The Good Life

Alex

Jack and I were shopping at the strip mall to buy Christmas presents. It was only the first week of December but of course Jack didn't want to wait to the last minute to buy presents. We were mostly going shop for Izzy today since everything she asked for came from the designer stores here. I don't know how she could still possibly want anything with all of the stuff we buy for her on regular days.
I wasn't going to get Jack's present yet with him here with me. I actually didn't know what I wanted to get him. Izzy suggested I buy him shoes which didn't seem like a bad idea. He did mention a few times that he needed some new running shoes. I just hope he doesn't buy it for himself before Christmas comes.

Jack reached down to link our hands together as we walked around. It's was most likely because I kept drifting off as we walked and I wouldn't notice when he turned into a store.

"I think we should go to Givenchy first to get the purse Izzy wants then we can stop at Michael Kors to get her boots." Jack told me.

"Okay. Are we going to get everything on her list today because it's going to be kind of hard trying to hide this stuff from her until Christmas?" I said and he laughed knowing it was true.

"Yeah we might as well I can just take it to May's until it's time for us to leave." He said.

"Good idea."

We walked into Givenchy going straight to the purse section. Jack pulled out Izzy's list so we could match the picture on it to one of the purses. It was a light pink small purse that she could wear across her body; I think they were called messenger bags or something like that.

"This is it." Jack said, picking up the correct one. Then we went to the counter to checkout.

"Hi, did you two find everything alright?" The cashier asked.

"Yes!" We both answered.

"Good! The total is $1,790." She said.

My wallet cried as I pulled out my credit card. It hurt because I knew Izzy was just going to wear this two or three times then forget about it the second she found a better one. But my angel wanted this purse so I had to buy her this purse.

We walked to the next store while holding hands again. "So you know how you asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday this year." I said to Jack.

"Yeah, did you come up with something?" He asked.

"Un huh! I want to rent a boat and invite everyone to come drink and hang out for the day." I told him. I wanted to do something more exciting than going out to eat with the family this year.

"I'm going to have to work fast on finding a boat since your birthday weekend is next weekend." He said more to himself than me.

"I can help you and it doesn't have to be anything too fancy just something that takes us around on the water for a few hours." I said.

"No you shouldn't plan your own birthday party. I'll do it so don't you worry about it." He said.

"Okay but remember it doesn't have to be fancy just a regular boat that can fit us all."

"Of course." He said but I don't think he heard me. He was too busy already planning in his head.
Next we went to Michael Kors to buy Izzy's thigh high black boots. I didn't like them they reminded me of the kind of shoes you would see hookers wearing, but Izzy said that's because 'I'm old and don't understand fashion'. She would know.

"We should get Cass a purse from here she loves Michael Kors. She just doesn't believe in paying this much for their stuff." Jack told me.

"Yeah I bet she would love it, but you pick it out she'll hate anything I like." I laughed.

"Okay and you go find Izzy's boots." He said. He gave me Izzy's list so I could match the shoes with the picture. I walked over to the shoe section and began to look.

"Can I help you find something sir?" An associate asked.

"Yes I'm looking for these boots." I said showing her the picture. All the boots looked a like to me some with MK symbols some without it was almost impossible to tell which was the right pair.

"Yeah it's these down here." She took me all the way down the wall to grab the boots.

"What size?"

"She needs a six." I said.

"Is this a present for your wife?" She asked as she looked for the size.

"No these are for my daughter." I told her. I probably should have mentioned I didn’t have a wife.

"Oh! Well if you do need help picking out a gift for your wife don't hesitate to ask me!" She said politely. I almost didn't want to correct her.

"I uh don't have a wife." I said. "I have a husband."

"Oh ...oh my God I feel so stupid." She gasped. "I'm so sorry."

"It's alright, you didn't know. But thanks for the help." I walked away with the boots and went to where Jack was.

"Which do you think Cass would like better?" Jack said as he showed me two similar looking purses.

"The left one." I answered quickly without really looking at them. "Did you hear what that associate lady asked me?" I asked.

"Did you even look at the purses? I don't think you did! You just randomly picked the left one." He said ignoring my question.

"I did look!" I lied.

He put both of the bags behind his back. "Which one had white letters?" He asked.

"The one on the right." I guessed.

"Trick question! Neither of them did! One’s silver and one’s gold!" He scolded. I really didn't even notice the purses were two different colors. "Now look at them, which one should we get her?"

"I like the gold and black one better." I answered honestly this time.

"Was that so hard?" He chuckled.

He put the other purse back and we walked to the counter to check out. Jack paid for the stuff this time. The total was around six-hundred dollars which was pennies and nickels compared to the money I just spit out. We still had more to buy though so there was plenty more to spend.

"What were you saying about the lady that worked in there?" Jack asked when we walked out.

"Oh I was wondering if you heard her say she could help me find a present for my wife." I chuckled.

"Your wife? Did you correct her?" He laughed.

"Yeah I told her I had a husband and she was so embarrassed. It wasn't a big deal and I wasn't rude about it. I guess she was just ashamed that she assumed instead of asked." I said.

"Yeah sometimes people ask what my wife does for a living, when I tell them I'm married, but I just correct them and then continue on telling them that you're an English teacher. It doesn't bother me either. It's just a silly mistake."

"Yeah." I agreed. "Can we stop at this Starbucks?" I slowed down so we wouldn't pass the door.

"Mhmm."

We stepped inside and got in line. It felt good to get out of the cold for a little bit. The line was kind of longer than usual today. I guess a lot of people were doing early Christmas shopping too.

"I will forever love Starbucks because I met the love of my life here." Jack said as he locked arms with me.

"We technically met in high school." I said and he hit my stomach lightly.

"You know what I mean."

I laughed and we took a step forward. There was only one more person in front of us in line. I looked at the menu to see if I wanted to change up from my usual order. I would usually get a Pike Place Roast during the winter to help me warm up. I didn't see anything appealing on the menu so I guess I would just stick with that.

"Hi, how can I help you?" The barista asked.

"Can I get a Grande White Chocolate Mocha and a Grande Pike Place Roast?" I ordered for both of us.

"Yes. That'll be nine thirty-three." He said. I paid and we sat at an empty table in the back to wait on our order.

"Izzy asked if we could extend her curfew a few hours so she could hang out with her friends." Jack said as he read a text message Izzy sent him.

"Hmm what do you think? Do you think she's earned it?" I asked.

"Well she did get a ninety-four on her math test so I think we could reward her for that." He said.

"Yeah that's true. She can stay out til one this time. No later than that since it's a holiday weekend and there might be a lot more drunk drivers." I told him and he agreed. He texted her back and sat his phone down.

"What should we do with the house to ourselves?" I thought out loud.

"We could watch a movie." Jack suggested.

"Nooo that's boring. Let's do something more exciting."

"Strip poker?"

"How do you go from let's watch a movie to let's play strip poker?" I laughed.

"You said you wanted to do something more exciting so I assumed you really meant sexual."

"I kind of did." I admitted. "And strip poker sounds fun so we'll do that."

"I should warn you I'm a magnificent poker player. Like I don't think I've ever lost a game." He gloated.

"There's a first time for everything." I said and smirked at him, but he wasn't looking at me anymore. He was looking behind me towards the front door. He smiled and waved at whoever it was. I turned around to see Mike and Vic walking towards us.

"Hi boys!" Jack said as he got up to hug them and I followed suit.

"Hi Mr. and Mr. Gaskarth." The both answered.

"You can call us Jack and Alex." Jack told them.

"Oh good! We didn't know if you were the kind of people to get offended by that." Mike chuckled.
"What brings you two to the mall?" I asked.

"We're here to buy our parents and friends gifts to get this over with. We both hate shopping." Mike said. Vic was a little shyer around us I guess because of the him liking our sixteen year old daughter situation. Well actually he looked more scared than shy but he had nothing to worry about, I wasn't going to hold anything over his head.

"I hate shopping too." I sighed.

"Pike Place and White Chocolate!" One of the baristas called out. I walked to the counter grabbing our drinks and thanking the guy. I handed Jack his drink and we started to tell the boys bye so we could continue shopping.

"Well it was nice seeing you two but we should get back to buying presents." Jack said.

Mike slightly bumped into Vic trying to make him speak. "It was nice seeing you two too . . . and thanks again for inviting us to dinner on Thursday." Vic said, finally speaking.

“You’re welcome! And if you two ever want to come over to have dinner with us don't hesitate. I know things might be weird between you and Izzy but it'll get better with time." He said, directing this more towards Vic.

"Oh yeah I uh totally agree." Vic said awkwardly. I didn't blame him, it was awkward for us to talk about it too.

"We'll be sure to take you up on that offer some time soon." Mike said with a smile on his face. It looked more like he was trying to hold back from laughing. It was probably at his brother’s embarrassment.

"Alright. Bye guys." I said and they both told us bye back as we walked out of the coffee house.
"That wasn't too weird was it?" Jack asked as we walked to MAC.

"Yeah it was pretty weird, but that's okay. At least he knows we're not angry at him." I said.

"Good that's what I was trying to convey." He said. "But moving on, we have to get the two lipsticks Izzy wants from here. One is 'Diva' and the other is 'Cream in Your Coffee'." He said and we turned into the store.

"Who comes up with some of the names for this stuff?" I questioned.

"I know they're pretty ridiculous. David suggested that I should start a small cosmetics line to sell in the checkout lines at the stores but I don't know the first thing about makeup. I was thinking I could just partner up with some other company and sell their products in the store; maybe Bare Minerals. But I'm not going to worry about that until I get back from London."

"That's smart ‘cause people usually pick up last minute items in line if they have to wait a few minutes. I learned that from watching Izzy shop." I said. "But have you found someone to take over the London office yet?"

"There are a few good candidates but we're just going to narrow the list down to three people and then interview them the first day we get there, choose someone, and train them as quickly as possible. I'm really looking for someone who has experience in running a business to make things easier for us." He said.

"Don't stress you'll get it done!" I said encouragingly.

"I hope so." He sighed.

"Sorry I didn't want to interrupt you two, but can I help you find something?" An employee asked. It was a guy and his makeup looked flawless. He was literally a pretty boy.

"Yes we're looking for a lipstick called Diva and one called coffee creamer or something like that." I said and he giggled.

"I think you mean Cream in Your Coffee." He smiled at me.

"Yeah that!"

"I can definitely get those for you! I'll be right back." He brushed my shoulder as he walked away to get the lipsticks, purposely swing his hips. Jack scoffed in the guy’s direction as he walked away.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"He was obviously flirting with you." He said furrowing his eyebrows. He was right that guy was flirting with me, but I decided to play dumb so Jack could see how it felt when other guys flirted with him.

"What are you talking about? He was just being polite." I said and he glared at me.

"You're joking right? He was-"

"Here's your lipsticks! Come and find me if you need anything else, Babe. My name is Jeffree." He said in a sultry voice.

"He's married." Jack hissed. I was surprised he actually said something.

"Oh I'm sorry. I thought you two were just friends." Jeffree shrugged not sounding apologetic at all.

Jack just rolled his eyes and we walked to the line to checkout. There was only two people in front of us so it wasn't a long wait. Once we were finished paying Jack grabbed my hand and we slowly walked to the door so he could show that I was his. He stared Jeffree down as walked out and Jeffree rolled his eyes at him.

"I think you made your point." I laughed once we were out of the store.

"Sorry!" He giggled and released the death grip he had on my hand. "That asshole really just got under my skin."

"It's okay, I understand." I smiled.

"Let's go to Prada and Tiffany’s then leave. I think I've had enough shopping for today." He said.

"Oh thank you! I wanted to leave but I didn't want to annoy you by whining the entire time." I said and he laughed.

"Good! We'll go home, play a little strip poker, and then I'm going to show you why you're mine and nobody else's." He whispered the last part sensually in my ear.

I gulped and prayed that time would go faster so we could quickly make it home.

Notes

The guy is Jeffree Stars.
I hope you all liked this chapter!