Just Married

11: Just Shopping

The first thing I saw was Theo slumped on one of the benches outside the dressing rooms, mindlessly fiddling with his cellphone. He looked up to see us and let out a huge sigh of relief. “Can you please tell this idiot that he looks fine?”

We gave Theo quizzical looks, but understood when someone from inside the dressing room shouted, “I need a girl’s opinion.”

“You look stupid,” Lana shouted back.

“You didn’t even see me yet,” James whined. “Theo keeps telling me I look good, and I don’t believe him.”

Lana threw Theo a look, but he just lifted his arms up in defense. “Theo has no fashion sense, so why would you believe him?”

James slid the curtains of the dressing room open just then and stood there for us to admire. Three seconds later, Lana and I joined Theo in a laughing fit as we looked at James’ terrible outfit. He was wearing khaki corduroys with a black and white polo, and a red bow tie. By the time we were gaining control of our laughter, he already closed the curtain back up and we heard him taking his clothes off.

“Real mature guys,” he said from inside.

“Oh my gosh. I’m sorry I doubted you Theo,” Lana gasped. Her cheeks were totally red from laughing. She told us to wait here for a minute as she went prancing through the store, picking up random items of clothing, leaving me to take a seat next to Theo on the bench.

“Not gonna shop?” I asked, futilely trying to make conversation.

He gave me a sheepish grin, as his hand flew to the back of his neck. “Uh, I was actually waiting for you to come, so you can kinda give me your opinion?” His cheeks tinted as he said that, and I’m pretty sure mine redden too. He quickly tried to cover up. “I mean, you don’t have to. It’s just, I don’t know what to wear really. I don’t go out much to stuff like this,” he confessed.

I gave him a cheeky smile. “Aww, it’s okay. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you look good.”

Lana came bouncing back to us with several items in her arms, all of which she chucked over the dressing room curtain. We heard a cry from the other side as clothes hit the floor.

James sputtered, “What is all of this?”

Lana rolled her eyes and didn’t even knock or give any warning, literally sliding the curtains to the dressing room way open for everyone to see. James was in his boxers, and this was probably the fourth time I’ve seen him half naked, and that was too many times. I covered my eyes like I was seeing hell for the first time.

“Make it stop,” I joked. Lana laughed as she closed the curtain behind her much to the protest of James.

“You can’t be in here,” he complained. “I’m naked.”

“Whatever James. Stop complaining. The faster we get this done, the faster you can go out. Besides, I’ve already seen it all before, and trust me, it ain’t all that special,” Lana replied, and I was sure I heard James choke and metaphorically die on the other side of the curtain.

Lana poked her head out of the curtain and grinned at us. “Cora, go help Theo find something.” Her head disappeared again, and I looked over to Theo who was already looking over at me.

“Welp, I guess we should find you something,” I said, standing up and slapping my thighs.

“I swear, you better not make me look like a penguin or something,” Theo warned as he followed me around the racks. Pawing through stuff, I knew exactly what he would wear, but I thought it’d be funny to mess with him anyways.