Chapter Forty-Six – A Bit Fancy

Chapter Forty-Six – A Bit Fancy

“Discovering alien, non-human life, did interesting things to the field of psychology. The field, as esoteric and vague as it already was, didn’t know how people would react to extraterrestrial life.

As it turns out, we as humans mostly want to either kill it (in the case of the Antithesis) or fuck it (in the case of all the rest).”

–Cedric Richmond, PhD Psychology, 2031

***

“So, where’s our dude?” I asked.

“How would I know?” Lucy replied. “Never exactly been here.”

I chuckled. “I was asking Myalis, actually. But yeah, the place is a bit fancy, huh?”

The mall had that clean modern look that places with too much money poured into PR and advertising had. Clean stainless steel decoration, holographic ads so well-crafted they almost looked real, and more importantly of all, a constant stream of bonafide middle-class losers buying shit.

There was no advertising like having clients.

Jeff Burringham hasn’t yet arrived, though his appointment is in only an hour.

“Neat. Where’s the appointment at?”

He’s meant to be at a store called the Boutique de Beau Vêtements. It’s on the third floor. Though I should inform you that the floors on this building are numbered in the reverse to most human buildings.

“The topmost floor is number one?” I asked.

Exactly. I suspect it’s a marketing ploy to convince people to discuss the building more.

“Clever,” I said.

Then I noticed Lucy pouting. “If you’re going to take me on a date with another girl, then you could at least let me be part of the conversation,” she said.

“This is a date?” I asked.

“It isn’t?” Lucy asked right back. “We’re out, we’re shopping, we’re going to go threaten some politician with possible bodily harm. We literally just snuck into a place while packing. Sounds like a date to me.”

I laughed. “Well, sorry, I wasn’t thinking and didn’t realize. Look, once we find a quiet spot, I’ll buy you some fancy augs, and Myalis can talk to you directly.”

Lucy grinned. “Nice. Myalis would make a great girlfriend, you know.”

I’m afraid that I’m not available.

“You’re not?” I asked. Somehow it had never occurred to me to ask Myalis about… anything of that sort.

I’m married to my job, as it were.

Lucy laughed, and I realized that she had to have overheard. She saw my look of momentary confusion and pointed to her eye. “She’s texting me.”

“Huh,” I said. I didn’t really mind at all, Myalis was… a friend. “Alright, well should we go up to floor three? I’m kind of curious about where this dude buys his fancy pants clothes.”

We shuffled past a few fountains and a food court and over to the elevator banks in the middle of the giant room. They were all glass walled and steel-flowed things, with hovering no-touch displays and interactive map overlays floating over the walls.

Lucy oohed and ahhed at all the shiny bells and whistles while I leaned back against one of the walls and watched, quite content just to see her having fun.

The elevator stopped to pick up and drop off a few people, but it unerringly made its way up until, finally, we reached the third floor from the top.

We stepped out into an area even more lavishly decorated than the floors below, with potted plants dotting the sides and barely any advertising past the names of the stores around us. There wasn’t as much room up here, I imagined. The entire building being a pyramid of sorts meant that space became a premium the higher up a floor was.

I didn’t know why that meant that the nicest stores were up here. A wedding dress shop, which I studiously ignored, a nice restaurant, and finally, wedged between the two, the Boutique de Beau Vêtements. There were a few more on the opposite end of the floor, but they didn’t really matter.

“Oh,” Lucy said. “Pretty!”