Page 61 of Romeo & Antoinette

“No no no, we have to go!” Then Mrs Cap leaned down, grabbed the covers and yanked them off her daughter.

“No!!” Ant yelled, kicking her feet and burying her head in her pillows. Just like she used to do when she was ten and refusing to get up for school.

“Yes!” said her mom. She bent over her daughter and gave her a big wet kiss right on the back of the neck.

“Uggghhh… Why?”

“Because you have a date with Patrick tonight.”

“It’s not a date.”

“Yes it is.”

“No it’s not!”

“Yes it is and I’m taking you shopping.”

“When? ”

“Today.”

“I have to work today.”

“No you don’t. I took care of that. You and I are going to spend the whole day together. We’re going to go shopping and get our hair done. Now get up and get dressed.”

Mrs Cap left the room as quickly as she had come in. Leaving Ant in her disheveled bed piled high with more clothes than she could possibly wear in a single day. None of which she would have chosen.

Ant looked at the mess of covers and clothes. “Why?” she asked, though there was no one there to hear her. Then she dropped her head back on her pillows and closed her eyes.

“You up?” asked her mom, popping her head in again.

“Yes, yes, I’m up. Go away.”

“Just checking,” she said before disappearing back down the hall.

“I’m up… I’m up…” Ant pulled the pillow from under her head and put it over her face.

An hour later they were shopping. Her mom had dragged her to a small local boutique named after the woman who owned it called Lauretta’s.

The name was written over the entrance to the shop in a highly flourished, overly scripted, almost ineligible style. Most of the clothes followed suit - overly flourished, exceedingly ornate, garish, gaudy.

They were more suited to a mafia princess or Russian countess than a college gal into farmers markets and flip flops. Nothing Ant would ever wear.

> “What about this?” asked Mrs Cap, holding up a gold glitter halter top.

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Ooh I love that one,” said Lauretta. Who pronounced her own name as Laurrrret-aaahhhhh. With the rrrr’s rolling off her tongue and her name punctuated with a breathy aaaahhh at the end .

Mrs Cap had called in advance to make sure Lauretta herself would be there to help them and she had said, “Of course dahhhling , anything for you…”

“It’s on sale,” added Lauretta.

Mrs Cap flipped over the price tag. “It’s only three hundred!”

Ant’s jaw dropped. “Dollars? Three hundred dollars for that?”

“It’s normally four,” added Lauretta.

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