The Vacation

Chapter Nineteen

Lindsey and I agreed we would split up to start with. She would go into the cologne section and I would start in cosmetics and then we would meet up in men's clothes to compare our finds.

Her sister, who apparently is fifteen now but has been getting more and more into makeup for the last two years, loves eyeshadow. From what Lindsey told me, this girl could never have enough eyeshadow palettes.

Which is not a bad thing. I mean look at the number of palettes I have and I turned out okay. But anyways, I head over to House of Fraser's cosmetic department, which is the size of a small football field, and hunt for the large overhead sign telling me where to look.

I find it, and the first palettes I see are exclusive English brands. I thought that would be a pretty cool present for Lindsey's sister, but I have never tried any of them so I didn't know if they were good quality or not. I brought all my own makeup from home and didn't want to give Lindsey's sister a shitty gift.

Next I saw some international brands, including some I love to use. L'Oreal, Clinique, ELF, Two Faced, Morphe, Color Pop, and many more lined the shelves.

I also saw Charlotte Tilbury and Rimmel London among the shelves. I was familiar with these, but knew they originated in Britain, so I knew I struck gold as I beheld the famous palettes.

Lindsey showed me pictures of the makeup looks that her sister has done, and they were really advanced. Really good. I wasn't afraid of buying a palette that wasn't meant for beginning artists.

I picked up the Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette in shade The Vintage Vamp. I absolutely loved this palette, and with the warm, cozy feeling, it just seemed right for Lindsey's sister.

To go along with it, I dropped a Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Red Carpet Red lipstick in my bag. Lindsey's sister was going to have a great Christmas!

And, since I couldn't help myself, I also purchased a Rimmel London Magnif'Eyes palette in Smoke for myself.

Then I headed over towards men's clothes so I could meet Lindsey. She texted me that she was already there and searching through the next tie sub department, so I walked that way until I found her. When I got there, she was holding up a mint green bow tie with red, blue, and yellow plaid stripes in her left hand and an orange one with white stripes in her right.

"Left," I said. Because that one actually made sense. I mean it was a horrible tie, don't get me wrong, but it was less revolting than the orange one.

Lindsey jumped and placed a hand to her chest. "Oh my gosh, Jess. You scared me there!" And then, "You really think the left tie? I have matching suspenders with that one, but both of these ties are really odd, and I was having a hard time deciding."

I nodded. "Yeah. Left. But if you don't like either of them, why are you getting one of them? Don't they have better choices?"

"Well, yeah, they do. But Marco and I have a bet going on. Whoever buys the uglier present for Ali - and that Ali can still pull off, that is - wins. The loser has to give the winner a back rub." Lindsey said. She pointedly added, "Don't think that was my idea. That was all Marco. I only agreed because I'm confident I'm going to win." And with a single movement, swept the suspenders out of her bag and held them up to the bow tie.

I did have to admit, the combination was atrocious. The bow tie may have had plaid stripes, but the suspenders had polka dots in the same colors of red, blue, and yellow. They were obviously a matching set, but why anyone would want either of those items - let alone both - was beyond me. There was also no way that Alessio couldn't pull them off.

"If that's your goal, they're perfect!" I said after surveying the two items for a few moments. "Did you find what you were looking for, for your brother and for Marco?"

"In fact, I did. I decided against buying any cologne here since most of it, Marco has already. I resolved to buy him something that my brother uses. It's made in the US - you may have heard about it actually - it's called Cremo. It's not cologne but they make "men's grooming products" -things such as shaving cream, body wash, shampoo, and of course hair gel - and my brother loves them. I thought it would be a good gift for Marco." She said - although that whole paragraph was a complete tangent discussion. She continued, "For Nathan, I grabbed some of this "Mr. Burberry" cologne. The ratings seemed pretty good when I Googled it." She shrugged. "What did you pick out for my sister Olivia?"

I pulled the cosmetics out of my bag. "Well, I got this warm Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palette and this dark lipstick to match. I didn't know what you wanted to spend, but this is what I would have gotten for myself so I figured that your sister would like it. Here you go," I said, and dumped them into her bag. "Shall we move on to clothes?"

"Sure," Lindsey said, "but like I said, I can't spend a lot on clothes. All my money is going towards college right now - and staying over here in London - but I love to try on clothes and pretend!"

We left House of Fraser and headed to Designer Sales UK across the mall courtyard, bags in hand and smiles on our faces.

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Hey readers! 

LOVE you all so much for sticking with me, even though I take forever to publish!

You're all so great!

So can I share a life lesson with you all?

I recently learned that it can be a really bad thing to judge people by first impressions. If I had stuck with my first impression of a good friend, we probably would be so acrimonious towards each other nowadays. This friend and I have gotten past our differences, thank goodness, and I'm so glad we have given each other a second chance! So, next time you want to judge someone based on your first impression of them or based on rumors someone has told you about them, please do not believe the rumors until you've had a chance to figure out for yourself (and try to be as unbiased towards your decision - keep an open mind!) if the rumors are true or not. Most often, they aren't, and you just made a really great friend for life!

Sorry that got long.

Till next time, my beautiful readers!

~hannah~