scarlett , @frczenyogurt.
Scarlett stood there patiently (well, as patiently as she could without wanting to interrupt them mid-sentence), her expression demanding answers and acknowledgement unwavering. She grinned at their question indicating that there had been some curiosity and eagerness to learn — especially learn from the best. “You see, hon,” she started, pulling the exact same clothing item they replaced on the rack. “You’re extremely fair-skinned and to put up this yellow in the middle of winter will make you look like a ghost or a very unappealing lemon. If you wanted to wear this color, it needs to be offset with a richer and deeper color, like…” She scanned the boutique and her eyes lit up at the perfect blouse as an example. Without hesitation, she took ahold of their hand and pulled them toward that direction. “Look at this here: it’s the dark color—black— with small doses yellow and purple in the form of a floral pattern. It’s a button up so there’s room for the cut to be straight enough because, honestly sweetheart, you don’t have curves, but it’s okay because neither do I; we just gotta make do with what we got. You following me, lovebug? Okay—because if you did want to add an illusion of a curve you can achieve that by wearing yellow high-waist pants and then wear some brown booties. Boom, you’re golden.” Scarlett wondered if they were able to follow her rambling advice because she was not going to explain it again. “Oh! And it’s only $128.00. We’re definitely getting this one.”
She takes his hand, actually makes contact, and doesn’t bat an eye over it. Most people wouldn’t do that to a stranger - most people would worry about his reaction, or the implication of such a familiar gesture, but she seems as if she may not have even noticed she’d done it; an unimaginable notion to Gideon. She’s being so nice and holding up such a beautiful garment that he doesn’t want to be rude, not here, not now, so he only gratefully retracts his hand when able to and holds it to himself as if nursing a small injured animal.
He isn’t following her meaning, though he tries at first, she gets to talking about curves and suggests there’s anything at all similar about their frames (and looking at her more plainly when she does, he feels offended on her behalf that she would say such a thing about herself), and Gideon loses the thread of her speech; and what on Earth is a bootie?
“Did you say - ” He goes to reiterate the number he thinks he must have misheard (it just couldn’t be possible, couldn’t be legal), but stops himself. “Oh no, I couldn’t. That’s - did you say one hundred? 'Only' one hundred?” his disbelief is obvious. “It’s very nice... you’re very nice... but that’s... it has to be some sort of mistake, it’s just one shirt. I couldn’t spend that much on one thing.” He couldn’t afford that much for any reason, even an urgent bill at this point, but it sounds less pitiful if he says it this way instead.
