go into every single store in the shopping district. We were there for five hours! I had blisters on my toes afterwards and had spent my entire month’s paycheck,” I said and folded my arms across my chest.
“But you’ve never gone shopping with me,” Crystal said and stuck her lip out in a pout.
“I hate shopping,” I whined.
“I’ll buy you that dress,” Alura said in a singsong voice.
My eyes darted to the guys and then back to her. “It’s too expensive.”
“What dress?” Tyson asked, trying and failing to act like he wasn’t super interested as he cleaned a glass at the bar.
“One that was made for Lucy. It fits her perfectly and would make you four faint as the blood rushed from your head to...” She didn’t finish her statement, smiling wide as she let us all draw our own conclusion to what she meant.
“Why don’t you want to buy it?” Vortex asked.
“It’s expensive,” I said again.
Crystal arched a brow. “How expensive?”
I leaned over Alura and whispered the price, in the four digits, into her ear.
She whistled and shook her head. “Yeah, that’s stupid expensive.”
“Come on!” Alura growled. “Live a little!”
“How expensive is expensive?” Hurricane asked. “I’m curious what you girls define as expensive for clothes.”
Liar. He just wanted to see the price so he could figure out if he could offer to buy it.
“More than a month’s rent on my previous apartment,” I answered, still not wanting to give him the price.
I noticed Tyson texting on his phone and turned, my mouth dropping when I caught Alura texting, too.
“Hey!” I snapped and tried to grab her phone, but she held it out of my reach with a smug smirk. I turned to Tyson and said, “No!”
He put his phone away, a stoic expression on his face. “No, what?”
“No, you are not buying me that dress!” I shouted.
“I didn’t say anything about buying it,” he said and started drying the glass he had washed.
“I swear, if that thing winds up under the tree on Giving Day, I’m going to return it and use the money to buy you stocks in your own business,” I threatened.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You wouldn’t.”
“Try me,” I threatened.
Hurricane laughed loudly and Vortex and Austin joined him.
“Stop being so stubborn,” Alura grumbled. “It’s just a dress.”
“I’d rather he just bought me a rose,” I said. “That’s too much money to spend on a piece of clothing I’m not going to wear more than a couple of times. It’s not like I’m going to fight in it!”
“Speaking of that,” Tyson said. He turned and left the room, leaving us all staring after him.
“Seriously, come shopping with us,” Crystal said. “I promise it will only be three hours tops and I won’t let Alura buy you that dress, okay?”
“Spoilsport,” Alura mumbled and then took a big drink and closed her eyes with a content sigh.
“Three hours,” I said. “Not a second more.”
Tyson returned and set a white rectangular box on my lap.
I looked up at him, mouth wide. Had he gotten the dress somehow already?
He smirked. “It’s not the dress, don’t worry. It’s work related.”
I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, but lifted the lid and stared at the bodysuit inside of the box that matched my skin color exactly. “A bodysuit?” I asked, pulling it out.
“Completely bullet proof and resistant to knives,” he said.
Alura and Crystal reached over, touching the material and rubbing it between their fingers.
“It’s so light,” Alura whispered.
Tyson nodded. “It is. I can have one made for each of you two, if you’d like?”
“Please,” I asked him softly. “The safer they are, the better I will feel.”
“I need my arms and neck bare,” Crystal said.
He nodded. “To make your crystals. I can make it so you sweat easier in it when you push a button so you can make crystals faster, too.”
She frowned. “I don’t think I’d feel right accepting something like that for free.”
“Consider it a gift for protecting Lucky during your battles,” he said. “And Alura for keeping her mentally stable.”
“Since when is she stable?” Alura asked with a huff.
I pushed her shoulder with mine, making us both laugh.
“I don’t know,” Crystal whispered.
“He’s going to send it to you even if you decline it,” I said. “So, you might as well just say thank you.”
She sighed. “Thank you.”
Tyson nodded and then looked at me. “And you should go shopping with them.”
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “What are you going to be doing while I’m out shopping with them?”
He smiled. “Spending time