Page 59 of Her Frozen Heart

BLACK FRIDAY, FOUR WEEKS EARLIER

Kesha

Kesha glared down at her boyfriend, tapping her foot. Shoppers trudged along like zombies mindlessly looking for the next deal. “Dion.”

He huffed and looked up at her with a dramatic sigh. “What?”

“You really going to sit here while I shop, with all these people around?”

“Babe, the reason I’m not shopping with you is because of all these people.” He grinned up at her, but she refused to smile back. Dion had promised to spend the afternoon shopping with her, but he’d only gone into the candy shop and the pizza joint where they’d had lunch. He probably thought she’d rather shop without him since all he did was complain about the people and the prices, but they’d come to the mall together, and she hated dodging the crowds by herself.

“’Sides, I thought you were going to Victoria’s Secret to get something for me.” Dion wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“I’m going because I need new bras.” Dion had been sulky ever since Kesha told him that she planned on going to Mankato State next year instead of the community college he currently attended, even though he insisted that he understood her decision. “I thought you wanted to spend time with me today.”

“I do,” Dion said. “You wanted to come to the mall, not me.”

“Because today is the only time I can afford anything here.” She flipped her braids over her shoulder and glared down at her boyfriend, who’d already started a new round of Diablo on his phone. “Whatever, D. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

“Just text me when you’re done shopping and I’ll meet you,” Dion said.

Kesha grumbled her agreement and left him sitting with his stupid phone, playing his dumb game. She dodged a mother and daughter carrying at least ten bags between them and tried to stay with the flow of the foot traffic, but people wandered aimlessly, gawking at this store and that, half of them on their phones and the other half barely awake. Dion had tried to tell her they should get to the Mall of America earlier, since it opened at five a.m. on Black Friday, but Kesha wasn’t about to spend her only free weekend until Christmas bleary-eyed and exhausted. By the time they got there and Dion found a place to park, the mall was as full as she’d ever seen it. He grouched about the lack of parking spaces and how far away they’d eventually had to park, and he complained about the parents dragging along little kids to get bored and bratty. The only thing he hadn’t complained about was the candy store and lunch.

Kesha adjusted her bag on her shoulder and kept an eye out for the lingerie store. As if she was going to buy something special to wear for Dion! And if she were, he definitely wasn’t going to get to see it tonight and maybe not even tomorrow night.

“Pain in my ass.” Trouble was, her anger was already fading. Dion had his moments, but he’d been good to her, and she knew he loathed shopping. Just being in the mall today was a feat for him. Kesha knew she should be kinder and less snappy with him, especially with the clock ticking down to her high school graduation. Summer would fly by because she and Dion both worked as many hours as possible, trying to save money for school. Once she started at Mankato State, the two-plus hour drive meant she wouldn’t see Dion very often. Her freshman year in college was going to be tough for both of them. Kesha could take care of herself just fine, but she worried about Dion.

When they started dating two years ago, he’d been trying to change his life before his juvenile misdemeanors became adult jail time. Dion always credited her for giving him the motivation to stay out of trouble, but what would he do when she wasn’t around? Her mother told her that she was overreacting, that Dion would be fine, and if he wasn’t, Kesha still had to live her life.

“You have your whole life in front of you,” she’d told Kesha the other day. “Dion might end up being the right one, but you need to experience the world to know for sure. You’re going to meet people in college who are totally different to you, who come from entirely different cultures and areas of the country. Who knows what amazing things might happen to you?”

Lost in thought, she didn’t see the man until she accidentally shoulder checked him while weaving through people to get to Victoria’s Secret.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, rubbing her shoulder. The guy was a couple inches taller than her, but somehow his chest had connected right in the divot connecting her arm and shoulder.

“No problem,” he said, barely pausing to see if she was all right.

Kesha rolled her eyes. Everyone was always in such a hurry even when they had nowhere to go. Like Ferris Bueller said, life moved pretty fast. If you didn’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Kesha sighed with relief when she spotted the store. Like everywhere else, it was full of shoppers, but at least she could leave the herd in the aisle. She perused the store, inwardly kicking herself for not getting here earlier. Most things in her size had already been picked over. Why in the hell did so much marketing cater to girls smaller than size ten? It shouldn’t be so damned hard to find a bra with DD cups in a lingerie store. Her mother said her sizes were always in short supply because they had the highest demand, but it didn’t feel like it when she was surrounded by thin girls and their skinny mothers.

Kesha dug through the pile of clearance bras, looking for anything close to her size. She found a couple of bras and went into the dressing room to try them on. One was way too small in the cups despite the size of the tag, but the other fit okay, even though the band was tight. Kesha fanned her damp face as she put her own clothes back on. Why did they keep the stores so hot?

Twenty minutes later, she finally got her turn at the register. The overly cheery staff tried to push a store credit card on her, even though she wouldn’t turn eighteen for a few more months. The chick in line behind Kesha was so close that her hot breath hit the back of Kesha’s neck every time the woman huffed with impatience. Finally, she left the store, wondering why she’d stood in line so long for a bra and some perfumed spray that wouldn’t last more than a couple of hours.

Kesha reached into her backpack for her phone to text Dion, even though he was probably so absorbed in his game he wouldn’t even notice. Her fingers grazed the lipstick she carried in the bag, her compact, and some gum along with her wallet, but no phone.

Her anxiety ticked up. Kesha had put her phone in the bag, but had she accidentally put it in the outside pocket? Had it fallen out in the store? Kesha made a U-turn and headed back towards Victoria’s Secret, her pulse starting to race. She needed her phone. She was naked without it.

“Excuse me,” an unfamiliar voice whispered, the lips dangerously close to her ear. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You must have dropped this when we collided earlier.”

Kesha stared at the man, wondering why he hadn’t just called out to her when he’d noticed it fall.

“I’m afraid it might be broken,” he said again, his dark eyes staring right through her as he motioned for her to follow him out of the crowd. Kesha followed him but kept her distance. Was he on something? He wasn’t sweating, but his chest heaved like he had been racing for his life.

“Thank you,” she mustered, leaning against the wall.

He smiled. “You don’t recognize me, do you?”

---