Sadly for me, although sadly is a relative term, proverbial nosebleeds were being had as the store clerk handed multiple amazingly cute dresses to our even cuter girlfriend. Em was being just as enthusiastic as us. And since we had been inside for a while, even Helen came over to look where we were staying.

“Miss, I would really like to offer you a position as a model for our brand.” The young lady offered after having seen Ria in the third dress.

I immediately saw the conflict forming on Ria’s face. It was clear that she wanted to accept it… but there were her parents.

The lady got a little bit more pushy. “We can offer you big discounts and a very competitive reward.”

“Uh… I….” Ria managed to reply, but was getting a bit overwhelmed by the sheer enthusiasm of the clerk.

I saw that Helen wanted to step in but before she could, I stepped in front of Ria. “Miss, she can’t accept that offer. Not for now at least. I’d like you to back off a little. With all due respect, of course.”

That seemed to snap the lady out of her pushy barrage. “O-oh. I… I’m sorry for that…” She did look genuinely sorry for her behavior.

“I-it’s okay!” Ria replied. “But like Ro… uh… my girlfriend said. I can’t accept that offer right now.”

“No, Miss, it’s not okay. I made one of our customers uncomfortable, I really shouldn’t have done that.” She backed off even more, but Ria’s assurance did seem to calm her down. “If you want to, I can offer you a discount for those dresses. As a way to apologize.”

“Won’t your boss get angry for that?” Em asked.

“I’m the store owner, so it’s fine.” The lady smiled Em’s comment away.

“What do you say, Ria?” Em looked over to her. “It’s up to you.”

“Hmmm.” Ria turned on the spot to the left and to the right while she was thinking. “Can… I fit the last dress as well before deciding?” She looked over to the last dress that the clerk had brought and placed on a chair nearby. It was the pink frilly dress from the store’s showcase.

The lady hesitated a bit before approaching. “Sure thing, Miss.”

It took a minute or two for Ria to get changed into the last dress and just as Em and I had thought, once she showed up again, the two of us were blown away by her appearance. It was as if her cuteness was amplified tenfold by the pink frills of the dress. The accompanying shoes and accessories made a sizable impact as well.

“What do you think?” Ria asked as she gave us a little twirl.

“Do you even need to ask, Ria? Auro is almost drooling because you look so sugary cute.”

“It’s in fact almost like I’m looking at candyfloss, that’s true.” I gave her a nod with a big smile as well.

Ria giggled into her hand.

“We’ll definitely be taking that dress home. Aren’t we, Em?” I asked my girlfriend for her permission as it was her money.

“I was thinking so, too. And the accessories as well.” She gave a happy wink as well.

“Thank you!!” Ria hopped out of joy and then went back into the dressing room to get changed.

In the meantime, Em addressed the store lady. “You really don’t need to give us a discount, we can more than easily afford this.”

“And I have the feeling we will be coming here more often anyway.” I added. “Just remember us for next time and that’ll be fine.”

“Thank you a lot, Misses. That’s very kind.” Although, after she had said that, it seemed as if a light went on above her head. She quickly looked at the shelves behind her. “I do want to give the three of you this.” She turned back around, in her hand were three necklaces which showed three hearts that were all linked together. “It’s something I’ve been designing myself, these are a couple of my prototypes for polyamorous people.”

“Oh, wow.” I looked at the necklaces in her hand. “Are you sure you can give these away for free?”

“Definitely, I’d like it if you were to wear them. And maybe next time you visit what you thought about wearing them for a while.”

“We can’t say no to that.” Em smiled but before she could accept them Helen stepped in.

“Just a second.” Helen quickly moved her right arm over the necklaces before she stepped away again. “It’s fine.”

I looked strangely at Helen, and so did the store lady and Em.

The store lady decided to let it go and talked to us again. “Would you like to have it in a small bag?”

“If you would be so kind.” Em nodded.

When Ria walked out of the changing room, the lady took her dress and all accessories too and put them into a bag and then presented Em with a bill. Which Em swiftly paid for with her card. Before we left the shop, Ria did speak up to the lady again. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to… but I would very much like to model for your clothing line in the future… if that’s still okay with you…”

“Of course, of course.” The store lady smiled. “I’ll give you the store’s card so you can call, or you could always visit us here if you want to start. That’s no issue at all.” She handed a card to Ria who immediately put it in between her phone and her phone’s case.

“Thank you for letting me fit all those dresses, and thank you for the necklaces as well.” Ria smiled and then joined us at the door.

“No problem! Have a nice day, ladies.”

We then left the store, with Ria continuing to wave until the door had closed back up again.

Now it was time to confront Helen about her weird gesture in the store. “Uh, Helen, I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but what was that what you were doing with the necklaces?”

“I was checking them for bugs.” She replied instantly, without trying to find excuses.

“Bugs!?” Ria almost eeped at her reply.

“She means listening devices, Ria.” I chuckled.

“Ooooh! Okay, I should’ve realized that sooner…”

“It’s fine, it was terribly cute anyway.” I smiled and gave her a pat on the head.

“Did you really think a random shopping lady would put listening devices in random gifts?” Em asked our bodyguard.

“It’s especially the free gifts one needs to be careful about.” Helen replied. “I once went along with your mother, and two of the pieces of jewelry offered to her for free had them.”

“What kind of neighborhood did you two go to?”

Helen shrugged. “It was quite some time ago so I can’t really say for sure. But it was quite some distance away from here.”

“...Okay… But next time, try to do it outside when it’s a little bit less… weird…” Em slowly shook her head.

“Alright, I’ll try to do that.” Helen agreed.

We proceeded with our shopping trip, with me carrying the bag with Ria’s dress in it. While we were walking from shopping window to shopping window we were just casually chit-chatting about what we saw while Helen stayed a bit behind us so she didn’t intrude too much on our conversation. It took a while before we found another store that caught our interest. This time it was Ria who pulled us towards the showcase.

“I think this would really suit you, Rora!” She reeled me in towards the window. This shop definitely had a more ‘badass’ exterior so it was a lot more promising than the other store we were at.

In the window itself, there were a lot of mannequins with leather jackets and jeans pants.

“That’s not too bad.” I nodded, but when I looked at the footwear I did cringe a little bit. “Those heels are waaaaay too open though.”

“What about those ankle boots over there? The black ones.” Em pointed to a pair of shoes in the bottom right corner of the store’s window. “I think those would go well with dark blue jeans and a turtleneck and leather jacket combination.”

“Yes!” Ria affirmed Em’s speculation.

“I’m not sure…”

“But I am.” Em gave me a wink and hooked my arm with hers. “Come on. Let’s go take a look inside.”

“Helen, please, save me.” I pleaded while Em guided me towards the door.

“Sorry, lady Beaumont, but I can’t go against the wishes of my employer’s daughter.” Helen just smirked, the bastard, after which she put on a pair of sunglasses and turned around to look into the shopping street.

“Don’t be so melodramatic, Rora. You’ll see that it’ll fit you.” Ria also started to push me along until we disappeared into the store and the door closed behind me.

-This was a mistake!-