The unfortunate truth of business is that people expected you to dress a certain way when going to meetings. If you were just meeting middle management or something business casual was fine, but when you meet the people at the top? Suits. It needed to be suits or you were on the backfoot already.

And even though Gwen didn’t particularly care about that, she still had her father’s lessons echoing in her ear about dressing for the position. And since she was scheduled to meet with one of the Wayne Entertainment bigwigs about another potential game she needed to replace the outfit destroyed the last time her apartment was broken into.

Too bad she couldn’t just look up a design on the internet and shapeshift her symbiote into it. If anyone asked her for her jacket or anything like that and she was unable to get it back in time it would likely die and wind up a puddle of black goo.

And that would be really awkward to explain.

So that meant shopping. And not just walking in the store finding the first thing that kinda fits shopping either. She was going to need to get something fitted.

Gwen hadn’t even started and she wanted this to be over.

-o-

“Why is it so hard to find a women’s suit in the mall?” Gwen raged three stores and no results later.

For some reason every department store either sold a random assortment of things that even someone as fashion oblivious as Gwen wouldn’t consider business attire, or they simply sold one or two jackets with a skirt option. The men’s clothing section had five different brands and four different styles of cuts! Where were the women’s options? She would buy pants from the men’s section if she had to but boobs didn’t exactly work with the jackets.

“All I want is something that fits and has pockets. Is that too much to ask?”

“You won’t find those in a department store. Not anything that’s worth the price anyway.”

Gwen looked up at the comment and was surprised to see Barbara walking towards her with her own small shopping bag.

“Barbara! What are you doing here?”

“There’s a charity ball my dad was invited to for the resolution of the Falcone Fiasco. He wanted to bring me along and I needed to restock on some makeup.” She said lifting her bag.

“Shouldn’t you be getting that somewhere nicer than the mall if it's going to be that fancy?”

Barbara shrugged. “Not really. Past a certain point you’re paying for the name rather than the product. Besides, I know how to work with these. If I need to spend a night being judged by some trophy wife, I want it to be because I look great with stuff that costs a third of what she is wearing, not because something is running.”

Gwen shrugged. Makeup had never been a big thing with her, she would just take Barbara’s word for it.

“So why do you need a suit? I didn’t think that was your style?”

Gwen told her about the upcoming meeting and the need for new clothes. Which turned out to be a minor mistake as the redhead had finished her own shopping and was more than willing to drag her friend around looking for a new outfit.

And then to her horror, Barbara dragged Gwen out of the mall without having purchased anything.

-o-

“So what are we here for again?” Gwen asked with growing dread as they got closer to the building.

“Well, you still need an outfit.” Barbara pointed out.

“Then why didn’t we stay at the mall? Some of those suits fit pretty well.”

Barbara laughed. “Gwen, you don’t go to a department store for a suit. You go there to check some styles at most. Then you go to a specialist.”

“This is a JEWELRY store, Barbara.” The blonde pointed out.

“Yeah so?”

Gwen stopped walking and gave her friend a look promising pain. “So…generally jewelry stores don’t sell suits.”

“Oh we’re not here for that.”

At this point Gwen didn’t want to deal with her friend’s teasing. So she stopped walking, crossed her arms, and started tapping a foot impatiently.

Barbara kept walking until she realized Gwen wasn’t going to give in and follow her.

She sighed and turned back. “You couldn’t just let me have fun?” She whined.

Gwen raised an eyebrow. “With your shopping habits? I’d be lucky to get around to buying something before dinner.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true and you know it. So why are you dragging me to somewhere completely unrelated?”

Barbara pouted childishly for a bit, but Gwen proved immune to it. “Fine, we’re here to talk with the manager.”

“Of a jewelry store? Is she a fashion designer on the side or something?”

“Close, her daughter is.” Barbara clarified. “She’s pretty good too. And last I talked to her, she was taking commissions. I figured I’d introduce the two of you, you get a custom tailored suit without getting gouged for it, and I get to spend time looking for a new bracelet.”

Gwen thought it over.

On the one hand this was likely going to take longer than simply finding an outfit and maybe getting it adjusted later. On the other, a custom outfit would mean she could actually have pockets bigger than the exact dimensions of a credit card.

“Alright let’s go.”

She made a point of ignoring the happy noise her friend made.

-o-

Blue Springs Jewelers was the kind of store Gwen would have never set foot in before her dad was killed and she cheated her way into a lucrative career as a game dev. She would have considered herself much too poor for that.

It was the kind of store where each item on display was perched on it’s own pedestal, suit-wearing guards unobtrusively watched from the corners, and a sales person actually escorted each potential customer around!

It was far too much for some shiny metal and fancy rocks in her opinion.

“Ms. Gordon! How lovely to see you again. Back for more window shopping?” A small Indian woman greeted them on the way in, which her friend responded to. Apparently familiar to call out to her by name and even joke a bit since most salespeople would be annoyed by someone spending a lot of time in stores, yet not actually buying anything.

“Mrs. Ahmed, and no I’m here for Sabah actually.” Barbara returned. “Though I wouldn’t say no to any suggestions. Maybe something to show off at the Charity gala?”

Mrs. Ahmed hummed. “For your friend, I suppose, since you just picked up a dress from her yesterday? Give me a moment and I’ll fetch her.”

With that she walked away leaving the two girls to stand around looking at the display stands. Gwen actually thought they were pretty neat. Most of the jewelry she was familiar with was mass produced. These all seemed to be handmade.

Still far too expensive though.

The woman returned with another girl not much older than either Gwen or Barbara.

“So mom said you were looking for an outfit? Please, let’s head into the back. I’d be happy to give you a consultation.” Sabah said while wrapping an arm around Gwen and not so subtly pushing her towards a door.”

“Uh, is this allowed?” Gwen squeaked nervously. “I mean aren’t you working for the store right now?”

“Eh, Mom owns the place. If she’s okay with it then there’s no issue. Besides, it's a slow day anyways.”

“But, but…!”

Gwen’s protests fell on deaf ears and when she turned to look to Barbara for help, the traitor just smiled and waved as she was led off.

Don’t just stand there, help her!

-o-

Barbara couldn’t help but laugh at the pleading look Gwen gave her as she was taken to the back with Sabah.

Seriously, it wasn’t like she was being led to her execution or anything.

“So what made you bring that girl here?” Mrs Ahmed asked. “I know you like to support my daughter’s career when you can but normally you wait until she isn’t working here.”

“Spur of the moment, really.” Barbara shrugged. “I found Gwen shopping for a suit for an upcoming business meeting and she needed someone to guide her away from the mass manufactured stuff.”

“Hmm.”

“Aaaand I needed to make sure she didn’t just grab the first thing that looked okay and fit. Another friend of mine that has a line to Wayne Entertainment told me one of the execs has it out for her. Gwen needs every advantage she can get right now.” Rather, some of Bruce’s automated systems flagged some emails from inside his company pushing for people to blacklist Gwen for some reason and she had caught them while looking for signs of corruption now that the criminal underworld was reeling from recent events.

“And why not tell her that?”

“Oh I will, but only after her meeting.” Barbara assured the other woman. “Gwen gets really sarcastic when she’s mad at someone. I’d rather she didn’t burn bridges because of something I said. Plus, her games are really good despite being pretty simple. She’ll be fine.”

Mrs. Ahmed just hummed again before shaking her head and changing the subject.

“Well she’s your friend. You would know her best. Now! If you are looking for something yourself we have a lovely new addition right over here…”

-o-

“That wasn’t so bad was it?” Sabah asked a short time later.

“If you say so.” Gwen grumbled.

Truthfully, it hadn’t been that bad at all. Sabah had been pretty fast about getting the measurements she needed and had taken steps to make sure Gwen was comfortable throughout the process. At this point she was mostly holding a grudge because if Barbara ever found out she didn’t totally hate the experience she would take it as an excuse to drag Gwen out on even more shopping trips.

“So I’ve been meaning to ask,” Gwen said in an obvious topic change. “What’s the deal with the amulet? Some kind of specialty item you only show certain people?”

If so Gwen could see why. The amulet was a massive emerald set with some intricate gold metalwork. Even locked behind the clear glass case, she could tell it was on another level compared to the rest of the pieces here and she wasn’t exactly a jewelry buff.

“Not really. That’s actually from someone’s private collection being donated to the gala to raise money for the charity.” The fashion designer shrugged. “There’s going to be an auction with any money raised going to the fund.”

“They’re celebrating the takedown of a criminal group during an auction…with another auction?”

Sabah smiled. “Hey, never let it be said the upper class isn’t consistent. Besides this at least lets some people see this beauty in person before it winds up forgotten in some rich person’s closet for a few years.”

“Something special about it?”

“Yeah, it’s called the ‘Spring Isles Emerald’, it’s one of the biggest gems of its kind in the world. Collectors would give an arm and a leg to have it in their collection for just a little while. The bragging rights alone would be worth it.”

“Really…” Gwen gave the amulet another lookover. Nope, still just looked like a fancy rock to her.

“Hahaha, yeah that’s why I’m going into fashion even though mom runs the store. Seems more fun designing for the person than waving some unchanging item around, no matter how much it’s worth.” Sabah laughed when Gwen repeated her thoughts out loud.

“Whatever suits you, I guess.” Gwen snarked, getting another laugh out of Sabah with the pun.

“So when do you…” Gwen’s spider sense went off. Trusting her instincts, she threw herself on top of Sabah and did her best to shield the other girl as the room suddenly exploded. She felt herself smash into a rack of metal shelves and looked up just in time to see parts of the ceiling falling on her.

-o-

*BOOOM!*

Barbara stopped mid sentence as the building rocked from an explosion. And while her training was enough to stop her from falling over, she had to quickly reach out and steady Mrs Ahmed, who had no such advantages.

She barely had time to wonder what happened before she saw smoke pouring out of one of the back room doors…

“Gwen!” “Sabah!”

All over the store, people burst into motion. Some of the security guards began escorting people out of the store, others ran towards the room Gwen and Sabah had gone into, but none of them were faster than Barbara.

She burst through the door, shortly followed by Sabah’s mother, and looked around the room. Fittingly it looked like a bomb had gone off. Practically everything was broken and scattered, but she did see her friend starting to move from under a pile of debris.

“Gwen, you okay?! What about Sabah?” She cried, rushing to her friend’s side and helping her both dig herself out of the rubble and looking her over for injuries.

“I think we’re both fine.” Gwen coughed. “I managed to shield her from the worst of it before the drop ceiling fell on us. I think she’s just unconscious.”

“Oh, thank God!” Mrs Ahmed exclaimed, falling to her knees next to her daughter. “Thank goodness you are both okay.”

“We should still call an ambulance.” Barbara suggested. “Just to be sure.”

“Yes, yes that seems like a –”

“Ma’am, bad news!” one of the security guards interrupted. “It looks like someone has stolen the Amulet!”