Her mind was engaged by the blazing excitement, however, Ruby didn't see the sign where she was heading and pushed one of the doors of the changing rooms. The porch had no light and no one around. She left the door ajar opened and didn't lock it purposely, knowing she could slip in and out of the dress quickly.
Her feminine instincts to circumspect her surroundings first, in case a hidden camera or some pervert was ambushing to assault her, left behind, as she barged in, unworried. Her static eyes pooled with warm water and she was lost in the glistening white dress hanging on her arm; her fingers adoringly grazed the furs of the fabric.
"This one stands out. I wonder how Joseph would react?"
Suddenly, Joseph's shirt slipped from his hands and he wanted to confirm if his apprehension was right; his eyes swelled in shock that depicted more horror as he took a half-turn.
Ruby. Of all changing rooms, what made her choose this particular room only? he thought.
She began humming a tune and placed the dress on the small stool beside her. When Joseph believed she would catch him, she only leaned forward, primping her hair in front of the mirror. Within a split second her green top was off her body. Joseph covered his eyes late after registering another soft thud that declared she had pulled off her jeans. Something stopped him from announcing his presence; maybe he thought it was too late as he had wrongfully seen her in her black bra which had little red flowers on it, shit, he was surprised at his memory, that only counting the remaining minutes was in his hands.
A few moments later, he peered through the slits of his finger, as she blabbered, "Like what is he? Sometimes he has so much money that he is challenging me over the shopping bills, and other times, he pretends to be tight as a duck's arse that he can't buy his car and moves around in Sarah's like a dumb person. He's such a bloody riddle." She shook her shoulders as she adjusted the dress on her waist. She cooled down and tried to relate things, "Situations, Ruby . . . situations. You don't know what he's going through, after all. But what if I . . . want to know, would that portray me as nosy?"
Joseph shouted a big yes in his mind, and in doing that he realized the s sound he punched into the thick air. He took a step backward until his back touched the cold wall and shoved a hand over his mouth tightly.
"What are these plastics strings for . . . eh?" She tugged at them and went on to pull her zip up.
She failed. She tried and failed again. She gave up.
"You will never look sexy, Ruby. And no damn guy will look twice at you. This red ballooning hair looks like an upended Yeti." She paused. "I don't have any uniqueness." Ruby's head dipped, eyes closed to building tears.
A moment later, she felt a light blow and a strong hand pulling her zip to its short end. Her heart hammered like thunder and lightning within her twenty-one inches chest. She lifted her face only to find Joseph who was apparently shirtless and staring into her huge orbs through the mirror.
Oh god . . .
"And you were wondering about them. They are meant for keeping the straps of your bra in place."
She whimpered, taking long enough to come out of a shock. "F-for how many minutes you have been in this room?"
His tongue touched the outline of his upper lip, and he answered with controlled emotions, "This room has only one door."
Shit.
She screwed her eyes as though a sensation of a bee sting surged in her body. And then her eyes fell to the undone buttons of his jeans and a white Calvin Klein underwear was on the show.
Sweet baby Jesus!
"Oh, no, no, no!" She backed off and her back bumped into the door. And the door clicked shut. Whirling around, she clasped the doorknob and began twisting it in clockwise and anticlockwise motions. Ruby grew panicked and her cheeks reddened, heat crawling up her neck at the awkward encounter.
"What the- it got jammed." The walls seemingly closed in on her. "God, please! I want to live my life! I don't want to die for hell's sake!" Ruby cried, her grip on the knob loosened as she sunk to the floor. She didn't face him given she was embarrassed for many reasons.
Never did she mind gaping at Joseph with no shirt, firstly, it happened so rarely. And now, when everything fell in its right place, she wanted to break through the door. She cast her mind back on all the weird things she had said about him, and the self-deprecating confessions she had made her loathe her mouth.
Joseph slid down his shirt before buttoning up his jeans. For Joseph everything seemed normal, ignoring the fact that his face had turned blue after hearing her out. He twisted the door's knob calmly and held it wide open for Ruby.
Ruby collected her belonging from the floor and sneaked a peek before running away. Instead of saying something, Joseph dragged her back inside by her arm, and she managed not to come into any sort of physical contact with him.
"You can't just go like that," he continued, "I'm locking this door again. Now consider it as your test and open it for me. I've to check if your eyes have captured my actions correctly, or have roamed around my body only," Joseph stated with the smallest hint of sarcasm in his tone.
Brushing it off, she closed her eyes.
The door slammed shut, leaving no chance of escape for Ruby from her nonpareil fate. With Joseph standing at the far end of the room, she could still hear the sound of his heavy breaths as the room was not that big. Let's do it, Ruby! she thought.
Her eyebrows scrunched in concentration and her fingers closed around the knob again. After a moment and two, doing nothing but cursing at that damn knob, Joseph came forward and gave her the instruction. His demeanor was like that of any uncouth mathematics teacher who either expect you to give the right answer or expect you to be out of the class for the entire period.
"Twist it right ways with light finger touch," he said quietly and placed his long fingers on hers, providing a demonstration.
"Featherlike touch?" Ruby confirmed, taking a calming breath. Absentmindedly, her eyes stayed on his lips and jaw and neck and swept down his body.
"Yes, with a featherlike touch." His eyes caught her staring at his manhood. He smiled as he took in every little detail on her face. Her innocence and her audacity to touch him there with her eyes which he assumed was an active part of her puberty. He was internally laughing in his head.
"Do you have a staring disorder? I've been noticing that for a while," Joseph asked blatantly. That was his way to mitigate the tension that the little girl gifted him.
"Joseph . . . can we . . . can we," Ruby gulped hard before fixing her gaze on his. With tension draping her words and anxiety forming a crease on her forehead, she snapped shut her eyes and continued, "Joseph, can we be friends?"
"I guess we already were." He cocked his head and added, "Do you have something else in mind?"
Her breathing came to a murdering halt.
"No─Yes─No. F-Friendship is all about loving one another. It's not about yelling and hating when they don't agree on something. Can't you be that kind of friend of mine? That will help us get through our journey nicely."
Joseph assessed her face with amusement and chuckled, "You are educating me on how to get on informal terms with you? At least respect the age difference between us. I'm twenty-seven. What you have seen in all these years is nothing but the tip of the iceberg. There's no point in explaining it to you." His jaw didn't budge when he ended his last sentence.
The conversation derailed as he made his way out of the room, leaving an appalled Ruby behind. As she took umbrage at his words, she knew it was unthinkable to imagine him as a true gentleman accepting the olive branch she had offered.
Why is it so hard to convince him? she thought to herself.
"Excuse me, can I use this room?" asked a curly-haired, tall boy; his wide doe eyes critiqued Ruby's facial expressions intensely.
She noticed the boy and his weird mien, giving him a weird look. "What! Are you going to report me for using the men's changing room?" She wanted to slap him so hard but decided to walk out of there without straining the vein on her forehead.
Sarah ran to her. "Ruby, where have you been? And did you try it on?"
"Yes. The dress was gorgeous but I looked like a drenched cat wearing it." Ruby thrust the dress in her hands, forgetting the immensity with such she took care of it. Her face looked sullen as she walked away.
"What! Are you telling us that we are not buying this? This. Do I've got to remind you that this is a piece of art-- here, look at this; it's so Kardashian!" Sarah yelled as she tugged her finger in the neckline of the dress.
The store manager came to her rescue haphazardly. "Are you okay miss?"
"No! You first take back this shit." Sarah pressed the dress to the manager's chest. "I suggest you change the entire stock before aiming to hit a high sales turnover rate. Just look at this─── it's so cheap looking. How do you like them apples?"
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"So, I heard you all went shopping? Why is everyone so silent? Dude, shall I assume this silence as a sign of you going bankrupt? Well, I came here with a hunch that I will see the collection of clothes spreading from the closet hangers to the dresser to the room ─ then ─ to this floor. Is it happening this way? No? Yes?"
Nobody dived into the conversation, especially the two of them who needed a change in the topic to let the uneasiness fade away. Anshuman tittered, clapping his hands as he slumped on the sofa. Sarah returned with a bowl of steaming eggplant Pomodoro noodles and kept it before him, giving him a sweet peck on his cheek.
Nobody spoke. Ruby riffled through the crispy pages of the manuscript she was learning. Joseph shot up and beckoned Anshuman to meet him outside the house.
Anshuman slurped the spicy juice and sprinted out of the drawing room without taking much time.
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The sky was painted with an ink blue hue behind the linen clouds stampeding slowly to the east. The uneven line of treetops provided a beautiful border to the sky. The park across Joseph's home was unusually silent except when Anshuman ran through the field to spill his frivolous nature into the environment.
Anshuman's forehead sensed the tension brewing inside Joseph's brain and creased. "You okay, man?"
"You remember the guy who used to forge fake identification documents like passports, birth certificates, and bank accounts?" Joseph tilted his head toward Anshuman. "We need to give her a legal identity and make sure that no one accuses her of being someone else later on."
"Hmmph . . . Mac has left that kind of work ever since being caught up in jail and started anew with a back-office job in a telecom company. We met each other about three years ago and then I got busy with my job and girlfriend's chores," Anshuman chewed his lower lip.
"Then . . . then what about Sherry? His other partner? Can you get me his number, so that I can get rid of it within a week?"
"Hey, why are being so weird? I got you, and yes I can give you his phone number. I bare knowledge regarding his sectarian whereabouts. He can give it to you in a day, to say the least," Anshuman assured, and his voice was already swimming in victory. "He's a pro."
Meanwhile, Joseph's phone rang for the third time and Ruby, as always, was alone in the room. She called out to Sarah several times, who had gone upstairs. But complying with Joseph's words that it was forbidden for her to go up there, she picked up the phone herself.
"Hello," she said hesitantly.
"Ah, may I speak to Joseph please?" said the other deep unembodied voice.
"Yes, but may I know who you are?" Ruby answered, slipping her feet into the slippers and closing the door behind her.
She walked over to Joseph who was sitting right across the road under the shade of a big tree alongside Anshuman.
"Well, I'm his mother."
Mother! Ruby's eyes widened as she transferred the device into Joseph's hand tardily.
He moved his jaw. "Who is it?"
"Your mother," she replied to him, unfazed. Why did he hide the fact that he had a mother?
"Hello? Oh, Mrs.Warner. Tell me how are you feeling now?" Joseph asked, his voice laced with concern, placing his hand on his waist.
The conversation went on for a minute, Joseph ended the call and didn't miss to cast a glance at Ruby who looked no less than a statue. "You just talked to your mother, Ruby. It was from Katherine Warner."
Anshuman cackled, "Ruby breath! It wasn't a video call. Be grateful to God for that."
"I think I peed in my pants, gotta change it. Anyways, h-her voice is so deep and commanding. As if she is the leader of some creepy gang. More like a lady don." Ruby slapped her chest with her hand as if she was caught up in this lie, words laced with broken breath.
Joseph broke a smile for the first time. "It's fine Ruby. She isn't close enough to your imagination. Cool down."
"And yes, for tomorrow's schedule get your joggers ready. I'll see you here at four in the morning. Be on time," Joseph ordered and wagged his index finger in the air as she moseyed past her.
Ruby nodded carefully with one question boggling her mind. At 4 am? Is he high on drugs?
Word count-2100
a/n; oh my gosh my book just reached 2k reads *weeps sweet tears* I love all my readers, voters, and commenters. SARAGHAE!
anyways Ruby just heard Mrs Warner's *ahem ahem* her mother's voice. 😆
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