Page 40 of Always Knew It Was You

I want that. Want him again.

I exhale to rid myself of the lustful thought and I think I hear the growl echo in his chest.

“So…” The attendant’s loud voice breaks the silence. She looks between the two of us, clearly oblivious to the sexual tension thickening the air. “Do you like it? Or do we try on more?”

“I like it,” Micah finally responds, his voice deeper than it was before. “But let’s try more. More like this. But also more... different.” Contrary to his usual eloquence, his words are now short and clipped as though he has to make an effort to get them out, to have them make sense.

As though he’s just barely winning against the desire stealing his sanity.

“Alright.” The attendant, instantly seeing dollar signs, immediately heads to the other side of the store, selecting more outfits, hanging on a rack. “We’ll have to get a few of these tailor-made to fit your gorgeous figure, and that can all be done and shipped to your address within a few days.”

“Oh?” I make a mental note to have it shipped to Micah instead. I shudder to think of what my mom would do if these were to show up at my doorstep.

“Yes, of course,” she continues. “We also have a few pieces from the new haute couture collections. These haven’t officially hit the shelves or the runway yet, so they’re still samples, but we get ahead of the waitlist due to our long and illustrious history with various designers. For example, this Vivienne Westwood.” She takes the dress off the hanger, adds it to the pile in her arms, and then points. “Chanel.” She takes that one too. “And of course, the lovely St. Laurent.”

“Um…” As the pile grows, I start to get worried. It’s going to be a lot trying all that on. Also, it’s all starting to get very… expensive. I’ve never bought a designer piece in my entire life but I at least know how much stuff like that costs. And I doubt that anything hanging over her elbow is under a thousand dollars.

As she continues to add to that number, I figure we’re quickly edging toward fifty grand easily.

I glance at Micah expecting him to put a stop to it at any moment now, but he’s distracted staring at the jewelry in the pristine glass display cases in front of the store. He’s talking to the other attendant, pointing and having her bring something out.

He’s buying me jewelry too? Oh, this is too much. We’re going to blow a hundred thousand dollars on shopping if we’re not careful.

But before I can protest, the friendly woman blocks my view with her blinding smile, hooks her arms through mine, and says, “Let’s try on these before we get some more.”

With a weak smile, I succumb to peer pressure and let her drag me away again.

I don’t make it through the whole pile. After trying on the first dozen pieces, I’m exhausted. Not only from trying it on but from the discourse that ensues after. The attendant, Lacey, is very thorough and attentive, and wants to discuss how I feel in the dress, how movable it is, if I want to adjust or loosen anything, if I want more detailing, what shoes will complement the dress…

On the one hand, it’s almost touching to be treated with such consideration. Most of my experience shopping at higher-end stores–not this high end, obviously, but higher than Marshall’s–as a curvier woman is that a lot of things don’t fit me quite right. But for some reason, this woman has a lot of things in my size and is very conscientious about how they fit. I don’t know how Micah found this store, but it’s really a godsend and if I ever become a billionaire, I know where to shop.

However, it’s also exhausting having so much attention on me.

After about an hour passes, I finally step out of the dressing room for hopefully the last time and say, “Micah I think we have enough–holy moly, what are you doing?”

There are gift boxes lined up in stacks on the counter, nearly reaching the ceiling. Micah gives me an innocent look. “What?”

“Did you buy all that?”

He glances at the pile consideringly and then turns to me and says, “Yeah.”

“For me?”

“Yup. With one or two matching pieces for myself, so we can wear them together.”

I shake my head, utterly stunned. “How did you even find that many things to buy?”

“Well, it’s easy. I saw this one bangle and I really liked it and wasn’t sure whether to get it in gold or silver. I mean you’re pretty neutral-toned, but I think silver looks best on you. Nevertheless, you really can’t beat gold for quality so I just got the bracelet in both. And then they had one with diamond stud detailing so I bought that too. And then there were matching earrings. And a necklace that would also go well with it.” He shrugs. “It all kind of spiraled from there.”

How on earth does it spiral from that into what looks to be about fifty pieces of jewelry?

“Okay, we’ll... discuss that later. I think I’ve tried on enough dresses.”

“Good.” He glances at the attendant behind me. “Make the necessary adjustments and send them all to my condo. The address is on file.”

“Micah, I truly don’t need all of them.”

“You don’t like them?” he says. “Alright. We can keep looking if you want. I know a few other stores we can try too.”

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