Chapter 3: Playing Dress-up

"I don't care too much for money

Money can't buy me love."

- Can't Buy Me Love (The Beatles)

After coffee was done we did indeed head over to my apartment and I changed into my regular clothes and picked up my spare pair of glasses. I could see Rebecca looking at me after I had changed. I handed over her boyfriends clothes and even though I was curious what she was looking at I said nothing. After a while she went over to my closet and picked out some other clothes. She handed them to me.

"Put these on instead," Rebecca said.

Without a word I went back and changed again. When I returned she asked, "Are you afraid of making some changes?"

"Not really. I was kind of expecting it," I answered.

"Do you have some money we could spend?" she asked.

"Sure. I always like to have some money available in case of an emergency," I answered puzzled.

"Good cause we are going shopping," She said with a grin.

We got back into her car and she told me that my image reeked of low self esteem and that I needed a complete make over. The first place she took me was the optician. We spent an hour there and I walked out wearing contact lenses instead of glasses. It felt strange to wear contacts but I must say I enjoyed not having to wear my glasses. I had always wanted to buy contacts but how strangely it may sound I had been afraid to change things.

The next stop was the hairdressers. I said that I was happy with my hair, but Rebecca made it clear that I had no say in the matter. After about an hour my neatly combed side slick had been turned into a scruffy and wild hairdo. I looked myself in the mirror and hardly recognised myself. I could see that Rebecca was smiling behind me and I started smiling as well. As we left the hairdressers looked at me.

"Like it?"

"Actually, I do. But I don't think that I ever would have done it myself. It is so unlike me," I answered.

"That's the point. Changing. You are no longer the old scared Martin, but the new fearless Martin," She said and I started to laugh.

"I can hardly say that I am fearless. It's just that being scared to death doesn't matter any more."

She laughed a bit as well but then she turned a bit serious and asked, "This is a bit embarrassing but I have to ask you something. We are about to go shopping for clothes and I need to know what kind of a budget I can expect. I know you are a student so I don't want to make you eat cheap instant noodles for the rest of your life."

"Don't worry about the money. I inherited quite a bit from my parents and I don't spend on much except for my apartment."

"Good," Rebecca answered relieved. "But this is going to cost some money. If you think I'm going to far you tell me. I have a tendency to get carried away when shopping."

I just looked at her with a reassuring look and began to sing.

"I don't care too much for money. Money can't buy me love. Buy meee looo-ooove."

We both started laughing at my terrible Beatles impersonation. We headed over to a clothing store I had not even noticed before. This was probably because I usually valued price and comfort over style. But today I was not pulling the strings. The shop was filled with both women's and men's clothing and I could see that this was a expensive store.

Without even looking at the clothes Rebecca walked up to the young and red haired shop assistant which hailed Rebecca.

"Are you here to buy the dress you have been drooling over?" the shop attendant asked.

"No. Today I am shopping advisor for my friend Martin here," Rebecca said.

I took a step forward since I caught myself hiding behind Rebecca. The shop attendant held out her hand, smiled and said, "I'm Erica. Pleased to meet you."

"I'm Martin and the pleasure is all mine." I answered as I shook her hand and smiled back.

I tried my best not to look scared and I think she didn't notice.

"So what are you looking for?" Erica asked and looked at me.

"Probably a whole new wardrobe. Martin recently decided he needed a change," Rebecca said and smiled.

Erica looked at me, probably for confirmation and I smiled back and said, "That sounds about right."

"Oh, that will be a good provision for me," Erica said and we all walked over to the section for men's clothes.

"You know, you should wear tighter t-shirts. You have a decent body so you shouldn't hide it in baggy clothes," Erica said.

"I try telling him all the time but his self confidence is a bit shot down so he won't listen to me," Rebecca answered before I could object.

Rebecca and Erica started to play dress-up and I started to feel like a Ken doll. The strange part was that I did not mind being a Ken doll, on the contrary I actually enjoyed it. I went in and out of the dressing room, changed and paraded around like a supermodel on the catwalk. The girls started to applaud at my performance and I suddenly decided to do something crazy. I was actually terrified of this since I never did anything crazy, but this was not the old me, this was the new fearless me.

Instead of putting on the slackers and t-shirt that I had been give I put on a pair of tight bathing trunks I had sneaked in. I jumped out towards the girls and started to make body builder poses. I actually had a decent body since I liked long distance running but I was definitely to slim and did not have enough muscles to be a bodybuilder. Nevertheless I put on my best Arnold Schwarznegger face and tried my best. They started laughing hilariously and after a while I could not hold it any longer. I could see that Rebecca laughing so hard that her eyes were watering with tears.

"You got to buy those. They are a perfect fit," Rebecca said.

"I couldn't agree more," Erica said still laughing.

I went back into the dressing room and put the trunk in the 'to buy'-pile and continued with the dress up Martin fashion show. After that I think Rebecca and Erica made me try on every piece of clothing that existed in the store, regardless of how ridiculous I looked in them. We all had a blast.

After two hours of trying on clothes I had a pile with two pair of slacks, two pair of designer jeans, a dozen of tight high quality t-shirts, three sweaters, a sporty jacket and a pair of tight bathing trunks. On my and Rebecca's insistence we had not tried on any clothes for the winter and I think Erica was a bit puzzled by that.