Page 29 of Ink & Snow
Despite being well lit, extra spotlights bathed faceless mannequins in warm colors, making them look fancy in their skiing or hiking outfits. In a corner on the right, shoes were ready to be tried on and tested out on an indoor rocky terrain simulation that looked like an artificial garden, Zen style.
In the back on the left, stylishly covered with artificial plants, a staircase led to a second level. In the center, with clothes and gear all around it, there was packaged food that could be hydrated to make a nutritious if not palatable meal. Maybe they outfitted people who were going to the moon as well, who knew.
A sandy-haired guy with warm brown eyes walked toward me, wearing a red fleece shirt and a name tag that readHazel. Huh.
“Hi, and welcome. You must be Soyer,” he said.
Because of course they were fucking expecting me.
“Yeah. I was told to come see the triplets. Is that you?”
He beamed. “Yup. Well, I’m one third, as it were.”
I eyed his name tag. “Hazel? You pick your sister’s name tag?”
He sighed. “No, and we’re identical. It’s just that my parents managed fine with Harper and Hayden, and then they sort of lost the plot and went for Hazel. You’ll get used to it. I sure did.” He looked me over. “You’ll be needing boots, pants, and a jacket, and if you don’t mind me saying, you’d look hot with one of those new hats we just got in.”
“Are you sure I don’t need new underwear as well?” I asked, really only half joking at this point. I was freezing all over.
Hazel nodded. “We have thermal underwear. Are you going to be doing some hiking? Or jogging, anything like that?”
I shrugged. “I thought I’d just be living here and selling flowers. Seems like enough of a workout. Who’d have thought just living in Clair de la Lune required a new wardrobe.”
He smiled. “Yeah, well, it gets cold here in winter. But we have beautiful hiking paths, and if you take a sleigh tour next Sunday, you’ll agree our little town really is pretty.”
Hazel’s carbon copy approached, coming down the stairs, shoes making small squeaky noises on the floor.
“I thought I heard someone come in,” the second triplet said. Hayden, according to his name tag. I had no idea how anyone told them apart outside the store without their tags.
“Yes, meet Soyer.”
“Right, you adopted the kitten.”
I rolled my eyes. “No. I’m fostering the kitten until Duncan finds her a permanent home.”
“Oh,” Hazel said, sounding sad.
“We have cool cat carriers and leashes upstairs, just in case you want to check those out,” Hayden said, undeterred. He looked me over, much like his brother had done. “But I’m guessing you need boots, pants, and a proper jacket first.”
“I told him that,” Hazel said.
“He’d look hot in one of those hats,” Hayden said.
Hazel nodded. “Told him that too.”
“Right. We should get started.”
The two of them had the air of builders getting ready to tear down the walls of an old house. I wasn’t so sure anymore how wise it had been to come here, but when I heard something from behind me and looked in the general direction of the door, I saw the third triplet, Harper, according to his name tag. He had one of those ski hats in hand, this one with a pom pom too, only white, and there were reindeer circling the hat.
“Maybe these colors?” he said, lifting the hat.
I sighed. “Not quite.”
The triplets took me upstairs where they had created a camping landscape next to a wall of backpacks. And cat carriers. At which I did not look at at all. Behind the tents and camping gear arranged almost like a museum piece, they had changing rooms and a mirror wall.
“It used to be a ballet studio,” Hayden said before sending me into a changing room to get my pants off, luckily without their help.
They made me try on several pairs, and keeping track of the triplets between closing the changing room curtain and stepping in front of the mirrors was like the cup game, just a whole lot more guessing.
