“So where do you want to go to buy your mom her gifts?” Tristan asked as they left the house. Not knowing for sure what all was in the grocery order, he’d decided it was better to make the Christmas shopping stop first. The cold might be damaging to any fresh produce she’d ordered.
“The dollar store,” Timothy announced from the back seat. “It’s where Lisa always takes me.”
Tristan had no idea if one dollar store franchise was better than another, so he just turned in the direction of the one he remembered seeing most recently. He hadn’t been to one himself, at least not in the past decade or so. His mom might have taken him there as a kid, but he had no clear memory of it.
Once inside the store, Tristan stood looking around at the aisles and the abundance of product. “Do you know what you want to buy for your mom?”
Timothy nodded and took his hand, pulling him in the direction of one aisle in particular. It was obvious that he’d been there before. “I want to buy her some makeup. Maybe some nail polish and something for her hair.”
Thinking back to the total of the coins, Tristan wasn’t sure that Timothy’s money would stretch to cover all of that. He quickly realized the error in his thinking when he saw the prices of the items there.
He didn’t know much about makeup, but he was fairly certain Makayla—who wore the stuff regularly—wouldn’t have purchased her cosmetics there. He’d heard his sisters and sisters-in-law talk about makeup occasionally, and he’d never gotten the idea that makeup was a cheap investment.
Pulling out his phone, he opened a text to Makayla. Before typing a message, he asked, “What makeup were you thinking of buying your mom?”
“Lipstick or mascara,” Timothy said as he leaned forward to peer at the items hanging from metal pegs. “She likes eyeshadow too, though. Do you think these are nice colors?”
Tristan looked at the small plastic case that showed a variety of blue shades. “Blue is nice.”
What is a brand of makeup that you would recommend?
“I don’t know if Maman would prefer red or pink lipstick,” the boy murmured as he plucked one of each off the pegs.
Tristan returned the eyeshadow to its place, hoping Timothy might forget about it. He’d never seen his sisters wearing those colors, so he was going to assume that Shayna might not wear them either.
Makayla: Uh…why? Are you buying makeup for someone special? If so, you might do better with a gift card. Most women like to choose their own shades and formulas.
Just recommend a brand pls. I’ll give you details later.
Makayla: Geeez! Touchy much? Fine. But I will be hearing those details later. In the meantime… MAC or Dior if you want to splurge. Revlon, Cover Girl, L’Oreal, Maybelline if you want to go more affordable.
TY
Makayla: Don’t forget. Details had better be forthcoming.
Tristan closed out the text app without replying then opened a browser app. He skipped the first two names she’d given him and focused on the others. It didn’t take long for him to realize that if Timothy did want to buy several things for his mother, they might have to include blue eyeshadow and red lipstick purchased at the dollar store.
He was torn then, wanting to help the boy buy the very best for his mother, but likely the gift would mean more to Shayna knowing that Timothy had chosen each item and paid for it himself. So he did his best to steer Timothy to colors that might be what his mother would wear, given his limited knowledge of makeup.
The most interaction he’d had with makeup in his life was the one time Makayla had talked him into letting her practice on him in exchange for her computer time. Back then, he’d been willing to do pretty much anything for more time on the computer. These days, he was quite a bit more discerning. He was pretty sure that even now, Makayla was spilling the beans about his cosmetic queries to the other ladies in the family.
“They don’t have any color except blue for the eyeshadow,” Timothy said, grabbing the plastic packet Tristan had returned to the peg. “I think I’ll get it for her.”
“Stay right here,” Tristan said as he rested his hand on Timothy’s shoulder. “I’m going to get a basket to put your things in.”
By the time he found a basket and returned to Timothy’s side, the boy had the eyeshadow and a couple of other items clutched to his chest with one hand while he looked through the nail polish color offerings.
“Here. Put the things you’ve chosen into the basket.”
Timothy carefully put the three items into the basket Tristan held then turned his attention back to the nail polish. He would have thought picking a nail polish color would be easier, but there weren’t just shades of pinks and reds. There were now blues, blacks, purples, greens, and yellows.
“I like the yellow because it’s like sunshine,” Timothy said as he chose a bright yellow bottle. He looked up at Tristan and grinned. “It’s like she’s wearing a little bit of sunshine on her toes.”
Well, when he put it like that, Tristan could hardly argue with him. Who wouldn’t want a little sunshine in the middle of winter? So the bright yellow nail polish joined the bright blue eyeshadow in the basket.
Then they moved a bit further down the aisle to where the hair stuff was and once again, Tristan was out of his depth. He didn’t even object when Timothy chose a bright yellow bow for Shayna, claiming it would match her nail polish.
When Timothy turned back in the direction of the make-up, Tristan urged him in another direction. “Why don’t we see what’s in the other aisles?”
Together they left that aisle, and when the next one held candy, Timothy insisted that Shayna would like chocolate. Tristan followed behind the boy as he walked down the middle of the aisle, looking at the candy that was offered. It seemed he knew what he was looking for because as soon as he spotted a particular chocolate bar, he zeroed in on it and picked one up to put in the basket.
“Is that all you want?” Tristan asked.
Timothy shook his head. “One more thing.”
Tristan didn’t want to add any more cheap makeup to the basket, so he continued to steer Timothy away from that aisle. They found an aisle with shampoo and other bath stuff that Timothy seemed interested in.
“My mom likes baths,” he said as he pulled a bottle of bubble bath off the shelf. He unscrewed the top and took a whiff. He screwed up his nose and put the cap back on before returning it to the shelf.
He did that with a couple more before he found one that apparently smelled good to him. When he handed it to Tristan, he looked at the label. Strawberry Shortcake. He double checked to make sure that it really was bubble bath and not something else.
Maybe if he’d had more long-term girlfriends over the years or maybe even more sisters than brothers, he’d be knowledgeable about stuff like this. Makeup. Nail polish. Hair bows. Bubble bath. None of it had really interested him over the years, so he hadn’t paid much attention to it.
“I’m done,” Timothy announced after having chosen the bubble bath.
“Okay. Sounds good.” They began to walk to the registers at the front of the store, passing all the Christmas paraphernalia. “Do you have wrapping paper?”
“I dunno.” He stopped by the gift bags and paper. “Maybe Maman does?”
“Do you just want a gift bag for it all?” Tristan asked. “Or do you want to wrap each item individually?”
“Wrap them,” Timothy said without hesitation. He reached out to touch a roll of paper with green wreaths on a red background. “I want her to have more than just one thing to open on Christmas morning.” He pulled the roll from among the rest of the paper. “She does that for my presents too.”
Tristan knew that what Timothy had in the basket plus the paper added up to more than the money the boy had in his pocket. Unfortunately, he hadn’t brought any cash with him, so he’d have to use his debit card for the rest.
“Let’s get some tape too so you’ll be able to wrap it all without asking your mom for stuff, okay?”
Timothy nodded, so they went in search of that. Then Tristan picked up a few random things to add to Timothy’s in the basket. When they got up to the cash register, Timothy carefully put his items on the counter then dug his coin purse out. After the cashier had rung through his items, Timothy seemed to realize he didn’t have enough money.
“Just add my items to his,” Tristan said. “He’ll pay in cash, and I’ll pay the balance with my debit.”
The relief on the boy’s face was immediate as he waited for the cashier to ring through Tristan’s items. After she gave the total, he gave her his money then Tristan tapped his card on the debit machine. The cashier put Timothy’s items in one small bag and Tristan’s in another. He gave her a smile of thanks before taking Timothy’s hand as they headed for the doors leading back out into the cold.
They made a stop at Walmart to pick up the items on Timothy’s list for the science fair project then they headed for the grocery store. It didn’t take long to find the special spots reserved for the order pickup. Once there, he called the number on the sign and gave the information Shayna had instructed him to. They had to wait a few minutes, but then someone came out pushing a cart with a few bags of groceries on it.
After they’d unloaded them into the back of his car, Tristan took a minute to read over the bill to see if there was anything more he should pick up. Deciphering what each item was took a little time, but he was quickly able to see that the only fruit she’d bought was a bag of apples, and there was definitely no bacon.
He moved his car from the online order pick up spots to another spot closer to the entrance to the store. Hopefully the apples would be okay in the cold for the time it would take to pick up a few more things.
“We’re going inside?” Timothy asked when Tristan opened the door to let him out.
“Yep. I want to pick up a couple of things.”
“Cool!” Timothy slid out of the car and took Tristan’s hand. “I like going inside. We don’t do it very often.”
They quickly moved through the parking lot, heading for the sliding doors that led into the store. Tristan plucked a basket from a stack near the entrance then joined the crowd of people who had all come to get their groceries on a Saturday afternoon.
“What’s your favorite fruit?” Tristan asked since that was the section nearest to where they stood.
“Bananas. But I like strawberries too.”
“What about your mom?”
“Strawberries. Especially if they’re covered in chocolate.” Tristan looked down at Timothy’s smiling face. “For her birthday one time, Lisa brought strawberries and chocolate. We melted the chocolate and then dipped the strawberries in it. It was so yummy.”
“It sounds like it would be,” Tristan agreed as he guided Timothy over to where there were stacks of clear plastic containers holding the red fruit. He picked one up, turning it over to make sure all the fruit looked fresh. After placing two containers in the basket, he moved over to where the bananas were stacked. “I think we need to get some syrup, too. It looked like we used almost all of it up at lunch.”
“Yeah. We have more pancakes, so we need more syrup.”
It took a little while, but they finally managed to find the syrup. This wasn’t the store he usually shopped in, so Tristan wasn’t sure where things were. Once they had the syrup, he went in search of bacon. Timothy’s excited reaction when he realized that Tristan was buying bacon for them, made it all worthwhile. He just hoped that Shayna didn’t mind cooking it for the boy.
Remembering what Timothy had said about chocolate and strawberries, Tristan pulled out his phone.
Hey! What kind of chocolate is best to melt? Like to dip strawberries in?
Sammi: Chocolate dipped strawberries? Seriously? Is there something you’re not telling us?
No. Asking for a friend.
The laughing with tears emoji she sent back told him what she thought of his response.
Sammi: That’s the oldest line in the book. A friend, eh? A female friend?
Just tell me what the best kind of chocolate is to melt? Just regular Hershey’s or what?
Sammi: Tell me her name & I’ll tell you.
Tristan let out a frustrated sigh. NVM I’ll just Google it.
Which is what he should have done in the first place—with both this question and the one he’d asked Makayla about makeup. He was a computer geek, and yet he hadn’t used the resource to help himself out.
Sammi: Awww… C’mon! Just tell me her name.
Tristan closed the text window and once again opened the browser. It only took a minute for him to get the information he needed, and all without having to name names.
He found the candy aisle and picked up a package with four chocolate bars in it. Then he picked up another one. If it was too much for the strawberries, they could always eat them straight up.
“Chocolate too?” Timothy asked, looking as if Christmas had come early. And maybe it had. “Or is that for you?”
“Nope. It’s for you guys.” He moved them to the side of the aisle to let someone with a cart past. “Is there anything else you think you need?”
Timothy’s brows pulled together. “Can we…” Then he gave a shake of his head. “No, I don’t think there’s anything else.”
“What is it?” Tristan asked. “What do you want?”
Timothy was obviously at war with himself. Afraid to ask for more. “Maybe…chocolate milk?”
“Sure. We can get that too.” Dodging carts and people, they made their way to the dairy section. Timothy’s eyes grew round when he saw Tristan put the large jug into the basket. “Do you think you can drink all of that?”
He nodded vigorously, and Tristan had no doubt that he’d polish off every drop or die trying. With that in mind, he checked the expiration date to make sure they’d have enough time to drink it all. Something told him that Shayna wouldn’t want to have to throw it out.
“Anything else?” Tristan asked.
This time Timothy shook his head without hesitation, obviously deciding not to push his luck even though Tristan would have happily bought him anything in the store. Tristan just hoped that they could sneak the stuff into the house without Shayna knowing. She could discover it all later, after he’d left.
After they finished at the store, Tristan drove back to the townhouse where he backed into the driveway so that he could unload the groceries.
“Is there someplace down here where we could put the stuff you bought for your mom?” Tristan asked before they got out.
“Yep. We can put it in Lisa’s office.”
They got out and began to take the bags out of the back of the SUV. Once inside the house, Timothy showed Tristan where the small office was. There was a tiny desk along with a bookcase and a chair, but otherwise, it was empty.
“I don’t think Maman will come down here. I’ll just put my stuff in the closet, and then I can wrap it sometime before Christmas.”
“Sounds like a plan, my man.” Tristan held out his fist and grinned when Timothy bumped it with his much smaller one. “Now let’s get the rest of the groceries unloaded.”
It didn’t take too long to get the rest of the bags out of the car and upstairs to the kitchen. Timothy was a big help, not just in carrying some of the bags but also in putting away the groceries they contained. It was obvious he’d done that a time or two before.
“Do you want to check on your mom?” Tristan suggested once they were done putting the groceries away. The strawberries were hidden behind jugs of milk while the chocolate bars were tucked in a cupboard behind a box of cereal.
When Timothy disappeared up the stairs, Tristan pulled his phone out to check what had been causing the constant notifications he’d been receiving and ignoring. Not that he really had any doubts.
Sammi: Are you really ignoring me? Like seriously?
Sammi: Maybe I need to bring in reinforcements… ; )
Tristan let out a sigh when he saw that after those two messages from Sammi, there was nothing more, but he still had more notifications on a group chat.
Makayla: First makeup questions and now questions about strawberries and chocolate? We definitely need some answers.
Sammi: Let’s just start with a name.
Sammi: A first initial?
Makayla: I think he’s ignoring us. Maybe it’s time to bring in the big guns.
Tristan wondered how they didn’t have the details already, considering Danica and Sierra could give them some idea of who he was asking these questions on behalf of. He figured it was only a matter of time, but for now, silence was his best defense. Silence had always been his best defense.