For once in a long while, Tao allowed himself to be completely focused on happiness for a week. He went on a ridiculous camping trip with Baozi and Baekhyun. He updated his stock of leopard print clothing. He even started working out again.

Luckily, in the time since his horrid breakup, he hadn't completely lost his precious abs. How horrifying would that be?

Since he was no longer being supported by he-who-shall-not-be-named, Tao decided to get a decent job. It killed two birds with one stone. He got money to spend and was able to stay distracted for long periods of time. After applying in different stores around the mall, he had finally hit a jackpot with Bath&Body Works.

Upside? He always smelled awesomely delicious.

Downside? Sometimes he couldn't actually smell anything after work.

It had been a record two weeks since his last sight of y cashier man in the mall. He hadn't been actively looking for him either. While Tao was painfully aware of how close the stores were to each other. Practically right across from one another.

But Tao found it easier to organize the lotions and body sprays in rows of three a lot easier than looking out the shop window for him. Of course, Tao wouldn't admit to his deceitful eyes straying once or twice towards the other shop.

While in his usual mind wandering, he didn't notice a figure walking into the store until he heard a throat being cleared behind him. Tao jumped up quickly out of surprise and managed to knock his knee into the corner of a body wash display.

"Owwwww..." Tao tried not to hiss while rubbing his knee but found it hurt almost as much as being kicked in the junk.

Without waiting for the customer to say anything, he quickly regained his composure and turned around with his customary friendly smile.

"How may I help you today?" Tao was utterly floored when he came face with the y cashier from across the way.

He had to force his body not to tremble or shrink away as he pretended like this man hadn't overrun his mind for weeks on end.

"I'm looking for a gift for someone but I'm not exactly the best at these sorts of things..." The man trailed off as he scratched the back of his head a little sheepishly.

Tao tried to hold in his grimace as images of the beautiful woman taking bubble baths with Mr. y overran his mind. He quickly shook his head and decided to at least try and act professional, despite the war raging through his mind.

"Well, um, we have some lovely lotions and bath sets that recently came out. Their smell is practically an in a bottle!"

in a bottle? What. The. .

Mr. y's mouth twitched in amusement as he tried not to laugh at the obviously ridiculous statement.

"Ah, well, I do believe that might be a little much for a gift for my mother," he said, "but maybe a bath set of a more conservative nature?"

Tao quickly nodded and turned around to head to the bath set display. He could feel his face heating up and was mentally kicking himself for being an idiot.

He reached the display quickly and managed to put himself into full business mode. He leaned down and pursed his lips as he searched out motherly gifts.

Strawberry Sorbei? Too seductive.

Mocha Madness? Too ooh la la.

Grape Grandeur? Ah ha!

He grabbed the plum purple packaging and, with a killer smile, displayed it to Mr. y with pride.

"Grape Grandeur. Not too y, just the right amount of class with a lovely feminine color to go with it. Do you think she'd like this one?" Tao said, once again being hit in the soul with how attractive the man was. His height combined with his toned body and light colored hair all created a wave of pure iness that few could pull off.

"Perfect. Do you gift wrap?" Mr. y said with an adorable smile.

"We do! I'll get this rung up and wrapped for you in a jiffy."

A jiffy? Seriously? Why not wear granny glasses, a grey wig, a housecoat and call him sonny while you're at it.

Once again letting out a small sigh of embarrasment, Tao headed behind the register to ring up the order and begin his gift wrapping.

After taking his credit card and getting the paying process over with quickly, Tao got started on his favorite part of the job. He enjoyed meticulously selecting out wrapping paper and ribbon and making it prettier than the product itself. Something you'd hate to open for the sheer prettiness of the wrapping detail.

He furrowed his brows in concentration and begain the process of perfectly wrapping the gift without any visible imperfections to the paper. It didn't take more than a minute and soon enough he was already on the ribbon selection. To go with the sparkly silver and lavender paper, he chose a deep silver and maroon ribbon to help offset the colors. After taking a sharp edge of the scissors to curl the ribbon ends, he finished with a triumphant grin and presented it to Mr. y.

"What do you think?" Tao asked, a small splinter of worry prickling his mind at the thought of him disliking the wrapping job.

Luckily, Tao wasn't disappointed. Mr. y gave him a large smile and grabbed it carefully.

"It's perfect. Thank you so much. I'll be sure to come back again just for the pleasure of watching you wrap another gift." And with a small wink, he turned around and left the store without a backwards glance.

Tao stood there with wide eyes for a few moments before deflating from being so tense throughout the entire transaction. What a luck of the draw for him to get a close up look of such a fine speciman of a man.

He quickly got out his phone and sent a message to both Baozi and Baekhyun telling them everything. Even the embarrasing parts. Once again he felt his face flame as he remembered the idiotic things he managed to let escape his mouth in the presence of a Godly man.

Even then though, he just shook his head and let out a small laugh as he felt lighter than he had in months.

Maybe he'd allow himself a few guilt free peeks at the man every now and then. Nothing wrong with that.

Right?

Ok, short chapter is short. I'm sorry! But I felt like doing this one before my BaeRi story and I have class in like 20 minutes and I'm sitting at the college in the lab like some escaped convict looking over my shoulder even though nothing was all that dirty in this chapter.

Miss me? Sorry about the long wait. I got transferred at work, finally, and am back in school like a good kid. But I'm actually giving myself time to write stories due to some other-site motivation.

Anyways, I hope you like this chapter despite it's lame shortness. I love you guys! Thanks for staying with this story even though the author is incredibly fickle. ♥