Lucky - by Erin Latimer

Games

 I eyed myself in the mirror, this dress would make people think I was a lady, opening up new things to me. Nobody would dare kick me out of an establishment, nobody would even say no to me in most cases. I looked like a woman who had money…

            Thoughts were already forming, plans that seemed to assemble out of thin air. Schemes and ideas, some impossibly far fetched, some that actually might work. After this little game of Kiran’s I would be free to keep the dress, because what could he possibly want it for? This dress might be the key to more cunning plans.

            They must have settled on a price, because Kiran was bidding the shop girl goodbye, and then there was the jingle of the register, and he was suddenly there grabbing my arm, escorting me out of the shop. I turned around and waved to the girl before Kiran swept me out the door.

            When we rounded the corner I tugged my arm out of his grip. “Why the rush?”

            “You tell me,” Kiran said, staring at me intently. “You were suddenly smiling like a cat with a dish of cream. I wasn’t sure what you were about to do.”

            I snorted. “I wasn’t going to do anything, I was just thinking over a few things I could do with this costume.”

            “It’s not a costume, it’s a dress.” Kiran stared down at the dress for a second, and then abruptly snapped his eyes away from me. “Let’s go to the hat shop, she says it has some shoes you can wear instead of those horrible boots.”

            I couldn’t help smiling. “Did she actually say ‘horrible boots’?”

            “Her words exactly.”

            “She’s terribly dramatic, but I liked her.”

            Kiran looked surprised, but he said nothing. The bell jangled as he pushed his way into the hat shop, already turning on the charming smile for the next girl. I sighed.

            Five minutes later we were out the door, Kiran wearing a huge smile over the deal he’d got, and me wearing a pair of lace-up black boots with ivory buttons.

            “They pinch my toes,” I complained.

            Kiran glanced over and sighed, catching my arm.

            I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. “What are you doing?” I tried to pull my arm out of his grip, but he held on tight.

            “You’re waddling like an overfed turkey,” Kiran said, obviously fighting back a grin. “I was merely escorting you so you don’t look quite so tipsy. You look as if you might fall over at any minute.”

            “If I can fight off a grown man with only a rusted dagger and a rock, I can walk in a pair of sissy shoes,” I snapped at him.

            He shrugged and let go of my arm, and I stumbled along behind him for a few minutes. I was beginning to regret jerking my arm away.

            “Why do they have to have heels on them?” I growled at him. “Why couldn’t we have picked a flat pair?”

            “There was no flat pair that was dressy enough, didn’t you hear the shop girl?”

            “Damn the shop girl.”

            “I thought you liked shop girls.” Kiran chuckled.