Seize the Day

We had the afternoon off the day before I was set to leave for my meetings in LA, so Michelle had planned one of her shopping trips. Jamie had never gone, so she didn't know what she was getting into, but Jess and I both gritted our teeth when it was brought up. However, the boys had a radio interview, and were set to be gone for several hours so there wasn't much point in staying at the hotel.

"Where to first?" Michelle asked, hopping behind the wheel of the glossy blue BMW rental.

"Uh, I need some freakin' shoes," Jess wailed from the back seat. "Whadda we got for that?"

Flipping through the Points of Interest booklet from the hotel, I named off a couple of shops. "Actually,there's a pretty big shopping center not too far, if we just want to go there and putz around." Silently, I was hoping for a protest, but hearing none, Michelle started the car and put it in gear.

I typed the address into the GPS unit, and we were on our way.

Luckily I had Jess and Jamie to distract me; I really hate shopping. I'll go if there's something I really need, but I'm not usually the type to go just to go. It's cool, I told myself. Just have some fun with your girls.

The first couple stores we went into were Michelle's choices. Dresses, sequins, ruffles, that kind of thing. Her and Jamie had a blast trying on what seemed like thirty outfits each, while Jess and I were the judges, giving thumbs up or thumbs down. One particular ensemble Jamie picked out was so horrendously terrible, I couldn't help but laugh. She winked at me as she came out of her dressing room and cat-walked the length of the hallway, hand on her hip. I just shook my head and continued laughing.

Finally, Michelle made her decisions, along with a couple tops Jamie wanted, and we made our way to the counter. Each of our respective boyfriends had given us his credit card, with express instruction to spare no expense. If you want it, it's yours, Matt had told me. Still felt weird though.

The next store we came across was a lingerie store. Jess waggled her eyebrows, grabbed my hand, and dragged me inside. We spent over an hour in there, comparing the skimpiest pieces we could find. Half of them, I couldn't tell how you would put the damn thing on! Jess insisted on trying multiple pieces on, and texting photos to Zack. Eventually, of us picked a new set, and made our purchases.

We terrorized the crew at the novelty gifts store for awhile, reading all the sex truth or dare games, and trying on every kooky hat they had. I did find a pretty cool new Jack Skellington wallet, so it wasn't totally for a loss.

Next, we walked past the largest jewelry store I had ever seen. Jess's eyes lit up. "Oh, now this will be fun," she said.

We perused through the necklaces, bracelets, and rings. Michelle convinced me to try on a strand of pearls, that was intermixed with black agate stones. It really was a beautiful necklace, and the black and white look was totally right up my alley. I handed it to the saleslady to hold on to while we kept looking.

I realized Jamie and Jess had come up missing, until I saw them at the engagement ring counter, both of them with diamonds the size of marbles on their fingers. I giggled as I sashayed up to them.

"A little wishful shopping, girls?" I asked.

"Can't hurt to dream, right?" Jess said with a wink. She waved her hand over the display, Vanna White-style and smirked. "Whatcha think?"

I rolled my eyes as I took a seat next to them. Another saleswoman hurried over to me to ask what I'd like to see. "Oh, I'm just wishing," I told her. "No use for anything like this."

"Well, if you see something you like, let me know," she told me, smiling impishly. "We'll try it on, and give you the information on the piece, so you can drop your hints." Obviously, we weren't the first girls she'd dealt with doing just what we were.

I looked at the rings, all spectacular, sparkly, and beautiful. Some had huge stones, some very elaborate settings, some plain and simple. It was creepy to put a $30,000 diamond on my hand just for shits and giggles, but it was also actually pretty fun.

There was one ring that caught my eye eventually. The platinum setting was gorgeous, almost antique-looking, with three stones. Of course, the center diamond was bigger than anything I'd ever be comfortable wearing, but the ring itself was breathtaking. I put it on my finger, surprised that a showcase piece even fit.

"Ooh! Vivienne!" Michelle cooed from over my shoulder. "That is beautiful!"

"Seriously, V," Jess said. "How'd you find that one? I didn't even see it!"

I shrugged. "I don't know, it was right there with the others!" The saleswoman asked me if I wanted the designer information on the ring, but I declined. "I don't think there's going to be any ring shopping for awhile. Thank you, though."

We all ooohed and aaahed over a couple more rings and necklaces, then decided to go. I went to the counter to make my necklace purchase, while Jamie and Jess were still fawning over the rings. Michelle had picked out a matching necklace and earrings set as well.

Next were shoes. Jess looked at me apologetically, knowing shoe shopping was the one thing I hated more than anything in the world.

"You know," I huffed. "I wouldn't hate it so much if they actually made shoes to fit me!" I sulked into the store, arms crossed.

Jess, Jamie, and Michelle took off to try on shoe after shoe, boots, pumps, sneakers, everything. Jamie even found a pair of sneakers with heels. Bizarre.

When a sales associate came over to ask if we needed any help, Jess nodded my direction as she shoved her foot into another boot. "What is the largest size you carry?" she asked. "Most styles only come up to an 11," the associate said. "However, we pull anything that does come in a 12 over to that wall. For some reason, there seemed to be more this year."

"See?" Jamie said. "It's meant to be. Let's go check it out."

I grinned and walked toward the back corner where the associate had directed us. Sure enough, there were quite a few selections in a size 12. Nowhere near what the other girls were choosing from, but more than the zero I was used to.

I found a couple pairs of heels that I was trying to decide between, one a royal purple pair of Mary Jane pumps, and one basic black.

"Pffft," Jess hissed, beside me now. "Get 'em both! I heard what Shads told you."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll probably never wear either of them anyway!"

In the end, I decided on the purple pumps, and a pair of black nearly-knee-high boots. "Well, that was far more successful that I ever dreamed it would be," I said as we left the store.

"You just have no faith," Michelle said.

"Faith, I have," I said with a laugh. "It's tolerence and patience I'm low on."

"Well, I'm low on food," Jamie whined.

"Yeah, me too," Jess and I both said.

"Wanna get something here, or go get the boys first? They should be done with their interview now," I said checking my phone for the time.

"Let's grab them, then we'll chow," Michelle said, loading her bags into the trunk of the car along with our other loot.

"Works for me," I sighed, slinking into the back seat.

---------------------Matt's POV

We had one more radio show before Vivienne went back to LA for a work thing, and before we headed out of Canada to start the US bit of the tour. As soon as it was brought up that we had the interview, and the girls would have the afternoon alone, Chelle jumped in and volunteered them all for a shopping trip. I saw V and Jess groaning, but when I made eye contact with Jess, she changed her tune.

"Please try to get some sort of info out of her today on a ring, okay?" I asked cornering her as they were loading up to leave. "Oh, and make her buy herself something!"

"I'll do my best, Shadsman, on both accounts," she said. She patted my arm, winked, and ran off before they noticed she was gone.

The radio show was the five of us DJ'ing the station for a couple hours. There was a basic interview that went just like every other one we'd ever done. I understand that not everyone gets to hear each interview, but I'm not gonna lie -- it gets really fucking old answering the same damn questions every time. Plus,my mind was wandering elsewhere, having given Jess the task of a lifetime while they were out today.

"Hey, you good?" Brian asked me at one point, during a commercial break. "You're so not here right now."

"Yeah, dude," I said, trying to snap out of it. "I'm right here."

Just then, Zack's phone went off with a picture message. "Holy shit," he breathed at the screen. "Dude, they're at Victoria's Secret!"

The rest of us laughed. "Hell yeah!" Johnny said.

About 30 minutes and a couple hundred more stupid questions later,I was the one who got a text message from Jess.

--"Just found a huge ass jewelry store. I'll let ya know if I get anything."--

--"Great. Thanks again, MamaJ. :)"--

--"No probs, Mattykins. You know I love you."--

Now I was even more anxious than before. I know how V operates. It's just as likely that she'd sit on a bench outside the store as her go in and actually look at jewelry. I forced myself to act natural and finish the radio show.

As we were saying our goodbyes to the DJs and heading to wait for the car, I got another text from Jess.

--"FOUND IT. Got all the info!!! Oh my god, its gorgeous!! EEEEEEEEEE!!!"--

I broke into a huge smile.

--"I owe you BIG time."--

--"Yeah. Yeah, you do. ;)"--

"Hey, you can try to lie to Gates, but it ain't working on me," Zack said. He'd just come up next to me. "What's going on? First you're antsy as shit in there for a radio gig we've done fifty times, now you look like the cheesiest, happiest dude on the planet."

"I'm good," I played off. I couldn't hide the extreme smile though.

"You're also full of shit," Brian said. He'd overheard Zack's interrogation, it seemed.

"Look, I've got a lot on my mind," I started explaining. "Gimme like three days, and I'll tell you everything, okay?"

"Or we could guess," Arin said. He had come up to my other side. "I'm pretty sure I've got an idea what could make you that happy."

Damn kid, I thought. Too smart for his own good.

"Whatcha thinkin'?" Brian asked. "My guess is a present for V."

"You could say that," Arin grinned.

"Fuck!" Zack yelled. "You're gonna ask her, aren't you?"

I tried to be irritated, but I just couldn't. "Fine," I said, grinning again. "Yes, I've been thinking of asking her to marry me. But I need you all to keep your fuckin' mouths shut, got it?"

"Do the girls know?" Brian asked.

"Jess does, talked to her about it when we had our sushi date." I pointed to my pocket. "That's who was texting me. I asked her to do a little recon work for me, and they hit the jackpot while shopping just now."

The three of them took turns clapping me on the back. "Congrats, man," Brian said.

"Like I told Jess," I said. "I haven't asked, and she hasn't agreed yet."

"And you're a moron," Arin said, rolling his eyes and walking away.

"Seconded," Zack said. "Car's here, let's go."