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Louis rides the escalator, looking down upon Nicole playing the piano below in the center of the store. He always uses this time before his shift starts to pretend he’s just here to shop in the elegant, high end department store that he works at after his classes a few days a week. He surveys the grandly decorated atrium and the lush fabrics and sparkling crystal.
His bubble bursts as soon as he rises far up enough to spot Liam in the men’s shoe department tapping his watch at him. He rolls his eyes. If he’s late, it’s only by thirty seconds. He heads to the men’s apparel department that adjoins men’s shoes and finds Steve laying across the counter.
“Steven, this is a high class establishment.”
Steve turns his face towards Louis, his face squelching on the surface of the counter. “Oh thank god, I almost died of boredom. Slow day, man.”
Louis sighs as he watches Steve peel himself off the counter and scurry away. Great. He hates being bored. He glances around the department and sees that literally nothing is out of place. Steve must really have been bored to have done this much work today.
He lasts about twenty minutes before he walks towards the invisible line between men’s apparel and men’s shoes. “Liam.”
Liam ignores him and continues his rearrangement of a shoe display.
“Liam!” He says a little louder.
Liam continues to ignore him. He can’t stand to be ignored.
He stands on top of the small raised platform that awaits a new display that hasn’t arrived yet at the edge of his department. “LIAM! LOAM! LIMA BEAN! LEE-MO!”
“Shhhh!” Liam hurries over. “What is it, Louis?”
“I’m bored.”
“Well, I have work to do. I can’t just stand around entertaining you during our shifts.”
Liam always says this, but then spends half his shift shooting the shit with him. “Liam, I’m having a personal crisis.”
“When aren’t you having a personal crisis?” Liam snorts.
Louis glares at him. “It’s almost Valentine’s Day.”
“And?”
“ And I don’t have a boyfriend, Liam! I’m going to die alone! Or worse, I’ll have to go to Niall’s Valentine’s Day party--again.”
“I hear that party is fun though. You always have a good time.”
“ You wouldn’t know. You never have to go to Niall’s lame party for single people.”
Liam smiles his goofy, heart-eye smile as he stares across the store in the direction of the housewares department. “True. I do not.”
Louis follows his look straight to Liam’s boyfriend who is currently carefully arranging a display of Waterford crystal. He resists the urge to scream, “Zayn!” He doesn’t want to be held responsible for destroying expensive breakable objects.
A customer wanders into men’s shoes, and Liam shifts into employee of the month mode. Liam will be lost to him until the customer is gone. Louis looks around his own department briefly and sees no sign of life.
He continues to stand on the raised platform for a while and stares out across the departments on the second floor, surveying his kingdom, when he feels someone or something tug on the sleeve of his blazer.
“What the fuck?” He yelps and nearly falls off the platform as he sees a man jump back from him in horror, his mouth in a perfect ‘O’ of surprise before he lets out a piercing shriek.
Louis cringes at the sound.
The man sucks in a huge breath, and Louis is afraid he’s going to hear another god awful sound come out of his mouth, but instead it’s a string of words.
“I’msosorryIthoughtyouwereamannequin!”
“What?” He asks, mystified.
“I’m so sorry,” the man repeats. He looks embarrassed beyond belief. “I thought you were a mannequin!”
“I--what? A mannequin? What the--”
“How was I supposed to know? No one actually has cheekbones like that!”
This man is clearly insane. Hot, but insane. “Well--I do actually have cheekbones like this.”
“I’m sorry,” the man says, stricken.
Louis stares at him for a moment. He’s quite good looking with lovely brown curls and a handsome face and long, lean legs.
Suddenly, the man turns on the heel of his boots and makes a break for it towards the escalator. Louis has the bizarre thought as he watches him run away that he runs like an escaped giraffe dodging the circular racks of clothing.
He turns back towards men’s shoes and finds that Liam has finished ringing up his customer and is currently doubled over with laughter.
“Did a hot guy just feel my sleeve and think I was a mannequin?”
“Yes,” Liam wheezes.
Well, at least he can say this shift wasn’t totally boring. “That’s what I thought just happened.”
“He said--cheekbones--” Liam bursts into a fresh round of laughter.
“Well, in his defense, my cheekbones are rather spectacular,” Louis huffs.
“Mmhmm,” Liam says, wiping away tears.
Louis looks towards the escalator where he last saw the guy leaping down the moving steps. “He was really cute. Wish he’d stuck around.”
“Hoping he’d feel you up some more? You really do need a date.”
“Fuck off.”
“You know, he looked familiar though.”
“He did? From where?”
“I dunno. Maybe one of Niall’s friends.”
“Well, that really narrows it down. He’s friends with half the campus.”
“At least,” Liam muses.
Two days later, Louis makes his way back to men’s apparel after his last class. He waves to Zayn and says hello to Liam before he finds Steve with a small line waiting to purchase. He immediately opens up another register, and they quickly ring them all up.
“I have Thursday off this week. See you at Niall’s on Friday?”
Louis sighs. “Yeah. Unless I somehow manage to fall in love between now and then.”
Steve fist bumps him. “That’s the spirit. See ya Friday.”
It’s not as dead as it was on Monday, so he’s kept busy for at least part of his shift. He bends down to pick up the stapler that he’s just accidentally knocked to the ground behind the register, and when he looks back up, it’s to the sight of an enormous bouquet of pink roses hiding the face of whoever is in front of him.
“Uh--hello?”
“Hi,” says a muffled voice.
“Can I help you?” He asks the bouquet of flowers.
“These are for you.” The flowers are thrust into his arms, and now he can see the face of the man who felt him up the other day. Well, felt his sleeve anyway. It’s been a while since he’s been felt up though. “I just wanted to say sorry again for--uh--thinking you were a mannequin. Er--and so um--sorry. Again. And I got you these roses, too. To say sorry.”
“Oh.” Louis honestly doesn’t know what to say. What does one say to a man who thinks you’re a mannequin and then brings you flowers? “Thank you?”
“You’re welcome. I mean, I’m sorry.” The man’s face turns blotchy and red and then before Louis can say anything else, he’s turning on the heel of his boot again and giraffing towards the escalator.
Louis looks bemusedly in Liam’s direction. He’s cry laughing again.
Great. Louis’ life is one big joke. What the fuck is he going to do with this enormous bouquet of roses in the middle of his shift?
Zayn walks over from housewares with a crystal vase. “Here. It’s chipped, so we can’t sell it.”
He puts the flowers in the vase. He’ll put water in it on his break. What even is his life right now?
“Hi, Niall,” he says dispiritedly at the front door of Niall’s frat house. “I’m here--again--for the third year in a row. Like a loser.”
“Hey, man. No losers here. I’ve been hosting this thing for three years in a row, too, you know.”
“Yeah, I know. My point stands.”
Niall throws a fake punch. Louis lunges at him, and Niall jumps back.
“Well, maybe you’ll hook up with someone tonight, Tommo. You look like you’re trying.”
“Shut up. I always look this pretty. Even got mistaken for a mannequin this week at work.”
“Holy shit! Oh my god. Oh god. Okay. Hold on. Just--stay. Stay right here.”
“You better be going to get me a drink, Nialler!” He calls after Niall’s retreating figure. He has no idea what’s going on, but he often doesn’t understand Niall’s actions so it’s not an unusual occurrence.
He stays put though just to survey the crowd a bit. He sees someone from his literature class and is about to go say hi when he nearly collides with a tall person that is being thrust in front of him by Niall. He looks up a bit and sees the red face of his flower bearing, giraffe running, customer.
“It’s you!”
“Hi,” the man says miserably. He’s apparently none too happy to see Louis again. Their ill fated romance was very short lived in Louis’ mind. What a shame.
He’s not sure why Niall has just pushed him in front of his face, but he figures he’ll try his best to make this less awkward. “Liam thought you looked familiar.”
“Who’s Liam?”
Damn, this guy’s voice is deep. “Liam’s in men’s shoes. It’s right next to men’s apparel. He saw what--er--happened.”
“Oh, god. I’m so sorry, really s--”
“Please stop saying sorry--whoever you are.”
“Harry,” Niall pipes up. “His name is Harry.”
“Okay, Harry, please stop saying sorry, or I’m gonna scream.”
“He means that,” Niall adds.
“Can I say sorry for saying sorry so much?” Harry asks.
“No,” Louis and Niall say together.
“Can I say sorry about the flowers making things even more awkward?” Harry asks.
“No,” Louis and Niall say together.
“Well, can I get you a drink--whoever you are?”
“Louis, his name is Louis,” Niall interrupts.
“Louis,” Harry repeats with a sideways smile. “Would you like to go get a drink and get away from Niall?”
“Hey!” Niall says.
Louis smiles. “Absolutely.”