I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 77: Dresses

We got to the fashion district, heading back in the direction of the hotel. To be honest, I had a hard time differentiating one neighborhood from the next since they all looked incredibly crowded and rather dirty to me. There were more homeless people here than back home as well, but they didn’t bother us, more or less minding their own business and at worst quietly holding a cardboard sign and waving to people. That had been me not that long ago. I had never panhandled, but I wasn’t far from doing some desperate things just to get food.

Alisha looked at the shop fronts, those which were visible from outside and went in one with a few dresses on display. I followed her in, feeling cramped in the tight space. This was not like the luxury shop we had been in before, much more warm and filled with the smell of clothes irons. I gathered this was a custom tailor shop which had a few sample dresses in the front window. 

Alisha approached a counter in the back, walking between bolts of cloth and racks of ribbons and thread. 

A man looked up from a delicate task of attaching lace to the neckline of a fancy looking blouse but didn’t go further to acknowledge her and went back to his work.

“Excuse me,” Alisha finally said, her voice already taking a controlled measure as he looked up again and waited for her to talk to him.

I saw the dissatisfaction in her expression but she continued on.

“I was looking for somewhere to get some dresses made before the day after tomorrow. I know thats a very short time frame, but I’m willing to pay extra for the service.”

The man examined her, skeptical of her.

“You know this is a couture shop, correct?” He asked.

“Yes,” Alisha responded, rather shortly. “Like I said, I'm willing to pay.”

He continued to doubt this but sighed and carefully put his work down. It did look like a tedious process.

“Even if you have the money, two days is beyond this shop's ability. Even if I called everybody in and worked non-stop, a fitted gown would easily take three days, and you want two of them,” he told her.

I saw Alisha’s annoyance starting to build.

“Is there somewhere you would recommend we go?” Alisha asked. “We don’t need dresses made from scratch, but they do need to be fitted and… reasonably fancy.”

The dressman looked her up and down again, and then me.

“Stacy’s on fifth would be a good fit for you,” he decided, and picked his work back up.

“I see.” Alisha’s smile was thin as she said, “thank you for your time.” She took my hand to pull me out of the shop.

Once we were back on the grossness of the street and out of the claustrophobic space, I asked, “did he just say what I think he did?”

“That we should shop at a department store? Yes, he did.” She looked down at the maxmart dress and cheap ribbon she was wearing.

“Well that was just rude,” I said. I half wished he could overhear me say this.

“This is the big city,” she sighed. “And we aren’t wearing particularly nice clothing. But he does have a point. Adrian can always make time for me, but he knows I’m good for the money. A random shop that gets haggled by vacation Karens isn’t going to be so amicable.”

“Adrian?” I repeated.

“The dress guy,” she clarified. “He made that black–purple dress you had.”

“Oh.” I had never asked his name. 

Alisha folded her arms, readjusting our shopping bags from earlier. “Maybe instead of couture we could go for luxury brands instead.”

“That’d be better than MaxMart,” I agreed. I pointed at the bags of clothes. “If we get changed, will that give us better chances?”

“It might. We're not far from the hotel if you want to take a break and get changed.”

I nodded. I could sit down for a few minutes. We'd done a lot of walking today and my scrawny limbs were feeling it.

She led me back to the tall building and we went up to the room. I was relieved by the anonymity of this place. The few people we passed in the lobby made a point not to engage, and it relieved me of worrying over social norms. 

Up in the room, I let myself slump on the bed. Alisha used the bathroom, freshening up and relieving herself before coming back out and sitting next to me.

“Maybe we should visit a bookstore too,” she wondered. “I can’t watch TV all night and we should probably do watch again tonight.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” I agreed. I got up to use the bathroom and came back to find her staring at the burner phone again.

I held back a sigh. She wasn't fully embracing the idea of a vacation. I understood, this was not exactly ideal conditions to be on vacation. And knowing we were going back to crash a mob party and possibly end up dead or injured was not going to be making her any more relaxed…but still. I hated seeing her fret like this.  She was not the kind of person that dealt with ‘hurry up and wait’ very well.

I gave her shoulders a rub and she leaned closer to me in response.

“If you weren’t injured I’d say you should get a full massage,” I told her. 

She nodded, eyes closed. “But you’re the only one that can touch me so soothingly,” she mumbled.

I dug my fingers in a little harder, feeling her muscles strain under them as they moved. 

She grunted a little and shifted her hair to give me better access.

“Does this really feel nice?” I asked. “I don’t really know what I’m doing.”

She was quiet as I massaged her for a few more minutes and when I eventually stopped, she took a deep breath. “You do a good job,” she told me. “You’re not trained for it but you know… strangers touching me can make me tense up just as much as they might get me to relax…”

I nodded and moved to sit next to her again.

“You want to go shopping at some luxury stores?” I asked.

She nodded and stood, rummaging through that bag full of our new clothes and stripped down to put the dress on. I helped her zip it up in the back and did my best not to stare too much at her exposed skin. It was a pretty standard dress, I thought they were called slip-style, but I hadn’t had much chance to explore the lingo of fashion.

I got changed as well, and pulled on the shirt and pants and admired them in the large mirror on the inside door of the closet. They were a bit more masculine than I would have preferred, to be honest, but there was a very feminine cut to both the shirt and the pants. I needed more formal clothes though, if I was going to be going to dinners with Alisha more often, and there could come a day that a dress simply wasn't going to be a good fit. With pants at least, I could put the gun holster in the back of the waistband again and appreciated having it in a comfortable and reassuring position.

I turned back to Alisha, finding her admiring the view, but she said nothing and didn’t try to drag me back to the bed so I figured I was safe for now. We headed out to do more shopping, browsing in stores way too luxurious for my middle class senses, and stopped to eat dinner in a nice restaurant Alisha recognized from her previous travels. The food was good. It was more french cuisine and the food came on tiny plates in a few courses. It was fancy but we were already dressed up anyway. It was good food too, and Alisha ordered a bottle of wine, which we finished, making me tipsy before long.

We found dresses, and then wandered through a book store, browsing the selection. Alisha picked out one of her typical authors, someone who wrote a lot of realistic fiction. I chose a middle reader book with a cat on the cover. She had a confused look on her face. 

“It's a comfort read,” I explained. “About cats in clans. Did you never read one of these?”

She shook her head. “No, I stuck to the stuffy books, I think.”

“You can try it if you want,” I told her.

We checked out and headed back to the hotel to get settled in for bed.

Note: Next chappie is going to be a spicy one and then they'll probably be heading back. I'll squeeze in a few more fluff bits though.