Justice
Chapter Twenty-Two
I wanted to fill the day with surprises but not overwhelm Bonnie by springing everything on her all at once.
She knew we were going into the city and that I had already booked the hotel.
She also knew the craft store we were going to was like something she had never dreamed of, but that was it.
I kept a lot of little things in my pocket for later.
As we drove out of town and got closer to the city, the roads got more and more crowded, the buildings bigger and more frequent.
“This is so like the books,” she said as she unrolled the window, scenting the air.
My mate was a little bookworm. Of course, she’d read about all these things, but to experience it…this was a first.
Settling her into a home base for the city before we started would make her more comfortable.
So, when I booked the hotel, I actually booked it for the night before and did an online check-in so that we didn’t have to wait until midafternoon to get in.
We pulled into the parking garage. She watched as I got the ticket from the machine to put on the dash.
“That’s wild, wildly expensive.”
“It’s not,” I said. “It came with the room.” Now, that was wildly expensive.
I got our bags. We didn’t take my truck, as much as I loved it.
I knew we might need to store things in an enclosed area, and a truck bed wasn’t that.
I held her hand with one hand and pulled the bags, one stacked on the other, behind us with the other.
We took the elevator from the parking garage down to the lobby entrance.
It had been designed to be glorious back in its day.
While many of the other hotels had been redone over and over again to keep up with the trends of the time, this one still had its Art Deco vibe.
It was absolutely stunning. The rooms were more modern, but I couldn’t count the number of movies that were made in this lobby.
I went to the front desk, making sure to sign the paperwork without her seeing the cost. She would worry about that, and she didn’t need to. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend money than on spoiling her.
“We’re really staying here?” she asked as we waited outside the elevator.
“Yep, we’re really staying here.”
I got us a nice room, and when we walked inside, her jaw dropped.
“This is huge!”
“Yeah, it is,” I said. “Did you want to take a rest first or explore the city?”
“I can rest when I’m dead. I want to explore! I’ve read so many books that took place here. I have a list of places I want to go.”
That would have been nice information before.
“We’re probably not going to get to many of those today, but if you make a real list and send it to us, we’d be happy to make that happen.”
“I like that.”
“Like what?”
“When you say ‘we,’ it makes me worry less that everything has to be equal and even. I don’t know…it makes me worry less about sharing.”
“You don’t need to worry at all. They’re all over the moon to have you. And when I say ‘we,’ it’s because that’s exactly what I mean.”
“We should go now, right?”
“Yes, we should go.”
She fidgeted with where to put the keys and ultimately gave them back to me.
Being in the city was overwhelming for shifters. I never understood how anyone could live here full-time. I supposed you just got used to it. But Bonnie pushed past that quickly.
“Are we going on a bus?” she asked when we were outside.
“Actually, no. But if a bus is on your list, we can take one later.”
“How’d you know it was on my list?”
“Well, it was either a train or a bus. No city experience is complete without them. But the store we’re going to is only three blocks away.”
I took her hand and we walked along the street, stopping to get a hot dog on the corner from a food truck.
It wasn’t like the first time I went to the city as a child, when the choice was a hot dog or a hot dog, and the toppings were ketchup, mustard, or onions.
They had all sorts of fancy ones now, but we went with the boring mustard-only variety.
We arrived at the block the craft store engulfed. She looked up at it. “This whole thing?”
“Yeah, this whole thing. But there are probably floors you won’t want to go on—ones that focus on items you don’t need.”
I hadn’t realized at the time that she used random things from everywhere.
She used yarn for multiple different things, from carpets to hair to grass.
She used paper for decorating walls or making tiny little books.
She even used the stained-glass supplies for tiny windows. No part of the store went untouched.
We spent hours there. I kept reminding her not to hold back, to get what she needed, and my dear, sweet, sexy mate did exactly that.
Maybe she saw how happy I was every time she put a new item on our list. The person helping us said this was the best way to do it because then we could just place an order to be shipped home.
This was good because we were definitely going to have to ship it all.
There was no way it was going to fit in our vehicle.
It probably would have fit in my truck, but if it rained… yeah, no.
“If you’ll use it, get it,” is what I kept telling her.
I picked up some supplies for Dallas’ carving as well, along with a new soldering gun for when I worked on boards. I didn’t do a lot of that anymore, but my old one could really use a replacement.
We checked out, and they assured us everything would be home within a few days.
Her list included lunch at a fancy restaurant inside one of the few flagship department stores that were still open. It was sad how many had closed in recent years.
She chose afternoon tea, something this place was apparently very famous for.
We were very much not the people high tea was designed for, but we had a blast trying to figure out what everything was.
We knew we’d have to get something different later, as it wasn’t enough to fill us up, but it was an adventure and a treat, and that was what today was about.
“Are we going back now?”
“Nah, I need something on the fourth floor,” I said, taking her hand and starting toward the elevator. When the doors opened and we stepped out, she saw what I had done. We were on the women’s clothing floor.
“I don’t need anything.”
“Today’s not about needs. Well, the craft supplies, maybe. But this part isn’t about needs. This is about letting me have some happy moments.”
“Happy moments? This is a women’s clothing section, which means you want me to get clothes.”
“Absolutely. Now you get it. My happy moments.”
Unlike before, she wasn’t as quick to put things in the yes pile.
I picked out a beautiful dress that was soft and flowy, which she balked at but eventually agreed to.
Then I found some jeans for when she was working around the homestead that had her face lighting up because of all the pockets.
From there, she picked a few more items for herself, and I added to the pile.
As we went to check out, they asked if there was anything else we needed.
I remembered she didn’t have a good purse, any purse that I could remember, actually, and that was how we ended up with a leather appointment.
Silly me, I thought we could just pick a purse and buy it, but apparently, there was a process.
We sat in a private room, and they asked her what she liked to use a purse for.
They looked absolutely flabbergasted when she said she didn’t have one.
They quickly schooled their expressions and told her they had the perfect purse for everyday use.
And they did. It was very practical but also high quality.
She was going to get a lot of use out of it.
“Did shopping make you hungry?” she asked.
My hands were full of bags, not holding hers. I didn’t like that part. “No, but that high tea did. Let’s drop these off at the hotel room and go find pasta. Lots and lots of pasta.”
“That sounds perfect to me.”
We dropped them off and ended up finding an Italian restaurant that had the best garlic bread on the planet. As we headed back to the hotel, the first day of city fun over, I couldn’t remember a day when I had been happier than this one, here with my mate.