Bright and Shiny

Chapter 188

"We have to buy them things, Derek." Meredith told her whining husband as they walked through a village market near their hotel. It was a small outdoor market with locals selling souvenirs that were unique, hand blown glass, hand crafted and painted. After a full morning of eating and laying out on the beach, Meredith decided to drag a reluctant Derek souvenir shopping.

"We're not supposed to be shopping on vacation, that's not vacation-y." He whined some more.

They had been on the island for 3 days, where they've done nothing but relax, swim, eat a lot and enjoy spending time with each other. Derek also went on his fishing tour the day before and had scheduled another one for the following day. Meredith took these free few hours they had to do some walking around and decided to get the pesky souvenir buying out of the way.

"We do it every time we go on vacation. We have to buy things for all your wonderful sisters and parents who cooked for us this past week, who threw me that elaborate expensive baby shower, who bought us all those presents, who we moved away…"

"Okay, okay I get it. We have to buy them souvenirs." He said giving up and putting his hands in the air to surrender to her.

"The quicker you stop whining and disrupting the shopping process, the faster we'll get out of here and able to get back to the hotel. I don't get why you need to complain about shopping every time we go on vacation" She told him as she stopped at a booth and picked up a hand painted ceramic vase.

"Disrupting the shopping process?" he laughed. "We're did you come up with that one?"

"It just came to me." She giggled.

"Too much time with the sisters. And I complain every time because it's tradition." He joked back. As she just shook her head at him with a smile on her face.

"I guess I should buy Mark something too, same with Richard." Derek thought looking around. "Stick around here, I'm going over that counter over there." Derek pointed to the stand that had island liqueurs, rums and cigars.

"Okay." Meredith replied absentmindedly still holding the vase and now looking for another one.

Derek realized he couldn't just buy two bottles but he also couldn't travel back with more, there was still his father and brothers-in-laws to deal with also. He quickly worked out a deal with the salesman to have a two cases delivered home to Seattle. Twelve bottles of rum and a few cases of cigars sold in five minutes and Derek was done his souvenir shopping.

He walked back to see Meredith still at the same shop still walking around slowly, like she was pondering every item. A few stuff she had picked up sat on the counter and she continued to walk around.

"I'm done." He told her proudly.

"You're done? So fast?|"

"Guys are easy." He laughed.

"Do you think your mom would like this?" She asked holding up the large flower vase.

"I think she'd love it, especially with all her gardening."

"That's what I thought….So that leaves only Addison, Sam and Carly. They're always the hardest." Meredith thought biting her lip.

"There was a jewelry shop we passed, why don't we pay and pack up these and go see what they had." Derek offered knowing she was just going to continue going in circles here.

"Good idea, island gem stones are perfect for them!" she exclaimed happily. "See you're good at this souvenir shopping thing." She smiled as she walked over to her purchases and signaled she was ready to pay.

"I didn't say I wasn't good at it, just that I didn't like it." He laughed as he handed over the cash to pay for the souvenirs. As the saleswoman wrapped up all Meredith's parcels for her. So they could head over to the jewelry shop and quickly finish up shopping to go back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the afternoon.