The mood felt even stranger than before. At least that's what the redhead thought as they both walked back to the car. Before that, his companion had a step on it, as if she was in a hurry and wanted to get every appointment over with quickly. However, now she doesn't even look at her phone and it almost seemed as if she was looking at some things on the street. He would prefer it now if she were a little meaner. Because the question arose whether she noticed his behavior from before in the elevator. Or did something happen with the person who she just visited. It was more likely that she was considering how to fire him because it was noticed that this cooperation was not working after all. At least for her. But to open his mouth and maybe open the wrong topic, he didn't dare either. So he just walked next to her for a while and kept looking at her face waiting. But when he thought she was turning to face him, he quickly looked elsewhere, as if he might be caught doing something illegal. He knew his behavior had to be stupid, but he did it anyway.
"We can go get something to eat after the next stop, if you want?" He suddenly heard after they were back in the car. Astonished, he turned to her, because that didn't sound harsh or snotty.
"What? Now start the car! If you waste any more time, you can forget about the food." She added again in a snappy tone, but somehow it didn't really go over well with him. He wondered if she really didn't want him here, or was just pretending, for whatever reason. Maybe he was mulling over this all too much and he should be glad she was at least trying the nice way. So he started the engine and asked about the next address. After a few minutes of the very quiet drive, during which the radio was playing, but she didn't even have her mobile phone in her hand because she was staring silently out of the window. And the landscape didn't seem that interesting.
"So, did you design the clothes yourself or did you hire someone to do it?" Kyle wanted to distract her, whatever mood she was in at the time. He also really wants to know more about this project and the woman behind it.
"You do know that more people involved cost more money, right? I've been dealing with fashion for almost half a year. I mean, almost anyone can scribble such a sketch, but it's more difficult to translate it into wearable clothing with the right textiles. Especially with curves like that, the fabric can easily tear if you use the wrong one." Luckily, she didn't look in his direction when explaining, otherwise she would have noticed how he flew over the curves mentioned. He blinked and remembered to look forward on the road.
"Of course, the right seam also plays an important role. And no, I didn't do everything myself, I'm too inexperienced for that. But the final product turned out really nice after all these months. Even better than I imagined. And before you say the same thing as Butters, I know I can't expect instant success when I open the store. Although the opening has been announced for a long time, not everyone has the same perspective as me and .." Erica didn't even notice the wandering of his eyes beforehand and he internally reprimanded himself for not doing something like that in the future. That being said, he enjoyed listening to her babble on enthusiastically again. So he assumed her mood seemed to be good after all. He was probably imagining things before that, when the car was quieter. Maybe she just needed some quiet time to think and he's starting to get nervous about every little thing.
"If you don't mind, can I see the designs later?" Noticing her sudden halt in her speech, he glanced over at her. She certainly expected him to contribute to the conversation at some point, too. So he inquired about the results of all the work.
"I was actually thinking, that you... Oh forget it! You have to drive to the right over there." And it seemed to him again, like at the beginning of the journey. What was wrong with his question, but it didn't help to think about it, because he had to look for a free spot for his car. This parking lot wasn't exactly small and with places like this there were always those who thought everything belonged to them. Just as he was about to park, a pick-up truck stole the empty space. He was almost rammed while the vehicle backed onto it and was now askew because of the front of his car. Well, nothing had happened and he could still drive a little further to find a new place.
"Now I'll tell the stupid bitch something! She saw exactly that you wanted to come in here." His co-driver scolded loudly, startling him a little.
"Oh please stop it. Shouldn't we stick to your schedule?" Kyle was hurrying to find another spot to park so as not to start a pointless argument. He was aware that there were people who liked to get upset in such places because they had nothing better to do in life. But he felt that you had to stand over it.
"Yes we should." She answered rather unhappily while he just sighed. Unfortunately, they met the driver of the truck on their way. This time he exactly saw the smirk, but pretended he hadn't noticed. The lady at his side walked very calmly and reservedly past the woman.
"I really thought you would mentioned something."
"Have you seen her tits? These things look so cheap, like someone just stuffed beach balls in and pumped them up. No wonder she can't drive with those things. Doesn't that already count as a handicap?" Although Erica pretended to talk to him, but he was aware that the passer-by was a few steps away and that she was only supposed to hear it. Of course, they were immediately insulted back, but he didn't want to endure that more and silently pulled his companion from the parking lot, who scolded him about it, but allowed it.
"Did that have to be?" He complained a little more seriously, because they weren't teenagers, drunks or other people who liked to yell loudly in places like this. He didn't feel like having moments like that and he thought Cartman would have outgrown it.
"Hey, the chick started it!" She laid it out as if it were reason enough to be so childish.
"Is that how you promote yourself by fighting with bored housewives in the parking lot?" Although he knew neither her program on the net nor her fan base, but he could not imagine that anyone would want to see something like that.
"Man, you've become a fun killer." With that she just walked ahead, slightly annoyed. He just shook his head at that and didn't care if she saw it or not because he didn't have the time to discuss such things. And if her opinion of him was already in the basement, then it shouldn't matter that he was considered a sourpuss. So he spent a while looking at her back again. Rather inadvertently thinking as he followed her to the next destination and of course his eyes respectfully stayed above the waistline. At least most. A little look didn't hurt. At least until he almost ran into her, not noticing that she stopped. He hurriedly looked for something else to admire with his eyes and unfortunately only the sidewalk came into view.
"Are you tired or something? You don't have time for a nap with me! Anyway, do you want to wait outside again? I want to spare myself any embarrassing inconvenience." He was back at the bitchy boss again and he didn't even do anything about it. Surely she just didn't just leave him there because she really needed the car. It must have been difficult for her to hold back so much and to treat him kindly at times, he thought a little sarcastically, because it would be so easy if she just allowed herself a rental car and a bodyguard. That's when the faint voice came back to him that maybe Erica wanted the two of them to get along or something similar, but didn't really know how to deal with him after all this time.
"Excuse me?" Looked into her face and realized that he should have been listening because she was waiting for an answer from him. But she didn't repeat herself, grabbed his upper arm and turned him towards the shop window, which was furnished with some lingerie.
"Well, do we dare to go in there?" It almost sounded gleefully as the words came out of her mouth. Since they had to walk a few steps from the parking lot this time, he didn't know where they were going at first, but he already noticed that they passed some shops. Looking up, he realized it wasn't just about underwear. They were in front of a sex shop. Paradise was written above it and he was sure the letters would glow neon pink at night. When he looked at her again, he had to roll his eyes because apparently she thought he could be teased with such things. If he were fifteen he would have acted cool too, but his head would have turned the color of his hair at the mere thought of walking in here. Puberty stuff. Today he felt it was completely normal to go into such shops. You could simply find a better selection of condoms and lube here than in traditional drugstores. In addition, the salespeople in such shops are not so quickly embarrassed if you want to know something about the products. It doesn't always say right at the front, without silicone or not.
"Just look down if you get too uncomfortable." She continued to joke, because she was really enjoying this again. Without a word, he allowed it and held the door open for her, whereupon a small bell rang. When he entered too, he was amazed at first, because this was probably an expensive version of what he was used to. Brightly lit and patterned tiles on the floor. Right at the entrance there were some mannequins on the right and left, who were equipped with noble-looking lingerie. In addition, they were decorated with very sparkling stones, silver and gold chains. Some things seemed too complicated for him to put on, but he had no intention of buying any of them anyway. When he finally found the prices, he realized that all the glitter and bling bling wasn't just for decoration. The numbers went into the six-digit range.
"Hello. How can I help? Would you like to pick up an order?" A handsome gentleman inquired politely. He must have been in his mid-thirties, the redhead guessed, and he thought the guy can perform working in a bank by such looks. Perhaps that was the order of the day in this extravagant establishment.
"Not today. Isn't Mrs. Violetta here now?" Erica must have expected to find someone else here, while he couldn't help but wonder what she was shopping for on other days. Without wanting to, some images with the underwear from before came to his head, which he immediately shook and went on in the shop to get his mind off things. Of course, there had to be clothing or adornments for men as well. His ex-girlfriend would have tried this and would have liked to see him in some outfits with glitter. He couldn't help but smile as he remembered her and wondered what she was up to today. Well, she was probably better off without him.
"Kyle stop staring at that thing! This is just decoration for the store. Nobody buys that to shove it up their butt." He blinked, a little puzzled, and then realized he was standing in front of a very large and golden phallus. Which is what she was talking about. Surely she didn't see his expression before because he turned away from the other two and because of that, she had no way of knowing that he was feeling a little lousy.
"Actually, we've already sold three of these." Interjected the salesman from before.
"Really now?"
"Oh come on, you've been ogling the big thing for a while. Must be nice in your living room at certain parties." He was inclined towards orgies at first, but then decided not to say so because it was a little too much.
"Aha, Kyle is joking now. You're really funny." Somehow she wanted to sound mean, but she didn't really seem to succeed because the corners of her mouth betrayed her briefly. She turned back to the man who worked here.
"Well, we don't want to bother you any further and I wish Mrs. Violetta a speedy recovery." When they were back in front of the door, she explained without his asking that there must have been a slight setback, because unfortunately the person who they now wanted to meet in the hospital because this was involved in an accident. Things like that can happen. But he hoped for Erica and for the model that it's nothing serious. He shared this with her as sympathetically as possible, but apparently this news hit his companion worse than one might think.
"Oh, what do you know." She just said, ran across the street when there were no more cars and got into the taxi that was there. The woman just left him standing there with that. Whether she had called the car while he was inside lost in his own thoughts or the taxi happened to be there. Either way, he didn't care and somehow he didn't even find the strength to get upset about being left on the sidewalk. It was shortly after half past one at noon, his mobile phone showed him. When each workday is so short, he would like to have more of it, even though the last few hours felt longer. And he didn't know if it would continue tomorrow or if Erica was fed up with him. If Butters had to endure such moods every day and for years, then you can feel sorry for the guy. On the other hand, the man chose to endure this job and all the inconveniences. Unlike him, he didn't know if that was incredibly strong or stupid, because he found there were limits. No matter what feelings you had for someone, that still doesn't justify such behavior. The reasonable thing to do now would be to call Erica and quit this. But even as he sat in the car heading back to South Park, he didn't put the plan into action. Oddly enough, he just wanted to keep going to learn more about her. Nobody said it would be easy. Also, some little voice in his head was telling him that she was only doing this to get rid of him. Just because he wasn't on his best behavior the first time they met. He was trying to make amends. Still, she seemed to want to get back at him twice over. It could also be that she liked the quartet with Butters, Kenny and Stan better and he didn't fit into that group anymore. Like how, when he isolated himself for years and was only concerned with himself. For now, he thought it was okay to pretend that this assistant job would continue tomorrow morning. Maybe there was an opportunity later to chat with someone about it.
When he got back to his parents' house, it was empty. That was fine with him, then he could sit down in the living room to eat and work on his laptop a bit. It took almost two hours until he heard his father's car. So he put his stuff together because he couldn't concentrate as well with someone nearby. And that certainly didn't work with his father, who sometimes feigned interest in his life. Of course, this was proud of him beforehand, because he was about to be promoted to the NBA league. However, now for his old man he was just something like a sports teacher. You just didn't want that for your son and that's why he could do retraining at any time. Although he didn't believe that a law degree could just be done on the side, he still never stopped bugging him about it. Fortunately, such things were not important to his mother. She just wanted him to be okay after the accident. Outwardly, he pretended that too quickly around her, because he didn't want her to worry anymore. He also fibbed a little about the separation from his girlfriend, because he didn't need pity.
The redhead decided to ask Stan if he was free yet. If he was still at work or otherwise busy, he just had to look for something else to kill the time. After he wrote and sent the message, he saw Heidi's number on his display again. Should he meet with her again and play the ignorant for the time being? When she made it clearer that she wanted a relationship or other stuff from him, Stan's explanation wouldn't let him go, then depending on his mood, he could join the trip or call it quits altogether. But with his luck, that might cause problems later on.