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"Ev, you don’t need to ask Help yourself to whatever"

"Thanks" Lauren andon It was tiroaned on the inside

"This one’s for you" He handed , followed by a shopping bag with some brand I’d never heard of printed on the side "Ah, this one too by the look"

"It is?"

"Yeah I asked Martha to order some stuff for us"

"Oh"

"Oh? No" David shook his head Then he kneeled down in front of e in my hands "No ‘oh’ We need clothes It’s really simple"

"That’s very kind of you, David, but I’ Instead he held up a red dress the sairls at thethis" The designer dress went flying and he ripped into the shopping bag at round"

"Sure I can Here, this is a little better"

A black tank top fell into h red dress had been a size-four joke Quite possibly a iven Martha’s dislike of led from the tank The price Shit They couldn’t be serious

"Whoa I could pay my rent for weeks with this top"

In lieu of a response he threw a pair of skinny black jeans at me "Here, they’re okay too"

I put the jeans aside "It’s a plain cotton tank top How can this possibly cost two hundred dollars?"

"What do you think of this?" A length of silky green fabric dangled froold thread? Is that it?"

"What are you talking about?" He held up the blue dress, turning it this way and that "Hell no, it’s backless The top of your ass will probably show in that" It joined the red dress on the floor My hands itched to rescue them, fold them away nicely But David just ripped into the next box "What were you saying?"

"I’ about the price of this top"

"Shit, no We’re not talking about the price of that top because we’re not talking aboutthere" A micro- ordering you this sort of stuff?"

"Well, to be fair, you do nor off you In comparison, the backless dress is quite sedate"

"You’re different You’re my friend, aren’t you?"

"Yes" I didn’t entirely believe the tone of my own voice

His forehead wrinkled up with disdain "Dath of this I can’t even tell if it’s hter burst out ofeyes of extreme sadness and displeasure Clearly, I had hurt his heart

"I’m sorry," I said "But you sound likeAt least it wasn’t on the floor "Yeah? Your dad and I should reat"

"You want to ht?"

"No" Probably not

He just gave me a curious look and burrowed into the next box "That’s better Here"

He passed me a couple of sedate T-shirts, one black and one blue

"I don’t think you should be selecting nun’s clothing for uely hypocritical"

"They’re not nun’s clothes They just cover the essentials Is that toowas passed to me in its entirety "Here"

"You do adht?"

"Ado Look in the bag"

I did so and he burst out laughing, whatever expression I wore being apparently hilarious

"What is this?" I asked, feeling all wide-eyed onder Itif the makers had seen fit to invest just a littleyou like a nun"

"La Perla" I read the tag then turned it over to check out the price

"Shit Will you not look at the price, please? Ev" David dived at ures on the crazily swaying tag that was bigger than the scrap of lace His larger hand closed over"Don’t For fuck’s sake"

The back ofwith tears "Ow"