Shopping and Spa Treatments ((Open to any))
Wren woke up with a cold sweat covering her chilled body and her breath coming in short gasps. She'd had The Nightmare again. She was so fucking tired of waking up scared. Sighing she crawled out of the bed and got into the the shower letting the water warm as she stood in it. She had forgotten to grab her toiletries so just used what the hotel had provided, bitching to the soap about how much lotion she was going to need. She should shave her legs, but giving them a feel she decided they could just be waxed along with her bikini area.
She stepped out of the shower and used three of their dinky towels to dry off and went back into the room. Kneeling on the floor she opened on of her cases and pulled out panties and a bra, both blue gingham with little white eyelet lace trim and little white bows, and a black belt with a rectangle button covered in pink crystals. She knee walked to her other case and pulled out a pair of faded low rise blue jeans and a pink body hugging cashmere sweater, and a pair of trouser socks.
She stood and threw the lot onto the bed. She put lotion from her toiletry bag on as much of her as she could reach, then dressed, putting on the same black boots as yesterday. She ran a brush through her hair to tame it.
She picked up her jeans from that morning and pulled everything out of the pockets. She took the wad of cash from Drev and sat on the bed to count it. 'Fifty, one hundred, one fifty, two, two fifty, three, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, four, twenty, forty, fifty, five hundred, ten, fifteen, twenty, one, two, three.'
"Holy fucking shit."
She stared at the stack of bills a bit dumb founded. It's not like she'd never had that much, she had two grand in the lining of her suitcase, and she could earn more than that on a good night, it was just the thought of some stranger giving her that much, just because he wanted to pay for her shoes.
She gathered up the bills and tucked them into the wallet in her purse along with the hundred in assorted bills of her own. She added lip balm to the near empty space and decided it was time to spend Drev's money.
She grabbed coat, hat, scarf and glove, checking to make sure her keycard was in the pocket she'd stuffed it in while cleaning out her other jeans, and left for the mall.
It took her a little while to find the mall, but she didn't mind all that much, it gave her a chance to see what else The Strip offered. Once inside she found the little mall map thing and stood staring at it, getting a feel for the stores the placed offered. She was even excited to find a day spa in the court outside one of the department stores.
They went inside and she asked for the girl that had been at the desk before and took a moment to speak with her quietly. The girl looked at the appointment book and smiled up at Wren.
"Let me shuffle a few things and we can do that just fine. I may have to switch the order of a few of your things. Is that ok?"
"Oh sure, and can we add a massage to that as well?"
"Sure we can. Give me a minute and I'll get you all set up."
"Thanks." The perky girl walked behind the big wall obscuring the inner sanctum of the spa and Wren turned back to Shay.
"That was easy."
Just a few minutes later the woman was back with two sheets of paper and a smile. "Ok here is your new schedule. We have it so that you guys will be together the whole time. Is that alright?"
"Sure, thanks, we'll see you in an hour."
"Ok, Thank you Miss Saunders."
She linked her arm with Shay's again and they left the spa. Wren was hoping there was a phone store nearby.
"We should check the map for the phone stores."
Shay was amazed at how easily Wren had handled that, even though it really wasn't she who fit Shay into the schedule. She had still been the one to get it taken care of.
Walking out of the spa, she saw the mall directory as soon as Wren mentioned it, and steered them that way.
"Ok...accessories...clothing...electronics...food...Oh, probably electronics...yep, there's your cellular phone store...B17..."
And tracing the path from 'you are here', to B17, Shay knew which way to go.
"I believe this is the way..."
And she bounced a bit more as she walked, feeling ever so happy, for the moment.
They walked along to the Cell phone store. Wren tried to come up with something else to ask Shay, but just walking along with her was as nice as chatting.
As they walked, Shay's mind again went over the earlier days, and everything she'd experienced, and been told. Bits and pieces that hadn't sunk in, came back to her in random flashes, and she was still trying to reconcile it all.
"If someone were to ask you, what two or three things you wanted to do before you died...do you have any idea how you would answer?"
There...that was a round about way of getting something started, that might help her segue into discussing her problem, without making it all whiny.
"I would dance at the Met in the Nutcracker. I would go to europe and learn how to dance all of the folk dances I could find. And I...hmm yeah that's a bit deep for now."
She sent an apologetic look to Shay and gave her arm a squeeze. Maybe one day she would share her desire to confront her brothers, and why, but now was not the time and this was not the place. It would completely ruin their spa time. "What would you do?"
Which was understandable, and only served to reinforce Shay's earlier thought that it wouldn't be very appropriate to lay her concerns at Wren's feet, at this moment in time.
But now that she'd asked...how could she answer, and not come through with the truth?
"I'd like to travel all around the world, and see all the wonders...the alps, waterfalls of Africa, pyramids, the Parthenon... the works of Michelangelo, the aurora borealis, even take a trip into space."
And feel a child growing inside me...it sounded so insignificant in comparison, but meant more than all the others combined.
"Sorry...I wasn't really grasping at things to talk about...I've just been plagued with some serious things lately, and am still trying to figure out how to deal."
It looked like they had arrived at the phone store, and Shay was saved from further need to explain.
"Well I had T-Mobile before. So I'm thinking about Verizon." She moved to that case and a man in black slacks and a white dress shirt came over to schmooze her. 'Good luck.'
"I just need basic service, and I'm not buying a camera phone or any other fancy doo dad you want to sell me." She looked down in the case and instantly fell in love with a little purple flip phone. she knew it would get crappy reception, but it was too cute not to get.
"I want that one. Can I see a rate plan chart, please." The guy just sort of stared at her. Most people let him at least get through his spiel before telling him what they wanted. Oh well, he smiled at her and handed her the Verizon chart, then went into the back to get the phone she wanted.
"I love doing that, it confuses them." She said over her shoulder to Shay, and looked down at the chart. She selected a plan that had the minutes she thought she would need and included free long distance. Not that she needed it, she'd be calling her mom from pay phones outside of Nachton for awhile anyway, same with the police detective.
The guy came back and she told him what she wanted and they went about setting up her account. She handed him the neatly folded court order that said she could open these kinds of accounts under an assumed name and her two separate ID's and then paid him in cash. She was delighted to find the phone she'd pick came free if she signed a two year contract. She had no problem with that. Contracts could be broken. He finished up by giving her the number for her phone and telling her to call this 800 number to activate it in twenty minutes.
She thanked him and added the bag to her growing arm full and went back over to Shay.
"All done. Ready?"
"I love doing that, it confuses them."
Shay gave Wren a knowing smile, and a nod. She liked playing what she referred to as her little 'mind games' with people as well...doing the unexpected, and keeping people on their toes always made such mundane events more fun.
As Wren took care of setting up her new service, Shay wandered about the store, and looked at all the different phones available. She had only bought her's before leaving California, so it did have a camera, and internet access, but she found a need for both, so it had been a good buy at the time.
Funny enough, her own phone took that particular time to ring, and she pulled it out of her purse as she walked towards the store entrance. As it turned out, it was just a recorded reminder message from her doctor, so she quickly disconnected it. And then as Wren walked towards her, she snapped a quick picture of her friend.
"I can't imagine why you wouldn't want this lovely feature on your phone...the little critters take the most awesome photos."
Shay laughed...sarcasm dripping from her words, as she turned the phone to show Wren the picture.
"And yes...I am SO ready for that massage."
"So back to the desert island questions. Who in history or the present would you like to have lunch with and ask any questions you wanted?"
"So back to the desert island questions. Who in history or the present would you like to have lunch with and ask any questions you wanted?"
Shay gave a short half laugh. Mary had been gone for several years now, and Shay had come to terms with her death as best as she ever would. But she knew her friend wouldn't want her to mourn her forever.
"You?"
This was an interesting game...Shay wondered how long they could play it.
This game always fascinated her, it revealed a lot about a persons character and their desires as a person.
"Oh here's another good one. What would you leave in a time capsule for future generations?"
Shay admired several older men, and it was another coincidence that he was one of the...along with Olivier, Connery, and Newman. Of course Olivier was dead, and Newman really did look his age, but in each of them Shay could still see the sexiness that had propelled them through their field.
"Okay, I know this sounds totally narsacisstic, but I'd have to leave copies of my book. Who knows, I could be the Stephen King, Anne Rice, or Hemmingway of the next century!"
Shay was getting very dramatic, but totally for effect. There was no way she'd put herself in the same league with those three...at least not for a few years anyway.
"What is your all time, favorite fast food?"
"Whitecastle hands down. I can eat like fifteen of those little guys in one sitting."
There was not a fast food joint on the planet that compared, she was sure of that. She tilted her head to one side and thought for a moment.
"If you discovered a new planet, what would you call it?"
A planet? Now that was getting way beyond the realm of anything Shay had ever thought of.
"Well, they already have Uranus...how about Urvulva...or Uruvula...Urelbow?"
She was being silly now, but she really had no clue.
They had reached the spa, once again, and the woman who had spoken to Wren earlier, waved them in. Shay had no idea what all was on the schedule, but she was ready for it all. Following Wren in, she was impressed with the luxury the play seemed to exude. Shay was all for being pampered, and treated royally, and the atmosphere had a great deal to do with the effect of the experience. This was going to be wonderful.
"Um, I don't know if and what you wax, so you may want to just read a magazine during this part. I've got to have my everything waxed, so..." How in the hell do you say "So do you get a brazilian or just a bikini and are you in need of waxing at this time?" Wren went pink in the cheeks as they followed the girl into a changing room. They were given robes to change into and instructed to remove all of their clothing, including under garments, and offered the use of lockers with removable keys.
She cleared her throat softly trying not to embarrass herself further and began to put her stuff in one of the lockers careful to hang the dress neatly.
"I had my bikini area and underarms zapped, ages ago...so I don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm a big baby when it comes to pain. But I still do the legs, so I can join you for that part."
Shay had no modesty issues, and being that Wren stripped, she doubted she would either. So she quickly put her things in the locker, removed her clothes, and slipped on the robe, belting it around her waist. As she finished a bit before Wren, Shay turned, and had to admire the other woman's body.
"You must do very well as a stripper."
It was a completely objective comment, though Shay was a teensy bit envious of the other woman's breasts...they were quite lovely. She wondered if there was a surgeon in Nachton that did good work.
She stacked her clothes on top of her boots folding everything as she took it off.
"I do ok. It's mostly the black hair and super pale skin that earns my tips, more than the over all shape. I'm a little to skinny and a little too flat in the curve department for my body to earn the alone. Men like exotic in their exotic dancers."
She closed the locker and took out the key wrapping it around her wrist before putting on her robe and belting it.
"I had this one guy tell my I looked like I'd just stepped off a train from Transylvainia and asked me if I became furry with the full moon because that would be hot." She rolled her eyes and laughed, and the girl arrived to take them to the torture chamber that is the wax room.
She had to laugh though, at the 'full moon' comment.
"I might guess in your business, you get all kinds of strange come ons?"
As they walked into the wax room, Shay took one of the beds, and laid down on her back. She hoped the hair on her legs was long enough to wax. It hadn't been that long since she had shaved, out of desperation. She would get her legs done properly soon...maybe when she went back to New York...
"It is cheaper to wax, except in the long run."
And having hair yanked from one's 'naughty bits' had just gotten way too much for Shay to face on a weekly basis, especially in the summer. Now all she had was what she referred to as her 'love patch', and she could get away with wearing anything, and not worrying.
"I was surprised at how painless the electrolysis was. I don't know why I had always imagined it would hurt worse than the waxing...but they numbed up the area with some cream, and I slept through most of it."
"Ready, ladies?" Said the blonde and Wren just smiled at her and closed her eyes.