"Hullo! What can I do ya for?" The man at the store had an American accent. Most likely southern, though I couldn't really tell. He pointed at his name tag. "I'm Luca by the way."
"Hey Luca! We're gonna paint Clementine's room today," Everett said, slinging an arm over my shoulders.
"Ooh, exciting!" Luca turned to me, beaming. He looked to be in his early thirties, with strong features and long blonde hair that lay loose around his shoulders. "What colour are we thinking?"
"Green," I said, smiling as well in response to his friendly grin, "We're just painting one wall but I'm not sure how much paint we'll need."
"Depends how big the wall is, but half a gallon should be more than enough," Luca assured, "That can usually cover about one-fifty square feet."
"Gallons...feet...I don't understand," Everett muttered, mystified.
"Ah, my bad." Luca slapped a palm to his forehead. "Been three years since I moved the store here and I still keep forgetting." He crouched behind the counter for a moment and reappeared with a calculator in hand. "Roughly...two liters...fourteen square meters?"
"You're from USA?"
"Yep, Tennessee born and raised." Luca threw up a peace sign. "Home to Taylor Swift- I saw her in concert once," he added.
"Cool!" Everett enthused, "We don't get many concerts happening around here, you'd have to travel to London."
"Nah I love this place, things are calm," Luca confided, "Not too calm but, anyway, enough about me! Which green did you want, Clementine?"
"Uh, light...green?"
Luca tossed me a sympathetic look and slid a thick booklet towards me. "Pick a shade from the palette, hun."
"Uhh...." I thumbed through the pages, trying to differentiate between all the greens. They were all just green.
"What about this one? Apple green." Everett helpfully pointed one out of the bunch. "Or this lime green is good too."
"I don't know, it's a bit bright," I hesitated.
"We can get apple green in a lighter hue," Luca suggested, showing me a different palette. "I can mix it up if you like this shade. Do you have all the painting equipment you need?" You
"No...we'll need to buy a brush too."
"A big rolly one," Everett added, spreading his arms to show how big he expected this brush to be.
Luca laughed. "You'll also need a roller frame then, and a paint tray to dip it in. But since you're just painting one wall you can borrow some equipment from here—there's no point buying everything."
"Is that okay?" I asked unsurely, "I don't want to, um, I mean you're supposed to be selling—"
Luca waved me off. "I have a huge pile of used equipment lying around, I just need it back by next weekend. I do a home improvement show," he explained.
"A TV series?" Everett asked in interest.
"Yeah! It's at an indie lifestyle network. Small one but it's on a couple streaming sites, and they've got a studio not too far from here."
Luca took us over to where he started mixing the paint, showing Everett how the machine worked much to his excitement. "Wanna stir it?"
"Yes!"
I shot Luca a mildly panicked look, worried that my boyfriend would end up destroying his store. But Luca wisely let Everett hold on to just the edge of the paddle mixer while doing all the actual mixing himself.
"Are you boys on school vacation?" Luca asked chattily, pushing away the long hair that fell over his face as he worked.
"We just finished," Everett said, "I'm working at that cafe near here. We both bake for orders too, and Clementine does all the decorating."
"Jones' Kitchen? That place has great pasta," Luca enthused, "I haven't been there in a while tho, didn't know you guys did cakes n' stuff now. I need to come fulfil my sweet tooth."
"Yeah I didn't start baking for it till recently," Everett explained, "But you should come by! I'm allowed to give muffins on the house."
"I will hold you to that," Luca said as he rang up three liters of paint—I'd asked for extra just in case—and some painters tape to protect the trims. He then carried out a large bag of everything else we'll need from his equipment room. After explaining the cleaning directions for the brushes, he scribbled down his number at the back of the bill. "In case you run into any problems."
"Thank you so much, you didn't have to do all this," I said, gathering up the bags.
"Hey, don't worry about it at all." Luca beamed. "Always happy to help out a fellow decorator."
"I'll return these soon," I promised, "We're going to start today."
"No worries, and good luck!" he called out as we left the store.
I glanced to my side at Everett, swinging the bag holding the paint can as he took a big leap down the three steps leading to the store.
"I might need it," I muttered to myself.