Chapter 7: Shopping

After a quick shower, Donna dressed hurriedly into short jeans, a t-shirt, and a ridiculous pair of red, high heeled, open shoes, with straps going up her legs ending just below her knee. She had never worn shoes like this before, so she had some difficulty finding out how to fold the straps, but eventually with the help of Ms. Brendan she got it done.

Of course, no underwear; No panties, no bra.

“Off we go,” Ms. Brendan said, as she held the room door open. “The driver has been waiting on us for quite some time now.”

Donna tiredly walked towards the door. “Here we go,” she thought worrisome as she left the safe hotel room.

They walked through the lobby, outside to the waiting car. In the lobby Donna looked at the hotel employees, to see if any of these looked weird at her, indicating they had seen her last night arriving naked.

“Thank God no one looked at me funny,” she thought as she got into the car and they drove away.

Ms. Brendan was on the phone again, doing some business, and Donna was left alone with her thoughts, again.

“I have to get out of this situation. Sooner or later someone will find out what is going on.” She looked at herself, “And the later that will be, the more humiliating it will be for me and my family.

“But, how?” she wondered, as she looked at Ms. Brendan, busy on her phone. “How to do that without compromising everything? A talk with Robert, telling him all? No, I have been told not to do that. What friend could help me?” She went quickly through her list of close friends. “None of them,” she concluded. “None of them even remotely have the experience or power this lady has. I don’t even have a lawyer friend to check my legal stance on this blackmail.” But now Donna did see a possible solution: “A lawyer, I have to find me a lawyer, an independent one, and go with him/her through my options...”

Ms. Brendan finally hung up the phone and smiled with pity at her.

“She must think she’s so powerful,” Donna thought. “Just wait till I have my lawyer and get out of this. When I save me and my family from you and you’re sick games.”

Donna’s eyes lit up, “My family, I forgot to call them!”

“Ms Brendan,” she immediately asked. “Can I call my family?”

“I only have a business phone here, and I refuse to have it used for personal issues, Cutty,” Ms. Brendan answered.

“But I need to call them, they’ll be worried sick!”

“The only one worried right now is you,” Ms. Brendan said. “Don’t forget it is Saturday morning. By now the kids are doing their sport activities, with Robert drinking a beer or two with the other men at the bar, watching over his girls.”

“She’s right,” Donna knew, “But still, I must call them. It will be very awkward already...”

“But I will allow you to call them later, don’t worry Cutty. Just behave.”

The remark was not lost on Donna. “If I don’t ‘behave’ she will not let me call them.” It felt weird to be so powerless so sudden.

They soon arrived at a large shopping mall. They got out and walked in the chilly breeze to the entrance. Ms. Brendan in her usual business clothes, being the perfect executive, Donna dressed as if it was summer already. The difference was striking, especially with them walking together.

“Cutty,” Ms. Brendan said, as she guided Donna through the crowd towards a clothing store. “With your new look you have to get new clothes. Else you’ll just look ridiculous; just too old fashion.”

They entered the large clothing store.

“Luckily not some weird adult store,” Donna sighed with relief.

“You’ve been a housewife for too long, so we need to get you up to par.” Ms. Brendan continued, as they walked through the alleys, checking out the clothing.

Somehow Donna did not really expect they would find anything to Ms. Brendan’s liking.

Ms. Brendan walked around constantly talking to Donna, expecting her to follow her. She was checking out the clothing, but not being able to really decide on the best outfit.

Finally, in the summer collection section, she got excited. “Here we’ll find some nice stuff. This store always has a good summer collection. Last year’s was fantastic, really.”

While Donna reluctantly checked some blouses, Ms. Brendan went frantically through the whole collection, picking up blouses, t-shirts, skirts, panties, everything. A sales lady came practically running to help her out.

“She needs a new style, you see,” Ms. Brendan explained to the sales lady when they approached Donna with a bunch of clothing. “So we just have to try them all, see which fits best.”

“Cutty, dear, look!” Ms. Brendan enthusiastically showed her some t-shirts. “Aren’t they nice?” Donna looked at them. “Too young for me,” she thought. “And too small.”

“Well...” she said with a forced smile, just in time remembering the rules.

“Ah, you’re too old fashion!” Ms. Brendan interrupted her, “Just go and start with wearing these for us. We’ll tell you if it is ok or not.” Ms. Brendan smiled reassuring at her and gave her a short to wear as well as a half cut t-shirt. Next Donna was ushered to the changing rooms.

For the next hour Donna was just showing the clothing to Ms. Brendan and the sales lady. The clothes were not that weird, but most of them more revealing than Donna was used to, and definitely not her taste in color and style. But she really did not have a say in it, she knew. She did refuse some clothing which was just too much, and luckily the sales lady backed her up, but in the end she was still left with a pile of summer clothing, she would herself never dreamed of buying.

“We’ll take these,” Ms. Brendan rounded up the sale, looking enthusiastic at Donna. “The new look, Cutty. These are just perfect!”

Donna smiled wryly. She had just returned into her ‘own’ clothing again, the red shoes, the short cut jeans, and looked with suspicion at her new ward robe.

“Well if she wants to see me in those...” she thought. “At home I’ll just be wearing my own stuff anyway. And again, it is not as bad as I had feared.”