7. Lucky
Lucky
The next day, I slept in. By nine, I dragged myself out of bed, showered, and got ready.
I chose a cute pink fluttery dress that came to my knees, and added sandals and some cute bracelets.
For my hair, I just wound it on top of my head in a secure bun.
It felt a little muggy when I’d stepped outside onto my balcony a few minutes ago, and I didn’t want to deal with poofy hair today.
“You’re really bright today. Is there any way you can tone that down? I might need sunglasses to even look at you.”
He rubbed his hands together in excitement. “We’re going shopping today!”
I laughed, grabbing my purse and making sure my room card was in there. “We are. You sound excited. I’ve never met a guy excited to shop before.”
He took my hand and hurried down the hall. I had to walk quickly just to keep up with him. “I love shopping. I can’t wait! Where should we go first? Clothes? Home goods? I can send them all straight to our houses, so we don’t even have to worry about lugging them on the plane home with us.”
I patted his hand, and then had a horrible idea, and planted my feet, trying to stop Nick’s momentum. But of course he was like a train, and he just pulled me right along with him until he realized I’d stopped walking.
“What?”
I eyed him suspiciously. “Who are you excited to shop for?”
Nick’s expression turned guileless, which deepened my suspicions. “Both of us?”
“And I get to spend my own money on my things, right?”
“Cross my heart,” he said.
I frowned. Nick wouldn’t lie, but I didn’t fully trust that look in his eyes either. “Fine. Let’s go shopping.”
“Shopping!”
I laughed.
“What about this dress?” Nick asked. It was purple with a white hibiscus print. The sleeves were ruffled, and it was in a cute, form-fitting style.
“Ooh, I like that one.” I frowned down at my overflowing cart. “But I think I’m probably at my limit.”
“Eh, when you try them on, some won’t work, so we need to get extra.”
“That sounds strangely logical.” I eyed him in confusion until he huffed and gently nudged my hand away from checking his temperature.
“I can be logical, Lucks. I’m a detective. We have to be logical.”
He wasn’t wrong. Nick just had such a playful personality, I often forgot that his work mode was a hundred percent focused and dialed in.
“Okay,” I said, grabbing the dress from him and adding it to my cart.
“But that’s it. I’m getting maxed out.” Aside from the credit card my grandfather had slipped into my bag at airport security with my name on it, but I didn’t want to use that unless it was an emergency.
I hadn’t even brought that card with me to the store.
It was in a safe in my room. The magical security on that card was probably more than the security for a bank vault.
Leprechauns did not mess around.
“But this cute shorts set!”
I groaned, making the older lady next to me chuckle. “Take the win, hun. Most women would love to trade places with you right now. A man who loves to shop?” She made a humming sound, and patted my shoulder. “He’s something, doll. I would keep him.”
I thanked her and she moved away. When I turned back, Nick was waggling his eyebrows and holding up the cute ruffled shorts and matching tank top.
I sighed in defeat. “Put them in.”
He whooped and added them, then herded me quickly to the dressing rooms. After helping me unload all my things into my dressing room, he took the one next to me and loaded all of his clothes into it. His cart had been just as full as mine, so it would take us a while to try everything on.
Except, as I was just getting my clothes off, and trying to figure out how to put the first dress on—the straps were weird—I could hear Nick talking to himself. “Nope. Nope. Oooh, I like that one!”
“Nick?” I called softly, not wanting to disturb the other people in the dressing rooms around us.
The ruffling of clothes stopped. “Yes, sunshine?”
I finally managed to get the straps in the right place, and got it over my head. “How are you getting changed so quickly? I’m barely getting into the first dress!”
“Ah. Umm, genie, remember. The changing stalls are far enough from your magic that I can just snap my fingers.” He sounded a bit bashful.
Nick.
Bashful.
The two words did not go together in my mind.
I liked the dress, so I quickly pulled it over my head and put it in the keep pile. “I hope you’re blocking our conversation from the humans.”
“Always.”
“I thought you liked to do things as much as possible the non-genie way.”
I could practically feel him shrugging his shoulders, as well as the soft snaps of his fingers as he continued to try things on.
“I do, for the most part. My mom made sure all of us boys learned that at a young age. And since my dad is a much more powerful genie than me or my brothers, he could enforce the rule. It taught us to work hard for our successes in life, and to not take too many shortcuts, despite our magic.”
I put on the shorts set and frowned. The tank top was skin-tight on me, but the shorts fit. The perils of being big busted. I hurried to take them off and put them in a maybe pile. I’d see if I could get a bigger top but keep the bottoms the same size. But if it was a set, I wasn’t hopeful.
“I think that rule sounds reasonable. They probably didn’t want you guys to grow up to be little monsters.”
Nick’s voice softened. “Yeah, they’re both great parents. And we did not make it easy on them growing up.”
I laughed, yanking another dress over my head. I’d grabbed some more swimsuits, but I wasn’t really looking forward to trying them on. Swimsuits always tended to fit weird on me because I was high waisted.
“That sounds fairly standard for kids, though.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, then changed the subject. “You almost done?”
I laughed, quickly pulling the dress over my head, and tossing it in the no pile. “I just have the swimsuits next. Oh, and the coverups, but I don’t think I’ll try those on. I think they’ll fit fine.”
“Okay, I’ll wait.”
I kept my underwear and bra on and tackled the swimwear next. “You don’t have to. I’m sure there’s more of the store you haven’t bought yet. Go shop some more.”
He chuckled. “Nah, I’d rather stay here with you.”
My heart melted a little.
We tackled the home goods store next, and Nick was so excited he was practically vibrating in place. But I was too distracted to really pay attention because I was frowning down at my bank app, and trying to figure out what was wrong with my account.
I’d just spent five hundred dollars, but my bank app was telling me I’d only spent twenty.
Then I frowned at the guy who had just pulled the lever on a beautiful recliner, leaning back against the back cushion with a satisfied sigh.
“This one’s perfect.”
“Nick?”
He smiled beatifically up at me. “Yes, sunshine?”
“Why is my bank app telling me I only spent twenty dollars at the last store?” I moved so my flip flops lined up with his ginormous sandals, and folded my arms, frowning down at him.
It was the first and probably only time I’d ever be taller than him, and I was not above using it to my advantage to make him confess.
“Ah.”
Whenever he said that, my left eyelid started to twitch, preparing for the next words to come out of his mouth.
“You said you wanted to pay for things.”
“Yeeessss?” I did say that.
“And you did pay.” He shrugged and grinned cheekily, looking proud of himself. “You paid a dollar per item. I just made up the difference.”
By now, my left eyelid was twitching so hard I had to slap a hand over it. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
He shrugged, still grinning, then patted the tiny bit of space next to him. “Come try this with me. I’m thinking about buying it and sending it home. It’s blue! And look.” He pointed at the footrest. “It has extra soft cushion on the footrest!”
I put a hand to my forehead and groaned. “Nick!”
His voice softened. “Come on, Lucks. Rest for a bit.”
I sighed in defeat.
Who knew keeping up with a genie would be this difficult? I melted into the spot next to him and leaned my head against his shoulder.
We sat in silence for a few minutes while I tried to think of what to say and how to say it, but he beat me to it.
“Was this a boundary that I crossed? Did I mess up?” His voice sounded both sad and serious, and I sighed as I reached for his hand.
“It’s not a hard boundary, no. I actually think it’s very sweet, but I would have appreciated talking about it beforehand.”
“But you would have said no.” He looked at me with his soft grey eyes, and I bit my lip at the sadness in them. I forgot sometimes how genuinely sensitive Nick’s heart was.
“I... I probably would have put up a fuss, but Nick, I can tell this is part of your love language, and that matters to me. I think if you would have just explained that to me, I would have been more okay with it. I just felt blindsided, and that’s not a great feeling.
At first I was worried something was wrong with my bank account. Also, not a great feeling.”
“I’m sorry, sunshine.” His tone was so genuine, and so remorseful, that I almost told him not to worry about it. Thankfully, I was able to keep my head as I gently squeezed his hand.
“I know this is important to you now, so how about from now on, we just chat about it beforehand? I’ll loosen up about it.
But only to a point, Nick,” I warned him.
“I like to purchase my own things too. It’s kind of the same as you liking to do most things without magic.
How you like to work for your own successes.
That’s what it feels like to me when I can provide luxuries for myself sometimes. ”
He kissed the top of my head. “I understand.”
I released his hand and patted it before I tried to get out of the chair, but it refused to release me from its pillowy clutches until Nick helped me escape.
I helped him get free as well, took a glance around the huge home goods store, then turned to my genie.
“Okay, two things. That’s your limit. And I’d appreciate it if you’d send all my things to my home.”
Nick folded his arms. “No discussion?”
Growling under my breath because he was right, I said, “What were you thinking?”
“Four little things. One big thing.”
“Am I allowed to get something for you in return?” I challenged with a lifted eyebrow.
His mouth popped open in surprise, almost making me laugh. “I...”
“Yes?”
He sighed. “Fine, yes, sure.” His big shoulders slumped, but then he perked up, and held up a finger. “But, due to the differences in our economic stations—“
“Oh, no you didn’t,” I threatened, poking and tickling his sides until he was hunched over from laughter.
“Uncle, uncle! Buy whatever you want.”
I smirked at my victory.
Who could keep up with a genie?
That’s right, this girl.