Chapter 56: Shopping.
The shop was a mid-range clothing store — the kind that sat in that comfortable space between fast fashion and boutique, clean racks, reasonable lighting, staff who greeted you once and then left you alone. Not the kind of place Liam would normally walk into with a budget in mind, but the kind Sophia would walk into comfortably, which was the point.
She looked at the storefront as they pulled up and then at him.
"Here?" Sophia asked.
"Here." Liam responded.
"I thought you were getting me something to wear around the house."
"You can wear things in public too," Liam said, getting out of the car. "It’s actually quite common."
She followed him in with the expression of someone mentally readjusting the afternoon’s itinerary. The store opened up cleanly — rails organised by category, decent spacing between sections, the kind of layout that let you move without feeling herded.
Liam found the seating area outside the changing rooms immediately. Two low chairs angled toward the fitting room corridor, positioned there specifically for this purpose. He pointed at them, looked at Sophia, and sat down in one with the settled energy of a man who had found his post for the afternoon.
Sophia stood in front of him with her arms loosely crossed. "So you’re just going to sit there."
"Somebody has to and I would rather it be me."
"And I just — pick things?"
"Pick a few. Try them on. Come out and show me." He leaned back. "It’s not complicated."
"You want me to model for you," she said. Not accusatory, just naming it.
Liam raised one hand, palm out. "Guilty as charged."
Sophia stared at him for what seemed like an eternity and then turned toward the rails, and he caught the smile she aimed at the clothing rack as she walked away.
She came back with four items the first time. Then went back for three more. Then disappeared for another five minutes and returned with an armful that suggested she had either lost track of the brief or fully committed to the exercise, and he suspected the latter.
The changing room door opened.
The first was a casual sundress — light, easy, the kind of thing you wear when the weather is being cooperative. She stepped out, turned once without being asked, and looked at him.
"That one works," Liam said.
She went back in.
The second was a fitted co-ord set in dark olive — cropped top, wide leg trousers. She came out standing differently in this one. More deliberately. She knew it worked and the knowledge was visible.
"Turn," Liam said.
She turned and did so slowly. The kind of movement that acknowledged the request while maintaining full control of the situation.
"That one too," he said.
Back in.
They found a rhythm. She changed, emerged, showed him, he gave a verdict in as few words as possible, she went back. Some were simple — a blazer dress she dismissed herself before he spoke. A shirt and trouser combination that was fine but forgettable. A wrap dress in burgundy that stopped them both for a moment.
"360," Liam said, for that one.
Sophia did a full slow rotation without comment.
The burgundy wrap dress did things with her figure that were nobody’s business, and they both knew it, and neither of them said so directly, which was its own kind of conversation.
She was on item eleven when Liam noticed she had stopped rushing between changes. The intervals were getting slightly longer, the exits slightly more considered. She was enjoying this. Not performing enjoyment — actually enjoying it, the way people enjoy being genuinely seen without it being weighted with expectation.
"Try the other one," Liam said when she came out in something she’d already dismissed internally.
"I wasn’t going to bother with that one," Sophia pointed out.
"Try it anyway." Liam was very stoic but he was also the one telling her to try on everything.
She gave him the look that particular instruction deserved and went back in.
By item fifteen she was moving through the corridor like she owned it, which she more or less did at this point, the changing room attendant having long since stopped paying attention to the count.
She came out in the last one — a sleek halter neck in black that covered everything technically and revealed everything practically — looked at Liam, and said: "Well?"
Liam looked at her for a considered moment.
"Which ones do you actually like?" he said.
"I asked you first."
"I like all of them," Liam shrugged with a goofy smile, he remained composed because he didn’t want to do too much especially in a public setting.
Sophia sighed from somewhere deep. "That is genuinely unhelpful."
"I’m a genuinely unhelpful person." Liam said with a thumb up.
She gathered everything from the changing room with the focused efficiency of a woman who had made her decisions and knew which two she was keeping. She had a limit in her head — she’d entered with two in mind, one for before the date and one for the date itself, and she was going to stick to it.
She came out with the full armful.
Liam stood up, walked to the counter, and gestured for her to bring everything over.
Sophia froze. "Wait." She looked at the pile in her arms. "What are you doing?"
"Checking out."
"Everything?"
Liam nodded once, with a single dramatic dip of the chin.
The cashier began scanning. Each item passed over the reader with a quiet beep, the running total climbing on the small screen facing them. Sophia watched it with increasing attention. The cashier finished, looked up, and quoted the total with the neutral professionalism of someone paid to say large numbers without inflection.
Liam looked at the screen.
He looked at Sophia.
"Yeah," he said, with great seriousness, "maybe we only need two after all."
Sophia burst out laughing — sudden and full, her hand going to her mouth. The cashier maintained complete professionalism.
Liam ran his card.
The machine beeped once., it was approved.
And then, quieter, underneath the sound of the receipt printing —
[Ding!]
[Transaction Recorded]
[Target: Sophia Reyes (Mid-Tier MILF)] [Investment: $1,400 (Significant financial gift + sustained positive emotional experience + high attraction)]
[Base Value: $4,667]
[300% Beginner Bonus Applied]
[Rebate Received: $18,668]
Liam pocketed his card and picked up the bags.
Sophia was still looking at him with an expression that had moved past laughter into something quieter, She had no idea how to act right now because Liam had just splurged on her.
"You didn’t have to do all of that," she said.
"I know but God! You look so good in all of them!"
"You really are a smooth talker..."
"And guess which language I’m most fluent in?" He held the bags out to her.
She shrugged, "I don’t know, you tell me."
"Don’t worry, you might find out tonight if you’re on your best behavior,"
Sophia giggled before muttering, "I will make a mental note to be on my worst behavior."
"Besides, you needed clothes. Now you have them. Let’s go."
She took the bags slowly. Held them for a moment.
"Thank you," she said. Genuine. No performance around it.
"Don’t thank me," Liam said, pushing the door open. "Just pick something good for tonight."