Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 147673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Oh, so this was a kind of used clothes market. He leaned down and smelled one of the sleeves of a shirt. “They have been washed, surely?”
“What? Why?”
“They had been made for someone else, correct? So they were most likely worn by that person in the past.” Laurent turned to the racks with clothes and touched the fabrics, trying to understand them better. What pattern would a person contemporary to these times choose? He didn’t want to obtain something that he’d find out to be twenty years out of fashion.
Beast crooked his head. “We’re in the mall. Everything is new. Where did you get your clothes before?”
“I mean… I had them chosen for me or bought them from people who didn’t need them anymore. But I am more than happy to choose any of these. My only worry is that I will not know if they fit me correctly.” It was enough that his hair was a right mess after the shampoo and Beast didn’t own a brush other than the long-handled one in the bathroom, which he explicitly told Laurent not to use for his hair.
“Are you a Mennonite, or something?” asked Beast very slowly. “You try them on, and if they fit, you buy them.”
Laurent’s eyes went wide and he stepped closer to whisper. “In front of other people?”
Beast covered his face with his hands, and Laurent felt embarrassed about upsetting him with so many questions. But what was he to do if he had no idea of the correct order of things?
“You know what, I will choose them for you,” Beast said in the end, approaching the first cluster of shirts. He started moving the identical garments over the metal branch they hung on and selected a few before moving on.
It was such a relief to receive this kind of help that Laurent smiled at him. “Thank you. I hate to be a burden, but I would hate even more to choose incorrectly.”
Beast took his time to answer but swiftly moved between the models on show. “I— yes. I’ll choose something right for you.”
It didn’t take long for Laurent to be carrying a whole array of items, which he learned he would now be trying on. Having someone to guide him through the process was a relief, especially with his eyesight so poor at close proximity even in the brilliant lights of the store.
Laurent wondered how many people actually lived in the whole town because even this one store was massive and filled with an endless flow of men and women. In the end, Beast guided Laurent to the fitting rooms at the back.
That did not go so smoothly either, because when Beast realized Laurent had no underwear, he told him to wait with trying on the ‘jeans’ and left him in the large stall, only to come back ten minutes later with three boxes, each containing three pairs of the tiniest drawers Laurent had ever seen. They didn’t even reach halfway down his thigh, and hugged his body tightly. He was amused by the colorful designs on them though, which ranged from stripes, to chequers, and even a pattern of trees somehow woven into the fabric or painted on it.
With a pair of those on, he finally pulled on the first jeans while Beast sat on a simple cubical chair in the corner. The fabric of all the pantaloons—or pants as they were now called for short—Beast chose for him was thick and somewhat coarse, but if that was what people wore in 2017, Laurent would gladly fit in. He went through perhaps a dozen pairs, some of which were too tight, some too big, too short, or not fitting well on his hips. But in the end, Beast decided he needed to keep two pairs, one in dark gray and one in black, both extraordinarily tight despite an odd sense of stretchiness to the fabric. The gray ones had holes on the knees, which Laurent objected to, but since Beast said they were considered fashionable, he simply accepted his fate.
It was an odd feeling, to undress in front of Beast. He must have put on perfume before they left the clubhouse, because the stall was filled with the aroma of citrus and musk that was slowly becoming a favorite of Laurent’s, as well as a potent distraction. He tried not to look in Beast’s direction as he first shed his own clothes and then tried on all the new garments, but he couldn’t miss the way his breath quickened when he felt Beast’s gaze on him. Nakedness between men had been no reason for fuss in his own time, but being watched like this, with Beast staying completely still and only soft breathing filling the silence, made Laurent’s body conscious of the blue eyes following his every move.