Sunday

Sunday

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! This day is my typical one day off a week that I spend quality face time with my partner that I only usually see for 3 hours after she gets home from work during the week. But sadly this past Sunday I was at Love Lips. Tired and wanting to be home I wasn’t as lively as usual. The store opens at 11am and from the moment I opened it was dead. I was worried that I wasn’t going to have anyone today because of the cold and over-cast Sunday. So when the Love Lip’s door jingled and a guy wrapped up in a red hoodie came in to look at DVD’s I was happy that I had at least one person looking around. I was keeping an eye on a guy looking at DVD’s when the Love Lips chime signaled another person. I turned to an older man with salt and pepper hair, tall but bent in a hump, and so much Ravens garb I was pretty sure he had Ravens undies too. “Good morning!” I said as cheerfully as I could with how tired I was.

“Good morning” He smiled as he moved to the men’s lingerie section, “Wow you have a lot more than the other Love Lips store”

Rossville? They’re such a big store, I don’t see how we have more but ok! This is a good topic keeper.  “The one on Pulaski?”

“No, the one on Eastern Avenue”

“Oh, I didn’t know we had one there” I really don’t think we do but I have a lot of people who swear up and down there is a Love Lips sister store in that area.

“Oohh look at the purple” He said softly as he moved closer to the counter and he picked up a purple mesh thong for men.

Men’s lingerie scares me, the idea of stuffing the male parts into a tiny basket looking thong has always sounded so very unattractive. But I know it does something for some people out there so I can’t say anything. But you can’t help remember this nauseating fact when an old man is looking for a thong for himself. So I left him to browse through the other colors. After a few more minutes he started to walk around the store, pausing to take time to look at everything we had individually. I made myself busy by straightening out some things on the counter. After 5 minutes or so he came up towards the counter again. “Are you looking for anything specific?” I was really hoping he’d buy something, even if it was something small so I wasn’t completely unproductive money wise.

“Nah, just came to look, all these stores are all so different” He said softly, half to himself and half to me.

“Yeah, we all carry similar items but we like to keep it different” I smiled as he walked hunched over towards the men’s thongs again.

He picked up a white thong and checked the tag. I was zoned out when I heard him say in a very old man-ish sounding voice, “Mmmm Canada” I looked at him wondering if the ‘Mmmm” noise was a dislike noise or a surprised noise. As if he heard my thoughts he looked at me and said, “It’s made in Canada. Everything’s usually made in China or Mexico” He set the white pair he had been reading from down and checking the purple thong’s tag and looked up at me with a triumphant look, “Made in the USA” He handed it to me and nodded, signaling it was now his once he paid for it. “I like purple…” He said softly again. I rang the thong up and he moved slowly over to where he could pay and as I was waiting for the receipt to print he said with a distasteful voice, “You sure have……interesting tattoos, girl.”

I bit back a sarcastic tone and said politely, “Yes I do, they all mean something special to me”

“Your shirt is almost Ravens colors” He said changing the topic onto something he could understand.

I was wearing a purple and green colored tank top (yes, I LOVE cold weather so I was not wearing a sweater) but not in honor of the Ravens. I have never been big into sports so I said, “Yeah, I’m not a big foot ball fan. But it’s always nice to hear when we win.” I said smiling as I handed him his receipt.

He fixed me with a hard look and leaned forward towards me. “Not your fault”

“Excuse me?” I’m confused.

“It’s your Daddy’s fault for not making you a football girl” He nodded with a solemn face like I was the only black kitten in a litter of white kittens. Like he wanted to help me but couldn’t.

I smiled politely and said, “Have a good day, sir” As he left I thought about my Father trying to make me like anything I didn’t want to. HAHAHA!!! Yeah right….