"You played two rounds of laser tag with Ryan?" Sarah repeated for the second time. Her eyes were darted towards her cousin, carefully observing her.
Violet nodded.
"Ryan?" Sarah repeated.
"Yeap!" Violet confirmed. "The one and only."
Sarah stared at her cousin for a few seconds and browsed some dresses. "Wow!" She said, "I thought you planned to not date each other and part ways after a month. What happened to that?"
Violet rolled her eyes. "We're not dating. He seemed quite upset yesterday. Something happened at the hospital. He was in a bad mood. So, I decided to cheer him up." Violet explained. "Anyway, Dad advised me to spend some time with him as friends. So that's what I did. I was trying to be a friend. Plus, he isn't as bad as I thought he was."
"Hmm…" Sarah pursed lips. She thought that the way Violet was explaining herself was pretty suspicious. She looked away again before pulling out a long dress with a plunging neckline and shoved it to Violet. "Be careful. You might change your mind after spending time with him.."
"Stop overthinking." Violet inspected the dress, shook her head disapprovingly, and tossed the dress to the counter. "I'm not going to wear that. It's too revealing." She commented on the dress. "And where did you get this dress? I don't think it's mine."
Sarah walked towards her cousin, picked up the dress, and hung it back on the shelf. "Have you ever considered that you might actually fall for him after spending too much time with him?"
"What?" Violet scoffed. "Do you think it's possible to fall for someone within a month? And I've been going out with him for what? Three dates? Four including this one," she said. "I thought you were on my side, Sarah."
Sarah clicked her tongue. "I am on your side. But that was when you were unwilling to do this whole dating thing. I'm helping you because you didn't want to do it. Now, you're likely to go along with your parents' plan, it's a whole different story." Sarah paused and leaned towards the counter. Her eyes were on Violet.
Violet laughed. "You're being delusional. There's no way I would fall for him that easily. And let's not forget that there's an agreement where I can't fall in love with him."
"No one plans to fall in love. It just happened. Even a small gesture could make you fall in love with him." Sarah said as she browsed through the dresses. "My point is, it's possible." She said and took out a chiffon shoulder straps dress with a ruffled skirt. She took a look at the dress and tossed it to Violet.
"But, he's not even my taste," Violet said, eying the dress. "And so does this dress. Sarah, are you really helping me to get dressed?"
"Have you really checked him out? He's really good-looking. No! Wait! Good-looking is not an accurate word. Your fake boyfriend is hot. Didn't you notice the way the girls glanced at him in the hospital?"
Sarah laughed. "Wait. What? You checked him out?"
"I'm helping you to observe your enemy," Sarah Said. "And let's not try to change the subject. We're in the middle of a discussion about you and Ryan."
"Right."
"All I'm saying is that I'm worried about you," Sarah said.
Violet sighed in frustration. "What am I supposed to do then? I just don't like the idea of marrying someone I'm not in love with. I'm sure he thinks the same way too."
This time, Sarah pulled out a pastel blue evening dress and handed it to Violet. "You're playing a really dangerous game. Someone could get hurt in this game. You could get hurt. I just don't want that to happen."
Violet marched towards her cousin and hugged her. "Thanks for worrying about me, Sarah! But don't worry. I'm sure everything will be alright."
xxx
"Why am I doing this? Two hours have gone!" Ryan asked, grunting. He followed his sister, Erin around the store with some shopping bags in one hand.
"Well, let me put it this way…" Erin paused as she went through some clothes on the shelves. "We haven't spent our time together for quite some time. I thought it might be a good chance for us to catch up."
"Catching up, my ass," Ryan commented wryly. "You just wanted someone to carry your shopping bags."
"Ryan, watch your words. Lily could hear you." Erin warned and glanced at her daughter. "I don't want you to set a bad example for my child."
"I'm sorry. But why don't you drag your husband through this torture?"
"I can't. Alan's busy with his work." She pulled out a shirt, inspected it, and hung it back on the shelf.
"And you think I'm not busy?"
"You're on your day off."
Ryan huffed. "I was supposed to be resting at home after that long working hours. Not going out on a shopping spree with you."
"Yes, but you're free now, aren't you?" Erin pulled out another shirt and scrutinized the details. It wasn't up to her taste, so she hung it back on the rack. "So how's your dating progress?"
"Fine," Ryan said halfheartedly.
"I really like that girl. She seems so nice." Erin commented.
"She is," Ryan agreed.
Erin glanced toward her brother and frowned. She didn't expect him to agree. She was expecting him to throw in some nasty comments about that girl and their mother's plan to set them up. Erin decided to shrug it off and continued to browse through the rack. She pulled out another blouse and smiled. "Now, take care of Lily, I'm going to try this."
"Wait. What?" Ryan watched his sister walk into the fitting room and ran his finger through his hair. He was hoping that he could use the day to rest. It wasn't every day that he would get the chance to relax. He bent down to his niece when he noticed her tugging on his pants. "Hey!" He smiled. Lily was there, stretching her arms, asking him to carry her. He carried the little girl in his arms and patted her softly on her head. "Lily, when you grow up, you must not treat your brother like your mother treated me, understood?"
Lily nodded. She tapped him on his shoulder and pointed to a strawberry pattern hair band on the top shelf.
"What? You want that?"
Lily blinked her eyes a few times. "Can I?"
"Of course you can." He reached for the hair band and gave it to Lily. He halted when he spotted a pink phone strap hanging a few shelves away. Ryan stared at the straps for a long time and hesitated.
"That's pretty!" Lily exclaimed.
"Shall we buy this?" Ryan could not decide so he turned to his niece, hoping that she would help him out. "You know, as a thank-you gift for trying to cheer me up the other day," Ryan said, more to himself. He smiled at his niece and saw her staring at her blankly. "But, you must promise not to tell your mother, okay?"