Who: Cindy & Rose What: Shoe shopping! When: Jan 20th Where: Shoegasm Rating: Low Status: Complete upon posting!
Now that Rose had some cute new clothes, she needed the shoes to go with them! She remembered that Cindy had a shoe store somewhere around those parts and decided to pop in for a visit! She hailed a cab, giving him the address and sat back with her bags of clothes. She rather enjoyed having a new job that allowed her to have shopping sprees like this. She grinned and glanced down at her phone, sending a few text messages off to kill the time.
When she arrived, she gave the driver a few bills and stepped out, taking in the store. It was a cute little shoppe and Rose was impressed with Cindy’s business know-how. She opened the door and walked through, a little bell chiming to announce her entrance.
“Hello?” she called out. She knew with the recent crimes people were on high alert and didn’t want to spook Cindy or any other employee she might have.
Shoegasm was Cindy’s cover business, but she had to run it like she gave at least one fuck or two. Her employees she actually liked, and she wasn’t looking to put them out of a job by driving her business into the ground - needless to say, she was a little more responsible than her dream self had been with The Glass Slipper. Her assistant, Crispin Cordwainer, had done a nice job looking after things while Cindy traveled the world as a spy for Bigby Wolf but here, in the OC, she was doing most of the work. Helped out by her buyer, Rachel Flynn - who was very competent and a good fit for the job.
The theme of the shop was 'pop art,’ mostly, and the decor was very 80s and 90s, bright colors, comfy and plush seating. Music from the 80s (like Madonna, the Bangles, all the good stuff) was the typical soundtrack over the loudspeakers at a low volume. Luckily, she was there today - and had been that morning, but planned to step out to have an afternoon glass of wine somewhere before tackling some undercover agent work.
“Hey, Rose!” She happened to spot the woman on her way out of her back office. “How’s it going? Can I help you find a fabulous pair of shoes?” At least she was good at that.
Rose glanced around and smiled when she saw Cindy. “Hiya! I thought I’d pop in and see if I could find some shoes to go with some new outfits!” She held up her bags in a guilty fashion. “Hard to not shoppe while everyone else is working! Plus, it was an excuse to come down and see you!” She and Cindy hadn’t kept correspondence after their evening with John and Garrus, but Cindy was such an integral part of John’s life, Rose wanted to reach out to her a little more and become friends herself.
She took a turn around the shoppe, taking in the ambiance and the product. “You have such a fun shoppe! And I love the theme you chose!” She glanced at some pictures hanging around, smiling at the shoe reference. It was obvious the time and effort Cindy had put into running her business.
“I’m glad you’re here today! I wanted to get a few pair for some of the outfits I purchased, but I’m rubbish at finding the right kind of shoe. Color matching and all that.” She grinned. “Thought I could get your opinion on finding the perfect fit!” Cindy probably heard that joke all the time and Rose winced a little. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself!”
Help out with matching outfits to footwear? Sure, why the hell not. Cindy would squeeze it in, before she caught up with Rogue about her mission to infiltrate a bar connected to the crime lords and sponge some info. It was good of her to offer, and Cindy had a feeling that it would turn out well with Rogue at the helm. Not that she didn’t trust Garrus’s barely-legal brunette friend to whirlwind her way through the scene with claws and death or whatever the hell she did after high school got out for the day, but this was something Cindy wanted to trust to a friend of her own.
“No problem,” she grinned, tucking back a few stray locks of hair. “Come on over to the sofa here, and let me take a gander at the outfits. Are you thinking like, a nice pair of boots or did you want heels to accentuate or what?”
“Maybe both?” Rose shrugged, ashamed to admit that she didn’t even know that much to help Cindy out. She followed over to the couch, placing her bags down and began to rummage through them to find the dress. “I have this I wanted to wear on a date.” She held up the cute dress she had found. “What do you think? Could be boots or heels, yeah?” Rose looked down, trying to picture the shoes she would see on her feet.
“Oh, that’s gorgeous!” Cindy had high praise for the dress, which was something she could definitely see herself wearing too. The teal was a bright, vibrant shade but it would really bring out the warmth in Rose’s eyes and went well with her skintone. “Hm, let’s see...”
Hand on her chin, assessing with a squint of sky blue eyes. “Heels or wedges, probably. I’d say you’re gonna want something in gold. Maybe tan, or beige. Definitely gold jewelry to go with it though, for accessories. You’ll look kind of like a sunset.” She was already mentally going through her stock, selecting the peach faux-leather heels with interwoven buckled straps and then the shimmery gold pair with droplet-shaped cutouts and a tapered heel.
That being said, she was off to rummage for her foot-measuring supplies. The genuine, top-class ones because some people just had no clue what size to put on their feet and usually ended up squashing their poor toes.
“Okay, shoes off and let me measure,” she winked at Rose. “I’ll trace your foot. This is the best way to do it.” It was a lot of tracing, tape measuring, adding and subtracting - kind of an exact science, really.
Rose beamed at Cindy’s compliment. “Thank you!” she said, looking down at the dress. “I loved the color and thought I could use some more tones in my wardrobe.” She nodded her head as she listed the options, laughing as she described what Rose would look like. “An oceanside sunset it seems like! Only appropriate for where we live, yeah?”
She took a seat next to her bags, pulling off one of her shoes for Cindy to measure. “Um, warning, I’m a little ticklish on the foot. I only say this because when I was a kid, my mum took me to get new shoes and the salesman wasn’t so delicate and...well, I kind of kicked him in the face.” She thought back to the incident, how her mother scolded her and tried to profusely apologize to the man, who now had a bloody nose.
“But I think I’m a size 7? I have to admit, I haven’t bought any new shoes lately!”
Cindy laughed, assuring her, “I promise it won’t tickle and even if you do kick me, I’ll be fine,” because she was a walking tank. Could take a lot of damage, even if she didn’t look that way - it was just how Fables were built. But being that she was a shoe expert by now, she knew how to do the tracings so that she just barely touched anything potentially ticklish - and she was quick about it too.
“About a seven and a half,” she agreed, checking her measurements again. “I’ll get you a couple pairs, and you can try them on and let me know how they feel.”
She knew where to find them, slipping the boxes free - one tan, one glittering gold - and came back to Rose with the potentials. “Teal and gold is such a great combo though, they just fit together so well.” Now, to be just a tad nosy. “The date is with John, I’m guessing?”
Rose smiled at her reassurance and was actually surprised to find how much truth there was in it. She was fast about it, and even if she came close to a ticklish moment, it soon passed and Rose found herself free. “I’m impressed!” she teased, watching as she went to get the shoes. “I think that in itself made me decide to always come here!” Yeah, that was the reason...not that she really liked Cindy after meeting her and felt a sort of dedication to only shoppe being one of John’s mate’s. It was definitely that she could trace a foot without it being ticklish.
She wasn’t surprised at the question and smiled, nodding her head as she went to try on the gold shoes first. “Yeah, it’s with John. An official date.” She smiled wider, thinking of the awkward text he had sent her. “I was actually kind of surprised about it actually. We usually just go out to dinner, no need to label it. But it was a nice kind of surprise, ya know?”
“Sometimes labels are a necessary evil,” Cindy said, stepping back to assess - from a good vantage point - the way those gold shoes looked on Rose’s dainty feet. “That way there’s no miscommunication about what you actually are doing.” Though she and Garrus had eased relatively well through the stages of courtship and wooing - there wasn’t any ‘ermahgerd, what is happening?’ awkwardness. She’d just kissed him at Oktoberfest, and they went from there.
Now, months later, they were sort of teetering on the precipice of saying the L word - as in who was going to do it first, but all this shit with the crime lords on his ass really kind of skewed the priorities. Just a bit.
“Those look great, they give a great shimmer,” she smiled. “How do you like ‘em?”
“I’ve never heard them call that, but I think I’d have to agree with you.” Rose stood up to examine the shoes, turning the toe to look at either side. “Yeah, that happened between John and I once before, so I think we’re working on that. It’s just so easy to go with the flow that sometimes, we forget to talk about the important things...like what we expect from each other.” She turned to look at Cindy, her hands on her hips.
“I think they’re perfect! I need a set of shoes I can wear for some more fancy occasions. I think I’ll still try the tan on though, those seem a little more every day.” She walked back over and sat down, taking the gold pair off.
“How’s Garrus doing?”
Success! Cindy always felt like a proud mom sending her child off into the world whenever she sealed the deal for fabulous footwear. It was a beautiful thing. “The tan ones are definitely more everyday,” she agreed, and boxed up the gold while Rose went for the second pair. “You could wear them with basically anything.” And it was really hard to beat a great, versatile pair of shoes.
She smiled at the mention of Garrus, sweeping blonde bangs from her face with a brush of slender fingers. “He’s pretty good, under a lot of work stress though.” To say the least. Not only was he transitioning into his new job with Cindy, as an undercover agent for the FBI in her division, but he also had to deal with having people after him. People from his past who wanted to settle the score - according to what he’d said, it really was mirroring a situation from his dreamworld. However, she wasn’t going to go into detail now - she didn’t want Rose to worry, and wished to spare her from all of that.
“I think we need to take a vacation. Just the two of us. God, I haven’t been on a proper one in what feels like years.” Rose opened up the box with the tan flats, looking up at Cindy as she spoke of Garrus. The affection was evident in her tone and it was enough to make Rose smile for them. “At least it’s work stress and not dream stress, yeah?” Rose knew that a lot of people would prefer work stress over their dream stress.
“Vacation sounds nice! Where would you guys go?” She slipped on the shoes and stood, taking a turn about and getting the feel for them, stopping to look in the mirror. “You know, I’ve always gone for black or brown shoes, but I feel like tan will now be a new added bonus to my closet!” She grinned. “I’ll take these too!” Rose felt that giddy excitement of shopping and didn’t want to stop. “Oh! Do you have any recommendations for a good running shoe? I promised myself that I would start working out in the New Year. Maybe a new pair of shoes would help? She gave a little shrug as if to say ‘sure, why not?’
“Sorry, I’m not pulling you away from anything? Because I can definitely come back for the running shoes!”
“I think his dreams are close to finishing, and he...has had some odd ones,” Cindy said, and it was true, they differed so much from her own - even just location entirely, considering his took place in space. And he wasn’t even from Earth. “But I’m not sure, we’d probably end up going back to Georgia to visit my family.” Her nose scrunched, kind of a show of distaste. “It has to happen eventually.” Good thing was, if they could handle the vengeful crime lords they could handle anything else from her Bible-thumping royal southern brood?
She scoffed teasingly at Rose’s protests, taking her first pair of shoes to the counter to set them there for checkout. “I’m always ready and willing to help someone find amazing footwear,” she promised then waved the blonde over toward a display of trainers.
A pair of sneakers, black and gray and pink, was selected. The pink was more on the soft side, rather than neon - which wasn’t always appealing. “These are great, I have a pair myself. Pillow-like cushioning, water and stain resistant. The traction is good if you’re going running on rocky terrain.”
Rose smiled, happy to spend a little more time with Cindy...even if it was business. “How d’ya think they’re about to end?” Rose was always curious to know more about dreams and how they worked. She finally understood what people meant when they described the dreams as something different, something that felt like life. But now the idea of dreams ending was a whole new concept to her. She had heard of people who had thought they had stopped dreaming, only to have it pick back up again! Or why each person seemed to have their own speed of dreaming.
“A family visit huh? Must be pretty serious?” She gave her a teasing smile, walking over with her to look at the sneakers on display. She had joked around with John about her mother showing up, but it was actually a pretty good call that she might just pop up on their doorstep.
“I like the pink, but it’s really just going to be running on a treadmill, so I don’t think I’ll be needing anything too fancy.”
“Hopefully he saves the galaxy,” Cindy grinned; that was always an issue in Garrus’s dreams - he and Jane fighting some sort of evil alien-type hellbent on blowing up the stars or something. There were intergalactic wars, lots of them. He handled it pretty well in the waking world though, adept at separating what happened in that other ‘reality’ from here in the present. “But yeah, it’s serious...I mean, I’ve already met his family. The ones he talks to regularly.” Which just meant his sister, but it had been a big deal having Solana come for the holidays.
Nodding sagely, she set the pink-trimmed shoes back on the shelf, assessing what else might be ideal for Rose’s running needs. “Here, maybe these?” A simple, black and white pair of sneakers. Nothing too ostentatious, definitely not even overly expensive - but they were good quality. If you had a shitty pair of running shoes, that would kill your feet pretty damn quick.
“Natural flexibility, good traction. Padded footbed. They’d be good for doing the treadmill thing.”
“Does he dream of outer space too?” Rose had heard of a few people who had similar dreams to her own, if not in the same world as her own. “Maybe Garrus and I can become astronauts with our information from our dreams!” She beamed, trying to imagine something so silly as her becoming an astronaut. “First step aviation, next stop the stars!” She laughed, looking at the next set of shoes Cindy brought out. “Is it a big step to meet the family?” Rose asked, taking the shoes to try them on. “I mean...what if you just happen to meet them ‘cause they live locally?” She thought of John’s family and how she had begun to meet all of them. They even had that family dinner to look forward to as well!
She stood up with the new shoes, walking around and looking at them in the mirror. “Yeah, I think this pair will be perfect! I’ll take these too!” Rose grinned, not all too surprised at how much she was already spending. “But I think that might do it for me today. I’ll have to come back for even more later!”
Cindy thought the second pair of sneakers were perfect too; she gave Rose a thumbs-up. Those babies would get broken in and last her awhile, so she’d be set. “He does, actually, he dreams of outer space,” the super spy (in her dreams) confirmed - they were all so different, it was really fascinating. “He’s a whole other species too. But I got to see what his Turian self looked like when some of us changed into our Halloween costumes, since he’d worn the armor he got from his dreams - “ Rose hadn’t been here for that disaster, the lucky lady, “...and it’s a lot different but I like him either way.” Garrus had been so used to being conventionally good-looking that becoming a raptor-bird-lizard hybrid with talons and poisonous semen had really done a number on him. Mostly because he couldn’t eat human food, the poor thing.
Then she waved Rose up to the counter so check-out could begin, still talking. “I think it depends on how meeting the family is framed? Or if they speak regularly to their family. With mine it’d be a big deal because they live so far away and plus I haven’t spoken to them in years,” she shrugged, ringing up the three pairs of shoes. Good choices! “Like, if you’re just hanging out it’s not really a big deal but if he introduces you as a his girlfriend and sort of implies it’s a relationship that could go somewhere, then yes.”
Rose followed Cindy up the counter, wondering if she had misheard her; he was a whole other species? She didn’t want to seem impolite and ask her to explain further, but just nodded her head. She couldn’t remember anything strange happening around Halloween, but then again, she wasn’t on the network. She was sure that everything really stood out once you began to read about them and notice that yeah, something strange was going on! Now having been inducted, she was curious to see where it would lead. So far, she hadn’t been too happy with the changes, especially with the increase of crime and violence in the area.
As she handed Cindy her card, she couldn’t help but laugh at what she had said. “Right, we both know John. Can you imagine him actually saying something like that?” She laughed again and shook her head. The tiniest voice in her head scolded her for laughing, because she would have been happy if John had done that. But she knew her friend and was trying to be realistic of how it would go. It was mostly so she could meet the family that was now living so close to them.
“I think it’s more to get to know them since they seem to be popping up in this area like wildflowers! Another one announced themselves just the other day! That makes…” Rose thought about it, counting on her hand. “John plush three cousins and an uncle!” She shook her head. “They think if they continue to talk about it, they’ll jinx themselves with even more family coming this way!”
She had no idea what was up with Rose and John - either they were a couple or they weren’t, but neither of them seemed ready to bite the bullet and just refer to themselves as one even if they were. Cindy didn’t really see what the big deal was, but then again, everyone was different. Best if she didn’t stick her nose in, yeah? “Well, getting to know them’s not a bad thing either,” she grinned, after swiping Rose’s card and handing it back to her. “That’s a lot of family though, wow.”
Cindy had somewhat of a big family too, but they were all across the country. She pretty much wanted them to stay there - that worked for her.
“I’m sure it’ll be fun. At least this way you won’t ever be bored? And now you have fabulous shoes.”
Rose smiled as she put her card away, nodding her head for emphasis. “Yeah it is. I’ve already met one cousin who’s brilliant, but the other one I’ve only chatted with a couple times on the network. They all seem brilliant though, so I think we’ll all get along.” So far so good; Rose didn’t realize how much she wanted to make a good impression on John’s family!
Taking her new purchases, she gave Cindy a quick hug goodbye. “Thank you so much for all your help! We’ll have to hang out soon, not involving business!” Picking up all her bags (she would have to get a cab for this, she wasn’t going to try public transportation with all of these!), she gave Cindy a final wave before walking out the door, happy with all her purchases for the day.