In Stone

15: "I'm saying you're brittle."

15: “I'm saying you're brittle.”

“What do you think of this one?” Caia asked, turning in a circle to let Caspian appreciate the full view of the sunset colored strapless sundress she wore.

He looked on with a patience that surprised himself and a small half smile. “Just like the last three, Caia, it looks very pretty. They were all pretty.”

She pouted with her hands on her hips. “I know. That's the problem. You're not supposed to say they look 'pretty', you're supposed to say 'beautiful'.”

“Well then it looks beautiful.”

“It doesn't count now!” she turned, crossing her arms over her chest.

Caspian laughed as he stood from her bed where he had been reclining since she had started this impromptu fashion show. When he had come in to wake her for their date today, he had found her already awake and looking between half of her closet trying to decide what to wear. When he suggested that she would look great in them all, she insisted that he see her in them to help her decide. So had begun the show.

To his surprise, he hadn't minded being her judge. Though they were now past half an hour late from the time they had planned on leaving, he couldn't deny he was enjoying himself. There was just something elementally enjoyable about watching a woman dress up for him, even if she was doing it in the bathroom.

He walked around behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. He leaned and close and whispered into her ear, “The dresses are only pretty. You're the one that is beautiful.”

She shivered at the feeling of his breath and turned to look up at him with big eyes. “Really?”

He nodded once. “I promise. Now, do you need help deciding on shoes or can you do that on your own?”

Caia laughed. “No woman needs help deciding on shoes.”

She practically skipped to her closet where she pulled out a pair of orange flats with a dark pink bow over the toe and slipped them on. Unlike other women of this world, Caspian never saw her wearing those ridiculously high heels. As far as he understood it, she didn't wear them because they were hard to walk in – which was incredibly obvious to him – so she wore flat shoes instead. That seemed infinitely more practical and the effect was a very cute one.

Caia still took more than a few minutes to finish dressing though. She had to put on her jewelry, including the waist chain that had the dancing carnelian couple back on it, as well as straighten her hair from all the dress changes. Caspian imagined they wouldn't have left for another hour if he didn't start walking out the door, threatening – emptily – to leave without her.

Then she was there, running at him and pausing only long enough to lock the door. As they got into her car, she was already talking. Her excitement at going out for the day had her words tumbling over each other in her haste to get them out.

Caia knew of a street carnival that had set up in a parking lot not far from here. It was the kind of place where safety wasn't always the top concern and the food was probably not digestible. However it was also cheap, good for a quick thrill, and close by. She lamented that she couldn't offer him something better as his first fun trip in this world, but he insisted it would be fine.

Personally, he didn't much care where they were going. What mattered to him was that he was spending that time with Caia. In some ways, he just wanted to spend a day with her. In another, he was hoping that by spending so much time with her, he would begin to tire of her.

He knew other men would find her endless talking annoying. Others wouldn't enjoy being forced to wait for an hour as she changed from one perfectly fine dress to another. She couldn't cook, she couldn't clean, she was no scholar nor did she possess any technical skills. Besides all that, she obviously had deep mental scars. There was nothing about her that should attract him.