Chapter 5-2
341 Words
“Wow! This is so cool!” Tammy had taken up her brother’s adjective.
Jaspar, on the other hand, had only one comment to make about Perrin’s shop, “Ugh! Girl clothes.” And then he’d immediately put on his best bored look, one that Bill knew all too well. Though his son did stop to admire his reflection from the dress made of little mirrors. Bill convinced himself that the mannequin’s chest was simply the largest expanse for Jaspar to observe himself in and that Bill shouldn’t read anything deeper into it. When Jaspar started making faces at himself, Bill felt better. A little.
Tammy took her time. She’d spent enough afternoons down in the Costume Shop with Jerimy that she actually inspected how some of the clothes were made. She “just happened” to pass close to him at one point during her inspection to ask him a question.
“Are these really good, Dad?”
“Yeah,” he acknowledged just as Perrin came over from chatting volubly with a customer now departing in a brand-new blue silk jacket that was clearly a custom fit. “Really good.”
Tammy nodded and wandered off while Bill inspected the vision headed his way.
Perrin wore a blazer of green and yellow that made her look like nothing so much as a leprechaun. She even sported a bright green hat, shaped like that of a racy secret agent, slanting forward and left, partly covering one eye. When she approached, he saw that she still wore the opera t-shirt beneath the blazer. It made for a deep pseudo-cleavage of black that reached to her sternum, without being the least bit indecent. No one should look good in such an outfit, but she certainly did.
She greeted the kids and then leaned close enough that only he would hear. “I thought about not wearing the t-shirt just to make you crazy.” And then in the same breath but a louder voice, “Come on, kids. Let me show you something cool I just made for someone getting married in a couple weeks.”
The kids followed her happily enough.
Bill tried, but couldn’t. She’d riveted him right to the floor with the image of her in nothing but that deeply plunging blazer.
- Writer
