Jeff was pissed. Another 55 hour week and now he somehow broke his goddamn Macbook charger by pinching the goddamn thing under his desk chair at home. Now its frayed fire hazard that he is afraid to use. How much could they be to replace right? Well it turns out they cost 80 goddamn dollars even before all the goddamn taxes.

“I’m about to spend a hundred goddamn dollars on five dollars of goddamn plastic and 2 dollars of goddamn wire”

“You wouldn’t be so beholden to your Apple overlords if you would have gotten a windows laptop, and there are models just as cute as your precious Macbook air”

Javad was offering no sympathy to Jeff.

“I know, I just like the Mac better but I do have buyers remorse a little bit, these things are expensive to buy and all the shit that goes with them is expensive too. I’ll get over it. Have a good time tonight and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do”

As soon as Jeff hung up he started beating himself up.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.. What is this 1975? Could I BE a little more of a geek? No wonder I can’t get a date. The goddamn gay guy is going out, I’m going to the Apple store. Maybe I should be gay. Be gay? Go gay?   Is that the word. What the fuck. Whatever. If I can’t spend my money on going out I guess I can spend it on fucking wires. And subway fare. “

It had been 18 months give or take since Jeff broke up with Katherine. That’s Katherine, not Kathy. She was no Kathy. She was definitely a Katherine. The stick was lodged way too far up her ass to be a Kathy.   Jeff lived with Katherine for six months and right away he knew it was a disaster.

He was so in love with Katherine. When they met, he really turned on the charm trying to get her attention, but even as they started dating he could tell, as beautiful as she was, that this was a relationship that was doomed.

Katherine Pierce was the 10^th of 10 children from a large Catholic family, the Pierces all graduated from either Ivy League schools in the states, or McGill. Except for Katherine who went to Ryerson. And although she graduated with high honors, she never felt she got the same attention, respect and pride from her parents.

It’s not that they weren’t loving and as attentive, they were as much as they could be given ten kids, Katherine always needed more it seemed. It was like the attention bucket had just about run out when she needed it most. It made her grow up needy and desperate for attention, for sure, but extremely self-reliant and it allowed her set the agenda for herself.

There was something about that greasy exhaust smell of the subway that Jeff always loved.   It’s not like he was sitting on the platform at Dundas huffing the fumes, but when he smelled it, even in passing from the street grates outside, he knew he was home. The combination of the subway fumes mixed with smog dogs from the food carts outside was unique to Toronto, at least Jeff thought so when he moved here.

Inside the Apple store Jeff located the charger he needed and looked for a smug hipster to give his money to.

“Can I pay for this with you” He asked the first bearded, blue shirted Apple head he could find.

“Oh man, there’s a flaw dude. I can’t take payments, I work over on the genius bar, see the woman over there? That’s Percynthia, she can help you out”

The hierarchy of the Apple store irritated the shit out of Jeff, that and the fact that there were no lines. Everything was a chaotic scramble ordered only by those who had made appointments via their Apple store app.

“Hi! I’m Percynthia you all set?”

In the world of made up names, why in the name of God would this woman have chosen this one. Even a stripper would have come up with a better name.

“ok that will be $115.00 would you like the receipt e-mailed to you?”

“No thank you Percynthia” Jeff said with so much sarcasm he started to feel bad about his tone. She was just doing her job funny name not withstanding. “can I have no receipt? I don’t want to be reminded I spend almost a quarter of what it costs to buy a brand new Windows laptop on a charger for a Mac”

“I’ll print it and throw it out for you” Percynthia smiled in a way that said.”I get it”

Jeff felt bad for being so snotty. “Thanks, I know its not your fault these things are so pricy, you must hear it all the time from people huh?”

“Part of the job Mr….Collins” she said handing him back his credit card.

“I’m sorry I’m such a grouch..rough week”

“Not at all” she said with a smile so warm it only made Jeff feel worse for being such a jackass. “you have a good evening and come back again soon”

As much as Jeff did feel buyers remorse for the Macbook and as much as he really didn’t like the whole Apple store experience, he did feel a sense of coolness bestowed upon him by the simple act of carrying around the unique white with silver Apple store bag.

Walking down the mall with his bag he looked for others with similar bags. They gave each other the nod, or so he imagined, much in the same way that motorcycle riders give each other the secret wave as they pass one another.

He nodded at one guy with an Apple bag as if to say “’sup, I’m an Apple guy too”

The guy looked at him as if he was trying to figure out where he knew him from and why Jeff was doing “The Nod” at him.

Armed with is newly bestowed badge of techy hipster cool Jeff gave “The Nod” to a few other people, none of which returned it.

“Is this even a thing?” he said to himself, out loud “I am just nodding to random strangers, what the fuck am I doing? It’s a beautiful Friday night and Im walking around Eaton Centre nodding at strangers. I’m officially losing it”

After stopping for a lonely fast food gut bomb, which was predictably disgusting at the food court, Jeff decided to walk around the mall for a bit and people watch.

One of the reasons he moved to Toronto, loved Toronto was the busy, the motion. A million stories walk right in front of your face. He loved seeing the people moving around talking in a hundred different languages.   Some folks shopping, some using the mall for the subway stop as they head out to Yonge and Dundas.

This, was part of why he fell in love with this city.

Then he saw her.

She walked out of one of the woman’s clothes stores. Jeff’s mouth just hung open. Hopefully his tongue stayed in his mouth. In a town full of beautiful women, this one was special. There was something about her that just took his breath away. She was petite with enormous eyes, her short dark hair and her ivory skin even more luminous in the white summer dress she had on.

“ I just want to get another look at her” he thought to himself as he doubled back, this time making sure that as she traveled south in the shopping centre that he was has heading north, he wanted to get one good look at her, just one more good look.

As she came out of yet another boutique, Jeff was looking right at her. She had a sweet smile on her face but didn’t even see him, which is good because he was obviously staring, awkwardly and probably disturbingly trying to make eye contact.

“Fuck” he muttered as he doubled back again to get another look, once again making sure he was heading in the right direction, “I keep doing this I’m going to get escorted from the Eaton Centre, Jesus Christ, my name will be in some kind of goddamn stalker book” he thought to himself.

As she passed again, he tried to once again make eye contact which did not happen, he wondered, is it possible she was getting more beautiful by the minute?

Jeff sat on a bench kind of outside of Sephora where she wandered into. She was casually looking at all the clothes, occasionally touching, ever so lightly, the fabric of things that got her attention. Every move she made was like it was made by an angel in Jeff’s eyes.

He was getting depressed.

“I am not the first lonely loser to literally stalk a beautiful woman, who is clearly out of my league in this building. Get some self respect man! Go the hell home and watch TV like a normal loser. “

Jeff sat on the bench looking for glimpses of the woman . He exhaled loudly.

“fuck” he mumbled.

She walked out of Sephora and headed down the mall. Jeff followed her, she was heading toward where an street exit was, so he figured one last look and then out the door he would go in search of a beer someplace.

She walked into Roots.

He walked in behind her. “I’m going to talk to her, what they worst thing that could happen? Arrest and embarrassment?   I’m going to talk to her.”

Jeff watched her looking at and holding up, fleece sweatshirts.   He wandered over to where she was. We he really going to do it. “I have nothing whatsoever to lose beside dignity, which I don’t have much of anyway.” He thought.

Clutching his Apple Store bag to tightly that the plastic started to make marks in his hand he walked over to her.

“What the hell are you doing shopping?” He said, immediately regretting the choice of words, the tone of those words, the shirt he had on, that his hair was a mess and his ever leaving his Roncesvalles apartment in the first place.

The look she gave him wasn’t really disdain, or disgust, that’s a positive. She actually smiled.

“Excuse me?” she said, with more than a hint of indignation at the stranger challenging her presence

“It’s Friday night, it’s a beautiful night, I was just noticing you. You are a beautiful woman, why in Gods name are you out shopping by yourself and not on some awesome patio having dinner with some awesome guy, you know a guy would be the opposite of me in the scale of awesomeness. The polar opposite, you know, if there was such a scale.”

“Ok here comes the word puke. She will be calling the cops any minute now.” He thought.

“Well, I don’t think that’s any of your business.” She said politely with a smile. Not the sweet smile from when Jeff was watching her walk down the mall, more of a dismissive smile. She went back to looking at the sweatshirts and fleeces.

“It’s not, sorry to bother you. Have a good night”

Jeff was embarrassed. “I’m a creepy stalker now” he mumbled to himself as he turned and headed to the exit and back out into the anonymity of the mall proper he started to dissect the words he used. Was the tone too aggressive, was it not aggressive enough? Did he scare her? He sure scared himself. Was he out of line? Jeff guessed that a sentence starting with “What the hell are you doing…” was not pick up line material. Was he trying to pick her up? WHO DOES THAT? “I just wanted to talk to her”   Whatever, what’s not to be, is not to be. She was way out of his league anyway.

Before he could get too far away he felt a tug on his arm. It was her.

“Wait, I really want to know. What business is it of yours what I am doing alone on a Friday? I don’t think I know you, do I?

“No, I don’t think we have ever met” Goddamn right we never met, you think I would have forgotten meeting you?

“So what business is it of yours what I do tonight, tomorrow or any night?”

She didn’t seem angry. She didn’t seem like she was accusing him of being inappropriate. She just wanted to know what his deal was.   Jeff was taken aback and suddenly more nervous than when he approached her.

“I don’t know, I just thought I would ask. You are really quite lovely and I know why I am walking around the mall, I have nothing better to do, but you, you are so beautiful I was just ..I don’t know..wondering, thought I would ask you”

“Well it’s a scary way to approach a stranger don’t you think? Everything you see in the news and you come up and ask me what the hell I think I am doing?

“Yeah, sorry about that, I didn’t mean to scare you” Jeff was fully aware that his natural conversational style was to have “a tone”.

“You didn’t, just..you know…try to be a bit more ..I guess friendly when accosting strangers ok Captain Curious”?

Captain Curious made Jeff laugh… “Ok, I will and I am sorry again if I was a pest.”

“ok then” she said with a chuckle and that sweet smile from before. “you have a good evening”

“you too” he said as she turned and headed down the mall. “Wait” he half shouted. “wait..one more question”

“yes?”

“Have dinner with me. Right now. Any one of these restaurants here, or nearby. I don’t care. I’ve already eaten anyway. Just let me buy you a meal and sit with me for an hour.   I’ve watched you walk from store to store and you’re the most beautiful woman, hell, human being I have ever seen and if you want, I can sit in the chair that makes it easy for you to get away if I creep you out or something, but if you could just….have dinner with me, at least I will have done that much, at least I got to spend a few minutes with you.  You don’t have to give me your number or anything like that. Just give me a chance, one hour, dinner, right now, anywhere you want”

Jeff heard the words in the air, the desperation. It sounded like his voice but he couldn’t believe that it was him saying them

She looked at him, looked him up and down. He isn’t a bad looking guy she thought, a bit disheveled., but not entirely unpresentable. He doesn’t look like a psycho.   He’s kind of charming really.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Jeffery Collins” he said, with more than a hint of childlike hope in his voice.

She looked at him for another minute, trying to remember any media reports of the police looking for a Jeffery Collins

“Ok Jeffery Collins, that restaurant there” she pointed City Grille, one floor up. “How’s that sound”

“Great, what’s your name though?”

“Baby steps Jeffery Collins, baby steps”