“Stop fidgeting Violet. He’s almost done adjusting them.”
“This is a special kind of hell. Let me go back to my contacts.”
“If you hadn’t lost them I would. But you did so here we are. How do you think you look?”
Raising a mirror, Kathryn held it in front of Seth’s face and her albino boyfriend stared at his reflection. His blonde hair had been growing like a well-groomed bush on his head. He had a pair of thin square framed glasses against his face. This was the fourth pair they’d tried.
He turned looking back and forth on either side of his face and Kathryn stared at him intently from above the mirror. He was tempted to give her a snarky no but they’d been here for the better part of an hour and he was ready to move on and grab dinner.
The man who was helping them looked toward Kathryn with a smile, “I think these might be the ones.”
“I think so too. What do you think Violet?”
“They’re fine.”
“Fine he says,” Kathryn scoffed and set the mirror down on the nearby desk of the vision works.
“If I may say, I think he looks very handsome with them,” the attendant said.
Kathryn smirked, “When he’s being cooperative and not a butt he’s very handsome.”
“Haha,” Scowling he stood up slowly and then slid the glasses off his face and handed them over to the attendant. “I’ll take them.”
“Excellent. I’ll take these to the back and make some final adjustments and you can pay at the counter.”
They quickly walked to the back of the shop leaving them with a few other attendants and one other customer but it was very lowkey today. Glancing toward the ceiling the lights were aggressively bright and the space itself was small. He could only imagine if there were actually enough people to occupy the three desks in the square location.
Seth put on his jacket absently but reached around for his pocket and felt empty space instead. Looking around frowning hard he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning to Kathryn she had the small plastic glasses case and he took it with a grateful sigh. Putting the thin rounded frames onto his face and frowned. One of the stems was crooked, bent at a bad angle that came from age.
Giggling she adjusted them slowly and nodded, “Look at it this. This is the last time you’ll be wearing these ugly things.”
“Ugly by your margins,” he replied going to the main desk. They rung him up and he handed over one of the cards in his wallet.
“Aren’t those all that count?” she asked.
Their attendant came over with the glasses in a new leather sleeve. Taking the glasses off his face he replaced them with new pair. They were snug against the bridge of his nose and ears but the clarity of vision he had was welcome. He looked toward Kathryn and then the attendant and both nodded in approval.
The attendant looked toward Kathryn and said, “Oh that choker is beautiful where did you get it?”
Kathryn glanced down at the strap around her neck and the blue orb that rested against the pulse of her throat. Touching the cool stone lightly she smiled, “It’s a one of a kind.”
“A gift?” they asked looking at Seth.
“Something like that,” fishing into his pocket he revealed his own matching purple orb that was still attached at his belt loop.
“I love seeing things like that,” they beamed at the pair of them and waved. “Have a nice day!”
“You too,” Kathryn added and he waved.
Putting on their gloves and scarves the pair walked out and were greeted by an aggressively cold blast of wind. Raising his scarf up he tried to cover his face best he could and fought the urge to shiver. The fall had long since set in on the city and with the greyness of the sky he wondered when the fall was going to shift to winter and start dumping the frozen powder on them.
They walked their way toward the corner as the light just shifted to red and cars started moving. Seth lowered his hand and took Kathryn’s squeezing it lightly as he looked up, watching one of the darker clouds rolling forward. Kathryn looked back at him and smirked.
“So, my choker’s a gift from you huh Violet?”
“I mean it was a gift. I didn’t say it was from me though.”
Shaking her head, she touched her throat and felt the coolness of the stone at her throat. It still gleamed whenever it caught the light, humming with unused power.
“It’s been almost a year. Does it feel like it really happened?”
“Well I’m dating you so yeah it definitely happened.” She hit him in the arm lightly. He smirked and then let out a sigh. “It is wild. A year ago we were fighting aliens and being super heroes. Doesn’t seem real.”
Kathryn nodded, “When’s the last time you heard from any of them?”
“I talked to Marco maybe a week ago I think. They were getting ready to go on vacation to California.”
“West coast? What’s out there besides you know. Weather you can actually live in.”
“Jack’s family. And yeah the weather probably,” he shrugged. “What about Cal and Ben?”
“Also on vacation. Ben’s parents in the suburbs. So not quite as exciting as the west coast.”
“What you’re saying is we’re the morons who decided to stay in the city while winter is coming?”
“Seems like it. So Violet. There’s a new Daughter of the Dragon movie in theaters. And I bet at this time it would just be us in the theatre.”
The light turned green and Seth wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer. “Don’t you have some school work to get to?”
“I can be a naughty student,” she replied and he stole a kiss. “Besides I’ve earned a movie break, right?”
“Who am I to argue with that?”
The Harlequin Library 