"The opera?" he asked, straightening. "Congratulations. That is quite an accomplishment." She was so young. It was difficult to believe! Most women practiced all their lives to sing on that stage. An achievement, indeed.
"I hope it's not too forward of me, but I happen to be in the market for some new clothes myself. Perhaps we could accompany each other. I could surely use a second opinion, too."
He said it so earnestly and so kindly that it came with nothing of the darker undertones that some other men might have used. Christian really had no other motivation than exactly what he stated.