Twenty minutes later, Jim found himself in the parking garage at the Mall at Steamtown. It was now just past six in the morning. He had been up for all of two hours and already felt like it was the end of the day. The end of a very long day.
As Jim and Pam approached the mall entrance, he felt relief coarse through his body. There was nobody lined up outside the mall, certainly that was a good sign, right?
“Well, at least we won’t have to wait outside.” he said as they walked through the automatic doors.
“That’s because the mall opened at 5:30.” Pam said matter-of-factly. She pulled out a sheet of paper from her pocket. “Now here’s your half of the shopping list. I’ll meet you at the food court in two hours-then we’ll get breakfast.”
“My half of the list?” Jim asked.
“Yeah...for our Christmas shopping.”
Jim looked at the paper Pam had handed him. He had at least 12 or 13 items. “So you’re sending me off alone again? I thought this was supposed to be a bonding experience.”
“I never said anything about it being a bonding experience.” Pam replied, fishing out her own half of the list.
“Well, I think it’s something we should discuss...” Jim started to argue, but was interrupted.
“Jim, the faster we get all this stuff the faster we can leave, and the faster we’ll be back home and you can sleep.”
Jim let out a heavy sigh. “Ok, let’s get this over with.”
Pam gave Jim a pat on the shoulder. “See you in two hours! Good luck!” And with that she headed off on her own shopping mission, leaving Jim on his own once again.
“Ok, let’s see where we’re going here...” Jim said to himself as he unfolded his list. He was relieved to see that Pam had at least given him very specific instructions. The first line of the list read:
Scarf and glove set/ Old Navy
That seemed easy enough. The mall was going to be a piece of cake compared to Target.
At the entrance of Old Navy, he was greeted by a very tired-looking teenage girl wearing a Santa hat. “Welcome to Old Navy” she said, handing him what appeared to be a breakfast bar. Not really trusting any kind of food handed out at a clothing store, Jim stashed the bar in his pocket and entered the store.
It was at this moment that Jim realized that his mission was going to be anything but easy. The main interior of the mall may have not seemed crowded, but the stores themselves were another story. In the front of the store, a large display of holiday gift items had been set up, attracting most of the attention and blocking his access to the rest of the store. But, as far as Jim could see, there were no scarves and no gloves.
And, just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, Jim heard a familiar high-pitched voice behind him.
“Oh my God! Jim! What are you doing here?” Jim turned around just in time to see none other than Kelly running at him.
“Of course...” he muttered to himself, before greeting Kelly. “Hi...what are you doing here?” It was a stupid question. He knew exactly what Kelly was doing there. He hadn’t compared Pam to her before they left the house for no reason.
“Are you kidding? Jim, this is like the best day to shop ever! Everything is so cheap! Well, not cheap, because that would be tacky but you still end up saving so much money...hey, what are you doing here?”
Jim held up his list. “I’m here with Pam. She sent me on a mission. Several missions, actually.”
Kelly grabbed the paper from his hands. “Oh, let me see...have you gotten any of this stuff yet?”
“Nope.” Jim shook his head. “And actually, I should probably get back to looking for scarves and gloves...”
“Oh, I can help you! It will be fun! I’ll be your black Friday helper! Come on!” Before Jim could protest, Kelly had grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the center of the store. “All the accessories are over here...does she want the scarves and gloves that come separately or the ones that come together?”
Jim looked around the accessories section, amazed at just how many different varieties of scarves and gloves there were. There were racks of scarves and gloves, some being sold separately and some boxed up together. Some had stripes, some had snowflakes, some had sparkles. “How does she expect me to do this?” Jim thought out loud.
“Well, that’s why you have me!” Kelly chimed in. “Now let’s see...that list of yours says “set” so we’re obviously going for the boxes...is this for a guy or a girl?”
Jim shrugged his shoulders. “No idea.”
“Well, why not? How can you not know? It’s your list!” Kelly exclaimed.
“Actually...it’s Pam’s list.” This realization hit Jim kind of suddenly. He wasn’t doing his own Christmas shopping-he was doing Pam’s. That was a such a, well, couple thing to do. Even though they had been dating for over six months, he still had moments like this where it was hard to believe.
Just then, a very tired-looking Darryl appeared at Kelly’s side.
“Oh, hi! Look who’s here!” Kelly said, gesturing to Jim. Darryl made sympathetic eye contact with Jim before turning to Kelly.
“You about ready to get out of here?” he asked.
“But Darryl, we’ve got to help Jim!” Kelly said, her hands full of the boxed glove sets. “He’s so clueless about this.”
“No, really...it’s ok.” Jim said. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
Kelly shrugged. “Ok, if you say so.” As she turned and headed to the exit, Darryl lagged behind for a moment.
“So where’s Pam?” he asked.
“How did you know...”
“Because I don’t know one man who would voluntarily get up at the crack of dawn to come and buy scarves. Or blankets.” Darryl said, holding up the rolled up throw blankets he carried in each hand. “Good luck, man.”
Jim laughed, a bit relieved to see that he wasn’t alone. He grabbed the first boxed gift set he saw and headed for the cash registers. As he waited in line, he saw Kelly and Darryl a few lines over and for the first time that day he felt a pang of sympathy. Surely, the only thing worse than being dragged black Friday shopping by your girlfriend was being dragged black Friday shopping by your girlfriend who happened to be Kelly Kappour.
Chapter End Notes:
Come on...how could I set a story in the mall without including Kelly?
Next up-see what else is on Jim's list!
Next up-see what else is on Jim's list!
