VLV
VLV
VLV
After lunch, the pow wow continued into a chic clothing store.
Pamela had a couple of racks brought into their shared dressing room so they could have some privacy while they shopped. Sayaka browsed quietly as Charlotte and Julie gossiped next to her. At first Sora thought Pamela was being high handed, asking for racks of dresses and shoes to be brought in. But with loud mouths like those two, she could see why Pamela didn't want to browse in the store with the other shoppers, especially with the gossips talking about members of the company.
She was impressed with her foresight.
"I've heard that Marguerite from sales had gotten into Arlon's car the other day," Charlotte looked at the dress Julie held against her body and then tsked. "That doesn't go with your skin tone."
"Maybe this one?" Sayaka held up a soft pink dress.
"Sayaka, like, who wears pastel colors to a cocktail party?"
The woman sheepishly put the dress back. "Ah, my apologizes."
"So formal," Charlotte noted.
Rosetta came over to talk with Sayaka. "How about we search for something over here?"
Sora frowned at Charlotte. Pamela continued looking through the clothes.
"So like, did she stay over?" Julie pulled out another dress.
"I heard she came to work smelling like him." Charlotte's eyes gleamed with mischief. "His cologne is very distinctive."
The two women giggled at the scandal.
Pamela rolled her eyes. "Who hasn't slept with Arlon?" She put aside another dress on the plush chair next to her. "My concern is that he'll get the girls sick with whatever diseases he's collected."
"Who's Arlon?" Sora voiced out.
"Some hot shot wannabe at work." Pamela unzipped her dress and slipped on a silky black number. "If he wasn't good at smoothing over sticky situations I'm sure Leon would have fired his sorry ass ages ago."
"At least it's a tight ass," Charlotte giggled.
"Like, Pamela would know," Julie blurted out without thinking.
Sora blinked at that. Pamela was giving Julie the stink eye. The young woman quickly muttered an apology and then ducked her head. Sayaka had a small grin on her face before smoothing her expression. The dynamics were interesting, to say the least. Sora pulled off her top and pants.
"So the company has a party coming up?"
Pamela walked over to the mirrors, turning around. "A dinner." She eyed Sora in the mirror. "Did no one tell you?"
"I was going to," Rosetta chimed in.
"Oh." Sora wiggled into the mermaid cut dress. "Anything in particular?"
Some snickers came over from the gossip twins. Sayaka tilted her head curiously.
"Your husband's birthday, Sora-san."
Sora was wide eyed. Shoot. She hadn't even thought about finding out his birthday. She looked over at Rosetta. She really didn't think it would be wise to have people in the company know the circumstances of their marriage. She let out a chuckle, hoping to buy some time while she thought of something.
"Time really does fly in Paris."
Rosetta gave her a flat look but went with it. "Those two would still think it's 2015 if they didn't have a calendar."
"Mm." Pamela smirked. "Leon always was absentminded about dates."
"I'm just as bad." Sora relaxed her shoulders. "We have so many alarms on our clocks and phones. I'm surprised we got to the courthouse on time."
Julie jumped in. "Like, is it true you eloped?"
Sora blushed a little. "Yeah. We did."
"That's so romantic," Charlotte sighed. "My wedding was planned to the last second. I was lucky Jean let me choose my dress."
"Total control freak," Julie vouched. "Like, every day and everything."
"Well, I'm sure not everything," Sora laughed.
Charlotte looked at her with a blank look. "He made me a slide show of what to do for our wedding night."
"At least he cared about your wedding night," Julie sniffed. "Hugo just sat on the couch and watched golf after we finished."
Sora tried to think of something other than 'yikes.' "That's um...too bad."
"It sucks," Rosetta muttered.
Pamela shook her head. "It's the drawback of a marriage of convenience."
"Hey now-" Sora started to defend.
Charlotte harrumphed, cutting her off. "I wasn't about to work in some dingy little office."
Julie nodded sympathetically. "Like, to this day, I still have my maid open up my emails." She tried on some blue pumps. "I'm not going to waste my time figuring out how to turn on a stupid computer."
Pamela turned to Sora with a flat look. "I don't have sympathy for gold diggers."
Sora felt the comment dig in a little. She hadn't know Leon was well off when she agreed, but they did have a sort of marriage of convenience. They most certainly hadn't been in love when they planned to get married, so what else could it be labelled as?
"So," Sora cleared her throat. "Does that mean you married for love?"
The older woman blinked and then rubbed the back of her neck. "As childish as that sounds," she sneered, though the light red along her cheeks took away the bite, "I guess you could say that."
Sora smiled. "How about you, Sayaka-kun?"
Sayaka blinked at the -kun, but then smiled. "My husband and I were childhood friends." She pushed her big glasses up. "And then one day, we realized we weren't children anymore. We courted for a year and then got married."
"Since childhood huh?" Sora sat down with a wide smile. "That's really sweet."
"Yes, he is. Although..."
"What?"
"Oh nothing," Sayaka shook her head, "just thinking out loud."
Charlotte sighed loudly. "Just spit it out."
Sayaka looked at the expectant faces and then flushed.
"We actually haven't...consummated the marriage yet."
Julie wrinkled her nose. "Like, what's that?"
"Omg Julie." Charlotte rolled her eyes. "They haven't had sex."
The room was quiet. Poor Sayaka was redder than Sora's hair.
Rosetta cleared her throat. "I'm gonna go use the restroom..."
Rosetta's voice snapped Julie out of it.
"Like, nothing?"
Sayaka shook her head in embarrassment. "W-We almost did one time, but then we both got too nervous..."
"Don't worry." Sora came over to the poor woman with a smile. "I was nervous too the first time Leon and I had sex." She squeezed her hand. "It happens."
"Really?"
"Well, it only lasted for like five seconds," Sora tilted her head in remembrance. "Then we just couldn't keep our hands off of each other." She turned her attention back to Sayaka. "Music can help set the mood."
"And alcohol," Pamela added. "Some liquid courage will take care of those nerves."
"Pamela-san, did you -"
"It took us a month," Pamela adjusted the straps of the dress. "Dio was afraid of disappointing me. Idiot."
"Well, you do have a severe face," Sora joked.
"You want to see severe?" Pamela smirked. "Remind me to show you Leon and mine's engagement photo."
"Just how old were you two when you were engaged?"
"18...No, 19. It was a year into college. At least officially. Our grandparents had been planning it with our parents for years, apparently. Dio had been in Leon's business classes."
"Teenager Leon?" Sora wickedly smirked. "This I have to see."
"I have photos when he was a snot nosed brat."
"I'm inviting myself over." Sora announced. She walked over to the mirror besides Pamela, looking at the mermaid dress. "Hey. Did you ever meet Layla Hamilton?"
"His old girlfriend? A couple of times. Why?"
She shrugged. "Just curious."
"She was stylish," Charlotte butted in.
"Her hair was like, silk threads," Julie sighed, "she never did tell me what shampoo she uses."
"We were surprised they didn't get married," Pamela said, looking over Sora's face. "They got along pretty well, from what I could tell. She married that Yuri Killian instead."
"Yeah. She did." Sora turned back around to the rest of them. "Does this dress make my butt stick out too much?"
Charlotte and Julie eyed it as she turned sideways.
"It does stick out," Charlotte noted.
"Yeah, but like, not in a bad way."
"That's what I call a 'baby maker dress'," Pamela grinned.
Sayaka flushed. Sora wagged her brows.
"Then I'll take it."
VLV
VLV
VLV