A-R-E... A... J-A-C-K-A-S-S." He scoffed at that image in his head "Oh come on Jillian, you're always heckling,"
"First of all, I don't know what the word " heckling" means and secondly," She held the cane to her lips "Stop playing video games," She said in a relatively deep voice.
His eyes lowered, fawned on that she knew him so well. Her work hours had kept her here for so long that she hardly had any time for anyone or herself.
Jillian was his best friend from Illinois and she began her practice in Phoenix, her clinic was white and there was an empty shelf with many compartments, a line of prototype glasses with a phoropter.
He did all the tests she could ever ask and then to the application. His phone buzzed to life and he put forward the screen and groaned when she put it down.
"Could be important."
"You must be down with the headaches by now."
"Yes, I feel a lot like a sixty-year-old and what's worse? The neighbours are being difficult." He added and squinted his eyes "Could you stand back for a minute?"
"Stop doing that, I assure you, things are going to get worse." She said assembling the prototype lenses according to his visual perception.
He was much more uncomfortable about the price but glasses were the best he could afford.
"Here." She put it on him and his vision cleared, he winced at Jillian, she looked far different and her hair was glossier.
She giggled when she could not hide her amusement about his ridiculous look.
"I'm sorry, it's usually funnier when it's you."
She said walking beside him on the streets while he strolled with them on, he nearly walked into a pole and they stopped by a coffee place and she smiled.
"Well," He shook his head "That's nice to know, is there something else?." He shoved his hands into his pockets glancing at her with a sheepish smile.
"I...I don't know yet." She bit her lip.
"Would you like a coffee?" He felt sheepish asking like this, stinking like a wet gym sock and looked ridiculous in these glasses.
Jillian "Yeah,"
He placed his hand on his sore thigh, after running kilometers to reach this place_I don't think I can make it back. He thought scanning her for a second time.
She took the frames out of the drawers to show him and he scanned every last one and pointed a black "Pearly_56". She shook her head "This one." She fished out another pair and raised it, it was narrow and the rims were thick.
"This is better, it even has a torch on the top left corner."
He grimaced tilting his hand. "How much will it be if you get these lenses installed?."
She put the box containing the frames into a drawer and took off his glasses.
Scanning him "I'd say fourteen days."
He lurched forward "I said how much?."
She smiled "Don't worry about it."
"Worrying is all I ever do." He wiped his forehead. Oh crap I forgot my debit card. Since he was too poor to own a credit card. He didn't last in a job for two consecutive weeks because of his poor vision, he was underpaid and he could at least get a few bucks from his savings and ask for a discount.
"Jillian_"
"I'll make it sooner." She said.
Guy noticed, there was something about the way she spoke that puzzled him, her shape teased him from his blurred viewpoint.
Truly absence makes the heart grow fonder. She landed a high-paying job uptown and was moving the soonest she finished the glasses.
"Just once. It seems the customers are showing up when the clinic's about to shut down. It's almost frustrating"
His eyes flickered speechless; Does she know I wreak like wet chilli dogs? I should probably ask for mint. Mint?
He shoved out a handful of cookies "Here." He said, parched and cleared his throat.
She pulled the lint off the stack and grimaced "Chocolate Chip, I'll undoubtedly feel better."
When she asked about his schedule and when she would come to visit, he delved into a word salad and raked his hair "Tomorrow."
"Good." She wrinkled her nose and tapped his shoulder "Take a showah."
He groaned inwardly and jogged toward the house passing the street with the manhole and the sun was out with a dash of mirth lingering in the air, he glanced at the M skyscraper with the sun highlighting its majesty.
He grinned and hustled down to his street past an elder and stopped at his apartment window open, he jogged upstairs and closed the door with streaks of sunlight running across his body and face. He took a light shower and scrubbed the foam off his hair and his phone rang from the toilet seat, he hopped out of the tub in expectation of good news and risked a bruised side when he fell with the lower part of the door and dotted white walls in his view.
Crossing his arm over his elbow.
"Hello?"
"Are you Mister Guy Thomson?"
He frowned at the strange voice "This is him, do I know you?"