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Gabriel couldn’t help but wonder about the man who came into his shop every day. He’d had it open for some time now, and although he wasn’t unpopular, he wasn’t the type of guy who had many regulars. After all, he ran a candy store. The only people he expected to come on a regular basis were children and old ladies who were looking for new sweets to fill their purses with. That was why he was so confused when three months ago, a man about his age had started to come in every day, without fail.
It wasn’t like the guy made him uncomfortable or anything, so that wasn’t the underlying issue, but he was curious as to what the hell he was playing at. Every day, he walked in, examined all the new stock that Gabriel had put out, and stood there thoroughly considering his options before ultimately buying the same candy over and over again. He was one of Gabriel’s most courteous customers, and never hesitated to drop his change into the tip jar, but still. His whole existence was an enigma.
Once it had reached the three month mark, Gabriel decided that he wanted to try and make some sort of small talk. He’d never been good at that kind of thing, and had absolutely no game whatsoever, but it didn’t hurt to try, right? Besides, the guy usually came at a time when there were no other customers around, so if Gabriel totally crashed and burned there would only be one person who saw it. One person laughing at him was way better than ten people laughing at him.
Briefly, he’d considered consulting his siblings for advice, but considering their extroverted personalities, he doubted they’d have any advice. He doubted that they ever struggled with making conversation. So, instead, he found himself consulting the next best thing: the library. It had tons of books on conversation starters and social interaction, and although Gabriel mostly just skimmed them, he still thought they were useful. None of them contained information about how to ask a man why he bought the same chocolate bar in a little rundown candy store every day, but hey, Gabriel hadn’t been expecting any miracles.
In hindsight, it was actually kinda funny that he was so worked up about this. When the guy came in at his regular time the next day, Gabriel had even found himself shifting his weight and acting stranger than he knew he usually did. He’d thought his behavior went unnoticed, and that the man would have better things to focus on. However, when the man walked up to the counter, he pointed it out immediately. “Are you okay?”
Oh, God. Maybe it was because Gabriel was starved for affection, but the concern in his tone hit him like a punch to the gut. “Oh, uh, yeah.” He said, totally not sounding like an idiot, before glancing down at the man’s purchase. “Just had too much sugar and caffeine, I think. That’s what I get though for thinking it would be a good idea to sample the product.” He offered up a small, hopefully not awkward smile, and the man smiled warmly in response.
If it were possible, that smile seemed to light up his face even more. “Yeah, no, I get that. I imagine it’s hard to resist with all this amazing stuff around you…but I guess you’ve built up a resistance, right? Like how fast food workers don’t eat fast food because they work with it all the time, if that makes sense.”
Most people might’ve been turned off by the stranger’s rambling, but if anything, Gabriel welcomed it, and his smile broadened into something more genuine as he considered the question. “Resistance? Oh, God, no. Like I said, I can hardly contain myself most days. My sweet tooth is horrid, to be honest. I probably shouldn’t have indulged it by opening a candy shop, but hey, I’m living my dream so it’s gotta count for something, right?”
The man laughed, a sweet sound that almost made Gabriel faint on the spot. He didn’t usually make people laugh that easily. Before he could freak out too much though, the man spoke again. “Yeah, definitely. Wish I could have half of your confidence, living my dream like that. My dream wouldn’t pay half as well.” He shrugged, before gesturing to the candy bar that he’d laid on the counter. “I’m sorry, though. I’ve been keeping you occupied with my little ramblings. You need to ring me up, right?”
Although their conversation was brief, it had made Gabriel forget that he actually had a job, and the man in front of him was a customer and not his friend. “Oh, yes, right.” He stumbled over his words, breaking himself out of the happy little bubble the conversation had put him in. “Very nice brand of chocolate. Good for..keeping up energy. Filling you up.” He made the comment offhandedly, trying to keep the conversation somewhat afloat so that they didn’t lapse into awkward silence.
At the very least, the man seemed to appreciate it. “That’s good then.” He mused as Gabriel scanned it. “It’ll help me stay awake when I’m up all night finishing this paper.”
Before Gabriel could respond to that, the man dropped a ten dollar bill on the counter, not even waiting for the other to get him his change. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Hope the rest of your shift goes well, Gabriel.”
After he left, it took Gabriel at least five minutes to stop staring at the door in dumbstruck silence. That enticing stranger had known his name. How had he figured it out? It wasn’t like he wore any sort of name jewelry, and lots of people told him he looked more like a “Richard” than a Gabriel. So how the hell had he figured it out?
It was only after a few more minutes of speculation that he realized he was wearing a name tag on his apron. The man had been coming in here for three months, so of course he’d at least glanced at his name tag. Jesus, Gabriel really was dumb sometimes. That revelation had caused him to facepalm, but he vowed from that day forward that he should try and have a conversation with this customer every day. Maybe it was him being dumb, but he wanted to see where it would go and he had seemed interesting, even when he was rambling.
Shockingly, it was easy to complete this vow. They had started to have little conversations even when the man was just browsing around the shop and over the course of a week, Gabriel had learned many things including that the man’s name was Sam, he was getting his Master’s degree in an obscure topic that he refused to talk about, and he really liked sour candy even if he never allowed himself to eat it. The last point had caused them to bicker a few times throughout the week, with Gabriel trying to insist that Sam should try some of his sour products “as a sample” and Sam insisted that would just be “stealing profits”.
It had all come to a head when a stock of sour gumballs had come in. Despite the fact that they made even Gabriel’s eyes water, he still adored the things, and set up a special gumball dispenser by the cash register so that they would catch the eyes of customers. Plus, the other thing he liked about this brand was that their gumballs came encased in plastic cases that contained fortunes. Was it sanitary to keep gum and paper in a confined, plastic space? Maybe not, but it wasn’t like the paper was inside the gum, so Gabriel allowed it.
He also may or may not have gone through three of them in the first hour of opening. Usually he charged fifty cents for items from the dispensers, but since they were his guilty pleasure, and he knew they were in high demand, he’d lowered it to twenty-five cents and thus, was able to gleefully tear through them as much as he pleased. The fortunes that he had gotten were all quite silly so far, but that was another thing that made them great. They weren’t supposed to be serious, they were supposed to make people enjoy the gumball even more.
When Sam came in that day, Gabriel knew it would be hard to convince him to take one of these wonderful little treats. It might even be impossible to convince the man to willingly indulge himself. So, in preparation, he’d bought two more, and stashed them under the counter. He intended for it to be a surprise, and to be casual about it when Sam came up to the counter, but once again, Sam seemed to have noticed that subtle change in behavior. Maybe Gabriel was just, like, really bad at keeping secrets.
“Are you okay?” There it was, that question again, but this time, he couldn’t lie to him. He was just bursting to share one of his favorite things with Sam.
“No.” He answered bluntly, and almost immediately, the other man’s eyes furrowed together in concern. He opened his mouth to say something, but Gabriel hastily cut him off by grabbing the two gumballs and laying them on the counter before continuing. “I got this new shipment of sour candy today and I know you don’t like stealing profits from me, but I accidentally bought two and I don’t want to eat two because then I’ll feel bad, so I was wondering if you maybe wanted one? I mean, you don’t have to take it if you don’t want to, I was just wondering..” He trailed off, realizing that he had no idea where he was going with this, before glancing back at Sam.
To his surprise, the man didn’t look disgusted and he wasn’t pouting about the idea of taking something that he hadn’t personally paid for. Instead, he gaped at him, and stared at him with honest to God stars in his eyes. He stayed like that before a few moments, before showing off that wide grin that Gabriel had come to adore. “I would love one.” He said way more enthusiastically than Gabriel thought he would.
Sam then grabbed one of them off the counter, his eyes widening even more when he realized what was also contained in the plastic casing. “Oh my God, these are the ones with the little fortunes in them too? I frigging love these. I think we should both open them and read our fortunes at the same time. Yeah?”
Even if Gabriel had wanted to say no, there was no way he could’ve when Sam looked up at him with an extremely hopeful expression. It was like he had expected him to say no, and he did not want to hurt the man like that. “Sounds good to me.” He took the other candy, and they both glanced at each other, mentally doing the same countdown and opening the capsule simultaneously.
“You will grow closer to someone through unexpected means.” Sam read as soon as he’d fished out his fortune, before giggling at the cheesiness of it. “Sounds real poetic there.” He playfully rolled his eyes, then looked expectantly at Gabriel. “What about yours? What do the Gumball Gods have in store for you?”
If Gabriel had actually been paying attention, he would’ve either laughed or rolled his eyes at the dumb nickname Sam had given the fortune deities. But, as it stood, the little slip of paper that was supposed to be a dumb fortune had left him too stunned to speak. You will find the grand prize of your life in another person’s existence. It didn’t make sense, but somehow, it also did all at once. The implications of it confused him and made him giddy all at the same time.
It wasn’t until Sam snapped his fingers near Gabriel’s face that he broke out of his trance. He jumped, then realized he’d been staring at his fortune for a while and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, it’s just..you won’t believe what’s written here. It says that in the future, I will find myself in sweet circumstances.”
Although it kind of hurt to lie to Sam, he didn’t want to admit what his actual fortune had been since it was rather deep for something so stupid. However, he was also proud of himself for coming up with that on the spot. The irony of the fake fortune was not lost on Sam and he immediately broke into giggles again, grinning stupidly and placing his own fortune back in the capsule. “Well, at least you know your fortune’s already come true.”
Gabriel smiled and nodded in agreement, and that was the end of their conversation for the night. He’d scanned Sam’s candy bar, like usual, and Sam had then left with a quick, “see you tomorrow”, before turning around and walking out. If he didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought he did something to offend the man, but he’d seen the man pop the actual sour candy into his mouth when he thought Gabriel wasn’t looking. He wasn’t lying when he said that it was a real tear-jerker. Somehow, his reaction had only made him more endearing.
Later that night, his thoughts had strayed, as they often did, but this time they strayed to his fortune. He knew that they were dumb and he shouldn’t be reading too much into it, but as far as he was concerned, it was already starting to come true. It was hard for him to click with people, and even harder for him to maintain healthy relationships, but everything flowed easier with Sam. They’d only been friends for a week, but he already felt much happier than he had been before the two of them started talking.
It was probably a bit premature, but for now, he could safely say that he had already won his grand prize in the form of Sam’s existence.