Simon's Daughter

Chapter 16

Frantically, I rushed to my wardrobe. Check-out was in 10 minutes, and nothing I owned was in my suitcases. The hotel staff was allowed to boot me out in… 9 minutes now, and keep whatever wasn’t in my bags. Unfortunately.

I messily threw everything into random suitcases, not caring where it went. All this because I didn’t ask for a wake-up call, instead relying on the old relic of an alarm clock and my cell phone alarm, which I forgot to charge, so it died at some point in the night.

My phone, charger and iPod got flung into my purse, along with my makeup kit and hair curler. I tossed all my bags onto the luggage cart with… 2 minutes to spare. I spent another minute doing a sweep of the room, picked up a necklace which I’d nearly missed, shoved it into my pocket, dragged the cart to the end of the hall where I passed it off to one of the hotel security, asking them to bring it down to the car while I checked out.

The receptionist was eyeing the clock when I told her I wanted to check out. I glanced at my watch, I still had 1 minute.

“Right, Miss Cowell. You’re good,” she said rudely.

“Thank you,” I said back, politely. Kill ‘em with kindness.

I jogged out to where Becky was waiting with the car. Next stop, Emily’s place. Then to the mall so we could get her some clothes that she could step out in public in, not to say that her clothes weren’t nice, they just were… old. Everything was on me, in order to pay her back for everything she’d done for me.

“Hey, hey, hey!” she called when she saw me, dragging out a suitcase that probably had her makeup, hair stuff, everything else she needs. Her brother was balancing a few empty suitcases that all got shoved in the trunk as well.

“Time to go shopping!” I cheered. “No limit, baby. No limit.” I held up the card.

“That doesn’t mean you can go absolutely crazy, though,” Becky commented from up front.

“Of course not, Becky,” we laughed.

We arrived at the mall and Becky told us she’d be back in four hours. We’d then bring Emily back home so she could say goodbye to her family, have a last family dinner, and then somehow we’d meet up and go to the airport. Becky had that ironed out with Em’s mom, we didn’t particularly care.

“Let’s goo!” she cheered.

We stopped in a shop and found her some cute skinny jeans and tops, a few pairs of shoes, and some other necessities. Eventually, after our fifth shop, we each legitimately had 3 bags.

“I think we’re good,” she laughed. “Considering 5 of these 6 bags are for me, that’s more clothes than I need any time!”

“Not when you’re with me! With me, you need to look good, always. I’m an up-and-coming star, remember?” I teased. “We should find you something formal, in case we get invited to any corporate event. Just in case.”

“Alright,” she sighed, but I could tell she really liked getting new stuff. With her family, it wasn’t often that she got new stuff, usually hand-me-downs from her older siblings, boy or girl.