Trust | 2 |

Chapter Thirty-Two

Tony started feeling comfortable enough to let me go out into the city. At first when he said that, I got pissed- who's he to 'allow' me to do things- but then we talked about it. The government is still looking for me, something they will never stop doing it seems, but they've calmed down to where he knows it safe for me to leave the compound and explore New York. I understood that and promised him I'd be careful.

So, I got the motorcycle I used a couple weeks ago to help Peter and drove out to the city. I had on a hoodie and jeans as well as a cap and sunglasses to minimize how much of my face was visible. But at this point, like Tony said, I don't think too many people are looking for me.

No matter what, though, I always had some gloves on to hid my hand. Today they were just some leather black gloves that I could easily say were for riding my motorcycle.

The city was nice to explore. I wanted to go into shops and try clothes on, but I didn't have money to buy anything, so I just looked around or "window shopped" as I've heard people say. There were so many amazing things, I'd have to ask Tony how I could get some money to spend.

I looked up at the street sign and saw I could turn onto Bleecker Street, so I did. There were some gorgeous buildings, but nothing else to it, so I turned back onto the street I was previously walking down. It felt like I was being watched for a moment, but I brushed it off and moved on.

~~

At some point, I remembered a couple things. The first was the card Tony put in my hand that I shoved in my front pocket of my jeans without glancing at it- it was a credit card. The other was that I wanted to get a gift for Tony and Pepper since they got engaged last week. My problem there was that I had no idea what to get the couple because I didn't know them well enough.

I wandered in and out of a lot of different stores, not really caring about the price ranges of them since I had Tony's card and he's a billionaire. When I went inside a few, they gave me some annoyed glances, but I just moved on to another store. If they didn't think I belonged, then I guess I was just gonna leave.

After a couple hours of wandering to no avail, I found a cute little jewelry shop. Maybe I could find something here for Pepper that matches her ring. Pictures of the ring were everywhere on the internet, so I could just look at one there and figure out the best match.

It was small, but the store had some beautiful pieces at some pretty high prices. While I wasn't too concerned about that, I didn't want to spend a huge chunk of Tony's money.

But then again, he did give me the card. Maybe he wouldn't mind?

I was walked up to one of the counters to get a closer look at the jewelry when a woman came out from the back to greet me. "Hello there, ma'am, how may I help you today? Looking for yourself, someone else?"

I looked up at her and took her in. She was around my age- well, my presenting age- and had short brown hair that had been curled. Her blue eyes were still pretty vibrant from behind her glasses. She just didn't look like she should be a sales clerk at a jewelry store.

"Hi, I'm just looking for a gift for my... friend," I answered. Were Pepper and I friends? Sure, because I didn't know what else to call us. "She just got engaged so I wanted to get her something to match the ring, maybe some earrings or something."

The girl nodded. I looked and saw her name tag on her blouse read 'Vanessa.' "Well, if you'd like, I can totally- I mean, I can surely help you find what you're looking for. Do you happen to have a picture of the ring?"

I nodded and pulled out my phone, went to Google, and searched up 'Pepper Potts engagement ring' and found plenty of pictures the press had taken. I flipped the phone around and showed her a picture, making sure to hide the search bar. "This is it. I feel like it wouldn't bee too difficult to match," I said.