Re: The antique store: Ella & Will
Will didn't think he smelled of ashes and of sulfur, of the places inbetween bad and terrible that sang in his ears the closer he got to mad. He used soap, the cheap kind bought in packets in the market instead of pharmacies and it had a green smell that was artificial and bound up in paper. He didn't smell of aftershave because Will's jaw was softer than it had any right to be and the shaving was infrequent anyhow.
The cup in the window was beautiful but there were other things deeper in that were no doubt prettier and less inclined to cut his monthly budget in half for several months on end. Perhaps places old as this one had things that had stood together for long enough that it didn't matter how much you fractured around it. Perhaps, oh small hope, but he had them now and again and it didn't hurt anyone at all, it had something in there that would help. Will had only the vague idea of what help would mean, exactly. Anything that could extend a middling day into a good one.
But it was all very well with talks of cups and so on when a woman swung smartly out of the door into the street and headed sidelong into his shoulder. He had watched her path in a dreamy sort of way beyond the plate glass but Will was having trouble keeping moment and moment together in a linear fashion as they had a tendency to wobble. She was unexceptional, by which any man might mean beautiful. Will didn't have much of a taste for beauty because beauty came with disdain for everything that was unlovely, and he knew himself to be the latter category.
Will's shoulder was bony under the sweater, but he couldn't help that. He couldn't help the way she headed straight in to him either, but his hand arched awkwardly outward, as if he might flail her straight and when he gingerly eased her back from the wool-blend, he smiled reflexively. It didn't light Will up, it was more like a candle held in a very narrow space. It was shy and awkward but Will knew he was both of these things and couldn't help them either.
"A what?" He didn't know what a dumb Dora was, but he didn't think she'd named herself. "Oh. You're hurt - I mean, are you hurt? Are you, was this my fau - was I in the way?" Will thought he'd step back, but she was stalk-like on one leg and stepping back might overbalance her completely, so he stood helplessly where he was.
"Do you- what can I do?" He gave up and settled on this last.