Shoe Store Stalker

Yesterday I went window shopping at Woodfield Mall with Trisha. We were dreaming big; with empty pocketbooks and notions of "if onlys" driving our visit. We weren't allowed to buy anything, that was our deal. (And having made that deal, the reality of empty pocketbooks was easier to handle.) There was however one exception to the deal. Trisha needed new shoes.
unsuspectingly we walked into Payless Shoes, the last of the shoes stores in our path before heading home. She hadn't found anything up until that point and unfortunately, it might be a while before either of us forgets what we came across there.

Slipping her foot into a brown shoe, she exclaimed "I would love these in black."
I diverted my attention from the shoe I was trying on to glance at her foot.
"They look good on you." The voice belonged to a male. Turning, Trisha and I acknowledge his comment with a slight smile. Just another costumer offering an opinion.
"What about these on me?" I asked Trisha thinking we were finished conversing with anyone save ourselves.
"Nah," she replied. "Not so much."
"Are you on break?" The male's voice made us both turn to him. Guess he wasn't done talking. Trisha answered him, "Yes I am" We shot a quick look at each other, trying to figure out what was going on. I was instantly uncomfortable in his presence. I think he thought we were younger than we are, which was odd considering we were both dressed fairly well for our mall outing. I wondered how to respond but Trisha must have sensed that as well because she offered "I teach." It was an awkward reply, but my guess was she felt it necessary to inform him we were not in high school.
"Oh, where about?" the man questioned. After divulging what we later felt was too much locational information, he went back to offering his opinion on shoes. "Well, you know, I'm in design. Not fashion. Machinery. And I think, you (he was addressing me at this point) should wear black. Black shoes and clothes give the appearance of height. . . ." As he was talking Trisha and I silently communicated that it was time to leave. We started walking down the aisle in the direction of the exit. During our dive for the door, he mumbled something about having a round face and therefore parting his hair to the side to create symmetry. And then he stopped us again this time with a question about the style of guys shoes. What was our preference. I believe he phrased it something like "I'd be interested to know what a couple of young girls would have to say." We fumbled through our helpful hint, but this guy was not getting the hint. We bid him a good day and pretty much took off running.
"I'm too afraid to look behind us to see if he's following." I said as we made our way through the remainder of the mall into JCPenny.
"I don't think he is. I don't see him in the windows" Trisha indicated that she was looking across the way at the storefront windows for his reflection. We debriefed. Breathed. Sighed. Laughed a little . . . but it was a nervous laughter.

By the time we reached the parking lot, we thought we were okay. But then she spotted the shoe store stalker.
"Kate? That's him!" Trisha terrified voice propelled us to my car to which we quickly got into. We locked everything. Taking note of his vehicle, a red boxy sort of car - a Buick maybe - we tried to come up with a plan. Go the opposite direction than we'd planned. (Now that I think about it, I'm not sure how that was supposed to stop him from following us. Clearly, we were panicked.)
I don't think I'll ever be able to fully explain the relief I felt when I looked behind us to find that he was turning the other direction. Just to be sure, we went a few intersections in the opposite direction and even scouted the parking lots of the next places we stopped. Just to make sure.

I don't think a trip to Payless will ever be the same again. I might have to resort to Famous Footwear and DSW.