"So if you were Foster, what would you like for Christmas?" Cal glanced sideways at his daughter as they strolled through the mall after their lunch break.
"I don't know. Something pretty. Nothing flashy."
"Classy, huh?"
Emily looked at her father with a frown, when she saw the far away dreamy look he had on his face. "I suppose so, yeah."
"Ok. So what are we talking about now? Potted plants, deco stuff, jewellery?"
Emily frowned, "Jewellery? Just how bad are things between you and Gill really?"
"Not jewellery, then, ok."
"It doesn't matter what you get her, dad, as long as it comes from the heart. Don't just pick the most expensive and most exquisite thing because you have a guilty conscience."
"Gillian will see right through that." Cal nodded in agreement, tacitly acknowledging he had a guilty conscience.
"Mhm, the most important thing is to pick something meaningful so she knows you care about her feelings. Something that has meaning for both of you, like a connection..."
"Em!" Cal's voice held a warning tone.
"Sorry, dad, but Gillian is so much better for you than Shazzer can ever be. One day you will see it, too."
"We're not having this discussion again. Period." Cal said firmly only to find out that his daughter had stopped at a window of a very posh boutique to gaze at a dress.
"Isn't it a bit early to shop for your prom dress already?" He asked when he walked up next to her.
Emily shrugged his shoulders, "Mom said I could go to junior prom this year."
"What's wrong with the dress you bought for the last dance?"
Emily gasped in shock, "Dad! I can't be seen wearing the same dress for junior prom! I would fall off the social ladder into the abyss of high school oblivion."
"I see. We can't have that, now can we? Which one do you like?"
"This one", Emily pointed at a red and black dress.
"It's pretty. Come on, let's go inside so you can try it on."
"I know what you're doing dad. You can't put off buying a gift for Gillian forever."
"Can't a father buy his daughter a nice Christmas gift?"
"What happened to the gift cards?"
Cal shrugged his shoulders, "We can always fall back on that if the dress doesn't fit, now shoo…" He stepped behind her and pushed her slowly to the entrance.
0~0~0~0~0
"No! Abso-bloody-lutely not." Cal's eyes widened in shock, "Take it off."
"Dad!"
"NOW!" He growled.
"But, dad!"
"You're not leaving my house in that attire!" He insisted and crossed his arms.
"Fine! I'll put it on at mom's then," Emily rolled her eyes at her father who scowled. "Dad, it's a formal dress! Of course, it has some cleavage. Would you rather I wear a potato sack to junior prom?" When Cal opened his mouth, she quickly added, "Never mind, don't answer that."
Cal closed his mouth and glared at his daughter until she sighed in defeat and slumped her shoulders. How they could call this still a dress was beyond him. It showed more skin than it attempted to cover.
"I think I have another dress that would look just perfect on you, Miss." The sales assistant exchanged looks between daughter and father before she excused herself to get the other dress. A minute later she returned with three dresses, one in purple, another red one, and one in blue with pink accents.
"Purple is the colour this year," she explained to Emily and Cal who just shrugged his shoulders to indicate he couldn't care less. Emily took the offered robes and disappeared into the cabin to try them on.
All of a sudden Cal had an idea. "I like wearing pink because it makes me happy and I haven't been happy in years." Gillian's words echoed through his head as Cal started to browse through racks of dresses. This was it. He'd buy Gillian a nice dress, take her out to dinner at one of her favourite elegant restaurants, and buy her the sweetest desert on the menu to show her he cared enough about her to actually pay attention to what she is saying.
"Sir, can I help you?" Another sales clerk picked up on Cal's distress and snuck up behind him.
"Yes, I need pink!" Cal blurted out slightly startled. The blonde woman who'd offered to help suppressed a chuckle. Desperate husbands shopping for their wives were always a nervous hoot.
"Did you want something casual or formal?" She inquired as she walked Cal over to a different section.
"Formal."
"Alright, measurements?"
"I think she's 5'5 maybe 5'6." Cal gave a puzzled frown and raised his arm to indicate the appropriate height.
The woman chuckled, "No sir I meant your wife's breast, hip and waist circumference to help pick a size."
"Oh! Well, she's not my wife, she's my…" Cal struggled for the right words, "and I don't know she's…" he pondered how to describe Gillian's figure with and without using his hands and capitulated, "You know what? Never mind. She likes to read; a book will do fine. Thanks for your help." Did he just feel flushed? "Oi! Em! Where are you?" Cal called out and scurried back to his daughter, leaving a flabbergasted sale assistant behind.
"Where've you been, dad?" Emily appeared out of nowhere in the blue dress. "What do you think?" She turned around to show off the gown she was wearing. "I didn't like the other red one and the purple one didn't fit." She explained.
Cal nodded his head, "Much better than the previous one."
"And it is a much better quality." Emily's original sales assistant snuck up behind Cal and almost gave him another heart attack. Why did they keep doing that? "Your daughter couldn't have made a better choice."
Cal was about to nod but then squinted his eyes. "Yeah, I don't think so. Take off the dress, love, we're leaving."
"But dad, I really like it." Emily protested.
"I have to agree, sir, this dress looks perfect on your little girl", the sales assistant gave a saccharine smile. Assuming that Cal wanted to barter the price a little, she added, "I might be able to offer a bit of a holiday discount on this one." She'd still get the commission for selling the dress, even if it was 10% off.
"Trust me, Emily, we'll find an even better one. She's lying, she doesn't really think it looks perfect on you."
"Sir, I beg your pardon", the sales clerk interrupted him but Cal held up his hand. Emily glanced between the two adults then retreated to the cabin to change back into her casual clothes. When she re-emerged, the adults were still arguing about the sale. The assistant spotted Emily and tried her last tactic, "Sir, I really think we should let your daughter decide, after all, she'll be the one wearing that dress."
Cal grinned and looked at Emily, "What do you think, love?"
"I think I'll go with my dad's better judgment."
"You heard her", Cal inclined his head toward the doors and took off in the same direction, "Let's go."
"Miss, I'm not lying the dress does really look good on you." The assistant put her arms on Emily's shoulder in a last attempt to make the sale. "Your father doesn't strike me as the type who knows a great deal about fashion."
Now Emily looked to her father one more time, wearing a washed-out shirt and mismatched jeans and then grinned, "Maybe. Probably. No definitely. But he can spot a liar ten miles away, ma'am, 'cos he's a human lie detector."
0~0~0~0~0
When she caught up with her father, she found him examining a set of framed butterflies in the window of a home décor store.
"Oooooh, they're beautiful and so colourful!" Emily exclaimed excited.
"They're lovely but they're not the right ones." Cal mumbled.
"Hm?" Emily looked curiously at her father. "I think Gillian would like them. In fact, I think she never got around to finishing decorating her new townhouse after her divorce."
"I know", Cal agreed, "let's go inside and see if they have any Monarchs."
Emily nodded and they walked into the store, looking around for more butterfly casings. Emily pointed to another colourful set but Cal shook his head and insisted they needed a Monarch. Together they searched through the stacks of framed butterflies patiently.
"Oh, I've got a set of Viceroys", Emily pulled a frame out and held it up for her father to inspect.
Cal shook his head, "No. I need a Monarch."
"Does it have to be a Monarch? There are no Monarchs in this stack, Dad. Besides, they look just the same anyway."
"No, they don't. One is imitating the other..." Cal explained and went into the same spiel he'd given Torres a few months ago. Emily listened stoically but couldn't bite back a smile. Oh her father had it sooo bad. In a way it was adorable that he indirectly likened Gillian to a Monarch and refused to degrade her to Viceroy and Monarch wanna-be. "… What kind of message would I be sending if I got her the second best thing. 'Here you go, love, you'll always just be a cheap imitation?' No, no, no. Monarch it has to be."
Once Cal finished with his explanation, she just replied, "First of all, dad. I know. Remember we did the science project together in third grade. Second, we learned in biology last year that both Viceroy and Monarch are actually poisonous. So there must be another reason for the mimicry. Maybe the Monarch is copying the Viceroy – who knows?"
"Oh!" Cal blurted in surprise, "Well then I suppose we should nix the whole butterfly idea if we don't know which one's the real thing."
Emily groaned and rolled her eyes, "You're up to your neck in shit, aren't you?"
"Noooo", Cal's voice came across an octave to high.
"Well, then you've got it baaaaaad for Gill", she teased him and Cal shot her another warning look. "For someone who didn't even want to come here in the first place you sure are putting a lot of thought into your choices."
"Oi! You coerced me into coming here. You dragged me in here from the parking lot. You told me I had to get something meaningful!"
"Yes but I didn't say we'd have to scour every store between Maryland and Virginia in order to find it."
"What's wrong with you? I thought girls your age loved hanging out in malls all day." Cal shrugged and held up an iron cast candleholder with an intricate pattern and intriguing shape. Emily shook her head and pointed to a crystal vase behind him. Cal pulled a face.
"Not when we have to listen to our overbearing fathers fighting with the sales clerks."
"I didn't pick a fight. And she lied." He almost sounded like a child defying its mother after it had been reprimanded.
"Dad she was just trying to make a sale."
"She lied. She didn't really think you looked that beautiful in it."
"Oh please, dad. What do you know about prom nights and dresses? You've never been to a US high school."
"Exactly. So I have to rely on your mum's and the sales clerks' expertise." Cal explained. "I won't let you go to your prom in a dress that the store lady doesn't believe looks absolutely smashing on you and makes her green with envy, wishing she looked that ravishing when she went to her own prom."
Emily looked at him funny.
"What now?" He raised his eyebrows and held up a bronze sculpture for inspection.
She launched herself into his arms and hugged her father tightly. "Love you", she mumbled into his shoulder.
Cal reciprocated a bit baffled. "What was that for?"
"Nothing, just," she squeezed him one more time.
"Love you, too, Em, but be more careful next time. I almost dropped the sculpture."
"That wouldn't have been a great loss. It's ugly and overpriced." Emily sighed as she disentangled herself from her father's embrace.
"Fair enough. I guess we'll just keep looking." Cal conceded and they left the store.