chapter 1-Meet Cute

Sarah sat in the back room listening to Carla drone on about how hot Tom Cruise was when she was in high school. Sarah nodded picking the pills on her sweatshirt. She wasn’t supposed to be wearing casual wear when working but, in the back, it was freezing and her blouse was doing a terrible job of keeping her warm. She heard the bell ring that signaled that someone walked in. She for once hoped her name would be called to the front and she could leave this one-way conversation, but the call never came and so she continued to nod along to Carla’s mumbling. She didn’t notice when her coworker was directing a question to her and it left Carla waving her hand in her face.

“I’m sorry. What was that?” Carla sighed.

“I was asking you… never mind. You are always in the clouds Sarah. Why do I waste my breath?”

“I ask myself the same thing every day,” Sarah thought, but wouldn’t say. Carla patted her knees and rose to her feet. She turned to Sarah and sighed.

“Well, I have to go let out some guy’s pants before he comes to pick ‘em up in an hour,” she said leaving and shaking her head. Sarah was definitely listening to Carla’s last comment. All she could do was imagine what caused the need for such and alteration to be necessary. Her mind took off on a dirty adventure until she was ripped from it by the shouting of the manager.

“Sarah could you please come up front!” Sarah jumped to see Meg standing in the doorway with an annoyed expression on her face. Sarah tore off her sweatshirt and ran her fingers through her brown hair.

“Sorry,” she said as she stepped out to the front. Coming up to the front desk she saw a man, around her age. Her heart started pounding. “There is a God,” she thought glancing up at the sky. He was probably 6 feet and 250 lbs. plus, easily. He wore light jeans from those prep stores. “He probably had to order them online,” Sarah thought joyously. The Green Day tee shirt he wore hid the soft figure that Sarah knew was underneath. She got closer and realized the girl he was with. Her heart broke and she felt her face scrunch up, and had to fix it for business purposes. Sarah walked up to Meg and took the clipboard she handed to her.

“Hello. I’m Sarah and I’ll be assisting you today Mr. Grandon,” she said after looking at the clip board.

“Just Nick,” he said. Sarah nodded and smiled, but her smile left her when she saw the girl tap his shoulder.

“Hey I gotta fly. Have fun buddy,” she said walking out the door giving him two thumbs up. Sarah’s smile returned because the girl was leaving and because they appeared to be only friends.

“So,” Sarah said clearing her throat nervously. “What can I do for you Nick?”

“Uh. Well I need a suit for the wedding.” And Sarah’s heart again shattered. “My sister-in-law,” he motioned slightly flustered toward to door, “Is getting married to my brother. I guess I missed the group fitting last week.” Sarah felt like she was on a rollercoaster. She half expected his date for the wedding to come in with their 2 year old.

“A suit or a tux?” she asked.

“I am not sure. Sorry. I think Becky said they would have the information for the theme in the system. Becky Sheridan?” he said, feeling like a bother.

“It’s fine. I’ll just go check. Follow me." He followed her to the counter and she looked his information up. “Looks like a suit my guy. What sizes do you need,” she said looking up, dying to hear the answer.

“Well, see I don’t really know that either. We were all supposed to come and get fitted, but I had to work. I’m really bad with this stuff.”

“Oh no problem. We’ll just get you fitted.” Nick’s expression showed some sort of nervousness. “Are you ok?”

“Yea. I was just expecting to be fitted by you know…another guy.”

“Oh,” she said, disappointed. “I think the last male assistant left half an hour ago. You could come back tomorrow at 4.” She watched his face as he debated the options.

“I took a day off to come here. I guess I’ll just get this over with now.”

“Alright. Don’t worry it’ll be over quick. Just follow me please.” She took him into a room where she had him stand in the middle as she got her measuring tape. She turned to see the very uncomfortable and sexy Nick looking around the room. She started by measuring the sleeve length and his neck, which was incredibly thick, but in a muscular way. She did his inseam, which was a little awkward, for him she imagined. “Worst is over,” she offered with a smile.

“Yeah,” he laughed, still nervous. She finished up the measurements around his middle, which she initially struggled with, not immediately opting to walk around him with the tape measure, as she assumed it made large customers feel even larger than they were. She really couldn’t do it another way sometimes, as she was not very large or tall herself and couldn’t reach around everyone, professionally at least. Which is how she ended up pushing into his softness for a second, before handing him the end of the tape and beginning her orbit. “Sorry about that,” she said blushing. He seemed to be pretending it didn’t happen, while also pretending his face wasn’t bright red.

“Is that all I need to do?” he said, shuffling uncomfortably as Sarah put her tape in a drawer. She realized she had been so focused on her job, she hadn’t even really been making any moves at all. She couldn’t really see a reason to keep him, as they certainly would have to order his suit specifically. The store did not keep the most diverse stocked sizes. She had voiced this concern to the manager, but Meg was not particularly sympathetic towards fat people. From what Sarah had heard, Meg used to be a ‘fat people’ and since getting her surgery was frigid to anyone tempting the waters of chubby. Sarah was fairly certain she was called up front because Meg was grossed out measuring heavier customers. Thinking of it was starting to boil her blood. She looked up at Nick, who was at this point smirking at her.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said with a shake of her head.

“You really went somewhere just then. I could almost see the chaotic banter all over your face.”

“I can’t believe I just did that. Please let me get you a receipt and a date for your pick up. I believe Becky has already paid for everything.” Sarah hurried Nick back to the counter. She punched in his measurements slowly, trying to think of some way to talk to him longer. She felt herself freezing over more and more with each push of the keys. He wasn’t really talking much himself either, which should have been answer enough. Sarah thought she was cute enough. Medium length brown hair, a slim thickish figure. She did always think she could have a bigger butt and chest, but was happy with most everything else. But she wasn’t even getting the sense Nick was looking at her at all. Was she wrong to assume two relatively closely aged people would size up the other? “So, are you excited for the wedding? Obviously, you are in the party.” She managed to think of something.

“Yea. My brother has been with Becky since they were in high school. Doesn’t shock me that he was able to get hitched.” Sarah had not seen his brother before, but she wasn’t necessarily blown away by Becky’s gorgeousness.

“I’m sure it will be lovely,” was all Sarah could fumble out to that. “You and your date will have fun.” Nick’s cheeks turned red again.

“You are too nice to customers,” he snorted. “I, to your surprising surprise, do not have a date.”

“Yet,” Sarah added quickly. He gave her a look. “It’s called growth mindset. The idea is sort of like reversing the self-fulfilling prophesy to your betterment. Just add yet, and things sound more hopeful and achievable,” she rambled with a smile. She admittedly had finished anything she was supposed to do to help him on her screen and was clicking between tabs.

“Your positivity is refreshing. But I don’t think I will find a date in the next 3 months. Hell, if I had a year, I’d put the same money on me going solo. And I think I really should be steering way from anything titled growth mindset.” Now Sarah was blushing.

“Well, I don’t know what you mean about any of that. But things might work out. It looks like your suit will be ready with plenty of time. We will see you back in 9 weeks.” She took out one of her business cards and scribbled his pick-up date on the back. “Here you go,” she said cheerily. Maybe he would make a move, she thought.

“Thank you for your help today, Sarah,” he said, referencing the card. He noticed the little heart she put, and smiled. And then he walked out.

The cloud Sarah was floating on suddenly popped open and she fell back to reality. She had 2 hours left of work and completely dropped the ball.