The light went out for a minute before it slowly went back on very dimly. It was only a minute but it felt eerie to me. Kath and I wondered why the lights just went out.
“Probably old light fuse going to give out anytime soon,” Kath said easily. “Which means I think we call the electricians. I hope we can have that sexy latino guy again fixing our lights. Damn, his ass is like fu-“
“Yeah whatever you want,” I cut her off before she could finish her sentence. “But huh, this is weird. Look at this Kath. The crate’s kinda open.”
I took a closer look at the latch attached to it. A minute ago it was locked, but now, the lock was nowhere to be seen. Kath took a closer step to the crate next to me. After examining it for a moment, she shrugged her shoulders and opened the crate completely revealing a very elegant wedding gown. It left the two of us breathless. The gown was the color of nude, embroidered with lace and pearls, showing an exquisite design of a flying phoenix.
“Oh my God,” Kath said in awe. “Tell me where you got this again?”
“I told you a billion of times already!” I groaned. “But this is the most elegant piece they have there and probably the most antique and elegant in this store. You have any idea how much we can sell this gown for?”
Kath turned to look at me, her eyes wide open.
“You want to sell this? Al, it’s an antique and quite a magnificent one if I do say so myself. You keep it for your wedding,” Kath held the gown out to me. I tilted my head to the side and looked at my best friend.
“There isn’t going to be a wedding!” I said to her flat toned.
“Oh,” she looked at me then back to the dress. “Well then, for my wedding!”
“Not a chance Katherine! This dress has to be hanged up and hopefully someone will buy it. I’m giving it a high price. It’ll cover the rest of the money we need to pay our mortgage for this store,” I said, taking the dress off Kath’s hands and carefully fitting it on a mannequin by the store window up front. “We’re so close to buy off this place you know. I mean if this place is finally owned by me, at least I can live on the upper floors.”
Kath laughed as she helped me take out the next four dressed out of the crate and putting them on other naked mannequins. Half an hour later we were done, Kath went back to sitting around while I tried to move the wooden crate down to the basement. I flipped on the light switch beside the door to the basement and brought the wooden crate carefully down the stairs. Dragging the wooden crate, created a loud thud noise on the floor. The thing was so heavy, I regretted not just putting it out the back and leave it by the garbage bin.
When finally I reached the bottom stair, I hauled the crate to a corner and rather rapidly went up the stairs. I’ve never liked to go down the basement alone. The basement always gave me the creeps. Back upstairs, I sat myself down behind the counter and gave a sigh, satisfied that my shipment had arrived. Hopefully by tomorrow we could get some profit out of them.
An hour of talking and browsing around the internet together with Kath, we felt a breeze of wind in the store. I look up from my laptop and gasped in surprise as a man stood on the other side of the counter.
“Sorry to scare you off like that,” the man said with a very thick British accent.
I gave him a nervous smile and stood up. Kath did the same.
“Oh that’s alright. You took me by surprise is all. I didn’t hear the bell ringing,” I said, trying to suppress the heavy thudding inside my chest. “Is there anything we can help you with?”
The man was unbelievably handsome, no doubt. His hair was jet black, his eyes electric blue but his skin was really pale. I could see his faint blue veins through his thin skin. However, apart from that, the man looked like the Prince Eric I used to watch in Little Mermaid.
“How did that dress get all the way over here?” the man demanded to know. I was taken aback by the sudden harshness in his voice. His finger pointed to the window in front and I knew which “dress” he was talking about since there’s only one displayed there.
“Excuse me? I just bought that from England sir,” I answered.
“Well, it doesn’t belong here!” he said, his electric blue eyes piercing into mine.
“I’m not about to ship back something that I bought!” I replied incredulously. “Who makes you the boss anyway. I bought that dress and it will stay there until someone comes in and buy it off me.”
“You can’t do that!” the man practically shouted at me. Kath stood beside me speechless. “Bring it back to wherever you bought it from or else!”
“I’m sorry, who are you?” I asked, a frown now replaced my smile.
“David,” the man replied, his thin lips showing a straight line. “David Thomas Carson. Why do you ask anyway?”
"So I can get it right for the restraining order," I wasn't going to hesitate anymore getting this guy as far away from me as possible.
