all characters are, of course the property of BBC
Also, reviews are greatly appreciated, so please let me know with any questions/ comments you may have!
Again, so sorry about the inconsistent posting. I'm doing my best to juggle this in along with the rest of my responsibilities. A couple of positive reviews would give me a much needed boost
Before he'd left for work, Hal had told Alex not to eat dinner. He'd also told her, in gentle, Hal-ish words, to find something nice to wear. Basically, something that didn't belong to Tom. She contemplated putting her green dress back on, but she shot down the idea as soon as it entered her head. That article of clothing was totally cursed. Besides, she'd worn it the last time she'd gone on a date with Hal, and, well, look at where that had gotten her! No, she decided. This date called for something new. Something that prudish Hal would definitely blanch at. She employed Tom to go shopping with her. Some fresh air would do him good. Besides, she couldn't very well leave him to mope around the house alone. As a ghost, that had been her job, and she knew how it could deflate the soul.
There was a decided lack of Ladies' clothing shops in Barry, she was beginning to realize. Alex only remembered seeing one or two on High Street while she'd galavanted around with her dad and brothers all those months ago. Speaking of her family, she still hadn't decided how exactly she was going to approach them on the subject of her un-death. It would be awkward, and definitely more than a little weird. It made her feel uncomfortable thinking about it, so she washed it from her mind.
The air outside was fresh and damp after the early rainstorm, and the sky was still grey. Alex liked to go for a donder after the rain. The whole world felt freshly pained and clean.
It was a bit of a haul from the B & B to High Street, though, and Alex's feet were aching by the time she finally found a store. She'd been forced to wear her boots, because Tom had the feet of an elephant, and none of his trainers fit her. She looked like a baby duck, tripping all over it's big, flapping feet. She was beginning to wish that she'd thought to raid Hal's neat closet upstairs, at very least to see what her options were. Granted, she could imagine the look of displeasure on Hal's face if she were to accidentally step into a puddle and ruin the leather of one of his carefully preserved dress shoes.
The store smelled like her gran's closet. Mothballs and old lady smell. Clothes hung from hangers, grouped together in no particular order, musty handwritten tags advertising low prices that were attractive to Alex's slim wallet. She'd had three tenners stuffed in her bra when she'd died, and it was this money that she was now spending. Ghostly diddy money. The thought made her laugh out loud. The shrew of a woman that ran the shop looked up disapprovingly. Tom hung near the front of the store, as close to the dusty, fly-specked window as possible. He didn't like small, dark spaces.
Alex wondered if Hal wanted her to wear a dress. It was hard to imagine ever wearing another one of those ill-fitting, ride-up-your-arse garments again.
Most of the racks were full of crap. Old person clothes that probably found their way to the store posthumously and would molder there for all eternity. There were a few cute things- like a black lace V-neck shirt that cinched tight under her breasts- that she gathered into her arms. There was even *gasp* a dress that she picked out to try on. The fitting room was basically a wooden crate with a curtain and a mirror. Alex stripped down, feeling strange as she did so. Taking off her clothes still felt strange. The lace shirt looked mighty braw on, and she turned slowly, appreciating the way it highlighted her curves. "Looking fair bonny, you cheeky lass," she said to her self. It was something her father often told her when she dressed up fine. It was what he'd said the night that she was getting ready for her date with Hal.
The rest of the clothes were utilitarian for the most part. Things that she could wear to the store, or about the house. All told, she ended up purchasing two pairs of fitted jeans- literally the only two in the store in her size- and five shirts, including the lace one. The dress didn't make the final cut. It totaled up at twenty-seven quid. She had just £3 left.
Tom felt relieved when Alex announced that she was ready to go. The pinched old lady behind the counter had been watching him like she expected him to try and steal something, although why anybody would try to steal something out of that manky old shop was a mystery to him.
She was sprawled out on his bed, her nose buried in the spine of one of his fading old hardcovers. He waited for a moment, standing it the door way, watching her eyes move over the page. She had never seemed the reading type, but there was a lot about Alex that he apparently didn't know. She looked up after a moment, one eyebrow swooping upwards "Oooh I'm getting a creepy stalker vibe, Hal. Standing there, not saying anything." She said, moving so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed, her stockinged feet dangling to the floor. "It's pretty weird."
"I am immensely sorry, but I was over taken by your beauty," He said, only a little sarcastically. She really was quite a looker. She'd bought new clothes, and they fit her to a Tee. He could see the curve of her body under the clinging fabric of her shirt, and he did his best not to stare at the plunging neckline, which left her creamy throat and chest quite bare. He was still a man of delicate sensibilities, which was surprising, when juxtaposed with his deviant criminal past life. All of the bare skin in this century sometimes shocked him. "The shirt becomes you. But then, I imagine a burlap sack would look glamorous if you were to wear it.
"Flattery will get you far, ya sexy tally," she said, preening a little. "This book, by the way, is total shite. Not even remotely sexy." She chucked the book, and he caught it, turning it so that he could read the gilt spine. It was a first edition of W. Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage.
"Alex, this is one of the greatest works of literature in the english-speaking world!" He waved the book at her in an accusatory manner before setting it gently on the night stand. It was another old gift from Leo.
"Yeah? Well, it's totally lacking in the sexy romps department. I was throughly disappointed." She grinned, her small mouth opening wide. "Ready to go, toothless?"
"Certainly," he said, offering her his arm.