His Second Chance

Chapter Seven

I pulled Chloe into every clothes shop I could see. I forgot how much I loved doing this. When I lived in London, my friends and I were always going out buying clothes, bags, shoes and anything else we were able to afford. Of course, I wasn't going out much at the moment so there was no point in wearing my nice clothes, but the fact that they were hanging up in my wardrobe was what mattered to me. Sometimes, I liked to have secret little dressing up sessions. Childish, I know, but sometimes I liked to reimagine the time when we were still living in London.

"Are we done yet?" Elliot complained.

I had had to drag him out of the house to come with us, as he didn't have any sort of nice suit to wear and he, Archie and Elizabeth were all coming with us to the wedding.

I was actually quite excited, even though I didn't know either the bride or the groom. Apparently, the bride was an old friend of Chloe's; they went to college together, before she went off to university to study forensic sciences. The was the same summer that Chloe's father - my uncle - had died. Chloe had always talking about going to university; she had wanted to be a vet, helping animals in need, but of course, she never ended up going. I think she was happy with how things turned out, and with her experience in horses came experience in how to treat and help cure animals, so I suppose in a way she got her wish.

"We haven't even been here for ten minutes," I replied.

"That's still too long," he murmured miserably.

He was going through an odd phase at the moment; there was a girl he liked in his year and suddenly none of us were cool enough for him. Oh well, he would get over it. I'd had many crushes over the years and nothing had ever come of them.

Chloe led the way into the first store; I followed and Elliot stomped through after us. The shop sold clothes designed specifically for parties and celebrations, and for both men and women. Chloe went with Elliot to get him fitted for a suit, as he wouldn't have been able to do it by himself, and reluctantly let me go off to find something. I went a little crazy and picked up a few too many things, including several dresses, multiple pairs of shoes and two or three bags. I waited until Chloe and Elliot had finished, as I wanted Chloe's opinion on what I should wear. As strange as it sounded, Chloe actually had an excellent taste in clothing as knew what went with what. If I were honest, Chloe could have been anything she wanted; she was incredibly smart, brave and resourceful. I could never be like her, but in a way that was a good thing.

I waited impatiently until Elliot had finally chosen a casual dinner suit to go in. It was just a simple shirt with a jacket, trousers and some new shoes; he would be able to use them in his next year of school. Chloe handed him his new clothes, with cash, so he could go off and pay while we continued shopping.

"We're only going to one wedding, you know," she said as she looked at all of the clothes I'd picked up.

"I want options!" I protested," I saw some nice stuff that you could try on."

"So have I, and I already know what I want," she replied, walking off in the direction of the dresses.

I followed eagerly, excited that it was finally our turn. I thought she was lying, and that she would do a bit of shopping around before choosing something she wanted, but I followed her as she quickly headed over to one section of the large shop that I hadn't actually been in, picking out a simple, but pretty navy blue dress. She held it up to herself, twirling slightly.

"Thoughts?" she said.

"I mean, I think you look great in pretty much anything," I replied," Are you going to try it on?"

"Yes, of course," she answered," Come on, the sooner we start, the sooner you'll get through that lot!"

I laughed as I followed her to the dressing room. I let Chloe go first, as I had more stuff. I smiled as she came out. The dress fitted her perfectly, as I knew it would. As I mentioned, it was navy blue, fitted at the top with one strap over her left shoulder, before it flowed down just below her knee.