John Lewis on a Tuesday morning was surprisingly empty, given the season. Not the most street credible place for buying a new case for Cyril, but we headed for Electrical on the top floor anyway.
Enjoying the trip on the escalator, I cupped your tight little bum beneath your coat, caught a sniff from the back of your neck, and remembered lovely things. The gentle metallic smell of your tiny gold chain mingled with the warm scent on your skin - making it feel like my nose was floating in almonds and milk. You looked down and to one side, the outline of your cheek disappearing into a gentle wave of long, straight hair.
Your hair can be so effortlessly exciting, and it's the best hair... I gave your bum another squeeze.
Electrical was all flat screens and neatly arranged laptops in rows. There was a small rack of Apple things, and with them the accessories. Silver blue Chamois leather? Red velveteen? Puce pink would not be a good colour, but it does have interesting pockets inside. In the end, you choose a dark green leather embossed floral design, with a built-in stand. We wander round some more, looking at things and talking about the iPad 2 rumours. I'm mostly looking at you though, but I don't think you notice. You have the best hair.
Almost lunch time, and we work our way down through the other floors. Furniture, menswear, a pretty thorough investigation of womenswear, but nothing looks that good. Soft furnishings, and we're talking about fabrics. I've always liked the smell of that floor: fresh gun-tuft, a sort of familiar, clean, dustiness. One wall houses a row of curtains hanging in long tresses from the ceiling - a sort of fabric rainbow. We walk slowly past these, feeling the more interesting ones as we go.
There seems to be nobody around. You pause in front of an expensive-looking, soft ochre number and look up at me, smiling. With a wonderfully sexy wiggle of your hips, you take my hand and pull me close to you as you dart backwards. In an instant we disappear inside the rainbow wall. I worry that there's not going to be enough room for both of us, but in fact there's plenty of space. The curtains close silently around us with a puff of warm air and we're folded there together, giggling quietly in the muffled darkness, kisses providing little jolts of excitement between stifled giggles and getting our bearings, swaying in the sudden darkness.