“Where are we going?” I asked Damian, as I stared at New York City from the passenger seat window of his way-too-nice car.
“Don’t worry about it, I know a place.”
“That’s probably something you shouldn’t go around telling people, Damian. Most guys don’t brag about the fact that they are dress-shopping experts.” I gave him a pointed look, and he just started to glare, without even turning to look at me. We rode in silence for about another ten minutes, before he made a sharp turn, landing us in a parking lot to a discreet-looking building.
The building appeared to be a warehouse, and its dark grey cement walls gave it an ominous feeling. We got out of the car, and I hesitated before following Damian towards the door.
“So, do you think we are going to get murdered before or after I get a dress? I really hate clothes shopping so before would be awesome.”
Damian rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything else. The parking lot was a lot bigger than I had originally thought, and as we made the long walk through it, I looked at the cars we were passing by. And they were definitely nice cars. There was nothing as nice as Damian’s car, of course, but I didn’t think I had ever seen so many Lamborghinis in my life. I eyed a large black Escalade as we walked by it.
“I love Escalades.” I said, staring enviously at the large truck.
“You like Escalades?” Damian asked me, sounding almost surprised.
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No, I just thought that the only people who actually liked those things were professional basketball players and mafia bosses.”
“And me apparently.”
“I guess so. I’ll buy you one someday.” I looked at his face, trying to tell if he was joking or not. I couldn’t.
“Buying me an Escalade isn’t going to make me like you any more, Damian.”
“Maybe, but it might help.” He smirked, and it was my turn to roll my eyes. All thoughts of Escalades were forgotten though, as we finally made our way through the door. I had definitely been wrong about this place. The first thing I saw when I walked in was… white. Everything was white. It was like a department store on crack. In fact, I noticed it was a department store. Only a really, really high class one. And the people walking around weren’t human.
“Damian, is everyone here a vampire?” I asked, starting to get nervous. I didn’t think I was supposed to be here.
“Yes, but don’t worry, you’re with me.” he winked, and I didn’t feel any less better about the situation. The place was bustling with people, all of which had the same winter skin and silvery eyes that the boys had. They also moved faster than most humans, instead of walking they seemed to be gliding around the store. Everyone was dressed incredibly nice, and I felt way out of place here.
We were on the first floor, which seemed to be the place to buy accessories, hats, purses and perfumes. In the middle of the floor were two giant escalators, and above them hung a huge crystal chandelier. White leather couches were littered throughout the room, and busy sales people rushed to meet customers’ needs.
“Ah, Damian. I didn’t think I would be seeing you here for awhile.” An intimidating woman said as she walked up to us. She was young, maybe in her early twenties, and very pretty. The way she was looking at Damian made me think that they might have had a thing once upon a time. “What have we here?”
It took me a moment to realize she was talking to me. I looked up into her eyes, and shuddered at the intensity of her stare. She did not look very pleased to meet me. She looked me up and down, and appeared happy that I did not seem like much of a threat.
“Your flavor of the month?” She asked, nodding towards me, and both her and Damian smiled like they were sharing some type of inside joke.
“Hopefully a lot longer.” Damian replied, and the sales ladies mouth turned into a tight line. “Anyways, Felicia, Haven needs a dress for tonight.”
“What kind of dress?”
“Cocktail.” Damian said, after pausing to think about it.
“Short or long?” she asked, and once again Damian turned to study me.
“Long.” he finally decided.
“Color preference?”
“Blue.” He said, without hesitating for a second. I wondered at his color choice. “It will bring out your eyes.” he said to me, after seeing my raised eyebrow. I didn’t know what to think about that. We followed Felicia to the escalators. We passed by one floor, which was completely devoted to men’s clothing, past another full of woman’s clothing and then got off on the fourth floor, which was filled with formal wear.
“What’s on that floor?” I asked Damian, pointing to the top and last floor.
“Oh, that’s the lingerie, I was saving that for later.” he said winking at me, and I scoffed. We wove our way through the tuxes and past short dresses. The cocktail section was huge, and arranged by color.
Damian left to go take a seat on a sleek white leather couch, well Felicia dragged me through the racks. Every so often we would stop, she would grab a dress from a hanger, and hand it to me. By the time we had made our way through the entire section, it had already been an hour and we only had three dresses.
“Which one do you like?” she asked me, and I was a little surprised. I hadn’t thought that I had gotten a choice at all. I studied each dress, and then pointed toward the darker teal one. She looked at it thoughtfully and nodded, before dragging me to where Damian was sitting, and to where the dressing room was.
Damian and Felicia waited outside as I put on the dress. When it was fully on, I walked out of the room, not even bothering to look in the mirror. Damian’s mouth dropped open, and even Felicia looked surprised.
“Hmm, that’s a better fit that I would have expected. I thought we would have had to take it out a little bit, vampires are just naturally skinnier than humans.” I noticed a hint of an accent as she said this.
“What do you think, Damian?” I asked, turning to face him. He seemed to have regained his composure, and his signature smirk was back on his face.
“Perfect.” I turned around finally looking in the mirror. I held in a small gasp. The dress was absolutely beautiful. It only covered one shoulder, and flowed elegantly to the floor.
After I had taken off the dress and Felicia had taken it away to get packed up, Damian and I made our way back to the first floor.
“What now?” I asked, and he raised an eyebrow.
“Are you really done shopping for the dance? You are by far the easiest girl to take shopping. And definitely the cheapest. But we still need shoes and accessories, unless you plan on going barefoot?” he asked me. He had a point.
“You can walk in heels, right?” he asked, and I scoffed. I could definitely walk in heels; I had practically been trained to by my mother. I just nodded. “Good.” He said, surveying the rows of heeled shoes. He finally found a pair, and handed me them in my size. They were simple and black, except for the feathers on the back. Pretty classy altogether, I wondered where Damian had learned to pick out shoes. After shoes, we made our way to jewelry.
When we finally had gotten every piece of my outfit, we made our way back to Damian’s car. I was exhausted and couldn’t wait to get home. As we started to drive, I noticed we weren’t going in the right direction.
“Ugh, what now?” I groaned, as we pulled in front of a small store front.
“Just a quick stop, wait here.” Damian demanded. Since I really didn’t feel like getting lost in New York City, I had no choice but to follow his orders. He was only gone a couple of minutes, before he returned to the car, holding a sleek black box, which he handed to me silently. I hesitated before opening it, but once I did, found a beautiful black mask.