I followed him to the parking lot, slipping into the passenger seat of his black Mercedes.
“Nice ride,” I said.
It was much nicer than my fifteen-year-old Corolla, although that car was paid off and ran like a dream, so I had no complaints.
“I really would have been fine by myself,” I told him as he backed out of the parking spot.
Reed spared me a glance. “I got the sense April really wanted me to go with you,” he replied.
“Clearly.”
“Well partner, let’s head to the mall and save this wedding.”
Reed
Erika was mostly quietas we drove to the mall, but I’d already seen that she wasn’t much of a talker. It was a pleasant change from the women I usually dated, who tended to jabber on and fill any silence.
I focused on the road as I replayed that kiss in my head about a hundred times. I’d never felt such an intense attraction to someone before. It would be scary if it didn’t feel so right.
We got to the mall, and I started looking for a parking spot. Like every mall in America, it was a huge, sprawling building surrounded by about a million parking spots, none of which were free.
“Try not to run anyone over,” Erika teased, breaking her long silence as I finally found a spot after several minutes of circling around.
“Har har, very funny,” I said as I carefully parked in an open spot.
We headed into the mall, checking out the sign to figure out where Sephora was. After locating the store on the map, we walked in companionable silence, both of us people watching in the crowded mall. It was Labor Day weekend, and the weather was beautiful, yet half the people in Virginia were at this mall it seemed.
“This is the place,” Erika said, stopping in front of a store halfway across the mall.
I followed her inside, looking around. “There’s a whole store just for make-up?” I asked incredulously.
“No, they sell hair products and lotion here too.”
I laughed. I was the only man in the store and received a few weird looks as I followed Erika to one of the many lipstick displays.
“What are we looking for?” I asked as I looked around.
“Hibiscus lipstick.”
“Is it flavored lipstick?” I asked.
Erika giggled. “No, that’s the name of the lipstick shade. It’ll be a dark pink, like hibiscus flowers.”
“Like this?” I asked a few minutes later, holding up a tube of lipstick that looked dark pink.