Knock. Knock. Knock! "Hey! Are you decent in there?" I called into Paula's bedroom.
"Ow! What the…fuck are you…ouch!… talking about? Am I decent? What kind of…ugh…question is that?"
"I meant ‘Are you dressed yet?'" I said with a familiar, frustrated sigh.
"Then just SAY that, dammit! Say "Are you…unnngh …dressed yet?"' she grunted again.
"Aaaaallrighty, then. Here we go. Are…you…dressed…yet?"
"No! Dammitt! I am…NOT dressed yet! Okay? What's your damage?"
I chuckled a bit. Paula can be a real trip. People never seem to understand what I see in her. You know, sometimes in life you have no control. Have you ever found yourself inexplicably drawn to someone? There's no rhyme or reason to it; it just is. That's what love is like. You just can't control it. I loved Paula and as much as I knew Paula loved me, too, we had an unspoken agreement never to admit it and never to let things progress any further at the risk of hurting our friendship. Sometimes, though, I was more than willing to take that risk.
Paula's new job allowed her to wear jeans. In fact they encouraged it. It was one of the main selling points of the position. The problem came when Paula's only pair of jeans had apparently shrunken in the wash. That was her story, anyway. As her best friend, I had agreed to finance a new pair with the agreement that I at least got a fashion show out of the deal. Any excuse to look at her ass, you know? In the next room, Paula was bravely squeezing into the now ultra-tight jeans she loved as we prepared to go out on a shopping expedition. After a few more painful sounding moans of frustration, the door finally jerked open.
"You okay?" I asked.
"I'm here. Let's go."
As she pushed on ahead of me toward the door of her apartment, I stifled a laugh. The pants gave life to the old cliché of looking like they were painted on. Paula's legs could barely bend and I could tell she was having to suck in her sexy, curvy little belly just to get them pulled all the way up. "I have just one question," I said as she locked the door in the hallway.
"Don't say it!"
"No, I just wanna know…"
"Don't you dare…!"
"…how're you gonna get in the car? If you can't bend your knees, maybe we should just lay you out in the trunk."
"AAARRRGGHH!!!!" she yelled as she threw her apartment keys hard at my chest!
"Ouch! That hurt." I picked up the keys and tossed them back.
"It was supposed to, stupid! That was extremely rude!"
"Sorry, sorry, sorry,' I offered with my hands up in surrender mode.
Still, I couldn't help but feel like Ygor leading the lumbering Frankenstein monster down the three flights of stairs with nearly unbending legs. Eventually, we reached the parking lot and climbed into my little red Corolla. It wasn't easy but somehow Paula actually did manage to sit up without really bending her knees much.
"Okay, now where are we going?" I asked as we buckled up. I started the car and turned out onto the road. "Well?"
"To the Mall, dummy!" was her exasperated reply.
"The Mall. I see. Does "the Mall" sell jeans? I glanced over to see her glaring at me with tiny, metaphorical icy daggers shooting my way. When I looked back to the road, I realized that we were on a five mile an hour collision course with a little pink Volkswagen stopped at the light so I slammed on my brakes. This immediately caused the driver behind me to slam on his brakes which, in turn, caused him to lean on his horn.
"Beeeeeeeep!!!!"
Breathing hard, I looked to see Paula smiling a smug little smile. "Dear heart," I said, "you nearly got us fucking killed!"
"Serves you right for being such a dumbass all the time. Everybody knows you go to the Mall when you need to buy clothes and Wal-Mart for everything else. Go! The light's changed!"
"Beeeeeeep!!" from behind again.
"Shut up!" I yelled.
"Don't you tell me to shut up, Daniel Troy Green or I'll…"
"I wasn't yelling at you! I was yelling at that fuckin' idiot behind us that can't keep his fricking hand off the horn for five seconds, okay?"
"Oh." She wrinkled her nose like Samantha on Bewitched and then stuck out her tongue at me.
I took a deep breath and started laughing, diffusing the tenseness. Paula laughed, too. "All right, you temptress, let's try this again. Where in the Mall are we going? Where do I need to park? What exactly is our itinerary?"
"You know, sometimes you need to be a little more specific with your questions."
"GRRRRRRRR!!!!!" I growled, reducing her to laughter again. She slapped my thigh. "Last chance. Who the fuck am I gonna be making this check out to at the Mall? Is THAT specific enough."
"Just park in the usual place so we can find the car." That didn't really answer my question but when we got to the Mall, that's exactly what I did. She kind of slid out of the passenger seat and the two of us lumbered slowly inside.
"Thanks for doing this," she said softly.
"No prob. What're friends for, y'know?"
"Still…"
"Hey! What about that store right there?" I asked as we entered the center court.
"What is wrong with you? No!"
"But…"
"NO!"
"Look, maybe it's just me but the sign that says ‘Big Jeans Sale. 50% off' would seem to fit what we're looking for here."
"I refuse to buy things at that store because they were rude to me when I shopped there in Senior Year."
I stopped walking and stared incredulously at her. "First of all, Senior Year was 3 years ago now. I'm sure they've had some turnover since then. Second of all, YOU'RE not buying anything in there. I am, remember?" With that I grabbed her arm and dragged her into the brightly lit store. Needless to say, she took offense.
"HEY!"
"Jeans, remember? Now stop pouting and…well, just shop, dammitt!! You know you do it better than anybody! Go!" She looked around and her eyes eagerly lit up. Then she was off.
Now watching Paula shop was actually kind of a treat. I had been on a number of these shopping expeditions with her and she was good. If there were really a way to make a living as a professional shopper, she'd be rich. She could spot a bargain, sniff out a sale and effortlessly tell the difference between quality merchandise and shoddy rip-offs. Having turned her loose, I simply followed like a puppy, watching her slide her delicate fingers along the denim as she walked past racks and spinners, noting her eyes checking every sale sign and price tag. She hovered around for several minutes, oblivious to other customers that came and went. Finally, she settled on one rack, stacked with dark blue lowrider jeans. I saw her lean over and sniff the denim, then, like a hunting dog that had found its prey, she smiled brightly and motioned me over.
"Find some?"
"Uh-huh! I need to try these on but they're the right size."
"And half price at that," I added thankfully as I noted the label.
She wrinkled her nose at me again. "There's the fitting rooms. I'll be right back."
"Okay." I watched her tight butt hobble into the changing room with her new prize. The doors of the little, closet sized dressing room only went about halfway to the floor, giving a surprisingly clear view of her legs once she was inside. Even though I stayed about ten feet away, I could hear Paula straining and struggling with the pants she had on again, this time in an effort to get them off. Underneath the door, I could see her trying vainly to make progress in the tiny room. She had kicked off her shoes and had one white-socked foot up in the air when suddenly, she yelped and fell backwards. Then she called for me.
"Hey!"
"Yes?"
"Look, could you maybe get one of the clerks to help me a bit here?"