The clothe store was a five minutes drive from home, Oakridge Tallahassee was known for its wonderful structure and orderliness, the stores were not scattered around the city, they were linked together in a row like the store owners had a meeting and decided on a particular location. Right beside the clothe store was a shoe palace, outside the cloth store was a park not too far away with ice cream stands for children who wanted to play after shopping. The organisation was top-notch and Chris loved that, that was one thing he couldn't trade for anything at all - organisation.
On entering the cloth store, he walked right into the reception area which was tiled with coloured tiles mixed with white tiles that matched the paint on the wall. There was a section for every clothing, the store was small but organized.
Impressed, Chris walked to the small space the receptionist had and - smiled at her. Some strands of her hair were not in place, her smile was flirty and the buttons at the top of her white shirt were undone - not professional, Chris concluded.
The other annoying thing about her was the loud way she was chewing a gum when he came in, which she removed and pressed it under her desk before smiling at him.
'Smile curtly, tuck your hair in, don't chew gum at work, button your shirt and sit up with your chin up!' No - no, scratch that; of course not, that's not what he said, he couldn't blow his cool guy personality so fast and give up to his friends. It couldn't be so hard to do the ridiculous dare for twenty four hours; twenty hours now.
Still smiling he started, "Hi good morning, I want to get some casual clothes, probably a simple shirt and blue jean pants, something casual - not too formal."
"You're very welcome sir. We're glad to have you here. Uhhh... The lady over there would show you round and give you the best advice on what to buy and what not."
"Thank you so much... Love." Chris replied, the last word made him feel like he just burnt his tongue, but if he was doing this dare it had to be excellent.
Just as he turned, he met the lady who was to be the shop guide, right behind - Geez! When did she even get there?
As if oblivious of how creepy that was, the lady started yapping with some clothes in hangers between her fingers, "Hi, you're welcome to Glams clothe store, if you wouldn't mind, allow me to just hang these clothes in the female section and I'll be with you in a jiffy. You could also go through these clothes..." she said, pointing to the clothes that she carried, "...you just might find one for your beautiful girlfriend." She added with a wink and flipped her hair back.
"Oh..." Chris said with a small laugh, "no I wouldn't be needing that."
"Why is that?" She fired immediately with a faked look of concern. "You don't have a girlfriend?" She asked again with a small pout - a very obvious attempt at flirting. Her short blonde hair was not long enough, she would probably have done a twirl with it, but she had great teeth anyway so she flashed them at him instead as she batted her eyelashes.
"No, I don't." Chris smiled back.
"You don't? That's absurd for someone like you."
"It is? I've been thinking so too lately."
"You have?...", a small pause, "...Great!" She said and did a small victory smile before heading towards the female section to hang the clothes.
Chris closed his eyes for a second as he sighed and gritted his teeth. Patience - patience Chris, it's only a dare and it's over in twenty four hours - twenty hours now, he told himself and readjusted his tie while waiting for the shop guide; whose name he was not curious about.
Kyle's eyebrows creased in confusion as he watched his boss. Did he hit his head? Kyle wondered. Or... Did he develop a bipolar disorder? No way! He was fine the day before, he was fine this morning too! He watched him closely as he spoke to the lady without giving her the death glare or the murder tone, especially when she was flirting so shamelessly with him - he hated that. Chris was not essentially a murderer but he killed people a lot with two things - his eyes and words.
In a minute she was back to guide them and she was looking more - her lips were not that red before, were they? Kyle wondered, he looked back at Chris who was smiling so cheerily at her and wondered if he noticed the difference or if he... No not that, he couldn't... Could he? Because he was SMILING at her! He never even smiled at his workers! Was he perhaps smitten by her?
She swayed her hips so energetically under the fitted back skirt with withe stripes till they threatened to desert her as she walked towards them, "What kind of wear do you have in mind?" A never ending smile was pasted on her lips as she stood so close to Chris, the longing in her eyes were unmistakable - like an eager child waiting to have a cookie.
Without thinking Kyle started to respond as the personal assistant, "we're looking to get a..." but was cut off by Chris who placed a hand so lovingly on his shoulder and smiled.
"Oh, don't worry Kyle, I've got this covered. You can retire for the day." Chris said with a smile.
For Kyle, that was - that was the height of it! He didn't know which he feared more now, Chris' glare or the smile. It was hard to keep up with this development, or... Was he testing him? Of course he had to be testing him, probably testing him so he could fail and hire another personal assistant.
"No sir, I insist. I have nothing lined up for today, I enjoy following you around." Kyle thought he saw the shop guide flash him a menacing glare for a second when he said that but he was probably mistaken.
Gritting his teeth, Chris turned to Kyle fully and threatened with a smile, "are you saying I can't go around on my own?"
Now this was more like his boss, but he was still smiling. Stop smiling, you're confusing me! Kyle screamed in his head. "I'll - I'll be in the car sir." He said finally and retreated like a dog with his tail between his legs.
Lillian almost gave a yelp of joy as pieces of her fantasy started coming together, he told his assistant to leave because he wanted to be alone with her, that also meant that he was attracted to her! Oh she couldn't contain her excitement, her life was finally coming together. She composed herself anyway and cleared her throat to get his attention again, the clothes were not so important at the moment, all she wanted was for his gaze to keep sweeping over her and finally stay on her. Urrghh, now she wished she had worn the red dress to work.
"Yes please..." Chris continued still smiling, "...sorry about that. I was looking to get a casual wear, a casual shirt, blue jean pants."
"Right this..." Lillian started and was cut off by a rude interruption from the manager who was walking towards them with a lady.
"Lillian, she's here for an interview, she would be following you as you show him around and have her interview right after." The manager said and gave Iris a small nudge on the back to join Lillian.
"Yes sir." Lillian said with a reluctant smile as iris walked up to them all smiles with her innocent, cute dimples. Turning to Iris she said, "follow me and take notes if you can, I would not be going over my words twice."
Chris watched the exchange between the two ladies and analysed it. Lillian was the bully, if this other lady (whose name he didn't know) was not careful, she would be the bullied newbie, and that was just fine because - he hated bullies. Now this was getting interesting, somehow, he was starting to love the cool guy role he had to play; either he was getting into the role or the role was getting into him, whichever way - he loved it. As far as he knew, cool guys had to protect the good people from bullies; which he hated. Perhaps this dare was not so ridiculous after all as he was already looking forward to the twists that would follow.
His first mission in the oh - not - so - ridiculous - dare.