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Metropolis: Madison Shopping Center
1:53 P.M.
Saturday, June 5th
"How about this one?"
Lana gave a loud laugh of amusement at Chloe's suggestion. Chloe Sullivan was holding up a purple, silk halter top complete with flashy sequins and beads. She and Chloe had spent the past four hours shopping at many of the boutiques located at Madison Shopping Center, just inside of Shopping Avenue.
"Sure…if you want to pay four-hundred dollars for it," Lana replied smartly.
"I bet Clark wouldn't mind rolling out four-hundred for you," Chloe chirped back just as smartly.
Lana remained silent as she shifted through hangers of expensive clubbing clothes.
"Your silence is enough evidence to prove my comment," Chloe said sarcastically as she stuck the purple top back onto the racks. "C'mon Lana, you know that Clark would literally jump off the Daily Planet building for you if you said that was romantic."
Lana turned around with her mouth slightly open and a bit offended. "Now, what kind of girlfriend would I be if I said that?"
"A very demanding and expensive one. I mean, if he survives, which is highly unlikely, the medicals bills would be off the radar."
Lana rolled her eyes at Chloe and decided a change of subject would be appropriate. She soon spotted her topic change in between the purple top that Chloe just put back and a pink mini dress.
"How about this Chloe?"
"Okay, as amazing as that black dress looks, I know you're just changing the subject," Chloe said as she took the dress from Lana's outstretched hand.
The dress had a low v-neck line, ruffled straps, and a ruffled hemline at the bottom; simple, but elegant.
"Do you think Clark will like it?" Lana asked as she took the dress back and held it up to her slim body, looking into the mirror behind them.
"Are you kidding me, Lana? He'll have a heart attack when he sees you in this dress. He's a guy, Lana. All guys like boobs hanging out," Chloe said loud enough to turn a few heads.
Lana gave her a look that clearly said to 'shut up.' "But look how much it is Chloe…."
"Well, you want tomorrow night to be special don't you?" Chloe tried convincing her, but quickly shut her mouth.
Smart move, Sullivan…way to arouse suspicion. And I'm the one supposed to be putting an end to her theories of tomorrow night!
"Why? What's happening tomorrow night?" Lana asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowing.
Chloe gave a nervous laugh. "Oh, nothing! That was just the reporter inside of me speaking. You know how she always likes to start something."
"Right…." Lana said, unconvinced.
"Yeah," Chloe said tensely as Lana studied her face.
"Chloe…is Clark planning to propose to me tomorrow night?" Lana asked bluntly, lowering the dress down.
Chloe's eyes widened a considerable amount before trying to shrink down to their normal size. "No, silly! Where did you get that idea from?"
"I don't know….Clark's just been acting strangely lately….Last night, when he asked me to have dinner with him, he was acting like I would say no. Why would I say no?" Lana gave a small laugh. "I mean, I'm his girlfriend."
Chloe gave a forced laugh. Keep it cool…you can still fix this….
"Well, you know how Clark is; he's insecure when it comes to you. I mean, he's spent like most of his childhood chasing after you. He just doesn't want to lose you," Chloe said, proud to admit that she hadn't technically lied. Clark had spent most of his childhood and teenage years going after Lana Lang.
"I guess…." Lana replied, unconvinced. She held the dress up again. Chloe watched her eyes widened as she checked the price tag.
"Chloe, this is one-hundred and twenty-five dollars!" Lana whispered. "I can't afford that!"
"Don't worry about the price Lana. If you like it, I'll buy it for you," Chloe offered, hoping that it would distract her from the previous situation.
"What? Chloe, I can't let you spend that much on me," Lana said, shaking her head and attempting to put it back. Chloe grabbed her arm when she saw Lana's intentions of throwing it back for the other shoppers to snag it.
"Look, just try it on and maybe that'll sway your position," Chloe said brightly and dragged her toward the fitting rooms.
"Lana, are you done yet?" Lana heard Chloe ask for the tenth time.
"Yes, just hold on," Lana snapped back. Sometimes Chloe had enough irritability to make people want to bite her head off. Lana stood in front of a somewhat cracked full-length mirror. She was contemplating whether or not she was daring enough to wear this for Clark, let alone in front of the other men at the restaurant.
She and Clark had decided last minute to book a room at La Chateau, not too far from Shopping Avenue and the cozy Italian restaurant they were planning to go to tomorrow. Lana had talked him into it since they were going to be spending most of their weekend in Metropolis anyway. Clark had argued back that he could just run to the Daily Planet, but she was afraid that someone might ask where his car was. Besides, it didn't really make sense to have to drive a total of six hours, back and forth, to do some shopping and then drive back again for dinner the next day.
"Lanaaa please come out," Chloe sang irritably.
Lana gave a loud, huge sigh that indicated that Chloe had won. "What do you think?"
Chloe gave her a quick look-over before concluding, "Clark's going to love that dress." Chloe presented Lana with an impressed smile.
"You don't think it's too much, do you?" Lana inquired uncertainly as she spun around to look at it from all angles. "I mean, you don't think this is too much do you?" Lana pointed to the part of her chest that was practically hanging out.
"No, no," Chloe countered. "You look stunning. Trust me, Clark's gonna be drooling all night."
"I just hope that the other guys in the building won't be drooling," Lana said sarcastically.
"Clark will make sure they won't be."
"Hmm…" Lana bent down a bit to pull the hemline down. The dress only fell to a few inches above her knee. She hoped it wouldn't attract too much attention.
A few minutes later, Lana had changed back into her pink, strapless top and Levi jeans. Her matching pink bag hung on her left shoulder and in her right hand, she clutched the black dress.
"Chloe…I'm not sure I should buy it….It's a lot of money for just a dress I'm probably going to wear once." Lana confessed.
"Lana, how many times do I have to go through this? I'll buy it for you. You don't even need to buy shoes. You have those heels from graduation that we bought on our last outing. They'll match perfectly with your dress," Chloe said in a motherly tone.
"Chloe, I don't even know why I need this dress for….Clark and I are just having dinner. It's not like something big is going to happen, right? It's like you said…." Lana trailed off.
"Well…" Chloe gave a small cough.
Lana stopped next to a display of low-cut jeans.
Maybe I should tell her….She's a reporter; maybe she knows something that I don't.
"Chloe?"
"Yes? Why did we stop?"
"Chloe…I think Clark's planning to propose to me," Lana said slowly, her eyebrows knitted together in thought.
Damn…I thought I convinced her that he wasn't.
"So I've heard," Chloe said, shrugging her shoulders.
"I saw a box in his pocket last night when he came home. I think I also saw him yesterday afternoon."
"What?" Now this is something new, Chloe thought.
"Yeah, I was outside of Rockaway Building and I saw him across the street! He was on Shopping Avenue."
"C'mon Lana, do you honestly think it was him?" Chloe searched for a lie to cover up Clark's faults. "How many farmers from Smallville wear flannel? It could've just been one of them shopping for a fiftieth anniversary gift for their wife baking cookies at home."
"But…it still doesn't exactly fit. What about the box in Clark's pocket?"
"Well, how do you know it's a box?" Chloe argued.
Lana remained silent for a few moments. It was strange; last month, Chloe was hounding Lana with questions about when her and Clark's wedding was, and now she was putting an end to all of Lana's suspicions.
"C'mon, let's not stand here until we turn to stone. We still have to visit Victoria's Secret for some new lingerie, in case Clark gets lucky tomorrow night." Chloe winked and dragged Lana toward the register.
