✅1️⃣ | Hypnosis Doesn't Work Like That!

45: Everyone Should be Aware of Me

Two stops later, Adi was beginning to wish that the facilities in the Mercer Centre were spread more evenly through the place, rather than being clustered around the main squares and intersections. She could see that it was yet another strategy to manipulate the gullible into spending more; forcing shoppers to pass through those main areas more often, passing in front of the largest and flashiest window displays from the most successful merchants. But at times it was particularly inconvenient.

Her mind darted back and forth between wishing for a more customer-friendly layout for the centre, and admiring her reflection every time she walked past some vast expanse of polished chrome as part of some store's display. She had to admit, she was looking pretty good. A knee-length black skirt shimmered in all the colours of the rainbow when the light caught it, but the effect was subtle enough that it didn't seem to be demanding attention. Similarly, the new shirt she was wearing now had stripes so faint that she might not have noticed them. Bands of white and cream that drew everyone's eyes to her chest while it gave the impression of being a modest work shirt. The outfit was a little tighter than she was used to, which was one reason she had decided to keep wearing it after coming out of the fitting room, and the casual clothes she'd come in were now in her bag. She just wanted to be comfortable in her new outfit, so it would seem natural on Monday.

Adi couldn't deny that she looked good. She felt like that was some kind of revelation, but she wasn't sure what the moral of the story was. She'd said for so long that she didn't care what was fashionable, and that she didn't care what people thought of her if they took their opinions from trashy magazines instead of thinking for themselves. But now she knew that she looked good. She could feel the eyes of strangers on her, and she knew that the gazes were admiring or jealous. She looked _good_, and the extra confidence that gave her made her feel good as well. She should have let Toni dress her up like this a long time ago.

It wasn't just the smart-casual outfit that made her look like a serious student. The other looks Toni had put together were just as beautiful. Adi could adopt any of a dozen styles, and be confident that she'd look great. As soon as she saw each of them, any misgivings she'd had faded quickly away, and she'd ended up spending a dozen times more than she'd even imagined was possible. Except, of course, that it was all going on Toni's card. Adi didn't want to think of how much she was going to end up owing her friend. She knew Toni would never mention it, but that just made her worry more because she felt it was her responsibility to make sure all that generosity was paid back.

Adi couldn't think about how much Toni had treated her anymore. As they reached Onix Square, she was finding it hard to focus on anything but her aching bladder. She would have insisted on coming to use the bathroom between Sheer and Dābs, but she knew that would have meant nearly ten minutes extra walking each way, and she'd thought it would be better to wait until they were heading this way. She was kind of starting to regret that decision already.

"Yeah, the lady said there's something wrong with the water supply in the North Wing..." Adi heard one stranger saying to another, and the words made her realise that she'd been walking without really looking where she was going. She'd been about to walk into the back of a knot of people, and as she looked to the front of the queue her heart sank. There were lines of people stretching out of a doorway off the Square, winding around all the benches and past a variety of snack outlets. The lines were full of people waiting angrily and impatiently, and the signs over the door quickly dispelled any doubts she might have had about the cause of the delay.

Stretching around two sides of the square, she'd just joined the queue for the ladies' room.

Author's Note: Sorry for the lack of chapters today. Updating the "By the same author" section in my books ran into a weird software problem that took me 4 hours to solve. On the plus side, I've got a new book out on Amazon, so if anyone buys it I won't be struggling for rent this time next month.