Chapter 3: Strategies

I knocked on the door for the third time and I was already getting impatient. When my friend Rose finally opened the door, I smiled at her, trying to hide my irritation. I would have wanted to go straight to my aunt Emma’s house, but I had already plans with Rose and so I would have to wait until the afternoon to see my beautiful aunt and her wonderful feet.

- Hello Jennifer, come in for a moment. I finish getting ready and then we can go - she told me, heading toward the living room.

Rose was a very pretty girl, had bobbed brown hair and beautiful doe eyes. That day she was wearing a new white sleeveless t-shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. I noticed that she was without shoes and from then on, I lost the attention of all what was around me, my eyes fixed on her white socks. I still could not understand why suddenly I was so attracted to feet, I saw those of Rose hundreds of times and not once they had effect on me but now I could not stop staring at them.

- I hope that the queue is not so long, I can not wait to put my hands on the new iPhone - she said and I had to scramble to look away from her feet and answer, to avoid arousing suspicion.

- We will have to wait at least three hours. You bet - I said

- Three hours pass quickly, then I suppose that there will be many guys, so... - she winked at me and picked up a pair of sneakers that were on the floor next to the couch. Obviously before I had interrupted her while she was putting her shoes on. When a foot was almost inside a shoe, we heard Rose’s mother call her daughter from upstairs.

- What do you want mom? - Rose yelled taking off her shoe from her left foot and running up the stairs, leaving me alone in the living room.

Her shoes attracted my eyes like a magnet and despite all my efforts I just could not resist. After looking for a moment to the stairs and hearing that mother and daughter were still arguing heatedly upstairs, I took the shoe that Rose had almost put on and I smelled quickly. The shoes had been bought recently and they had been used only few times, so that came to my nostrils just a slight smell of leather. The voices had stopped, and I hastened to put the shoe in its place while Rose was rapidly going down the stairs.

As we left the house of my friend, I was too distracted to hear her endless chatter, too busy trying to understand what was happening to me in those days, what was pushing me to do things so much reckless.

As I predicted, the queue was already long when we arrived at the shop and I began to fear that Rose would not have had her new smartphone at the end of the day. Rose was right, there were plenty of guys waiting with us but my friend had not foreseen that most of them were just nerds in search of their new tech toy. Along the first places in the line I saw even William Johnson, the guy against whom I bumped into the other day. As I watched in disgust his long nose and his freckled face, I came up with an idea.

- I’ll be right back - I said to Rose

- Where are you going? - she asked amazed, seeing me run forward.

I passed through the crowd with difficulty and it took almost a minute to reach William who jumped when he saw me.

- Hey, hello - I said smiling

- Um ... hello - stammered the boy, who would never have imagined that a pretty girl would ever spoken to him in that way.

- Look, I wanted to apologize for how I acted the other day. I was rude, it was my fault, I should not yell at you and certainly I should not kick your book -

- Um ... ok - he said more and more groggy

- So can you forgive me? - I asked with puppy eyes

- Of course, I should have been more careful - he said embarrassed

I was by now sure I had him in my hands so I changed the subject and I said:

- Are you also in line to buy the new iPhone? -

William adjusted his glasses with his finger and answered my banal question with a simple - Yes -

- You’re lucky, I unfortunately have to wait a few months - I lied, in fact I had already pre-ordered the phone a long time before and it would arrived at home in a few days. Then I added - I’m just here to keep company to my friend but we arrived a bit late and I doubt that she will be able to buy it today. It’s a pity, she wanted it so much but it was my fault if we are arrived late -

I stood a moment to look at the boy in the eye, hoping that everything went as planned. After a few seconds in fact he replied:

- Call your friend, we can say that we are together -

- Unfortunately I think that people here would not be very happy if someone cut the line in that way. Maybe we could do differently, would you be so kind to swap our places? So no one will complain -

I saw that the boy hesitated, he must have been there for many hours to be at the first places of the line, and if he exchanged his place with our, almost certainly, he would not be able to buy the phone that day.

I gave him another smile and he finally gave in:

- All right - he said almost with tears in his eyes as I was already waving my hand to Rose inviting her to reach me. My hearth pounded while I was thinking that with that move I was ever closer to go to my aunt’s house.

An hour after, we came out of the store with the new phone in the hands of my friend, William was still lined up almost in the same place where I had left him. The boy, when he saw me, gave me a smile but I kept walking, pretending not to have seen that poor nerd who had thought had any chance with a girl like me.

When I got home it was almost three in the afternoon, I hurried to take my suitcase and went back into the street where Rose was waiting for me with her BMW

- How come your mother does not want to buy you a car? The money is not a problem for her - she said

- Who knows. It’s probably just another way to show me her contempt - I said so coldly that she refrained from asking more questions.

My aunt’s house was across town, as if she had tried to stay as far away as possibile from my mother and it took us almost half an hour to arrive there, also because of the traffic. Rose greeted me, still thanking me for having been in line with her. I walked over to the gate and I rang the intercom. When the gate opened automatically, I dragged my suitcase through the driveway and I saw that Aunt Emma was waiting for me outside the front door. The woman hugged me warmly as if she were very happy to see me and I could not help but smell again her perfume that was less intense than the last time. As I followed my aunt inside the house, my eyes fell at her feet and I saw that she was wearing black flats that allow her to walk around house with the same comfort as a pair of slippers. I was so distracted watching her feet that I didn’t realize that my aunt had suddenly stopped and I slammed hard against her and losing the balance, I fell to the ground. In my mind I thanked the expensive Persian carpet that had cushioned the fall and almost I didn’t hear what Aunt Emma was saying to me: