Retail Therapy III-Affairs of the Heart

Heading back towards LACY’S,Andrea stops at a Sun-Stop Kiosk and tries on a few frames, settling on a cute set of large frame round tortoiseshells. Her phone vibrates after she pays for the glasses with the text “You expensive ma’am, 157.32 whenever you can.”

“Well I guess Caleb got everything, then. Shit, I could use a Doctor Thunder right about now, forgot how much of a pain in the ass shopping can be.”

Hurrying along, she stops at another map post and hunts through the legend before finding a Mary Heart store located on the bottom floor. “That should do it, one more store before my card begs for mercy.”

Heading down the escalator,Andrea looks out across the Mall at the burgeoning masses of humanity either shopping or just killing time in the air conditioned halls. “Where the hell is this place, the map said it was three stores north of the Food Court…”

At the base of the escalator the crowd intensifies near the Food Court, necessitating a bit of wending, pushing, and apologizing on Andrea’s part until the crowd parts. On the other side, she sees the minimalist font sign of Mary Heart and heads towards it.

Entering the busy store, filled with belts, shoes and other accouterments, Andrea's eyes swivel like a radar tracker, trying to locate the purses, before spotting them on the far wall. Wading past the other shoppers, she looks at the arrayed purses and clutches and settles on two, a small black leather purse with thin straps and a golden clasp per Sergio's recommendation and a larger brown leather one to split the difference between her sling bag and the daintier clutch. “Lastly, the heels…”

Settling in near the shelves of shoes, Andrea sets everything down, takes off her shoes and measures her foot. Probably unnecessary, but she had a sneaking suspicion that the wrong choice would mean hours of foot pain. Satisfied, she pads over to the shelves and selects two pair in her size: 5” black ankle strap stilettos and some 3” black cone heel pumps.

Trying on the 3” pair first, she slowly walks around the store, gaining stride and speed as she adjusts to the different movements, circling back to her spot on the bench. ‘Those should definitely work for everything, but Jennifer said to try the fives, I can do that much, at least.’

Placing the pumps back in the box, she straps on the Stilettos, stands and immediately understands why Jennifer wanted her to wear them. All the muscles in her calves, thighs and butt were working just to keep her balance and looking in the mirror… it showed. Walking an abbreviated circuit, Andrea thinks to herself that with practice she could handle it, but not on a test run. Donning her sneakers, she places the stilettos back on the shelf, pays for the purses and shoes and leaves.

A sudden buzzing gets her attention and opening the notification she sees that Caleb has parked. Overburdened with bags, her progress back through to LACY’S is slow. “Next time I'm dragging Caleb through all this with me, too many damn bags to carry myself.”

At the exit, she dons the sunglasses, and steps back out into the sweltering afternoon heat. Seeing Caleb’s vehicle out front with the windows rolled down, Andrea notices his head is down and nose buried in his phone, completely oblivious…time to prank him.

Walking over behind the driver's side, she quietly sets down her bags and slowly leans over and whispers into Caleb's ear. "Hey Sailor, going my way?"