nerdy guys at outdoorsy shops

It's been a while since I've been in an outdoors shop like REI or the local ski shop. Broadway's not really into the outdoors, and he's not so much a gear whore like me either. With the upcoming ski season though, I've been meaning to go check out any leftover stuff from last season to get a new snowboard. So today, I dragged Broadway with me to the local ski shop for their Columbus weekend sale.

I had forgotten how friendly the nerdy gear guys at these places can be. Looking at last season's boards and bindings and boots, a nice cute friendly sales associate came to answer my questions. By this point, Broadway had gotten bored of my pulling board after board out of the display to look at, so he had gone off to look for a new jacket for himself.

Since I was pretty intent on getting board, bindings, and boots today, I talked to the Gear Guy for a while asking lots of questions, etc. etc. After I decided on a board, he fetched some boots I liked in my size to try on, and Broadway came back over around this time. I had wondered if the Gear Guy was in any way flirting with me. He was very professional, never overstepping his bounds as a sales associate in any way, but there were certain things like touching my hand when he handed some boots over to me, or holding on for a bit longer than necessary when he shook my hand and asked me my name ...

Now Broadway knows that I have a soft spot for these gear guys, so maybe because of this, when he came to see how I was doing and saw that I was spending so much time with this Gear Guy, he gave me a kiss on the side of my face before leaving to go back to looking at jackets. I chuckled that that Broadway would discreetly stake his claim on me in front of the Gear Guy, and then satisfied with what he had done, would walk away again without a care.