The Endgame (BBC Sherlock) -3-

5. Best Friend Outing

"I'm starting to think Mary doesn't like me with Rosie," Amanda complained to me as we sat in the taxi. "I hog her a lot."

"Yeah, I don't get that about you," I told her. "I didn't think you were a baby person. Unless..." I looked to her, raising an eyebrow. "Are you and Taylor expecting and you just haven't told anyone?" During my brief break with Bayley, Amanda had found herself a man named Taylor. To this day, they were still together, marking this the longest relationship my best friend had ever been in.

Mandy gasped, gaping at me. "No, I'm not! You would've been the first to know, I swear!"

I laughed. "I'm kidding. Or am I?" Mandy hit me on the arm. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! All jokes aside, Mary does like you. I think she's just happy that she's got an extra person to help out with Rosie. Being a mother is rough business." I looked back out the window. "So instead of wedding talk, you wanted us to spend a day out?"

"We need a break from wedding fever," she insisted. "Besides, I want to explore what this place has to offer! Take pictures and be able to tease the girls about being here before them."

"Teasing, bragging, same difference," I joked.

When we got out of the taxi and paid the driver, Amanda led me straight into the store. We weren't going in with the expectation of buying anything, just browsing. To me, this seemed like a normal store. But to Amanda, you'd think she'd never been in one before. She had to touch everything her eyes found.

"Please tell me you know the conversion for this," she said as she showed me a price tag.

"Ah, right, the currency is different here," I noted. "I should've forewarned you about that. Yeah, our money doesn't work here."

"I could've guessed that, genius."

"Fortunately for you, I converted some of my cash to pounds. We'll find a station for you to do so too."

When we left the store empty-handed, Amanda and I hunted for a station to convert her money. It took some time to find one, and even more time to learn how to use one again. Nevertheless, Amanda felt much better having the current currency of London.

We found ourselves putting in a few miles on our legs. The weather was damp and dreary, and I could tell Amanda didn't like it, with the way her body language came off. I was used to it from my prior stays here.

We entered a different store, one that was fancier than the last. We branched off a bit, Mandy ogling at the purses while I glanced at shirts and dresses. This place was high-level fashion. How in the hell did we manage to find this place? There's no way we can afford anything in here.

I continued my browsing for another twenty minutes or so before I realized Amanda had disappeared. I began to search the store for her.

I came back empty.

I texted her phone: Did you skip out on me and I didn't see you?

The response was fairly quick: In dressing room.

Sighing, I found the back of the store, where the dressing room sign hung above.

"I can't believe you found something in this place," I said.

I got no quip back from Amanda. I frowned. I bent down to see her feet.

But I didn't see her anywhere.

"Mandy?" I asked quietly. I did the same for the rest of the stalls, checked for signs of feet. All came back empty. Okay, I don't like this. "Come on, you know I hate games like this. This isn't funny."