John ignored the prowling packs of scantily clad teenage girls as they laughed and giggled. John ignored the solitary seniors as they sat on benches and stared off emptily into space. John ignored the stressed moms pushing squeaking carriages of fussing and crying babies. John ignored the whining spoiled children trying to wear down their harassed parent’s resistance to buying them yet another of the latest toys.
John hustled through the mall as quickly as possible. He hated the mall and its disturbingly eclectic cross-section of humanity. He tried to avoid the mall but there were times it was necessary to subject oneself to its sensory abuses.
John ignored the loud aggressive sales people as they told him he couldn’t live without whatever they were hawking. John ignored the indifferent food vendors who piled the same unhealthy garbage onto Styrofoam plates date after day. John ignored the annoying electronic beeping and farting that came from the arcade games that were tucked into every corner.
John was here for one purpose and one purpose only. There was only one fabric shop in town that could get him three inch wide rolls of 100% Egyptian cotton gauze strips. The shop was here in the heart of suburban hell. John’s latest lady is a woman of Gothic penchants and while she was hanging upside down from the rafters of an old abandoned barn where John often took his “dates” she had expressed an interest in being mummified on their next outing.
John’s tunnel vision was working well and his intended destination wasn’t much farther but then there was an incursion into his space that couldn’t be ignored. At first it merited only a cursory examination which he intended to discretely accomplish as he passed by. But the object of his attention had other plans.
She stood in front of a store where young women buy flashy clothes that scream “look at me”. The first anomaly that John noted was that she wasn’t young. He estimated that she was about the same vintage as he was. The second thing he noticed was that she rather decisively sent the condescending salesgirl scampering away to a safe distance with a barrage of verbal derision that showed an excellent command of the English language including numerous obscure profanities.
She had flaming red hair that appeared to be natural, no grey roots, or roots of any other color for that matter. Her pale skin made the hair look that much more intense. A scattering of reddish freckles tumbled down her neck from under her hair and dashed over her bare shoulders and down her back disappearing enticingly into the low scooped back of her white tank top.
Running parallel to the white spaghetti straps of her top were cherry red bra straps.
She held up two blouses from the sale rack, one royal blue and the other firetruck red. She looked from one to the other and then back again. She held each against her as she studied them in the mirror. John liked what he saw. She had a sort of outrageous charm with her flaming hair and youthful wardrobe. The tank top bared her shoulders and hugged her waist while revealing much of the speckled back.
She had a pair of denim shorts on that stopped fitting properly when she was one size smaller but somehow determination and perseverance got them on and her ass looked amazing. The shorts were held up by a wide red leather belt that sat low on her hips. Her long shapely legs terminated with a pair of red high heeled pumps, a fashion faux pas that could be forgiven in this case because they were damned sexy.
John slowed his pace just ever so slightly to take in all of her diverse charms hoping to catch a glimpse of her face in the mirror to see if she was as uniquely attractive as what he had observed so far. Their eyes met in the looking glass.
She wheeled around instantly on him and being plainly guilty of inappropriate conduct John prepared for her wrath.
‘What looks better’ she asked as she thrust the blouses towards him. ‘This one’ as she held the blue in front of her ‘or this one?’ as she switched to the red.
John instantly processed a few Giga-bits of information faster than any super computer could. She wasn’t angry, she wanted an opinion. She requested fashion advice which wasn’t his strong suit. He knew that he had to offer a judgement that was hopefully sensible. All of this was deliberated while he simultaneously finished his evaluation of her.
She was incredibly pretty with pale blue eyes, a cute nose, full ruby lips and high cheek bones that belonged to a super model. A starry sky of tiny rust colored freckles was strewn across her face. The freckles grew progressively larger as they advanced down her throat and deep into the spectacular cleavage that separated her magnificent breasts.
‘The red one competes with your hair’ he said confidently ‘while the blue one compliments it. Of course neither will go with those shorts, you would need to get black shorts for the red top or white shorts for the blue. Either way the red shoes can stay.’
John then, deliberately having given her a lot to digest, quickly moved on. He didn’t want to give her an opportunity to call him to account for his indiscreet evaluation of her.
‘Thanks honey’ she called out to him ‘I’ll consider what you said.’
As John continued on he took a moment to have one last glance at the siren who had distracted him. He stopped in front of a shop that sold various embellishments of home decor and used a gaudy mirror that was on display to take a clandestine look back. Both blouses hung on the rack and a flashy pair of crimson high heels were coming his way.
As she closed in on him he read the subtle signals that she was unconsciously sending. A raking of long fingers through her hair, a tug at the hem of her blouse, a smoothing of the wrinkled skirt, a quick glimpse at her reflection in a window to confirm that all was presentable. She was on the hunt and he appeared to be her quarry.
John couldn’t imagine falling victim to a more interesting predator but it would have to be on his terms and first he would have to confirm the conviction of her intentions. He moved on at a quick pace, one that would be challenging for someone teetering on stilettos. At the hardware store he made a sudden turn and entered.
He advanced down the gardening aisle and at the far end he paused to look at the fertilizers. From the corner of his eye he saw her appear at the other end of the aisle. She hesitated for a moment to establish her target and then began to pursue.
John allowed her three steps towards him and then moved to the next aisle. She reversed, backtracked and then set a new course. When she appeared he moved again, she countered. At the third aisle John correctly anticipated her next tactic. When he moved this time to the fourth aisle she had recognized a pattern to his browsing and continued past to set an ambush in the fifth. He knew that when he advanced again she would be waiting and to appear casual she would be examining the products of that department pretending to be shopping.
He listened to the click-click-click of her heels until it came to a stop. He gave her a moment to establish her pretense. He made his move.
She stood exactly where he had predicted she would be and was doing what he had anticipated she would be doing. He had led her to the aisle with ropes, chains and miscellaneous fasteners. In her hand she held one end of a bright red rope that hung from a large roll on the dispensing rack.
He ignored her and began to examine a roll of blue cord.
‘Do you know much about rope?’ she asked ‘I’m not sure if this one is suitable.’
‘I know a lot about rope, it’s one of my hobbies’ he replied ‘it just depends on what you intend to use it for.’
She hesitated to respond. She hadn’t expected an interrogation and had no reasonable answer. John sensed her quandary and he pressed on.
‘This blue cord is natural hemp and it holds a knot better than that synthetic that you have’ he explained ‘if I were to tie you up this would be my choice but that’s not to say that we couldn’t expect a satisfactory result from the one that you prefer.’
She was speechless, which was the desired effect that John had been hoping to achieve. Now that her quest had been stymied he intended to turn the predator into the prey. John was interested in one thing and one thing only and he hit her with it right up front. She could fall into his clutches or she could turn and run.
‘Which do you think we should try?’ he asked.
She knew she had been out maneuvered and coyly said ‘You know that I have a preference for the red, why would you even ask?’
‘Ladies choice it is, we’ll buy the red’ he told her ‘by the way my name is John.’
‘My name is Scarlett’ she replied with a grin.
‘Of course it is’ he laughed ‘what else would it be?’