Finishing the thing I set out to do as fast as possible, I returned to the underwear store. From a first glance, I wasn't able to spot a familiar figure impatiently waiting for my sorry self, and my phone wasn’t ringing non-stop with wrathful messages either, so let’s think I was on time.

Me: [back]

I looked at a timestamp, so I was gone for about ten minutes.

Olivia: [Almost done]

Olivia: [Just need to decide which one I should buy tho]

Huh? Why was this even a question?

Me: [just take all of them, then]

Olivia: [Eh?]

Olivia: [I don’t need that many]

Olivia: [It would be a waste]

Olivia: [Some of them are pricey as well]

Me: [?]

Me: [if you like it]

Me: [it’s not a waste]

Me: [just buy it]

Olivia: […]

Olivia: [Fine]

***

We met at a check-out, where I paid for her purchase, before my girlfriend could second guess something again. I took the paper bag in one hand, and offered the second one to a still somewhat lost Olivia. As I thought, she actually started overthinking things again.

“Olivia,” I called out quietly. “While I appreciate the fact that you know the worth of money, it doesn’t mean I am against spoiling you.”

“But...” she still didn’t sound convinced.

We left the store and continued our aimless wandering. I didn’t know where we were going exactly, but the destination wasn't an important part.

“I won’t think any less of you for asking to buy you something,” I interrupted. “At the very least, not as long as you know how to appreciate the gesture, and not just take it as a given.”

“Wouldn’t that be too materialistic, though?” Olivia asked.

“Who said that I disliked that about you?” I replied with a question of my own.

My girlfriend lowered her face, falling into deep contemplation.

“You didn’t say you like this about me either,” was all she could answer with.

“Well, I have my interest in Olivia Torres as a whole. If you really happen to be a materialistic girl, then I find this interesting about you as well,” I told her my logic. “I can’t imagine you as one though, we spent a whole week together, and you still haven’t asked me to buy you a car.”

“You are joking, right?” My date sounded positively dumbfounded.

“I wish,” I sighed. “I wish.”

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Ugh, this conversation reminded me about how much I dropped my standards in the last few years, and how real… materialistic girls behaved like. In comparison, Olivia was a breath of fresh air.

“Would you, though?” The voice of my girlfriend brought me out of my grim musings.

"Sorry, I got a bit lost inside my head,” I apologized. “Care to repeat your question?”

“I was asking, strictly theoretically, would you buy me a car?” Olivia repeated her question.

“Do you have a driver’s license?” I asked back.

“Nope,” she answered.

“Then get one first, and then we can talk about this again,” I gave her my verdict. “And no, it’s not because you aren’t worth that much in my eyes.”

I felt her gaze, and turned my face towards her. Olivia had a thoughtful expression on her pretty face, her captivating eyes were full of curiosity, expectation and apprehension. Whatever was going in her mind, it was something important to her. Ugh, not another talk, please, I was so tired of them.

“Hey, Michael,” the girl who wanted me to be her boyfriend called out. “Can you tell me something?”

Her tone was neutral, but some sort of gut feeling told me that my hopes were dashed, and this was another of those loaded questions that were so frequent lately. I fought back the sigh, and gave her a gesture to continue.

“I guess this is coming out of nowhere,” she started. “But I really want to know. Who am I to you? Right now. And, please, don’t just hide behind your ‘interest’.”

Yeah, that definitely came out of nowhere. And even made me stumble a bit, trying to figure out the answer. Who is she to me right now?

“A person who I look forward to seeing every day,” I said, the first thing that came to mind. “Someone who I have gotten used to seeing when I wake up. Someone who I like to fall asleep beside.”

I could see how, with every sentence that left my mouth, her eyes widened more and more.

“Someone I would miss,” I shook my head. “A part of my life.”

Speaking of which, I halted my steps, and, putting the bag in my hand to the floor, used said now free hand to fish a thing out of my pocket.

“Here, I kind of forgot to do that earlier, this is for you.” I said, and put forward an open palm with a small thing on it.

If I thought earlier that her eyes couldn’t open any wider, I was wrong. The thing I held in my open hand was a duplicate key to my apartment. The poster I saw back in the underwear store was an ad for a locksmith.

“My life is bound to become much busier, so I wouldn’t be able to open the door for you every time you come back home. So, I decided that you need your own key,” I kept talking. “It’s nothing much, but…”

Olivia interrupted my words, dragging me into a crushing hug, followed by a deep kiss. I guess she really liked the gesture, huh. I hugged her back, ignoring the people around us. Envy is a sin.

***

The rest of our date was spent looking for ‘cute enough’, verbatim, keychains. To complete this holy quest, I let myself be dragged through every single souvenir, miscellaneous, and general store in this damned mall. Only the fact of how happy Olivia looked when we finally found one kept me from going insane. Well, as far as my sanity goes, of course.

Currently, we were sitting in the craft bakery, which was doubling as a small coffee shop. Much to the staff's displeasure, since it was fifteen minutes until their supposed closing time and Olivia was still happily playing with her new keychain, she definitely didn’t want to go anywhere yet.

I excused myself for a minute, and found the manager of the shift. Flashing him my diamond card, I asked him to ignore us in exchange for, let’s say, a small bonus for the whole crew. He asked if we would mind getting a bit deeper inside the store, to avoid questions from people outside, and if we are okay with them starting the cleaning while we are still here. We, in fact, didn’t mind at all, so everyone was happy.

I sipped my coffee, which actually was quite decent, and threw another glance toward Olivia, who was absentmindedly smiling, looking at the key.

“Do you like it that much?” I couldn’t hold my curiosity back anymore.

“Yep!” With an extra pop of ‘p’ was my answer. “I like it very, very much.”

“I guess there is a story?” I decided to dig a bit deeper. It wasn’t my usual style, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Yeah,” my girlfriend confirmed. “Wanna hear it?”

“If you want to share, then I’m interested to know,” I told her, my usual answer.

Olivia took her attention from the trinket she held in her hands and looked at me. Her gaze had a weird tranquility to it, as if she had long since come to peace with something really unpleasant. Or was beyond the point of care. This felt so wrong, considering how alive her eyes were usually, that my fists clenched reflexively.

“You don’t need to be angry, honey. It’s not that bad. Well, at least I've long since stopped thinking like it is,” she told me with a half-smile.

“If you need my help, just ask,” I had to tell her that. “And, please, don’t hesitate to do so, all the way to the point when it’s too late.”