pure hope - maven/preston [blitz]

The store gets boring when nobody's there. It makes sense to close up shop on weekdays; everyone's busy working or at school. But it's nice to just be somewhere and feel that sense of usefulness. Besides, laundry can wait another day. Lucky for him, a blonde girl eventually went into the store after a few hours. She was quick with her intensions.

"Good morning. I'm in the market for something with lotuses on. Don't ask, we've got a family ball coming up and I didn't pick the theme..."

There's nothing wrong with flowers, so he raised his eyebrow at her clear distaste for the theme. "Yes! We've got some options... it kind of depends what you're wanting," yet he doubted that she cared all too much about a theme. "An easy start could begin with what color you're wearing?" Flowered hats weren't the most competitive in the market, so there weren't that many. It was hard to really prepare what she wanted.

A wilted flower is a pretty depressing theme for a ball, so he understood the desire to go out of that window. After listening, he stood there and nodded. She wanted something spectacular. While Preston was no designer he understood basic colors. He looked at her, the blue eyes and the skin tone, and decided that an all around lavender type color would look good.

His contemplation was swiftly interrupted by her question - oh, she cared. "I think a soft lavender could work. Which is good - I have that." He turns around to dig through the several storage cabinets he had. Flowers were much more spring-based, so he only really brought the displays with them out during the season. "And, yeah, it's just me." The wife doesn't spend much time in the store, leaving it just him unless he ever find the need for another body. His store isn't busy enough for that though. "If the kids aren't at school they'd be here." But Nile is the only one that helps - he just wants a pet dog.

"But, if it were me, I'd use this hat. Pair it with some equal shade of a dress, maybe." He placed down a purple hat with a lotus sitting on the brim - it was almost like a sunhat.

At least Preston would make some money from being open. The young woman marveled at his discovery, apologizing and saying that "I clearly came to the right place, look at this..." despite her arrival. He wasn't upset that she came in - having the occasional customer breaks the flow of the day, which is nice. He's shocked that he actually kept the hats in the cupboards behind him. It actually made things quite convenient. They should be with other spring storage in the back, but maybe that hat was just destined to be met that day.

"Did you make these yourself?" He was no tailor himself, so he shook his head at her question.

"No, but all profits go to anyone that created them." Preston has always considered himself a connecting loop. Under the brim of the hat, the designer's name was embroidered in.

"Very nice... Maybe I should come along and share some designs... We could likely start a trend, or two." He nodded, but questioned that this girl was actually someone of commercial value. If she were a face he recognized he'd be convinced.

"Yes, well, I can connect you to the designer of course and then have it set to deliver here." Often, most hats in storage were custom ordered and he was the place that they were exported from. Preston just knows colors, which is good enough to get a hat matching a dress. "I'm sure they'd be happy to get a running deal!"