"Right now? But your schedule!" she exclaimed.
"It's fine," I said. "The marketing stuff is all pretty much done, right? You can spare an hour for shopping."
"I don't have all day to spend shopping," she protested as I took her hand and pulled her to the car. "You know I have to dig through the sales racks and hope I find something in my size, then I have to check and see if it works with my coupons. Oh! I didn't clip any coupons!"
"The places we're going don't take coupons," I said.
She stopped. "I don't shop without coupons."
"You can't use coupons at a lot of the shops in Harrogate," I told her, exasperated. Why wouldn't she let me do anything nice for her? "They're pretty high-end, or so I'm told. I don't pay my employees peanuts, and they're the ones who shop there."
Josie was sitting stock-still in the car seat as we drove down Main Street and I parked the car. There was only light foot traffic, which was fine by me.
"They have suits and blouses and such here," I told Josie as I practically had to drag her into one boutique. I could tell this was a high-end boutique because, while it was clear the sales associate recognized me, she didn't immediately start fawning or make a curious face at Josie.
"She needs something to wear for a conference," I explained to the sales associate. Josie didn't say a word. I wondered what was up with her. I was just trying to do something nice.
"You don't have to buy new stuff," I told her. "But you were the one complaining about the state of your clothes."
"Right," she said and seemed to shake off whatever had been bothering her. The sales associate took Josie to a mirror and started measuring her.
"You have a cute curvy figure," she said. "This light-gray herringbone pattern will look nice against your skin tone."
"Here," Josie said, handing me her bag and jacket. "Hold these. You're just standing there, lurking."
"I'm not lurking."
"You are. If you weren't so attractive, it would be creepy," she teased.
"I mean I don't really have anything to add to this shopping expedition. I'm an engineer, not a designer."
"You manage to look nice," she said as the associate handed her blouses, soft sweaters, and skirts and blazers.
"Archer picks out my suits," I admitted.
"Your twin has excellent taste," she said, going into a dressing room.
Josie modeled every suit for me.
"I think this is conservative yet sexy," she said, posing in front of the mirror. "Perfect for a medical conference."
"You look great," I said, admiring the way the fabric hugged her curves.
"I can't believe how comfy it is," Josie gushed. "I always hated wearing business clothes because they were so scratchy, but this is so soft. Feel it!" she ordered, holding a sleeve out to my face.
"We'll have the alterations done in the next couple of days," the associate said after Josie had changed back into her old clothes. "I'll send it to your office, Mr. Svensson."
"My house is fine," I replied. I almost said our house. I wanted it to be our house.
The sales associate turned the iPad that doubled as a register around for me to swipe my card and sign.
Josie started to swear when she saw the total then turned it into a cough. "That is too much."
"You deserve it. You probably single-handedly saved my product launch," I told her as I swiped my credit card. "Besides, there's a lot of business that goes on at these conferences. You seriously cannot turn up looking like someone just scraped you out of a gutter."
"Do I look that bad?" she asked as we left the boutique.
"I mean, I don't have any complaints," I assured her.
