Kitchen Timer

Chapter 3

Rodney laughs and puts the shirt back, grabbing one that is more his style. His friends give him a thumbs up, letting him know that the second pick is better than the first. He grabs a few new jeans, more shirts, swimming trunks, hiking boots, and flip flops. Rodney nearly topples over with all of his items in his arms. An employee hurries over with a cart before disappearing behind the scenes again. He piles everything inside.

“Why didn’t we grab these before?” he laughs as the employee brings two more carts for Bob and Theodore.

His friends shrug their shoulders before grabbing their new clothes and dumping them into their carts. Bob and Thedore cackle and joke as they make their way towards the front of the store to the registers.

Rodney trails behind them, snagging a back of thick socks, and tosses it in. A flash of yellow catches his eye and he turns to see a pretty young woman waving through the racks. He blinks a few times. She looks familiar. Rodney watches as she turns to glance over her shoulder. Her dark brown hair covers her face as she lifts a hand to push it away.

Blue eyes, rosy cheeks, pink lips, and a smile that seems glued to her face. Rodney shakes his head and hurries to the register. He pays for his items and walks out to meet Bob and Theodore. They are waiting for him in the front, checking out a couple of mannequins and what they are wearing.

“You all got everything you need for the trip?” he asks when he joins them.

“Yep! Let’s head over to the food court,” Bob says, his stomach grumbling.

The friends laugh and turn away from the store. Rodney glances back to take one last look at the pretty mannequin. He stops in his tracks when he sees it isn’t in the front window anymore. Bob and Theodore continue walking, not having realized Rodney had stopped.

Bruce walks out of the store, leans against the wall, and stares at Rodney. He dips his hat towards the bag in Rodney’s hand before he walks away.

Rodney watches Bruce, raising an eyebrow. He glances down in his bag and sees the kitchen timer sitting on top of his clothes he just bought. He blinks a few times shocked to see it. When had Bruce have time to sneak it into his bag?

Rodney looks around to find Bruce so he can give the timer back, but the cowboy is gone. He looks back at the store just as the young woman in the yellow dress walks out and looks around.

She spots Rodney and smiles bigger. Rodney raises his eyebrows when she winks at him. Rodney glances around to see if maybe she is looking at anyone else, but no one is paying her any attention. He looks back at her and smiles. He can’t help but stares at him, while she shyly looks down, her hair covering her face for a moment.

A hand grabs his shoulder, and he tears his eyes away. Rodney looks over his shoulder to see Theodore and Bob watching him. They look worried.

“Sorry, I thought I saw someone I knew.” He points at the front window of the store. “Oh yea, the mannequin I saw earlier is gone, too. I guess they took her down.”

Bob and Thedore glance at the window, then look back at Rodney.

“Yea, I guess so. Umm… Can we go eat now?” Theodore asks. He points towards the food court, glancing over at Bob.

“Oh yea, sure. I’m starving. Let’s go grab some lunch.” Rodney chuckles. “I am thinking Chinese. What about you guys?” Rodney glances back to see the woman in yellow walking away. He walks off with his friends, talking about the food in the food court with them.

Rodney’s eyes fall to his bag where the timer still sits, and he reminds himself to come back to find Bruce and give it back to him tomorrow.