Hidden Love by MINK

5

Layla

The handsome man who claims his name is Kent follows me up and down each aisle watching my every move as I go. He never takes his eyes off me. I can feel his stare even when I’m turned away from him. He’s making it really hard for me to concentrate. How am I supposed to get the best bargains with this gigantic distraction following me around? I peek over my shoulder at him.

He’s still holding the basket I grabbed when we walked in. He’d insisted on carrying it for me.

He’s not looking at anything on the shelves. Nope. His eyes are trained only on me.

“Are you looking at my ass?” I’ve heard people say men like women's butts in yoga pants, but I never gave much thought to what mine looks like in a pair before. I try to look but only turn in a half circle, realizing I’ll need a mirror for this.

“Where do you keep your weapons wearing such tight pants?” There he goes again saying weird stuff. He has the weirdest way of phrasing things.

“I wouldn’t call my fabric scissors weapons, necessarily.” I give him a funny look. This must be his downfall for being so handsome. He’s not all there upstairs. “I leave them at home.”

“Can you move?” a woman snips at me.

I jump out of her way as she grabs a bolt of ugly orange fabric off the shelf. Because she’s rude, I keep my mouth shut and don’t bother telling her that the satiny stuff she picked is impossible to work with. I get it. We all have stuff to get and the sale is only today and while supplies last, but sheesh. Still, there’s no need to be rude.

Kent snatches the fabric right out of the woman’s hand. Oh shit. Maybe he does mean business about this fabric. I guess he really is into getting a bargain.

“Give that back!” the dark haired woman snaps at him.

He doesn’t bother to look down at her. He dangles the bolt at a height she can’t reach. He keeps his gaze on me. “Did you want this, kitten?”

“No. It’s not only the color of Cheetos vomit, but the fabric is unworkable.”

He goes to hand it back to the woman, but she doesn’t take it. Her insistence on having it has suddenly subsided.

“Never mind,” she snips again, stomping off. Kent tosses it back on the shelf.

“You can’t grab things from people.” I try on a scolding tone.

He shrugs like What are they going to do about it? He has a point. He’s huge, and someone would have to be an idiot to mess with him.

His blue eyes seem to pierce right through me. “You can’t let people be rude to you.”

“Wait! Don’t change the subject. You were looking at my ass.” I cross my arms over my chest.

“You changed the subject,” he points out.

I had. Damn it. I want to stomp my foot, but I don’t.

“Don’t you need your own basket?” Mine is still empty. Gah! He’s distracting me.

“I haven’t seen anything that’s caught my eye.”

“I beg to differ because your eyes were on my ass.” Ha! I got him with that one. I’d high-five someone if they were around, but it’s only the two of us.

“Let me rephrase. I haven’t seen anything I can use the coupon on.”

I stand there staring at him for a second. Does he mean me? He has to mean me, right? I thought he was going to kiss me in the car. Then he didn’t. I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit that I’d wanted him to. There’s something that’s pulling me to him. He’s a strange bird, but I find myself wanting to spend time with him. And he hasn’t serial killed me yet, so there’s that.

“You have no idea what I’d do for a good coupon.” I try to sound sassy like Gia would, but I’m not sure it comes out right.

He smiles down at me. I think he’s trying to fight a laugh. I turn and wander off. I tell myself I will not give my ass an extra wiggle, but I do.

I pull out my phone, double-checking my orders as I finally get down to what I came here for. I need to make sure I get everything that I need.

Kent follows me around and piles each bolt of fabric into his thick arms as if they weigh nothing. This is why I didn’t get a cart. I knew that I’d end up buying more than I could afford. But he seems to be able to hold even more than a cart, which is going to hurt when I get to the checkout. Sure, in the long haul it’s a good deal because everything is discounted, but I just don’t have that kind of extra money lying around. I need to stick to my budget.

“You don’t need anything?” I lift my eyebrow in question. He’d claimed he needed some things from this store, yet he hasn’t chosen one bolt of fabric for himself.

“I didn’t say that.” He puts my high pile of bolts down onto the back counter where the store employees cut it into yards.

While I get busy placing my cutting orders, his eyes dart around the store like he’s scoping the place out. He disappears down an aisle, and when I’m almost finished collecting my pile of fabric along with the price tickets, he comes back to me. With an easy scoop, he grabs all my fabrics and ushers me to one of the checkout lines.

“Do you have a rewards card with us?” The girl at checkout twirls a piece of her hair around her finger while smiling at Kent.

“Nope.” He continues unloading the basket.

“How about you give me your phone number?” She bats her lashes at him. “To sign you up for a rewards card.”

I think I let out an audible gasp at the audacity of this girl, causing her to look at me.

“I have a card.”

“Fine.” She turns to me, the smile gone.

“We’re together,” I say before I realize how it sounds. “I mean--“

“You heard her. We’re together.” Kent winks down at me. You could knock me over with a feather. “Give her your card, kitten.”

“Did you call me kitten?” I whisper.

“He did.” The cashier rolls her eyes and holds her hand out for my card. I dig it out of my purse and pass it to her. I watch as she rings up everything, and I’m completely unable to look back at Kent even though I can feel him staring right at me. He hovers over me like a giant, and I can’t say I mind it one bit.

“Cash or card?” she asks.

I pull out my phone for her to scan my coupon, especially seeing my bill is a smidge under two hundred bucks. I know as soon as she scans my phone that the discount will slice it in half, maybe even more. I shouldn’t get so excited about a coupon, but I can’t help myself.

“That doesn't start until tomorrow.” She smirks at me. I turn it around to look down at the date.

“Oh.” My shoulders drop. “Oh, no.”

I jump when Kent smacks down the two hundred dollars.

“I got it, kitten.”

“But-“ I stop talking when he wraps his arm around my shoulder and uses his other to grab the bags. He doesn’t wait for the change, and instead, guides me out of the store and toward my car.

“You can’t pay for my stuff.”

“I already did.” He opens my passenger side door. In a daze, I get in. He goes around and stuffs his giant self into the driver's seat. He holds his hand out, clearly waiting for me to give him the keys.

“You didn’t have to do that.” I hand them over.

My car starts without any trouble this time.

“You’re really good at your job.” He shakes his head as he pulls out of the parking lot.

“You’ve never even seen one of my stuffies.” How would he know if they’re good or not? I guess I did get some really good stuff, so maybe that spoke for itself?

“Stop!” I scream.

Kent slams on the brakes. The seatbelt keeps me from flying forward. “I need to go to that pet store.” I point to Pet Heaven. We almost passed it. I cannot go back home after slipping out on Paisley without a special surprise.

He looks at me like I’m crazy.

“I can’t go home empty-handed. Paisley will give me the cold shoulder all day. Trust me. You don’t want his stink eye.”

“I know,” I think he mumbles as he turns into the parking lot.