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02| wes carter

"Thanks again for letting me take over the shop Dad. I know it's only temporary but this has been a dream of mine." I exclaim. Dad's new girlfriend has been begging him to take them on a trip through Europe for months and he finally caved.

He agreed to give me the keys to the shop until August as long as TJ worked with me. Thankfully it wasn't hard to convince TJ because that kid will do anything for some extra cash.

"Don't mention it Wesley, listen I gotta go, Claire wont shut up about some boat tour she saw on Instagram-" He continues but my attention immediately turns to the group that just walked in. Though, I am supposed to be attentive to any person walking in the shop, my eye immediately catches the short brunette who walks in behind the others.

Loose brown waves frame her perfectly symmetrical face all the way down to her bellybutton. She's wearing a baby pink tank top and white distressed shorts, and oh my god is she beautiful. I cant help but notice her height, I've got at least a foot on her. Her eyes are golden brown and her smile is like nothing I've ever seen before.

I look to see who she's smiling at and her attention is focused on the dude who walked in with him. Boyfriend?

The second she looks at me, I come back down to Earth.

"Son, are you there?" For a quick second I forget who is even talking. Oh yeah, Dad.

"What. Oh, yeah, yeah. For sure." I say frantically hoping I didn't agree to some random shit he said. My dad hangs up and I set my phone down to give my undivided attention the the short brunette. I mean customers. All of them. Not just her. The customers.

"Stop eye-fucking her Wes." TJ comes out from the break room where I was and gives me a hard pat on my shoulder.

"Don't act like you weren't looking at the other one, TJ." I say with a smirk, nodding my head to the other girl in the group.

"Don't give me that infamous 'Wes Carter smirk' or I might just have to expose you real quick."

"Oh you wouldn't dare Trent James."

He rolls his eyes clearly getting the hint that I don't care if she knows that I think she's attractive. Shit, anyone who doesn't think she is must be blind.

I look over back at the girl to find she's already looking at me. I cock my head and smile and she looks away almost instantly. Two can play at that game pretty girl.

I walk out from behind the counter past TJ who already knows what I'm up to.

I skim the aisles and find them by the snacks. The two girls are arguing over which chips to buy while the guy is carrying all of the items they picked up. Treating him like a human basket, the girls dump another handful of family sized chips into his overflowing cradled arms.

"Don't stand there unless your gonna help dipshit." TJ says walking in front of me and handing the pretty girl a basket. She looks up and smiles at him. Oh hell no.

"Doing okay over here, love?" I say leaning on the wall divider right next to where the girl is standing. Arms crossed over my chest. She practically breaks her neck looking up at me and I love it.

"Haven't seen you around here before." She says playfully.

"On the look out for me?" I say smirking. I can feel TJ's eyes on me burning through to the back of my head.

"Mm and what's your name, or should I just call you cocky?" She bites back giving the same smirk I gave her earlier. Feisty, I like it.

But I don't answer. I just look her up in down taking in her sweet features and sweet scent. She smells like vanilla and coconut. Her dark eyes search my face like the answer to her question is somewhere on it. But I just give her one last sweep, seeing her cheeks turn into the prettiest shade of pink and I walk away satisfied.

I walk back to the counter wishing I would've just told her my damn name. Not for her sake of course, but so I could know hers. Ten minutes go by and the group finally makes there way back to the counter. TJ is a bit of a control freak so seeing they scrambled up some of the inventory already has him on edge. He heads back to the aisles they were just in, making sure everything is how it was before the group got here.

"Thanksgiving Feast?" I question playfully hoping to make a better impression than my first one. She looks at me giving me the most insincere smile which makes me give her one right back. I ring up everything they put on the counter and start bagging once I finish.

"Beach bonfire." Pretty girl says out of nowhere, which catches me off guard. I give her a confused look then piece it together. The food is for the bonfire. Hm interesting.

"So what you're just going to ask what the food was for and not care about the answer?" She says looking up at me. I lock eyes with her and lean in, not really caring her friend and boyfriend are standing right next to her.

She gives me the stare right back and her breath hitches as I say, "I didn't ask what the food was for, princess." At this point both of my arms are perched up on the counter next to the unbagged food and its turned into a whole ass staring contest. Just when I feel like she is about to say something, I interrupt her.

"Don't look at me like you hate me when I just made you blush five minutes ago." I smirk, take my arms off the counter and swiftly bag the rest of their items. She looks stunned and she hasn't said anything in the 2 whole minutes it took me to bag their items. I hand it over to the boyfriend, not even caring if its her boyfriend because I could take him any day of the week.

I glare and smile at her as she walks away with her group but my smile drops the second I see her turn around and walk back towards me. Slowly, she circles around the counter where I'm standing, grabs the collar of my shirt and pulls me down to her height. Jesus.

"Don't call me Princess, don't call me pretty girl and I'll look at you however I wanna look at you." She's giving me the death stare at this point but I'm not intimidated I just think its cute so I let out a little laugh. She lets go of my collar but I don't move. Instead I quickly grab her arms and turn her so she is against the wall.

The girls chest moves up and down heavily and her breath is staggered. I lean down to her ear, my hands still locked on her arms and whisper.

"Whatever you say, princess." Then I let her go and walk back towards the isle TJ is still in helping him clean up the mess. I hear the bell echo through the store, giving me the okay that she left and before I can walk away TJ grabs ahold of my arm.

"Dude what was that?"

"I have no idea" I say not only to him but to myself. Because for years I've ignored the female gaze. I've never had a girlfriend or let alone wanted one. I don't even know where the confidence came from because I don't even know how to talk to girls.

So who was this girl, and what is she doing to me.