The last stop was evening wear but here Cathie stood firm. She definitely did not need anything in this department. She'd conceded that she needed casual clothes as the ones she had on when her remembered life started and the leisure suit bought for her before she left hospital were inadequate. Evening wear though was an unnecessary extravagance. Ethan did not dress for dinner and she had no intention of going out to any social occasion, as if she had a calendar full of soirees she wryly admitted to herself. Pointedly thanking the personal shopper Cathie collected the bags with her few purchases spun on her new sandals and made her way to the escalators and freedom from retail pressure. She didn't hear the conspiratorial whisper between Darlene and Blanche nor the dollar signs that glowed in the commission earning employees eyes. Darlene quickly caught up with Cathie confident in the knowledge that Ethan's command of a 'whole wardrobe' would be carried out to the letter while fervently thanking the powers that be that Cathie didn't seem to have a temper.
'Hungry?' Darlene asked.
'Starving.' Cathie replied, the rumbling of her stomach reinforcing her answer.
Darlene texted David to arrange a pickup point. Cathie felt like royalty as the women entered the limo which once again was in a no stopping zone. The interested and somewhat envious looks of the tired shoppers queued for taxis suggested that they were looking at someone famous but couldn't quite figure out whom. Maybe it was just the limo. She knew she would enviously stare at one if she was waiting for a taxi. Waiting for a bus more like it. 'How was shopping, girls?'
'Mission accomplished.' Darleen replied.
What mission was that? Mission impossible? Cathie certainly had felt that Darlene and the 'personal shopper' woman were collaborators with spending Ethan's money their prime object and herself the target.
'What's new?' Darlene asked David.
Cathie soon found out that this was a standard question as David always utilized the down time of waiting for either Ethan or the housekeeper by reading the voluminous Sydney Morning Herald cover to cover, inserts, brochures and all. It seems the cars location for this tabloid feast was also quite routine as shown by the next question.
'How was the scenery?'
The scenery it turns out was either the botanical gardens or Hyde Park both lush and serene gardens in the centre of the city. Both frequented by 'scenery enhancing nubile females jogging in skimpy shorts and even skimpier tops' if Darlene was to be believed.
The repartee continued between, what was soon obvious to Cathie, good friends.