Chapter 13.

Window Shopping…

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We returned downstairs after revealing the paintings of the “Meatball Trio” and were prepared to leave when Mr Kimura completely surprised me.

“There’s a massive traffic jam on Balmain Avenue, ten car pile up, it’ll take hours to clear and you’ll never make the last train even if you walk, so why don’t you two stay the night here and experience the nightlife?” he said.

I looked across at Kate and could see that she was torn. She would want to go out and experience everything that San Myshuno had to offer, but I could tell that she was worried about the cost.

“Staying here sounds great Mr Kimura,” I started and then turned and smiled at Kate, “But I only brought enough cash with me for the train fare. I suppose we could order in pizza and watch terrible movies all night, huh?”

“Yeah, same here, and I’m not going out to some fancy club dressed like this! Pizza and bad movies sounds good, nothing over a three rating on IMDB though!” Kate added before mouthing a ‘Thank you’ to me.

Mr Kimura produced a Black Card, one of those credit cards with no limit and casually dropped it onto the coffee table.

“This should cover the clothes and the night out.” He stated as he stood up and straightened his suit.

“I… Ah…We can’t acc-”

“I insist,” he interrupted me, “Let’s just say that I owe Ralph… a lot. Oh, and the pin is 2491.”

He left us and his credit card without another word.

“I don’t know if we can use that thing Danny,” Kate mentioned after the elevator doors shut behind Mr Kimura.

I knew what she meant, the sight of it just intimidated me, not even my father had a Black Card. Still, why shouldn’t they use it? He did leave it here for the express purpose of us using it, and he did say that he owed my Grandpa.

“I say we use it.”

Kate’s eyes narrowed, “You can’t be serious?”

“I’m dead serious,” I replied. “I’m not saying we go out and spend up large, but an outfit for tonight and enough for a good night out wouldn’t hurt, would it?”

“I…”

“Look, why don’t we go shopping first, and if there isn’t anything that you want to wear, we’ll come back here for our original pizza and shit movie plans?”

“Well,” she sighed, “I suppose a bit of window shopping never hurt a credit cards balance.”

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I wasn’t having much luck finding an outfit. If I was going to spend Mr Kimura’s money, I wanted it to be perfect. Danny was so patient and even helped by trying to suggest a few options, most of the ones he picked were a bit on the… revealing side of things, but I was pretty sure he was doing it as a joke.

“What about this?” He called out from nearby, flashing me a dress that was so short it left little to the imagination.

“I think not,” I replied, ”If I wore that I’d have two more cheeks to powder and a lot more hairs to brush!”

Danny’s jaw just dropping and then he roared with laughter, “TMI Kate! TMI!”

He did come up with one nice suggestion, though, a little red racerback dress which was so damn cute, but sadly the fit wasn’t quite right and the next size up ended up looking like a semi-deflated balloon.

I was back to browsing the racks, resigned to the fact that I probably wasn’t going to find anything when Danny called out from behind the stairs.

“Hey, Kate! I think I found the perfect one!”

I placed the top that I was looking at back on the rack and made my way over to Danny.

“Check that one out, under the stairs just over there. It’s got your name written all over it!” Danny smiled.

When I got there, my jaw dropped as I saw the dress that he was pointing at.

The dress was bright yellow with comic strips of woman patterned all over it. It was perfect, it was the last one, and more importantly, it was in my size.

“Try it on,” Danny urged me.

I grabbed the dress, it was so silky smooth, I’d already fallen in love with it and was hoping that the fit would be right. I jumped into a changing room and after I stripped down to my underwear, I tried the gorgeous dress on. It was flawless.

“Sooooo?” Danny called out.

“I love it!”

I came out of the changing room and called over a sales attendant.

“Yes?” she snapped, her tone condescending as she eyeballed my clothing.

“How much is this dress?” I asked, “I didn’t see a price tag on it.”

“Honey, if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.” She replied, brushing past us with such cold disdain that we almost felt the temperature drop ten degrees.

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Kate looked disheartened as she stared at the departing saleswoman.

“Hey, let me google that,” I said as I pulled out my phone and brought up the stores Webstore.

“Okay.”

Oh god, she’s so upset. I hope this works. I navigated through the pages until I found the dress I was looking for.

“Okay, I found it. It’s… THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! WHAT THE HELL!?! It better sing the national anthem and cook you breakfast in bed for that price!”

The look on Kate’s face said it all. We were done here and it was going to be a night of pizza and crap movies.

“So, I was thinking we could start with Attack of the Jurassic Shark? It has an amazing rating of  1.5!” I offered, hoping to cheer her up.

Kate just stared at the saleswoman, and this steely resolve crossed her face as she noticed the woman barking orders at what I assumed was a teenage part-timer before she started fawning over a customer that had the look of someone that was filthy rich.

“Give me the card.”

“What!?!” I asked, did I hear her right?

“Give me the fucking card, Daniel!” she muttered through gritted teeth.

“Okay, okay! Take the card, just don’t take your anger out on me!”

She snatched the card from me and stormed up to the saleswoman, pushing the other customer aside.

“I assume you take these?” Kate snapped as she casually tossed the Black Card onto the table behind the saleswoman.

You could almost see the dollar signs light up in her bulging eyes as she locked on to Fort Knox in plastic format.

“Why, yes, of course, would you like me to ring up your sale?” she replied in a sweet voice that was so obviously fake.

“No, I just wanted you to see what you’re missing out on you royal fucking bitch!”

Wow! Did that just happen? Before the stunned woman could muster up a reply Kate turned away from the woman and just walked off.

She  approached the young girl cleaning the mirrors in the corner, “Excuse me, what’s your name?”

“Aaaaah, Becky.” The timid little thing replied obviously trying her hardest to stay out of this confrontation.

“Well, Becky. My name is Kate and you’re going to make target tonight.” Kate replied in a tone that was both sincere and mocking all at once.

“Oh, and be a dear and fetch me those yellow shoes over there in a size six please?”