She didn�t want to tag along behind Nick all day so she made the decision to venture out and do a little sightseeing. In fact, she decided she was going to get out and see every city the tour stopped in. She was currently in Dupont Circle. If she were to ever live in Washington, D.C. this would be the place for her. It is a little younger and less demure than Georgetown but it still looked to be in the same price range.
She had to play chicken with the bike messengers who were all abuzz in the area. It was very New York, very urban. There were all kinds of coffee shops and stores.
She stepped inside a furniture store, everything seemed to be antique and she was struck by the beauty of it all. She was approached by a very matronly looking woman. She had a pretty bad short bob cut but she appeared to be very nice as she smiled while walking towards Shayna,
�Hello. May I interest you in anything today?� Shayna smiled,
�Just looking really.� She hated to say that. That she was just looking. She could imagine how salespeople must be annoyed by that.
�Have you ever been in before?� She shook her head and was greeted with an even more energetic smile,
�Well, welcome to Marston Luce.� She began to walk and Shayna figured she was to follow,
�Our focus is on French furniture, but we also carry home and garden accessories.� She noted the weather vanes and decorative cast-iron work.
�Everything is so detailed. You have beautiful things.�
�Is there anything that interests you. We have delivery within two days. Its very convenient.� Shayna smiled,
�Oh, I live in Florida.�
�On vacation?� She wasn�t sure what she was on. It couldn�t be termed a vacation but it wasn�t business, at least not for her.
�Something like that. We�re just in town for a couple of days. On our way to New York.�
�Wonderful.� She could tell she was quickly losing the interest of her once eager salesperson.
�Do you have any suggestions on what I should see while I�m in Dupont Circle?� Nothing better than getting the best sites from the locals,
�There�s Gallery K, it�s on R street. Works by artists like Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. You seem to be the classic American. It should suit you well.� Shayna felt that was somehow supposed to be an insult but truth be told she would mind seeing a Warhol painting. She had never seen one before.
�Thank you very much.� She walked out of the store and walked down the street. She wasn�t sure where R street was but she didn�t dare go back and ask the saleslady.
She was in the park and all around she was surrounded by chess aficionados who were sipping drinks and seemed to be thoroughly engrossed in their cerebral battle. Her cell phone shrilled out loudly and the sound was met with looks of disgusts. As if it was a known rule that the intrusion of cell phones on this sacred pastime was forbidden.
�Why don�t you stay away from Nick.� Suddenly her fun-filled time looked to be in jeopardy, �Bitch!� And with that, there was a click and it was over. She looked at the caller ID and of course, it was an unknown number. She didn�t know what she was going to do but she didn�t want her day spoiled.
She was walking down Connecticut Avenue and ended up at a nice independent bookstore that was suggested by the curator at Gallery K. Kramerbooks and Afterwards was considered one of Washington�s best-loved independent bookstores. It was open 24 hours a day on weekends. She wished they had that in Tampa for one of the many times she couldn�t sleep at midnight. The only downside was that it was very smoke-filled in the caf� the bookstore shared space with.
Her phone rang and even though it made her stomach dropped she answered the phone, hoping it wouldn�t be a repeat of what she experienced a couple of hours before,
�Good to know you're only after Nick�s money. Nice shopping spree you had in Philadelphia. Everyone knows you�re just using Nick.� And again, before she could say anything the phone call was over. It was obvious this wasn�t some joke or one of her friends. No one knew about her shopping spree in Philly.
Her shopping indulgence wasn�t even her idea. It was Nick�s idea and she was made to look bad for it. She came out looking like a gold digger when that was the farthest from the truth. In fact, that mall trip in Philly was the first time she used Nick�s money to buy herself clothes. She had always had a job (up until now) and she paid for her own things. The only time she was able to splurge was when she and Nick were buying something for the house. And Nick bought her expensive jewelry sometimes but those were gifts. She wasn�t in the mood to peruse through the store for books and walked out and down Connecticut Avenue.
She window shopped and even though she wanted to, she didn�t enter into Betsy Fisher. It was a women�s clothing store and had accessories as well. She was feeling the sting of being dubbed a gold digger. As she walked down the street she felt worse and worse with every step she took. She was far from a gold digger. They didn�t know she helped pay some of the household bills. They didn�t know she bought all the food and supplies for the house. They didn�t know she broke into a cold sweat when Nick paid off her convertible in order to get her to come out on the road with him. They didn�t know her beliefs, which she felt was a personal thing, about money and how she valued it.
She couldn�t resist the next store that caught her eye. She entered The Written Word. It was a stationary store. It was so much more than a stationary store, it was an homage to paper. They had handmade papers and really unique greeting cards. This was like heaven to her. She could spend a good hour in this place. She picked up a few journals, a couple of specialty photo albums and scrapbooks. If she ever picked herself up out of the doldrums and felt inspired enough she would take her camera out and start keeping a record of this cross country journey. She grabbed a couple of pens that were more for entertainment than for writing.
She made her way to the counter and her phone began to ring. She didn�t dare answer it. Why bother? She was about to pull out Nick�s credit card but the ringing reminder that she was nothing more than a conniving money hungry gold digger changed her mind. She still had some money in her account and took out her debit card.
�Not going to answer the phone?� The young man inquired.
�No, its been ringing all day. They have the wrong person.� She knew, they mostly definitely had the wrong person to think she would use Nick. The last thing on this Earth she would ever do would be to hurt Nick. That didn�t even register in her mind.
�Your total is $77.32� Boy, things were a little steeper in D.C. than they were in Tampa, Florida. At least she had some nice new things to have fun with.
Chapter 27 contd