Page 33 of The Finder

“I’m not telling you,” Emma responded.

Madison didn’t listen. She was like a whirlwind. Soon, she had a stack of clothes and was heading towards the dressing room. “Let’s go,” she called out over her shoulder. Emma followed her slowly, wondering how in the world she had gotten herself into this mess.

Chapter 20

“Madison, I really can’t do this,” Emma said.

“Just try stuff on,” Madison said. “Come on. We don’t want to keep the guys waiting.”

That motivated Emma to get moving. She walked into the dressing room. “Try on everything,” Madison ordered as she left the room.

Emma looked around the room, overwhelmed. She decided not to think and just get to work. She started with jeans. She tried on several different pairs until Madison liked a pair. “That one. It’s perfect. Keep those. We’ll see what other colors or cuts they have in those.”

Emma headed back into the dressing room. The time passed as she tried on item after item. Every time she got done, Madison brought her something else to try on. Finally, Madison told her she could be done. Together they worked on putting everything back that they weren’t keeping. Then they walked out of the dressing room with everything they were getting. The guys were standing on either side of the dressing room when they came out. Madison dumped all the clothes on Kyle. He took them without a word. Madison led the way and they all followed. When Emma noticed they were heading to a checkout counter, she panicked.

“Wait. Stop. We can’t buy all of those,” she said in a panicked tone.

Kyle stopped and Madison turned back to look at her. “What do you think you tried them on for?”

“I mean I can’t get all of those. That's going to cost a fortune,” Emma argued.

“It’s fine,” Madison said.

“It’s not though,” Emma said feeling miserable. “I can’t spend Garrett’s money. This is way too much, and he’s not even here to approve it.”

Madison looked at Kyle. Kyle pulled out his phone and was talking to someone a moment later. Emma was still trying to figure out what in the world she was going to do when Kyle handed her his phone. “What?” she asked, confused. Kyle motioned her to put it up to her ear.

“Hello?” she said.

“Emma,” Garrett’s deep voice sounded in her ear. “Use the card. Get whatever you need. There’s no limit.”

“I can’t do that,” Emma said.

“Why not?” Garrett asked.

“Because, because it’s not my money,” Emma sputtered.

“Exactly. It's my money, and this is something I want to do,” he said. Emma didn’t know what to say. “Just use the card, Emma,” he said, his tone gentler this time.

Emma was already shaking her head. She couldn’t afford to be in debt to him, and she would never be able to pay him back. “I can’t,” she said.

It was quiet for a moment. “Fine,” he said. There was a rustling sound in the background. “Okay. What size are you?”

“What?” she asked, bewildered.

“I'm going to need your shirt size, pant size, dress size, and shoe size,” he said.

“Why?” Emma asked.

“So, I can go shopping for you since you won’t use my card to get what you need. Or better yet, maybe I can get Max to do it for me. Oh, what’s your bra and underwear size?”

Emma felt her face heat up. “Okay,” she said quickly. “I’ll do it.”

She heard his deep chuckle. She didn’t waste a moment handing the phone back to Kyle; she practically dropped it into his hands. Madison turned towards her. “Your face is red. What did he say to you?” she asked mischievously.

“Nothing. Let’s get the clothes,” she said quickly, walking towards the checkout, Madison’s laugh following her.

Madison dragged Emma to store after store. Emma went along with everything, not wanting to have to deal with Garrett following through on his threat. But she had to put her foot down when Madison pulled her into Victoria’s Secret. “I can’t shop in here,” Emma whispered.

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