2133

2.4 Shopping

"Mr. Tomlinson, I am sure there must be another way," I continued trying to change his mind.

"Are you doubting me, Pearl Belle?" he asked me. He put the paper away. His facial expression had changed, he was not calm anymore. He looked infuriated. "I can't deal with your doubts, Pearl Belle. We are going to begin right away."

"What?!"

He dragged me away from his office and down to the garage. It was filled with expensive cars. They were a lot of colours to choose from. Mr. Tomlinson decided to open the door of an explosively red-coloured sports car for me. He told me it was a Mustang.

"We are going shopping now. I expect you to play along," he said.

I had never really seen the city before. All the buildings looked out of this world. Everything looked so advanced. The people on the street were different from the girls at the agency. They all looked happier.

I had never seen so many men in my life before.

Mr. Tomlinson parked his car in front of shop that was almost empty. It had clothes for women of all ages, at least it seemed that way.

When we entered the shop and I sneaked a peak at the prices, I realised why there was almost no one in here. A thousand pounds for a jacket made out of some special wool. I almost fainted at that price.

Mr. Tomlinson held my hand as a woman approached us. She was dressed fancily, and she looked ready to sell whatever they offered in this store.

"Good morning, Mr. Tomlinson. Have you come to get your lovely daughter a gift?" she said, clearly he had come here before. Well, she did not know his daughter because his daughter was not lovely at all. She had acted like a brat when she first saw me. "Or something for your amazing wife? I saw her on tv next to the mayor last night."

His wife. Ugh.

"We came here to buy clothes for Pearl here." He pointed at me with his left hand. His right hand still held mine tightly. "She is a magnificent specimen, isn't she? Her curves call for a skirt. Fetch us some skirts, Tania. She will also need shirts, they need to be tight. When you are done with that, come mesure her for new underwear."

Tania had a shocked look on her face. She said, "I understand."

Then she left us and started gathering all the clothes that Mr. Tomlinson had asked to get. I saw her

"What are you doing, Mr. Tomlinson?" I asked him, when he put his hand around my shoulder.

"What does it look like, Pearl Belle?" he asked mischievously.

"This woman obviously knows your family and you brought me here to create some sort of scandal," I guessed. He intentionally touched me, and acted all up and close to me. Every now and then I caught that Tania woman looking at us with a bewildered look on her face.

"And this is just the beginning. Tania will just get the rumours started. I have plans for when we are done with the shopping, Pearl," he leaned onto my ear and talked in a whisper. "We will give my wife a show, Pearl Belle. And you will be the leading actress."