Page 78 of Apex of the Curve

“Kind of, yeah,” she said with a bit of a wince. “It’s okay, though. I was there once, too.”

“It’s a good question, though. What would the police do?” I wondered aloud.

“Taken a report and filed it under ‘who gives a shit,’” an acerbic woman’s voice declared. Little Bird looked up sharply past me and her eyes lit up.

“Dahlia! What are you doing here?”

“Meh, went out for hangover food with Tic-Tac,” the woman said, putting her sunglasses up on top of her head and dropped down on the bench on my other side. “We ended up here at the toy store.” She rolled her eyes. “I should make him buy me something.”

Little Bird laughed and made introductions, “Dahlia, this is Aspen. Aspen, this is Dahlia.”

Dahlia was pretty in that pinup girl style sort of way, her black hair up in a red bandana Rosie the Riveter style. She held out a hand with long red nails and I took it. She gave it a sharp shake and asked, “This the one Fen’s been skulking around about?”

“Dahlia!” Little Bird said aghast.

“I can see why; I can also see why you’re here.” She looked me up and down critically and said, “You look like a citizen.”

I laughed nervously and blushed furiously with my discomfort.

“I, um, guess I kind of am one. I’m trying to understand. I don’t really know how it all works, really…”

“Honey, it’s okay,” she said, giving me a pointed look. “First thing’s first. We gotta get you looking the part.” She looked over at Little Bird and asked, “What have you picked out so far?”

Little Bird laughed and said, “We haven’t even gotten started.”

“Oooo! Perfect! Allow me to offer my services, then.”

What ensued can only be described as an absolute whirlwind of activity.

Dahlia asked me to find something I liked in the boots but told me to make damn sure that whatever I picked was waterproof now that the seasons were changing. Thankfully, the waterproofing qualifier narrowed things down considerably but still, there wasn’t a single option for a pair of boots that wasn’t one hundred and fifty dollars or more! For just one pair of boots!

I stuttered and stammered my resistance to the idea until Dahlia rolled her eyes, stuck her thumb and her ring fingertips in her mouth and let out the most earsplitting whistle imaginable. I stood there, face flaming, as Fenris stalked over and asked, “What’s the problem?”

“Your girlfriend’s balking at the price tag,” Dahlia said and Fen frowned.

“Which pair do you like?” he asked me and I pointed, mutely.

“See, that wasn’t so hard.” He turned to Dahlia and said, “Get that pair.”

Dahlia wrinkled her nose impishly with an exaggerated smile and gave a nod.

“Seriously, if you like it, say so. If you don’t – say so. She can make this so much worse,” Little Bird said with a conspiratorial little smile, her lovely brown eyes almost apologetic. I had to think that she’d had a turn at this a time or two before.

“Okay, boots are decided,” Dahlia said looking me up and down. “You’re definitely not a leather pants kind of girl so let’s go look at chaps. You’re definitely a chap over jeans girl.”

“I-I-I’m sorry? Did you just say chaps?” I asked. She closed her eyes, smiled at me, opened them and just turned and walked away.

I looked at Little Bird who was laughing, confused, and she said to me, “Don’t worry about it. Dahlia takes some getting used to.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to this,” I muttered and Little Bird’s smile grew.

I mean, what a bitch.

I swallowed my confoundedness and irritation and let Little Bird guide me to the next section of apparel.

By the time we were done, I had a complete outfit with an absolutely staggering price tag to match. I mean, there was easily a thousand dollars or more between the three items in Dahlia’s hands. The boots were almost two hundred, the chaps, over four hundred, and the jacket that she and Little Bird had finally had to choose for me was over six hundred and fifty dollars! I didn’t even spend that much buying my first car!

I was deathly pale as Fen wandered over to look everything over. He nodded in casual approval.

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