Sophia felt her heart drop into her stomach, and at the same time her face drained of all its color. "Oh," she mumbled as she stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets and stared down at her feet--something she usually did when she was embarrassed. In her pockets where Tim couldn't see, she clenched her hands into tight fists until she felt her nails digging into the skin on her palms. How could she have been so stupid? Tim had eaten dessert at her house on Thanksgiving Day and he had seemed excited to come to the candy store, so she had assumed he liked sweet things. But, as it turned out, he didn't like extremely sugary things and Sophia had managed to take him to the one place filled with them. She felt so stupid.
"I-I'm sorry, Tim," the young woman stammered out her apology. She finally managed to look at him and give him a weak smile, but on the inside she felt like screaming. Color had finally returned to her cheeks only it was in the form of a deep blush. "Let's get out of here then." Without waiting for a response she headed for the door. The clerk called after her, asking if she was going to get anything, but she brushed him off, replying quickly, "Not today, thanks." Despite that, he still told them to have a nice day and to come back again. Sophia wasn't really sure if she would. At least not if Tim was with her.
Once outside the candy shop the cold hit her full-force. At least now her entire face would be red so it would be harder to tell if she was blushing. When Tim was at her side again, Sophia said, "We'll, um... we'll go wherever you want to go this time. Hobby shop, book store, toy store, home. Whatever." They had left his apartment not that long ago, but she didn't want to make the same mistake of bringing Tim somewhere he didn't care for again. If he wanted to go home then that was fine, but if he did then maybe afterwards she'd just take her stack of the books from the library, head back to her own apartment, and work on trying to figure out more about the mysterious tunnels that kept popping up and the strange world they lead to.