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Melissa just grins. “Maybe not,” she says, “but something tells me you’re going to love the new you, even if he is like nothing you’ve ever dreamed or imagined for yourself.”
With that, Melissa walks me into our first shop of the morning, a high-end clothing store geared mostly for men. They have semi-professional wear, but they are mostly business casual and vacation chic. It’s an odd mix, but I’ve got no objections. I haven’t got enough money to object, nor enough willpower. If I’m going to make any use of this date we were supposed to have, I have to start shopping and buying something, even if my measly couple hundred dollars dries up here, and I’m shooting blanks everywhere else.
Maybe with some kind of shopping bag in my hand, Melissa won’t be so upset when she finds out that I’ve only got enough in me for one round before I’m done.
****
At our first shop, I buy a hat for myself. Not much of a hat person usually, I find a classy looking Fedora. After trying it on in front of the mirror, Melissa insists that I buy it. I do, along with a nice casual button-up shirt. It has designs that go with the Fedora. I’m about to buy what I think is a no-nonsense pair of matching slacks, when I look at the price tag and realize these pants alone are more money than I have on hand, and then some.
“I like those on you,” she says, pointing out the slacks to me and the way they look already, even with me just laying them in front of the ones I’m wearing. “You should get those too.” She bites her lip. “Maybe not for the office, but for some after-hours fun. That never hurt anyone or their wardrobe.” She’s gone from biting her lip to biting one of her nails — an unusually stressed, but sexy motion for her.
I put the pants back on the rack, my hands sweating from the price tag as much as anything else. “Nah.”
Melissa’s beautiful eyes widen. “You’re not getting those?”
I shake my head vigorously, hoping she doesn’t get a good look at the envelope I’m digging out of my pocket of shame.
“Why not? They looked fabulous on you!”
“I…” I don’t have enough money for those. And the hat. And the shirt. I don’t have enough money to continue beyond this store, I think miserably, but I know I can’t say that. Not without letting it out of the bag that Dad robbed me in my own driveway. Quickly, I fill in a different answer. One I’m hoping she buys. “I’m…saving my money for some other pieces of clothing.” I grin nervously here as if she could pull back my mask any moment and see how pathetic and poor I am. And when she does, she’ll decide I’m not worth falling in love head over heels for. “I’ll just get these. It’s fine,” I assert, though I’m not feeling fine at all.
I got out a big portion of my money, so I didn’t have to cherry-pick like this on my date. But here I am, cherry-picking, cutting the “fat” off of a shopping trip that already is mostly skin and bone.
Melissa studies me. She looks confused and annoyed. “You really don’t want them?”
I shake my head, holding the hat and the shirt closer to me. “Just these. It’s fine.”
Melissa studies me a moment longer before grabbing those pants right off the rack where I left them. “I’m buying these for you then,” she says.
“No,” I say a little too loudly. “No, pet,” I say, quieting myself so that I don’t bring more attention to myself than I already have. “It’s okay. You don’t need to buy that for me. I said I was going to finance my own wardrobe, and I mean it.”
“And that’s fine. But I like the way you look in them, so I’m going to buy them for you, sir.” Here, she lowers her voice. From behind part of the clothes rack we’re standing nearby, and out of view of other patrons, she runs her hand down my ass. “You look unbelievably sexy, sir. And I’m not walking out of here without these pants.” I blush as she gives my ass a little swat. “It’s repayment for that lunch you bought me the other day.”
The color on my cheeks deepens, as does the heat coursing through my body. Oh, my God! She is so deliciously bossy! And she’s not even my boss! My heart begins to beat a little uncomfortably fast here. And of course, she had to bring up that lunch! She’s going to use that as her reason to pay me back, even though today’s date was supposed to be my payback to her for everything she has done for me!
