Falling For The Mafia Underboss

CHAPTER 7: FRIEND-SISTER

The sky was now getting darker, except for some streaks of bright orange-red peeking from the clouds. They pulled up to the same open parking lot from earlier, which had more cars now compared to before.

Aki looked around and waved to a woman who was leaning against a lime green Chevrolet Spark. The woman waved back and walked towards them. She was very pretty — she had big hazel eyes that complemented her olive skin perfectly. Her caramel-colored hair was tied in a loose bun behind her head; the few curls that escaped the bun framed her face prettily. She was thin like a model, but toned. She wore a crop top and skinny jeans. Kelsi felt very insecure as she looked down at her scuffed appearance.

“Hi Aki!” the woman said brightly when she reached them. She was a few inches shorter than Kelsi.

Aki introduced the two women. “Kelsi, I’d like you to meet my good friend, Bree. Bree, this is Kelsi.”

“Hi Kelsi! I’m so happy to finally meet you. Aki told me so much about you,” Bree said cheerfully.

Kelsi glanced at Aki suspiciously. She wondered what he told Bree about her, or when they ever got the chance to talk. All the while, she thought it was just the two of them, but of course, he had to have a whole other life that she wasn’t a part of. She was so naive. She started to regress into a gloomy mood.

“Hi Bree,” Kelsi said glumly.

Bree looked at her with concern, then rounded on Aki.

“Aki, what have you done to her?” Bree demanded.

“What, I didn’t do anything!” Aki said, putting his hands up.

“No, it’s nothing,” Kelsi said apologetically. She had to get a grip on her insecurities. “Just a long day, I think.”

“Aww you poor thing,” Bree said, genuinely looking concerned. “I’m really sorry about what happened to you, Kelsi. But don’t worry, we’re here for you.” Aki must have told her everything already.

She wanted to kick herself. Bree was such a sweet girl and here she was with her selfishness and bitterness. Kelsi attempted a smile.

“Thank you, Bree. I was really lucky Aki was there to help me,” Kelsi said.

“Yeah, Akira here is definitely a knight in shining armor,” Bree laughed as she playfully shoved Aki.

“Shut up, Bridget.” Aki responded, grinning.

Akira, so that’s his real name, Kelsi thought. Pretty.

Kelsi watched them banter and bicker playfully, the kind you do with your close friends. She gave an authentic smile this time.

“Nice to meet you, Akira and Bridget,” Kelsi said.

Both Aki and Bree turned to her with open-mouthed, shocked faces at the exact same time. Two seconds passed, then the three of them suddenly burst out laughing.

“Aki is just fine, thank you,” Aki said to Kelsi as he caught his breath.

“Me too. Please just call me Bree, Kelsi,” Bree pleaded playfully.

“Okay, okay,” Kelsi said. She was growing fond of Bree already.

“Alright,” Aki said. “You guys better go now. You’ll likely be in there for hours.”

Kelsi looked at Aki questioningly. “Go where? Wait, are you going to leave?!”

“Oh Kelsi, don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you,” Bree said, taking Kelsi’s arm. “Plus, he doesn’t enjoy this kind of thing anyway.”

“What kind of thing?” Kelsi asked, looking alarmed. She had no idea what was going on.

“Bree is going to take you shopping,” he explained. “I figure you wouldn’t want to be wearing those for the rest of your life,” he said, looking at her up and down.

Kelsi instinctively put her arms over her chest, her cheeks burning up.

Aki laughed. “Let me know once you guys are done and I’ll come back and scoop you up,” he said as he made for the car.

“Okay!” Bree called with a singsong voice, “Call you later!”

Kelsi could see that Aki was now talking to someone on his phone, but he gave them a wave.

Bree turned to Kelsi. “We’re going to have so much fun! I’m so glad to have a girl friend in the group now!”

Kelsi smiled back weakly as she allowed herself to be pulled by Bree towards the department store. Shopping? She did not expect this at all. With everything that had been going on, she had never given a thought about her wardrobe.

But it's true though, she didn’t own anything to her name at all. She realized she had nothing, as Aki’s words hauntingly came back to her: for the rest of her life. She had been relying on Aki ever since he found her, but she should really figure out what to do, moving forward, in Gaunt City. There was no way for her to get back home to Salvadora, if she could still even call it her home. Her uncle was probably enjoying living there now, especially that she’s out of the way to contest for the house.

Kelsi’s free hand automatically went up to the pendant on her neck and fidgeted with it nervously as she came to the realization about how bleak her future was.

At least I still have this, she thought as she fidgeted with the pendant, her last remembrance of her grandfather, as well as her previous life.

“So, where do you want to start first, Kelsi?”

Bree’s voice suddenly brought Kelsi back to the present. She had just noticed that they were now inside the department store. The place was brightly lit, the ceilings were not that high, giving the impression of a converted warehouse. Two sets of escalators were placed wide apart in the entrance area that they were in. The first floor had racks and racks of different types of clothing, as far as she could see.

“I don’t know, Bree. I don’t have any money,” she said, ashamed.

“Oh don’t worry! We got you remember? At least Aki does, he’s paying for this,” Bree said, grinning. “But I’ll be a big help too! I’ll make sure you’ll have everything you need.”

Kelsi opened her mouth in shock. How could Aki keep spending for her when he just told her about how difficult it was in this city? Aki never really answered her when she asked him about his job.

“You’re very pretty Kelsi, even with those on,” Bree continued. “But you’ll be even prettier once we're finished. Aki would really like it,” she said in a teasing voice.

Kelsi felt her face burning up again. She didn’t know why, but as soon as she imagined Aki’s face, her insides gave a little flutter.

“I don’t really know why he’s doing this, for me,” she said, smiling shyly. “I mean I’m just a stranger to him.”

“Not anymore,” Bree replied as she dragged Kelsi over to the women’s tops section. “Aki’s a really good guy, you know. I mean, I mess with him a lot, but he’s very kind and caring and funny.”

Kelsi thought about what Bree said, then decided to ask.

“So,” she began, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. “Aren’t you two together or something?”

“Oh no! Aki’s like a big brother to me. He has helped me out a lot too,” she said, then turned to Kelsi. “But you, on the other hand…”

“Me?” Kelsi asked defensively. “He just met me. We’ve only known each other for less than twenty-four hours!” she said. “Surely he has a girlfriend, right? I mean, he’s very good looking and all…” Kelsi trailed off, mortified at what she had just said.

“Ohhh,” Bree said, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “Very good looking, huh,” she giggled.

“No, he’s not! I mean he is! But ­—“ Kelsi was at a loss for words, looking very flustered.

“Shut up,” she muttered, but she smiled too when she saw Bree wheezing with laughter.

“No, he doesn’t have a girlfriend, Kelsi,” Bree finally said after her last giggle.

“Now come here, what do you think of this? What’s your style?” she asked while holding up a blouse.

The truth is, Kelsi really didn’t know. Back in Salvadora, she didn’t really care about fashion or what other people her age considered to be ‘in’. She was in every way the definition of a homebody. She never really went outside the house much, except

for when she had to go out with her grandfather. She was home-schooled for most of her life too, so she never had a lot of social interactions. She never felt the need to dress to impress.

“I don’t have a style,” she said glumly. Then she looked at Bree. “You know what, you pick. You have nice taste. You look really good,” she said.

“Yes!” Bree said excitedly. “Fairy Godmother Bree is here to give you the best makeover you’ll ever have!”

Kelsi rolled her eyes inwardly as Bree started going through the different racks and holding up the clothes she picked over Kelsi’s body. It’s better to leave it up to Bree now; she definitely knows what she’s doing, which would make everything quicker, so that she could see Aki again.

About three agonizingly long hours later, Kelsi and Bree were finally making their way out. They were both loaded with so many shopping bags, she could hardly believe they were able to carry them all.

At first Kelsi had indulged in Bree’s whims on making her try on a hundred different outfits, but soon after the many times they had to go back in and out of the dressing rooms, Kelsi quickly grew tired of it.

Then, when Bree was finally satisfied with her casual clothing choices for Kelsi, she then dragged her over to the outerwear section, wherein Kelsi could not understand why Bree was insisting she needed three different types of jackets.

Then to the underwear section, which was probably the quickest stop they had, since Kelsi only took a little time to grab what she needed, while politely declining the lacy, revealing ones that Bree had given to her.

Bree had then pulled her towards the makeup section, where she had made Kelsi try on eyeliners, lipsticks and whatever else she put on Kelsi’s face.

“Skip the eyebrow pencils,” Bree had told her. “You already have naturally thick brows. They don’t need to be filled in.”

Then Bree persisted in getting Kelsi two more pairs of shoes, before finally getting some toiletries as the last stop.

“Bree,” Kelsi had hissed while they were unloading their haul at the cash register, “We got so many! How are we going to pay for all this? Aki’s going to be so mad!”

“Nah, don’t worry. He told me there was no limit,” she had answered confidently.

Kelsi was very exhausted and her feet were aching once more from all the walking. She decided never to go shopping like that again for as long as she lived. She was hungry and thirsty.

It was already night time when they exited the building. Aki was waiting for them in the dark parking lot, and he scrambled to help as soon as he saw them.

“Jesus, Bree,” he said as he took some bags off of Kelsi. “Did you buy off the whole store?”

Bree laughed. “Just had to make sure she’d look good, you know,” she said as she helped Aki load the bags into the trunk of Aki’s car.

“Look at her, Aki,” Bree said as soon as they squashed the last bag inside. “Didn’t I do a good job?”

Before they left the store, Bree had made her change into one of the outfits she had picked out for her, which Kelsi was very grateful for, now that she had underwear on. Kelsi was wearing a gray cropped knitted cardigan with a sweetheart neckline, which fit her snuggly, paired with black stretchy comfortable jeans.

Kelsi fiddled with her fingers nervously and looked down shyly at her new clothes. She was still wearing the pink shoes Aki gave her.

Aki closed the trunk and then turned to Kelsi. He did a double take.

He wasn’t able to see Kelsi clearly when they came outside in the dark, with all the shopping bags that filled up her arms.

“Wow,” he breathed as he stared at her. “You look —“

“Hot? Sexy?” Bree said in a teasing voice.

Kelsi glanced at him expectantly, afraid of what he would say. Maybe the outfit Bree had picked out for her was too much. Or maybe it was her face! Bree had put on some makeup on her; maybe Aki didn’t like girls wearing makeup. She quickly gathered her hair to the front, in an attempt to hide her face.

“Nice,” Aki said, finally tearing his eyes off her. He looked away as if he was embarrassed, then cleared his throat a couple of times.

“Nice?!” Bree demanded. “Just nice? Come on, you can do better than that, Aki.”

Aki ignored her, but he was smiling. He turned to Kelsi.

“Let’s go, Kelsi. You must be starving, right?” he said.

“Not really,” she lied just as her stomach grumbled traitorously.

Aki laughed as he opened the passenger door for her.

“Happy birthday, Kelsi!” Bree said as she gave Kelsi a hug. “I hope you had fun.”

“Thank you. Yeah, it was fun,” Kelsi agreed. Even if she hated the whole shopping part, she definitely enjoyed spending time with Bree. They had formed a bond.

“Alright guys! You too have a nice night, okay?” Bree said, closing the door after Kelsi got in.

“Aren’t you coming with us?” Kelsi asked.

“Nope! I have to go somewhere,” Bree replied, smiling. “But I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Bree.” Aki said as he got in. “I owe you,” he added, giving her a wink.

Bree laughed and gave a mock bow. “Enjoy your date!” she yelled as the car pulled away.

Kelsi was mortified. She sank back in her seat hoping it would swallow her, but Aki just laughed.