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The cute, bronze haired guy pays for his goldfish, and suddenly I realise why I recognise him.
“Hold on” I say. “Weren’t you in here buying a goldfish and a bowl just last week?”
His face flushes, and he looks down at his feet.
“…Maybe” he mumbles.
“Why are you buying another goldfish so soon? Did the old one feel lonely?” I ask. His face becomes even redder, and he scratches his neck.
“No, it, uh… It died.”
He glances at me to see my reaction, but avoids making eye contact with me.
“Within a week?” I ask, because damn. Goldfish are supposed to be an easy animal to take care of, how clumsy is this guy?
“Yeah. I kind of forgot to feed it” he explains, and I guess that’s believable. If you’ve never had a fish before it might be pretty easy to forget it’s there.
“Ouch” I respond. “Better luck with this one!”
“Thanks.”
And he takes his new fish and leaves. I hope he doesn’t kill this one too.
He’s back again two weeks later, and even though I hadn’t realised before that I wanted him to come back, I feel happy when I see that he has. He’s looking at the goldfish aquarium, glancing towards the counter like he hopes I haven’t noticed him. He quickly turns away when we make eye contact, but I walk up to him anyway.
“Buying yet another goldfish I see. Did you kill the last one?” I say, and as I watch the blush spread on his cheeks I know I’m right.
“I did” he admits, still avoiding eye contact.
“And you’re sure you want a new one? It doesn’t seem like you’re supposed to have a fish.”
I feel a little bad about teasing him like that, but he blushes so intensely when I do and it’s really cute.
“I’m going to take care of this one” he says, finally letting me look him in the eyes. I notice that they are very blue, and I realise that I haven’t had eye contact with him before. I know, because I would have remembered his eyes.
“If you say so. Do you want me to get a fish for you?” I ask.
“Yes please” he replies, still looking at my face. I feel my cheeks heat up too, and turn to the aquarium.
I kind of want his fish to die. He hasn’t visited the shop for over a month now, and even though I only saw his face three times I’m starting to miss it. Maybe his fish did die, and he gave up on fish entirely. I hope that’s not it.
It’s been almost two months when he shows up again. His face is already red when he enters the store, and his curly hair is a mess. It looks like he’s been running. He hurriedly walks up to the counter.
“Hi” I say with a smile. “Did you kill another fish?”
“I didn’t but I might if I don’t do this quickly” he says, bouncing from foot to foot.
“What does that mean?” I ask, because I have no idea.
“I bumped in to the bowl. There’s a crack in it, and It’s leaking. I have to get a new one before the old one’s empty” he explains, and I’m about 90% sure he means that he broke it just now and immediately ran to the pet store, leaving his goldfish in a leaking bowl. No wonder he keeps killing them.
“I’m on it” I say, and rush through the store to get a goldfish bowl for him. Even though he probably shouldn’t be responsible for a fish. As soon as he’s paid for it, he grabs the bowl and runs out of the store. What a dork.
The time between that visit and the next one is the shortest yet. He shows up less than a week later, and nervously walks in to the store.
“You look embarrassed” I say. “What did you do? Kill a fish? Crack a a bowl? Accidentally poison the fish food?”
“No, none of those things” he replies, blushing again. He blushes a lot. Or maybe he’s just embarrassed every time he’s here because he keeps killing his fish. Either way, it’s cute. His cheeks are full of freckles and moles, and the added blushing makes his face look unbelievably angelic.
“So what brings you here then?” I ask.
“You” he answers, blushing more furiously than I’ve ever seen him blush. “I wanted to see you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I thought we should get to know each other better. What’s your name?”
“Baz. Yours?”
“Simon.”
“Simon. I like it.”