Lucia blindly followed him down to the SUV and buckled herself in.  The minute he headed towards the downtown boutique district, she knew she was screwed. He stopped in front of the Channel store and she sighed.  She was going to argue, but he got out of the car before she could come up with a coherent argument.  He opened her door and she just stared at him for a minute. She slid out of the car as he grabbed her hand, trying to pass off the electric shock that passed between them as static electricity.  

She was not a boutique shopping kind of girl.  She was still in what really could equate to either pajamas or gym clothes, it was bad enough he always looked like he walked off the cover of GQ, even in that ridiculous apron earlier.  Lucia hated shopping, this is why Amazon had invented prime now, delivery in two hours, and she didn't have to put on a bra.  

They walked in and suddenly every eye was on him.  She took back what she had thought about it being bad that he looked like a GQ model.  They didn't even realize she was there.  She looked longingly over her shoulder at the door.  He still held her hand or she might have tried to run for it.  Come to think of it, it was probably why he still held her hand.  

She rolled her eyes at the reaction of the women in the store, If they had thought he was single, they would have either A been in his bed, or B made every effort to get there.  Hell Lucia herself still suspected a hidden wife or girlfriend somewhere.  A single man didn't handle melt downs, or run baths like he did.  

She bit her lip and allowed herself to be drug to the clothing racks.  She could have drug her feet, or made it hard to move her, but she was afraid he would just pick her up fireman carry and move her anyway.  She convinced herself to keep this shopping trip as humiliation free as possible.   She listened to his argument and she wanted to argue with  him.  To remind him she was humoring her father, but then he pointed out the networking opportunities available and she shut her mouth.  Damn him! He knew exactly how to shut her up.  


She numbly took the dress and allowed herself to be escorted to the dressing room.  There was still a quiet buzz among the sales women about exactly what was happening.  It took everything in her to keep her mouth shut and not feed them some cock and bull story.  She just took a deep breath and went to try on the dress.  She slid into it and shuddered.  She suddenly had a fear of moving.  It felt like it would snag on anything given half a movement.  

She waited as long as she thought she could get away with before she walked out of the dressing room.  "I feel naked"  She said, very proud of herself for not whining, because whining was on her mental list of options.  If the dress had been just a little more cream, and a little less gold, with her pale skin tone she would have looked naked as well as felt it.  

"It fits... If I say we can take it can we go?"  She asked hopefully.