Chapter 23 #2
"…Yes," he says rudely, letting out an exhale of absolute irritation.
“I am very sorry that I am bothering you,” I whisper fiercely into the phone, trying to keep my voice from cracking.
“But the card you gave me is not working.
And I am… look, I'm inconveniencing the other patrons and the worker.
I think there's a problem, and I just thought you should know, but you keep hanging up on me for some reason. So I'm not trying to—”
"Which card are you trying to use?" he interrupts.
"The blue one."
"Oh, I turned that one off. I'm sorry. Yeah, there's another card now."
He says it completely nonchalantly, his voice deadpan. I sit there frozen, staring at the floor, really feeling like he's playing some sick prank on me, or just being entirely malicious.
“You didn't tell me that you deactivated it,” I chime.
“Yeah, I did last week.”
“You didn't tell me that.”
“I apologize,” Danny says tiredly. “What I mean is, I deactivated it last week and I should have told you. I apologize.”
“Okay… can you talk to the worker…” I start to say gingerly, wondering where he's getting at.
“Can you probably go home and come back another day?” he says flatly. “I have other things to do that are more pressing than you shopping.”
“Of course. It's not that important,” I say, my heart feeling heavy and broken.
Not because I need the stupid fucking dresses, but because he sounds like he absolutely hates me.
At least we were somewhat civil to each other before…
if you can even call it that. But now it's absolute loathing, it seems. Either that, or he wants me embarrassed so I'll walk out of the store without having anything.
But I'm not playing that game.
I steel myself, standing up from the silk cushion and walking back over to the counter. The employee watches me approach, her posture stiffening.
“Excuse me,” I say. “Is it possible to put my orders on a tab?”
The worker blinks, looking visibly uncomfortable. “I'm sorry, ma'am, but we don't offer house accounts or tabs here.”
“I'm Daniel Akari's wife,” I state, raising my chin.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the other women look around at me. They immediately exchange glances and stifle their laughter, covering their mouths.
“Yes, Daniel Akari,” I continue, the heat rushing into my face. “The CEO at Akari Global Infrastructure. I'm sure you know his father, my father-in-law, Kenjiro Akari. Is it possible to put it on a tab?”
The employee shifts from foot to foot, looking down at her terminal. “I apologize, Mrs. Akari, but company policy requires corporate authorization directly from the primary account holder. Mr. Akari would have to sign off on a digital line of credit before we could release the items.”
The embarrassment is unbearable. It's already hard enough for me to fit in with this social ecology, but being made to feel like some kind of poor person trying to commit fraud is just too much.
“Never mind,” I mutter.
I turn around and walk straight out of the store. The other women just stare at me as I pass, their eyes boring into my back. As I reach the sidewalk of the shopping district, I hear footsteps behind me. I turn, and the blonde one is walking up to me, her friends trailing just a step behind.
“If you want, we can pay for your items,” the blonde woman says.
My public smile plasters itself on instantly. “That's very kind of you, wow. But it's okay. My husband deactivated the card and got a new one, and he forgot to tell me, because that's what men do.”
“Oh, do you not have an assistant to handle those things?” the blonde woman asks, her eyebrows raised.
“No, I… not really, no,” I reply. “I'm kind of introverted, so it feels weird having another person in the house at all times with me. But maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea.”
“Yeah, of course. I forget things all the time,” the blonde woman says, waving her hand dismissively. “I have three kids, and us women can only handle so much, you know. Do you have children?”
“No, I don't. Not yet,” I tell her, my voice turning defensive.
She and her friends just stare at me as if I had just told them that I had a dick.
“…Oh,” the blonde woman says.
She looks down at my stomach, then snaps her eyes right back up to my face.
The movement of her eyes is so quick, so faint, that it's one of those blink-and-you-miss-it kind of moments, but I know exactly what she's thinking.
If I really am Daniel Akari's wife, why am I not pregnant, and is there something wrong with me?
“Where did you say you were from again?” she asks, her eyes squinting slightly as she tries to maintain a friendly posture.
“I live here. Well, I live around here, in Broomfield.”
“You live in Broomfield?” the brunette woman asks, her tone dripping with disbelief.
An awkward silence settles over us. I just stare at the three of them, because I'm pretty sure they are being really insulting right now.
Giving them a sly smile, I pull out my keys. “Have a good day, ladies. It was very nice to meet you.”
They immediately start whispering among themselves the second I turn my back. I walk over to my jade-colored car, and the door opens automatically for me. The absolute rudeness of these people.
There's a sudden bump, and my eyes snap open.
When I look around, I realize I had fallen asleep on my way home from the boutique. Oh no. My nerves are on high alert because I have no idea where the hell I am. The streets look gray, worn down, and unfamiliar.
“Hey, Jade, where am I?” I ask the car dashboard.
The mechanical interface chimes, a digitized voice responding through the speakers. “Current location: East Colfax Avenue. Warning: Vehicle is currently stationary on the pedestrian walkway.”
I press the ignition button, trying to take manual control from the driver's seat, but the car won't move.
I try to drive it, but nothing happens. I pump the power button to shut the whole system down.
The dashboard goes black. I press it again to start it back up, but it won't start up again. The engine is completely dead.
“Please don't do this right now,” I whisper, my hands gripping the steering wheel.
This place never used to be so bad, but over the last few years, certain areas have just gotten completely riddled with crime. It's been hard out here for people, and desperate people do horrible things. This is absolutely not an area that I would ever find myself in willingly.
Clak. Clak. Clak.
The stark sound of metal hitting the glass of the car startles me. I jerk my head over to the driver's side window.
Two men are standing right outside. One of them is holding a gun.
No, that can't be a gun. In broad daylight? No way.
The man says absolutely nothing to me. He just lifts the barrel and signals with the gun for me to roll the window down.
This cannot be fucking happening.
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