A strange look crossed Muriel’s face. “Huh. That is weird. Kinda creepy.” She looked away.
Raising my arms over my head, I arched my back and stretched the muscles that were tired from sitting all day. I looked around the food court, and my eyes landed on his blue-and-gold jersey—oh, and his body. Couldn’t leave that out. “Hey, look who’s here!” I flicked my eyes toward Jake, who was standing in line at Little Caesars. My heart did a little tap dance inside my chest, just looking at him.
“Yeah, and look at who’s with him. Too much PDA.” Muriel rolled her eyes.
“Heidi, ugh. She’s so close to him that she looks like she’s been Krazy Glued to his side. Someone needs to explain to her that Jake and I are meant to be together. I mean, she’s dating my future husband.” I never took my eyes off him. “Geez, he’s like a blond-haired, blue-eyed, muscled package of perfection.”
Muriel laughed. “Are you ready? I think we need to leave before you start drooling.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I crumpled up the pretzel wrapping and threw it in the trash. “Let’s go.”
The rest of the afternoon, we combed the mall for deals on the hottest trends. Muriel was good at window-shopping. She would try on all the cute outfits and look at all the cool shoes and accessories, but she rarely bought anything. I hadn’t mastered the art of window-shopping, though, and spent what little money I had on some wicked new boots, a messenger bag to match, and two kinds of lip stain because I was looking for the perfect shade—not too pink, but not too peach. As it turned out, that color was more elusive than the Loch Ness monster.
As we walked along the hall, passing Old Navy and a group of teenagers drinking slushies, I glanced at Muriel and sighed. “I hate that you can do that.”
“What?” Muriel looked over at me, her eyebrows pulled down.
“Look at everything and buy nothing,” I said.
“Eh, I didn’t really see anything I had to have.”
“Me either, but I’m still carrying bags while your hands are empty.” I hefted up the bags I was lugging around and rattled them in the air.
She smiled and arched a brow. “You just need a little more self-control, that’s all.”
“Yeah, easy for you to say. Oh, ma’am,” I called to a lady walking toward us. Her toddler bounced along in front of her in one of those baby harnesses. “Ma’am? The latch on that harness is going to break. You don’t want him to get loose and run into the crowd.”
The mother knelt to look at the clasp. “It’s almost bent in half. Thank you!” She glanced up and smiled at me. “I guess I’ll have to buy a new one.”
“No problem.” I turned to Muriel and pointed down the hall. “Onward to Abercrombie. Where I can’t afford to buy anything, but I’m still going to try on the clothes and pretend.”
“How’d you see that?” Muriel asked as we continued walking.
Crap. How did I know? I didn’t even look at the clasp. The words just blurted out of my mouth. I didn’t even have any weird feelings like before.
I let out a breath to stay calm. “I saw the clasp bending. I didn’t want the kid to start running around getting in the way—hey! Here’s Victoria’s Secret. Want to go in?” Muriel kept walking. I took one last look at the store and jogged a few steps to catch up to her. “Okay, we don’t want to know Victoria’s secrets today,” I muttered.
“You couldn’t have seen the clasp, Milayna,” she said as I caught up to her. “We weren’t even close to the woman when you called out to her the first time. There’s no way you saw it.” Muriel shook her head. Her strides were long and quick, and her glossy black hair shimmered as it swung with each step.
I stopped in the middle of the aisle. People moved around me—some knocked into my sides, others gave me a wide berth, and a few even tried to walk through me by barreling right into me. But I stood there anyway. At five foot nine, Muriel was taller than I was, and her stride was longer than mine, too. She also ran track, so she had the stamina to power walk the mall all night if she wanted.
“I’m not chasing you, Muriel,” I yelled over the din of voices. I walked to the benches in the center of the hall, leaned a knee on top of one, and waited. Muriel turned around, walked to me, and stood with her hands on her hips.
“You’re losing it. I was standing right next to her when I told her. I happened to look over, saw the bent clasp, and told her to watch it. Otherwise, that kid would be running around, touching people with booger-smeared hands.” I shuddered.
Muriel looked at the floor and shook her head. “Something’s wrong. What’s going on?”