Here Comes Your Man

8:07 The clock on Pyper’s dashboard read as she sped into the store’s parking lot, flinging sand a few feet as she threw the jeep into park.

She was 7 minutes late thanks to some tourists driving 5 miles per hour along the main road.

Of course sitting in front of Dane’s house wondering if she should stop by to say ‘good morning‘ for 10 minutes, until finally deciding that that would seem creepy, probably didn’t help either.

Though she new Russell wouldn’t care, let alone even notice, she still felt guilty as she walked through the doors, causing the little wind chime above the door to ring alerting him of her presence.

“Russell?” She called out as she made her way to the register where she threw down her bag. “Russell?”

It was quiet for a moment until she heard a crash and then a lengthy string of curse words coming from the back room.

She quickly made her way to the back as the curses got louder.
“Dammit, piece of shit, mother f….”

She reached the door, almost afraid of what she would find behind it.
“Russell?” She asked again as she pushed it open and stepped inside, only to feel something floppy and slimy beneath her feet. “Ahhh!” She screamed as she jumped back onto the stairs and finally let her eyes take in the scene before her.

There were fish.

Hundreds of live fish flopping around on the ground in the basement, while Russell laid in the middle of them, getting hit from all sides by random fins flying all around him.

“What happened?!” Pyper yelled, though she was pretty sure she already knew thanks to the random planks of wood floating around.

“The damn crate broke!” Russell replied, “I was just unloading the truck, tripped over a stupid box, dropped the crate and bam! Fish bonanza!”

“Gah!” Pyper said exasperated, “This is the thirdtime this has happened and you know it takes forever to get the smell out! I thought we decided you wouldn’t bring your morning catch here again!”

Pyper looked at the grown man lying on the ground, surrounded by fish and couldn’t help it anymore; she busted out laughing at the ridiculousness of it all.

“Oh, you shut up!” Russell griped as he picked his soaking body up from the floor. “Aren’t I paying you to be working and not just standing around?”

Pyper rolled her eyes and continued laughing as she shut the door and headed back out front.
Russell was a character. At the respectable age of 55, he was probably more in shape then a lot of the 20 year olds Pyper knew, thanks to surfing every day. He had been an accountant in Chicago until his mid-thirties when his firm took a corporate trip to Hawaii. There he picked up surfing, lost the suit & tie getup, and found true happiness on the waves. Vowing to stay here forever, he quit his job and waved goodbye to his colleagues as they got back on the plane to the states. He met the love of his life two weeks later and opened this little surf shop two years after that. He had longish blonde hair and a perpetual 5 o’clock shadow He was one of those turtle-like men, hard on the outside but gooey & warm on the inside. Though he had trouble expressing it, he loved Pyper like a daughter and was one of the only permanent male fixtures in her life.

Three hours later, he came into the shop smelling like fish and sweat.

“Ugh” Pyper groaned, plugging her nose “You seriously need to go home and change”

As he was about to protest, he caught a whiff of himself and changed his mind.
“I think you might be right about this one. You got it covered here by yourself?”

Pyper looked around the store which held one customer; a young boy playing with the surf wax.

“Yep. I think I got it”

Russell laughed and walked out the door. As Pyper continued to re-stock the wetsuits, he cell phone started to vibrate loudly on the counter.
Reagan

“Hello?”

“Hey Pype, it’s me. Just calling to make sure you don’t forget about that dinner thing tonight. Dane really wants us to go”

“Yeah, cool. Oh, but I might be a little late. I gotta close up tonight”

“Ok, cool. I’ll meet you there then. 6 o’clock. Word around town is there are a few cute new boys going to be there”

“And you would heat those words, wouldn’t you?” Pyper teased.

Reagan ignored her, “Ok love, see ya there!”

“Bye”

Pyper sighed. Only 6 more hours to go….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pyper walked into the restaurant 15 minutes late. When she entered through the doors she was immediately ushered to the back room where she saw her friends sitting, talking, and laughing at a long narrow table. She spotted Dane and went over to him, giving him a hug.

“Pyper! You made it!” Dane smiled as he returned the hug.

“Of course! Where should I sit?”

Dane’s eyes scanned the table for an appropriate available seat.
Next to Lenny?...Definitely not; smells like old bananas & wet dog
Ryan? Nice guy but super boring
Shaun? …yes

“How ‘bout next to Shaun?”

Pyper scanned the table and looked back at Dane with a blank look. She had no idea who
‘Shaun’ was.

“Oh, oops. He’s the red-head, down at the end” She looked back up, this time with a target in mind. She smiled as she recognized him.

“Later Dane” She said as she gave his shoulder a loving squeeze and headed to the end of the table.

Shaun took a sip of his drink and almost spit it out when he saw the female figure headed his direction.

It was her, in the flesh. Walking towards him.

Don’t eff this up ShaunHe thought as he set his drink back on the table. He didn’t want a reply of last time. Tonight he was gonna be smooth.

“This seat taken?”

Ok, this is it. Play it cool

“Now it is”

Pyper smiled, “thanks”

What the hell, Shaun?! ‘Now it is?’ who says that anymore?! In fact, whoever said that?! Ugh, tonight’s going to be a long night…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pyper and Shaun had been sitting next to each other for approximately 3 hours and she had loved every minute of it. She didn’t know conversations could come this easily with someone you just met and it didn’t hurt that the ‘someone’ in question was extremely handsome too. Shaun was so interesting and she loved hearing about all his adventures, but this new found information about him never surfing was truly alarming.

“I cannot believe you’ve never been surfing!” Pyper gasped, seeming to be truly appalled by the thought.

Shaun gawked at her, “I could say the same for you! Psh, never seeing snow before? Did no one love you as a child?” He joked, causing them both to laugh.

“That’s totally different” Pyper stubbornly replied.

“What? How?! Please enlighten me” Shaun said as he crossed his arms over his chest and made a ‘take-it-away’ gesture with his hand.

Pyper smiled. She was never one to turn down a challenge.

“Well for starters, there is ocean, like everywhere. Water surrounds every continent on earth, and yeah some countries are landlocked, but the farthest inhabited place from an ocean is only about 2,000 miles. Which, let’s say you were traveling 80 mph, would take you approximately 25 hrs to get to the closest beach.”

Shaun just stared at her. Half amazed, half freaked out by this amazing girl in front of him.

“Plus, snow is a rare commodity. It only comes around certain times of the year and even then, it’s pretty bi-polar. The ocean would not melt from one hot day; snow would, therefore the ocean is superior” Pyper concluded her very questionable argument with a satisfied ‘hmph’ and a sip of her diet coke as she looked at Shaun for a rebuttal.

He took a deep breath and Pyper prepared herself for what was for sure going to be some great comeback.

“Touché”
The both busted out laughing at Shaun’s response and after a few minutes they both started to settle down.

“Oh man, that was good” Pyper admitted, as she gently touched Shaun’s shoulder, causing his attention to immediately be drawn to the part of his body that had just been graced by her soft, warm hand. He wondered if he was the only one who felt the spark.

“But seriously” Pyper continued “Let’s go surfing. I’ll give you a private lesson myself”

Um, hell yes! Shaun thought inwardly but outwardly he paused, acting as though he had to think about it even though there was not a single hesitation in his mind…he just didn’t want to seem to desperate.

“Yeah, that’d be cool”

“Ok sweet” Pyper smiled, “Just stop by the shop sometime”

Shaun nodded, a little disappointed that it wasn’t a set date, but he couldn’t complain; it was a start.

Across the table Reagan sighed and rolled her eyes. She had come to this stupid thing with expectations of cute boys, drinks, and dancing. So far there had been none of the above…at least not for her.

Next to her, Louie sat fidgeting. He didn’t usually have a problem talking with girls but this girl was a completely new species to him.

“Want to go play ski ball?” He asked her, nodding casually towards the ancient machine in the corner.

Reagan just looked at him and his cheeks immediately began to redden. A girl like Reagan would never want to play a stupid arcade game. What the hell had he been thinking?

“I would LOVE THAT!” Reagan giggled as she jumped out of her chair, grabbing Louie’s hand and pulling him along with her. “Gosh, I haven’t played ski ball in so long! I used to love it…” Her voice trailed off as they got closer to the machine, leaving a stunned looking Pyper watching them go.

Shaun glanced over at her, noticing the astonished look on her face.

“Something wrong?”

Hell yeah something’s wrong Pyper thought
Since when did they become these girls? Reagan going to play arcade games with a guy who’s main staple of clothing was a beanie, when she usually only went for guys who wore Armani?! Or herself, flirting with a guy who was definitely out of her spectrum in every way possible?!

They were getting in too deep.

“I gotta go. Nice to meet you Shaun” She said as she as she grabbed her bag and scooted back her chair.

“Wait, what?” Shaun asked, completely thrown off by her change of attitude.

Had he done something wrong? Did he offend her about the surfing thing? Did he have something in his teeth?

No, to the last one’ he thought as he quickly checked his teeth in his spoon before getting up to follow Pyper.

He caught up to her by the entrance.

“Hey, did I do something wrong?” He asked, and she hated to admit it but her heart fluttered about at his obvious concern.

“No, I just got to go to work early tomorrow. It’s getting kinda late” She said lamely, as she glanced at the clock on the wall.

10:00. Dangit. There goes that excuse.

“Oh okay” Shaun said, disappointment evident in his voice. “Maybe I’ll stop by tomorrow for that surfing lesson then.”

“Yeah, maybe”

“K, well bye then” He said as he gave her a half-hearted wave and turned around to go back inside.

What are you doing Pyper?! Her conscience yelled as she stood and watched his retreating form. Once he was gone, she shook her head to get rid of her conflicting thoughts. I’m protecting myself. You’ll thank me for this one day Pyper responded to her inner critic as she spun around and headed to her car.

Though this may have satisfied her brain, her heart needed some more convincing….