“No. All of the belts are picked over. Looks like you did, though.”
“Dude. The sale rack is like a smorgasbord of fashion fantasticness. Now come on. I’ll try on the clothes and you can tell me if they look okay.” I open my mouth to protest, but she doesn’t let me get a word out. “Oh no, you’re going to suffer through this whole girl to girl shopping experience with me. This is the only store I want to go to. Then we can go to Hollister or wherever it is you want to go, deal?”
I sigh, defeated. “Deal.”
Outside the dressing room, Rosa leaves a huge pile of clothes in my arms. “I can only take in six at a time.”
“You better hurry,” I say impatiently as I sit down on a round pleather ottoman.
“I’ll be as quick as I can.” Then she dashes off and whips through the curtain in the last open fitting room.
“Having fun?” I hear him. I’d know his voice anywhere. Henry. He’s also got a stack of clothes in his arms and I bust out laughing.
“I should be asking you that.”
“Well if you were, the answer would be no.”
“How long have you been in here?”
An eye roll. “Too long.”
“Was that you who was watching me?”
A seductive smirk. “Maybe.”
I touch a frilly hot pink top in his pile and hold it up to his bronzed arm. “Yeah Henry, hot pink isn’t your color.”
He shakes his head. “Very funny.”
“Ro!” I shout. “How’s it going in there?”
“Meh!”
I guess that means not so good.
Henry’s staring at me. I feel his eyes on me and butterflies bounce around inside of me. I turn toward him, beaming. “What?”
“Nothing. I’m just looking at you. Do you have a problem with that?”
“You’re not just looking, you’re gawking.”
He laughs and Rosa shouts, “Can you bring my next six?”
“Hey!” I snap. “I didn’t sign up to be your servant!”
“Just bring me the clothes,” she groans.
I stand outside of her dressing room and hand her the next six items. She stacks the three of the six she already has in my arms when I hear a high-pitched voice. “How does this look, babe?” His girlfriend.
Then Henry’s reply, “Good, babe. It looks good.”
I’m clenching my teeth. I don’t why their interaction bothers me so much, but it does.
I’m frozen in my spot staring blankly ahead. “Okay,” Rosa says. I don’t move. The reflection of the lights in the mirror is fuzzy and that’s all I’m focused on. “Ry?”
I can’t hear her. My heart stops beating. Her voice is fading. All I hear is, “Good, babe. It looks real good.”
“RILEY!” Rosa shouts so loud that the chandelier hanging above us shakes.