If there was one thing Ashley couldn’t resist, it was a good sale. She already had a few garments draped over one arm when another caught her eye and she pick it up off the rack to study it a little more closely.
“Perfect,” she murmured to herself as she added it to the collection she was slowly gathering to take into a fitting room. She wouldn’t say she was normally a big shopper, despite her love of chances to save a little money, but these pieces would fit into her wardrobe nicely and she was definitely a fan of finding what she needed quickly.
It wasn’t that Eleanor particularly liked shopping, just that she was good at it and she tended to like the things she was good at. She had an eye for a bargain and she was charming and calculating enough that she was often able to find herself deals that the average shopper could only ever dream of.
Noticing the woman, who had been perusing the rail beside her, picking up an absolutely divine blouse, Eleanor glanced down to see if there were any others left. She couldn’t spot any. All she could do was watch enviously as the woman draped the garment over her arm, presumably to try on.
“That’s gorgeous,” she commented, in an as off hand manner as she could muster.
“It is, isn’t it?”Ashley agreed with a grin. She knew it was a good steal, particularly since she didn’t think there were any others just like it on the rack. “There are a lot of great ones in here today.” She didn’t miss the slight envy behind the other woman’s words, but she didn’t acknowledge it.
“Yes, there are,” Eleanor agreed. She had her own fair share of clothes hanging over her arm, ready to be tried on.
“I’ve found you have to be on top of sales like this or all the normal sizes go in a flash. I swear, I’ve been to so many, just a few hours late, but the only things left are either made to fit a matchstick or an elephant.”
Ashley couldn’t help laughing at that as she nodded. Sometimes finding a normal size could be a challenge and her height could often be a problem, as well. “These things do seem to draw a crowd of people all after the same sizes,” she agreed. She’d been too late to enough of these sales to know how lucky she was to have found so many great things today.
Eleanor gave the other woman a small smile before turning to carry on looking through the rails, sensing that the conversation had come to a natural conclusion.
Still, after having searched without much luck for a few more minutes, she began to tire of looking. She knew she had more than enough to try on so, with an armful of potential purchases, she took herself off to the dressing rooms.
Having slipped into a form-fitting red dress, arranging her blonde hair on her shoulders, Eleanor turned to try to get a good look of herself in the mirror. Still, it was difficult in the cramped dressing room and she couldn’t decide whether she liked it or not. To get a better idea, she pulled back the curtain and stepped out into the dressing room lobby to take up position in front of the massive, floor length mirror on the opposite wall, critically studying her reflection.
“That looks amazing on you,” Ashley offered, spotting the woman again as she stepped off of her own dressing room to get a closer look at the outfit she’d just changed into. Red was a color she’d always felt attracted to and she had to admit on the other woman it looks stunning. She was always sorry she hadn’t picked up that dress, herself.
“Oh, thank you,” Eleanor said, a little blush colouring her cheeks as she looked up at the sound of the familiar voice.
“Likewise,” she replied quickly, at the sight of the simple yet stunning outfit the woman had on. It was chic yet practical and the other woman gave off that look of effortlessness which made every other woman in the vicinity feel like they’d tried both too hard and not enough all at the same time.
“Are you going to buy it?”
Glancing at her own reflection with a satisfied smile, Ashley nodded. “Yes, I think I am,” she decided. It looked great on her and the price was hard to beat.
“I hope you’re getting that dress,” she added. “It looks too good for you to not take it home.”
“Well, in that case, I suppose I’ll have to,” Eleanor replied with a little laugh. She turned back to the mirror and studied her reflection once more before smiling, her mind made up. She glanced back at the other woman and gave her a grin of camaraderie and shared experience before slipping back into the dressing room.
It didn’t take her long to try on the rest of the clothes she’d picked out. Some of them looked good and those ones went with her to the cash register once she’d emerged from the dressing room. However, a lot of them didn’t: they were too big, too small, lumpy in the wrong places or loose in the right ones. She supposed there was a reason why they were in the sale. Still, as she left the store, she was pleased with her haul and and she was looking forward to getting the clothes home so she could try them on again in comfort and match them to other items in her wardrobe. She always made sure she kept the receipt for anything she bought; until she’d tried everything on again at home, she knew that nothing was definite. After all, it was a woman’s prerogative to change her mind and Eleanor never settled for anything less than perfection.