Her smile grew bigger and she led us into a small sitting room with a couch and a tea service already set up.
He sat and I poured from the warm porcelain. “Do we have to pay for that?” he asked.
I stirred a cup of tea for myself and smiled sickly sweet at him. “Yes. This won’t be a quick, or cheap trip.”
His jaw tightened at my use of the word cheap. Interesting.
I picked up the tea pot again, “want some?”
He shook his head. “They should serve whiskey here instead of tea.”
I caught the next passing associate and in minutes she returned with an amber filled glass containing one giant ball ice cube.
He sipped and nodded. “Is this how you always shop?”
“How do you do it?”
“After the first fitting, I don’t. They just send me what I need.”
I considered. Where was the fun in that? “How…expedient.”
The original woman returned before the awkward silence could set in. She carried a number of dresses over her arms and I asked her to help me. She gestured with one of her hands toward a small curtained off area.
“No,” Will said. “You do it here, or we leave.”
And there went my plan to pay the woman to take a message to Taylor for me.
I wanted to protest, but citing modestly wouldn’t work at this point. The women stared between us both, her smile slipping. The poor woman looked like she might pass out.
I stripped my shirt over my head and tossed it at his face. He caught it mid-air. I held his gaze as I stripped off my pants and shoes leaving me standing in black lace edged panties and a simple nude bra. “Is this fine, or do you need me to take my underwear off to?”
The corner of his lip curled up, making me think of the Grinch for the second he displayed it. Then his face returned to stone and the lady cleared her throat. She held open a piece of royal blue silk for me to step into.
Once she zipped it up my back, I didn’t need to look for long. I quickly discarded it and slid into the next dress. This one black satin. It was more my color but the waist wasn’t right for my small frame. I didn’t even bother glancing in the mirror.
I surveyed her stack of dresses and shook my head. “Can we try something more structured at the shoulders and fitted at the waist.”
She rushed off, and I sat next to him sipping my tea in my underwear. He stared at me, scanning me up and down, before looking pointedly over my left shoulder. If I didn’t know better the new tick in his jaw was a reaction to me. I learned to use my body to my advantage a long time ago, so I kept in the best shape possible.
He cleared his throat. “Do you take all your competitors shopping and parade around naked for them?”
I cracked a smile at that one. “Depends on the competition really. But no, not usually. Anyone I take shopping doesn’t often insist I stay in front of them.”
“What is this about? Why are we here? Unless this is some elaborate torture plan.”
The first actual admission he felt uncomfortable. I relished it. “I see this as another business arrangement. The faster you get what you want the quicker I can get on with my life. If you need distraction, I’ll make distraction my business.”
“How accommodating.”
The clerk returned a few seconds later, and she didn’t need to go through the stack of satin and silk. I slid into a floor length red gown that hugged my curves and left my arms and back bare.
Will and I both said at the same time, “this is the one.”
Four
Eddy
When I decided to take this path, I wanted to purge her from my mind. Dissect the tissue and carve her out, bit by bit. And if I had a heart, I’d slice it up too, remove every trace.
