Page 8 of Menage a Passions

Caitlyn wasn’t sure.But I’m not going to panic. There’s no point.

She eventually did find her niece, but not in the most likely place.

“Personally, I think the third book is the hottest.” Cecelia nearly leaped out of her skin when Caitlyn interrupted her fervent reading of a steamy romance novel back in the erotica section. “But it doesn’t make a lot of sense unless you read book two. Anyway…” She politely waited for Cecelia to shove the book back onto the shelf and stay turned away, doubtlessly cooked to the cheeks in red embarrassment. “I suggest you get your naughty romance fix via eBook. That way none of us gets in trouble.”

Cecelia whispered something in Cantonese. At least Caitlyn knew enough to know it wasn’t directed at her.

“Come on. I’ll get you whatever you’ve got in your basket. Then we have a date at the mall to get your notebooks and bags and whatever.”

She didn’tmeanto be cranky as she showed Cecelia what it was like to go back to school shopping in the land of $1 notebooks and $100 graphing calculators, but she was still sore about Dr. Sharpe’s comments.I need a female doctor. That’s what I need.Yet Caitlyn knew that wouldn’t solve any of her problems. She had been through an assortment of doctors her entire life. When she lived in Hong Kong, she went to a British doctor who better understood a body like hers, but it still wasn’t enough.We lived in Hong Kong, therefore I had to lose weight.Caitlyn had spent the past few years not thinking about her weight. She gauged such things based on the number on her clothing tags, not the number on the scale she never checked.I may have gained ten pounds, but I still fit into my clothing fine!

Everything felt like a farce if she thought about it hard enough.

Caitlyn didn’t tell Rebecca where she found Cecelia. Even if she was the tattling type, it made no sense to betray Cecelia’s trust so early in their relationship.I need her to like me. At least for a while.Unlike her wife, Caitlyn knew a thing or two about relating to teens. She had a few of them on her side of the family.

She let Rebecca do the driving to the mall.Do I text Jane about this?No, not what her niece had been reading in the bookstore.What the damn doctor said.Sighing, Caitlyn decided to let it slide until later. Rebecca would better understand but now was not the time.

Nowwas the time to peruse the biggest mall in town, which happened to have a Bullseye department store as one of its anchors. Both Caitlyn and Rebecca were drawn to the deep discounts at that time of year, but this was a Hong Kong heiress they were talking about.She wants the cute stuff.Such was what led them to the mall, with its Asian goods shops, stationery stores, and other expensive imports that thought “10% off” was a big draw at that time of year. Sure enough, Cecelia wantedthe notebooks and binders that cost more than anything Caitlyn ever had for college, let alone high school.

Oh, well. What was the point of being rich if she couldn’t spoil a kid, especially one going to a fussy private school full of other rich kids? Caitlyn – and Rebecca – understood how important it was to help Cecelia fit in. She had the phone and some clothes, but what was trendy that year in notebooks and pencils? Did it matter?

“Oh, my God.” Bags jiggling at her side, Cecelia stopped in front of a store window, chin dropped and eyes wide. “Kate Spade!”

Caitlyn motioned for Rebecca to stop with them. “Lots of paisley this year…”

“Can we go in?” Cecelia asked. “Just to look. IloveKate Spade.”

Yes, Caitlyn had noticed the shoes, keychains, and bracelets adorning Cecelia’s fashionable frame. “Sure. It’s been a while since I was bombarded with the hot looks of my adolescence.”

Rebecca grinned at her as they entered, a shopkeeper immediately on top of them. “You were big into Kate Spade in high school, were you?”

“Oh, she was all the rage in the early 2000s. Her and Vivienne Westwood, depending on which way you swung with your style.”

“How many of her bags did you have?”

“Two.” Caitlyn let Cecelia loose in the store, already aware that her credit card was about to get a workout. “One I bought myself using some of my beauty pageant prize money, and one my parents got me for my eighteenth birthday. Man, that was a big day…”

“I never had stuff like this back then.” Rebecca picked up a light blue bag that wasn’t her style, but Caitlyn liked the way it looked on her arm. “I barely knew it existed. The biggest styles inmy high school were what you could get at Dalmart or, if you had a bit of middle-class money, Macy’s.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember the big back-to-school sales at Macy’s. Hey, does this mall have a Macy’s?”

“Used to. Not anymore.”

While Cecelia talked the ears off the shopkeepers, Caitlyn and Rebecca eyed a paisley peplum dress hanging on a mannequin in the middle of the store.

“You’d look great in that, you know,” Rebecca whispered to her partner.

“If I could fit in it…”

“Not only do they have one in your size – I guarantee it – but it would be absolutely ravishing on your figure.”

“Are you flirting with me in a Kate Spade store, Becca?”

“Duh.”

“Hmph. And do you fancy this dress too? Should we get matching ones?”

“Come on.” She pointed to the dress behind Caitlyn. “You know I’m more a shift dress girl. I’ve got a long torso.”

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