‘I rest my case,’ said Cameron, shutting the wardrobe door. ‘This is the best excuse ever for a shopping trip.’
‘I’m not a big shopper,’ said Ros. The truth was more that she actively avoided it.
‘Well, you are today.’ He linked his arm through hers and towed her out of her bedroom.
Forty minutes later they were browsing in Westquay shopping centre. It was an unfamiliar place to Ros. Unlike most she’d not spent her formative teenage years shopping with her mum or trawling the aisles with friends for the latest fashions. There had been brief shopping trips with her father, which had always been pre-planned and targeted, and that was the approach she now applied for herself. If she needed new clothes then she ordered them online; it was a simple transaction that was straightforward and time-efficient.
‘Hey, look at these.’ Cameron was already inside a shop trying on sunglasses. ‘Try some,’ he suggested, passing her a pair.
‘I have a pair of sunglasses,’ said Ros, returning them to the stand.
‘But these are cool, right?’ He struck a pose and she had to laugh.
‘Yes, they suit you.’
‘You have a go.’ He passed her a pair. Reluctantly she tried them on and faced him. ‘Now that’s what I mean. Super cool. Look.’ He pointed at the mirror. Ros considered her reflection. It seemed odd to her that basically obliterating key features of the face, namely the eyes, somehow improved it. ‘You have to get those,’ he said.
‘I don’t think so. I rarely wear sunglasses and anyway we came for outfits.’ She put them back on the stand.
‘Okay. Outfits first but then we should come back and get those.’
‘We’ll see,’ she said, heading out of the store.
The first clothes shop they went into didn’t feel like her thing at all. The music was particularly loud and intrusive and the shop itself a bit of a maze and badly labelled. She was looking at a pretty floral item that was either a long top or an incredibly short dress when she got a tap on the shoulder. She turned around to see Cameron wearing a bright pink bucket hat and loud shirt covered in pineapples as he pulled a pose worthy of a superstar rapper. ‘How about this? I know, I need to get a couple of gold teeth but then I’ll be sweet.’
‘I’m not sure that’s what Dad had in mind.’
‘Fair enough. How are you getting on?’ He came to look at what she was holding. ‘That minidress would look amazing on you. You should try it on.’
‘I’m not sure I’m ready for something like that. I’ll keep looking.’
After two more shops they still hadn’t made any purchases. They left Westquay in search of some inspiration. The next shop had even more hats for Cameron to try, each with accompanying dramatic poses.
Whilst Ros found him entertaining she was conscious that they had veered off track. ‘We’re not really getting anywhere, are we?’
‘As usual, you are right.’ He removed the strange deerstalker affair from his head. ‘Let’s go on a mission to find at least one outfit from this store and meet back here in fifteen minutes. Deal?’
‘I don’t know—’
‘Fifteen minutes,’ he said, tapping his watch, and he darted off. With a shrug Ros began perusing the rails.
Fifteen minutes later, Ros was waiting back where Cameron had left her when what looked like a mobile jumble sale approached her. ‘Cameron?’
‘Thank heavens I’m in the right place. I can’t see a thing,’ he said from behind the mound of clothes he was carrying.
‘That’s more than one outfit and quite a few dresses. Are they your thing?’
‘The dresses are for you. Actually most of it is for you. You’re the priority. They’re quite unstable. I think putting the satin dress in the middle was a mistake so if you could lead me to the changing rooms I’d be very grateful.’
There was a pause as Ros shook her head at him, even though he couldn’t see her.
‘Er, Ros. Are you still there?’ he asked.
‘Yes. Come on then.’ She took hold of his arm and guided him through the store.
The first thing she tried on was a mid-calf-length black dress, the single outfit she had picked. When she stepped out of the changing room Cameron was already shaking his head. ‘No black. You have black. You don’t need black,’ he said gently, shooing her back inside.
She perused the items she had in the changing room, which were only a fraction of the vast clothes mountain Cameron had picked up because she was only allowed to take a few items at a time in with her. She wasn’t sure about any of them. Cameron’s voice called through to her. ‘Just pick one to try. Any one. It doesn’t matter.’ Was he some sort of mind reader?
