1. Rosani
“$80.00?!” Rosani Sillavara a’ Pyrimul whispered in shock. Her voice still managed to carry outside the dressing room as she eyed the price tag of the undergarment she was supposed to buy for her bridesmaid dress. Considering the dress itself had cost $200.00, the bride asking her to buy another piece of clothing for $80.00 on top of it? “This is getting a little excessive, Tara!”
Tara was not present, but that didn’t stop Rosani from complaining to her. Rosani wiggled out of the black, low-back, strapless bra and put her clothes back on—jeans and a t-shirt. Her mother would be livid to see her wearing human clothing, but was her mother there?
Nope. She was far away in the Elven Realm, doing what Elves do best—boring, boring shit. Which was why Rosani had moved to the Human Realm as soon as she could. She’d even made several human friends along the way…but hadn’t realized how expensive their mating customs and rituals were. Engagements, bridal showers, weddings, baby showers, and even the gods-awful “gender reveals” all cost precious human currency, which Rosani had not arrived with.
She had needed to earn every dollar and cent she owned, which was why she was a little more than peeved that Tara had “asked politely” that the bridesmaids all get the same bra, so that they would all have the same “silhouette”...whatever that meant. This was Rosani’s first time as a bridesmaid—despite her frustration at the rising costs, she was honored to be a part of the ceremony.
Tara was one of her first friends, after all.
As she walked up to the cash register, she begrudgingly dug out her worn credit card, then checked out.
“Did you find everything you were looking for today?” the sales associate asked.
“Yes,” Rosani replied.
The counter was littered with little sparkly bits, catching her eye—too bad everything was fake. Or, maybe it was a good thing. Now she wouldn’t be tempted to buy anything.
“Did you know this piece is part of our buy-one-get-one 25% off deal? There’s a matching slip—”
“No thank you,” Rosani interrupted. She knew it was rude, but she also knew she couldn’t afford to spend any more money in the overpriced lingerie boutique. Not that she’d want to even if she could.
Maybe.
Undergarments had been another new thing when she’d moved to the Human Realm. Well, not new, since Elves did have a variation of underwear and such, but it was certainly different learning about bras, thongs, fishnets, and Spanx, amongst other things.
So yeah, maybe, if Rosani had money to burn, she’d come back to a place like Lacey Bits and try on some things for fun, but it didn’t make sense for her to do that if she didn’t have the money for it. Why tempt herself if she couldn’t afford it?
“Here’s a copy of your receipt,” the sales associate said, “and here’s your bag. Thanks for coming in today! We’ll see you next time.”
Rosani did her best to return her fake smile, but she was actually concentrating on putting a little tracking spell on the bra, just in case she lost it. $80.00 was a lot of money to have to spend to replace something.
She stopped by the cafe a couple of doors down and got herself an iced coffee—incomparable to anything in the Elven Realm—before heading back to her car. The trunk was already full with her gym bag, cat litter, and some groceries, so she set the Lacey Bits bag down to do some rearranging.
Ring-a-ling-ling, ring-a-ling-ling, her phone went off in her pocket. Rosani scrambled to answer it, hoping it was the latest job she’d applied for getting back to her.
Her heart sank—just Tara.
“Hey,” she said into the phone. “What’s up?”
Tara was crying on the other end. Uh-oh. Rosani shut the trunk and got in her car, hurriedly starting it and pulling out of the spot on the street.
She was focused on her friend, who was sobbing about her fiance, so she missed the rather tall fellow trying to signal her with odd hand gestures.
It wasn’t until several hours later, after an emergency get-together with Tara, that Rosani realized she was missing something very important:
The Lacey Bits bag on the street.
