ADifferentKindOfCosplay by Lucy Felthouse Page B

what the hell half of this stuff was all about.
    Stepping farther into the shop, he quickly realized it
wouldn’t matter if he did have that sign. The place was full of people, mostly
men, who probably wouldn’t have noticed if he’d walked in totally naked. They
were absorbed, it seemed, in what they were doing—looking at and buying geeky
stuff.
    If Reese had been with him, he was sure he’d have got more
attention. Or more accurately she would. She’d mentioned that she got a lot of
looks in the shop, and it was entirely possible that this was because most of
the clientele had never seen a real woman close-up. Much less a smoking-hot one
like Reese.
    Okay, it was time to stop looking at everyone else and
concentrate on why he was there. Reese was safely tucked away at work on
the other side of town, and he wasn’t going to leave this geek-haven until he
knew what he was getting her for her birthday.
    Straightening, he wound his way through the other browsers,
looking for the Avengers. He passed glass cabinets containing incredibly
expensive items, from busts of characters he didn’t recognize, to action
figures and even replica wands from the Harry Potter films. In the regular
aisles was the more reasonably priced stuff, and he soon found the section he
was looking for. There were plush figures, stationery, notebooks, LEGO figures,
masks and even Oyster Card and passport covers. All kinds of things emblazoned
with the names and logos of the various characters and groups from the various
universes. Zach wasn’t even going to try to understand it all—there was just
too much going on. And besides, he didn’t need to “get” it, he just needed to
find something Reese would like. That was all that was important—finding a gift
she would treasure.
    He poked around, picking things up, examining and putting
them down, uninspired. Damn, why couldn’t he just have booked her some time off
work and whisked her away to Paris or something? It would have been much
easier. So would taking her offer of picking something off a list she’d made
herself.
    No, he reminded himself. He was here because it was a
special birthday this time, and he really wanted to make the effort to surprise
her, show her how much she meant to him.
    Turning the corner, he found yet more Marvel paraphernalia,
including character pajamas, dress-up gear and various accessories—like Thor’s
hammer and some giant green fists that he presumed were meant to belong to the
Hulk.
    Seeing nothing that inspired him, he kept moving and
eventually ended up downstairs, on a floor that housed books, comics, graphic
novels, films and much more. He had no intention of getting her anything like
that, as it was impossible to know which ones she owned already. But as he
stood there flicking through a graphic novel, an idea hit him. Finally.
    This wasn’t about a gift, a physical possession . It
was about a gesture. And since that gesture couldn’t involve
international travel, more’s the pity, he could do something else memorable.
    Replacing the graphic novel, he headed back upstairs to the
section he’d been perusing before, with the Hulk hands and Thor’s hammer. There
they had a variety of bits and pieces, but not enough to carry out his idea. But
he wasn’t too bothered—the place had helped him to have the idea in the first
place, so he was thankful.
    He grabbed a pair of Iron Man—his favorite
character—slippers in his size and took them to the counter, mulling over his
plan. It wasn’t conventional, it wasn’t ordinary. But then, neither was Reese.
In other words, it was perfect. He just hoped she’d feel the same.
    Back home, he went straight online. In this instance, Google
was his best friend, his savior. He threw himself upon its mercy.
    He’d picked up enough geek phrases in his time at Forbidden
Planet to know what to search for, which made things much easier.
    “Okay,” he said to himself, “time to find out more