Page 51 of A Flighty Fake Boyfriend
We found what I was looking for down a stairway in a cool, brick courtyard surrounded by tiny shops. It reminded me a little of entering a Middle Eastern caravanserai. Colorful, one-of-a-kind scarves hung in one boutique, and hand-crafted leather goods were featured in the window of another.
The one I wanted carried jewelry made from precious and semiprecious stones that evoked both modern and ancient design sensibility. Unlike the other stores, this one wasn’t crowded with wares. The walls had been painted a deep ocean blue, and the floors were black marble. LED lights from the ceiling highlighted simple black plinths on top of which related jewelry items might be set on driftwood or in ceramic bowls. New age music floated in the spaces between.
The shopkeeper invited us in, offering Epic a place to put down our packages. She was young, blonde, and dressed all in black. She told us they were her pieces, this was her showroom, and she worked out of her home. I felt Epic’s eyes on me as we walked around the store, listening to her low-voiced answers to my questions about her work.
“What I try to do is evoke the feel of ancient ideas without directly copying them,” she said.
“Your pieces are lovely. I noticed them when we walked by earlier, and I wanted to explore the shop further.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m particularly drawn to your inlay work. I’m looking for earrings. Something understated that a man might wear—”
“Ryan, you really don’t need to buy me earrings.”
“What if I want to?” I asked.
A delicate blush crested his cheeks. “They don’t have to be art pieces.”
“Don’t worry.” He liked the idea; it was probably the expense that made him balk. I had expected to spend a large chunk of my savings on the hotel, but Laurie’s machinations took care of that. “I’m good for it.”
“But—”
“I want to buy you earrings. Will you let me choose them? It would make me very happy.”
He tilted his head. “All right. Just don’t go crazy.”
“You don’t want giant dangly pearls?”
He rolled his eyes.
“What are you wearing to the wedding again?”
“I have a black vintage tux. White shirt, black tie.”
“Bow tie?”
“Regular necktie.”
“Mm.” I turned back to the shop owner. “What do you think?”
She looked at Epic. “What’s your birth month?”
“October.”
“Opals…perfect.” She returned with a handful of black boxes, each bearing earrings in geometric shapes with opal inlay.
My instant favorite was a pair in black onyx about six millimeters round with an inlay of ocean blue and milky white opal.
“I created these,” the owner said, “to be reminiscent of a taijitu, the symbol for yin and yang. Rather than nesting commas, I placed the white and dark opals in the shape of a lunar eclipse. The two earrings are different, see? On this one the light overlays the dark, but on the other, the dark overlays the light.”
“I like them very much.” I stepped behind Epic and held the box next to his ear so he could see them in the mirror. “What do you think?”
Epic sighed. “They’re amazing.”
“You think so?”
“I love them.” He leaned toward me to whisper. “But they look really expensive. Don’t you think we should look for something a little less…high end?”
