Not every single guy would react like that, but there was no doubt about it, give this one particular chap a bakery, one raising crisp, fresh loaf on site, good variety and some pride in product; add pastries, cakes, pies, croissants, tidbits, &etc, all of the same high standard, what you automatically found was all the girls therein—for this one particular, not so very special kinda guy—all the girls serving there suddenly, as if by magic, appeared the sweetest, most scrumptious and completely delectable sorts imaginable. Transformed into lovey-dovey, heart-piercing-melting-confounding desirables. As if the weirdest spell had been cast. Put same out on the street, on a bus, at a bar, passing beneath an umbrella, going out on the town, nothing whatever like effect, according to this particular guy. It was something of the gingerbread house effect that had been evoked in the schoolroom couple generations past, that vividness & overpowering compulsion. Similar was found at markets, fruit stalls, delicatessens, occasionally behind chemist counters, for this particular guy. (Nurses of course, but that was common.) Not so much cafe baristas, waitresses, checkout chicks & shopgirls. Not evident in kitchens and less so again offices and even dance halls & concerts. Decidedly much less so, at least for this certain kinda guy, with his own curious kinda wiring. The gym might have been supposed, yoga, library, lecture hall, cooking classes, whatnot. Mistakenly. Broccoli, carrot, even turnips, potato & onion displays could better set the scene and serve the purpose. Clothing stores another no-no; carefully lit bookshops & galleries unpropitious, even where compelling portraits & still lives graced the walls. (A painter friend of his, excellent and committed female artist, had taken offence at the account of a gallery visit once, where a patron there had been described as a far greater and more captivating work than anything on the walls.) This odd connoisseur wondered about porn & fashion victims. Were his own reactions so very rare? Surely there were others similarly constituted, the chap always continued with his point, like a dog at a bone.
Candied Bakery,
Spotswood, Melbourne
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