Page 76 of Out of Bounds

"If you swallow them whole, it helps with the drawing process."

"I bet."

Ryan rubbed his jaw and took a sharp right down the hallway. Damn his long legs and quick stride. It was hard to keep up without jogging after him.

His hand wrapped around a gold handle and the door swung open.

"Ryan?" I pushed. "What’s up with you?"

"What?"

"That’s your fiftieth ‘what.’ Your quota’s exceeded." I walked in front to put a hand out to stop him. "What’re you, sick or something?"

His face hardened. "I’m not sick."

"Then what’s going on?"

"What’s going on is that we’ve been given a direct order to purchase a dress. Let’s focus here."

"Pssh, you focus," I muttered under my breath. "Focus on getting your head out of your ass."

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Sure."

"Didn’t say anything. Now you’re hearing things." I had something else to add, something about him purposely making up things about me when I finally realized what we’d walked into.

It wasn’t one of the off-rack clothing shops I’d been picking through all my life. The place wasn’t even one of the dimly lit stores with week-old lemon water. I did a full one-eighty, staring in surprise. My sneakers squeaked against the marble flooring. This was one of those real expensive boutiques, with soft music playing overhead and a distinct scent of peppermint.

I am not supposed to be here.

"Ryan," I called after him, but he didn’t answer. "Ryan."

He was too busy chatting with a young woman, dressed in a sharp green suit that had to have cost more than my tuition.

Under no circumstances was a trip to this store necessary. I was the only one who understood that. No matter how hard I tried to wave Ryan over, nothing worked. There had to be a limit on the black card and I didn’t want to call Cleo to check.

"Ryan."

The attendant smiled at me. "Lovely to meet you too! What’re you looking to fall in love with today?"

"Oh, we’re not falling in love today." I gestured towards the door. "We were on our way to get a pretzel and got lost. Do you have a map? A compass?"

Ryan didn’t get the memo. He muttered to the attendant in a low voice and I stopped by the glass counter, with my arms crossed over my chest, ready to argue. If he thought we were going to spend more than three minutes in the store, he was—

My eyes flickered down to the glass and the thoughts in my head zipped out.

Sitting on the pillows in locked boxes were the most gorgeous gold bracelets in the world. I gazed down at them, bewitched, mesmerized, hypnotized. God, I didn’t even know which one was my favorite. Carefully, I slipped out my phone from my back pocket. One picture and one of my roommates could replicate them with a quick trip to the fabric store and some hot glue.

"Ma’am?" The attendant reeled me back into the conversation in an instant. "Please. No photos."

"No photos?" I repeated.

Ryan stepped closer to me. "My girlfriend wants to see these."

"What?" I quickly shook my head. "No, he’s kidding." I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Dude, we can’t even breathe on those. Look at the price tags."

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