"I want to go to the big mall" she said.
I looked at her briefly thinking that's a good 45 min drive. Each way.
"I want to go to Gap. I want to get a new bathing suit." she added. "They have more stores than our little mall."
Heather and I had been friends for years. We met when I dated one of her best friends, Diane, and we really started off on the wrong foot. As Diane and I spent more and more time together, Heather felt that we were competing for Diane's time and was very petulant when we wanted to spend time alone as a couple. We were all in our late 20's but this behavior reminded me of a child. Poor Diane was stuck in the middle and we all ended up accepting the situation as we couldn't really fix it. And then Diane moved away.
I had never known Heather to date anyone and now she was without her best friend. I ran into Heather at a bar we both frequented and she loudly exclaimed that I would now be her best friend. I chuckled at the idea. She had been the source of so much drama and discussions between Diane and myself. Heather stubbornly persisted and slowly became part of the routine. She would knock on my door on Saturday mornings ready to hang out. She would call on a weekday and insist that we shared some take-away for dinner after work. We hung out with our friends as a group so it wasn't odd that Heather was tagging along more often. It was just a little odd in the beginning.
Sensing that I was still not keen on a road trip to go shopping, Heather added "I'll buy lunch if you drive. It will be fun!" she insisted.
I was still not convinced but I also knew how persistent Heather could be. Sometimes it was just easier to agree and get on with it.
+
It was indeed a pleasant drive. The weather was nice and there were no fights over the music selection. We chatted loosely about everything and nothing. Heather was a pretty girl with shoulder-length blonde hair and deep green eyes. She was probably 5'7" with a nice athletic build. A real girl-next-door type. She was always in comfortable loose-fitting clothes but her khaki shorts could not hide her shapely smooth-shaven legs and a couple of anonymous breasts filled her t-shirt. Still, I had never thought of her in a sexual way -- probably because of how we met. She was a friend.
As we entered the mall, Heather took charge and I reluctantly followed as I was reminded how much I dislike shopping. Zipping from store to store, Heather tried to speed it along while she browsed the selection in ALL the stores we passed. Soon she had new shorts, a couple of new shirts, a belt and a new pair of sneakers.
"I thought we can here for a bathing suit!" I protested.
"Okay, Okay... this way." she giggled as she dragged me to the next store.
Heather quickly found her size and picked out two that she liked. Soon I was being dragged to the dressing rooms.
"Wait here." She said as she pushed me into a comfortable recliner just a few feet from the row of dressing rooms. It was packed! Teenagers spending their parents money, families on a Saturday outing to the mall... packed! At least I had a comfortable chair so I settled in and started thinking about lunch.
"Come here." Heather called. "What do you think?"
I made it to the curtain and stuck my head in. Heather was wiggling around the dressing room posing in the mirror as she tried to decide if she liked the looks of the bikini. I did a cartoon double-take and carefully admired the scene in front of me. I had never seen Heather in anything but shorts or jeans with a wide array of t-shirts or light sweaters. Now my vision was filled with a full view of her entire body sporting a nice colorful bikini. Those muscular legs did not disappear in her shorts but reached all the way to her shapely ass. Her hips were wide and I imagined those butt cheeks were a perfect handful. Her stomach was flat and her skin was smooth and almost certainly soft to the touch. Moving up, I saw her adjusting the straps around her breasts. They looked firm and I guessed 32 B. Nice!
"Well? What do you think?" she asked again. "Do you like it?"
I tried to gather myself and looked up at her as she turned to face me. I must have mumbled something because she smiled and added "Hold on! Let me try the other one then."
I took my cue and pulled my face away from the curtain not sure of what to do next. I could go back to my chair or wait where I was. I definitely did not want to miss the next show.
I could hear Heather through the curtain as she shed one bikini and replaced it with another.
"Ready!" she shouted not knowing that I hadn't moved an inch.
I popped my head through the curtain again but this time I was better prepared. This design had tropical flowers and I again admired the view in front of me. These were not skimpy little pieces of fabric but respectable bikinis that one could wear around the pool for a family picnic but they showed more of Heather than I had ever seen before. How could I have missed this? She was magnificent.
I also noticed that the fitting room had mirrors on all 3 sides so I was getting a glorious view of every angle of Heather's body as she posed. Her breasts were perkier than I had first noticed and seemed to hold themselves up under the thin fabric. Her hips were perfect and she slowly gyrated in the mirrors as she decided on her purchase. I looked to her front and wondered if she was all smooth or sported a bush. I was awoken again by her voice.
"Tell me what you think." she said as her eyes locked on me in the mirror.
I cannot tell you everything I thought to myself as I slowly looked all the way down her body and then slowly up again until I caught her gaze again. I tried to look at Heather nonchalantly but in the assessment process I had to stare intently at her butt and breasts to rate the bikini.
"I like it very much." I said slowly while donning a big smile. "I think you should get them both." I added while quickly taking another look at the girl in front me. Her gaze never left me.
She smiled and said "Okay, let me get dressed and we'll have lunch."
Lunch was uneventful and we chatted away. My thoughts, however, kept returning to the images in the fitting room. Heather had a great body and it had been a welcomed surprise to find that out. I smiled as I realized how I had ogled her without really being able to control myself. I had enjoyed a good look and I was pretty sure that she knew that too.
We finished lunch and she hit a few more stores on the way out. We drove back home while continuing our friendly chatter.
+
When we arrived at my apartment, we both plopped on the couch and Heather turned on the TV while I grabbed us a couple of cold drinks. It was good to cool down and relax a little.
I looked at the shopping bags, smiled at Heather and said "Well, are you going to show me what you bought?"
This was something we always said when I was growing up and it meant that you showed off your new clothes. There was nothing insinuating about my comment. It was just something we said and did.
Heather looked at me, jumped up and took all her bags with her to the spare room.
Heather emerged wearing her new shorts with the new belt, one of her new shirts and her new sneakers.
I made it a point to look up and down her body before I announced "That looks very nice on you. Nice outfit!" which received a glowing smile.
"How does it look with the shirt untucked? I asked and she promptly pulled at the shirt to let it hang loosely.
"That looks nice too" I said "Good find."
Again she smiled and headed back to the guest room with a big "Thank youuuuuuu.".
I thought it was time for a skirt or the jeans or whatever else it was that she had picked up while shopping but instead Heather reappeared wearing one of the bikinis. The one with the floral print. I looked attentively.
I did not have all the mirrors and the many angles they provided but this was somehow more intense. Heather didn't say a word but looked at me with full eye contact and a small smile.
