™t get enough of her fill. “I could eat here every day.”
“I don’t think they’d let us back in,” Slinky teased. “You’d pretty much eat them out of all their supplies in less than a week.”
“Hardy-har-har,” Sam replied, but she couldn’t deny that she was eating a lot of plates. She felt guilty for letting Slinky pick up the entire tab, but then she realized they were still paying on her father’s credit card.
After twenty minutes of non-stop eating, Sam finally pushed back the last empty plate of ribs and patted her stomach. She felt full and content, now all she needed was a nap.
“You think so much time’s passed in the real world they’ve forgotten we exist?” Slinky wondered.
“We’ve only been gone thirty minutes,” Sam scolded. She accidentally let out a burp and blushed as a few of the other patrons stared in their direction. “But maybe we should get back, just in case.”
“Oh no, I’m gonna use your get-out-of-jail-free card for all it’s worth,” her friend protested.
Slinky paid their bill, which well exceeded two hundred dollars for food alone, and took Sam on a tour of the more fashionable part of the city. They traveled through expensive lingerie stores with vixen mannequins and through sporting goods stores that stocked shoes more expensive than an entire month’s rent for Sam’s apartment. People dressed in stylish clothing brushed passed them, and so much money exchanged hands at cash registers that Sam felt she was in an entirely different world. She felt some pains of jealousy at their ability to be so extravagant, but then she also felt like a fish out of water.
Slinky, accustomed as she was to this lifestyle, dragged them into a women’s clothing store. She flitted to and fro the shelves, selecting a few bits of evening wear clothing. She frowned at some of the more buxom customers who were able to fit into dresses that had a more severe neckline. They glanced back, it was a mother and daughter duo, and grinned as they looked over her slim figure. The daughter leaned over and whispered something into her mother’s ear, and the two of them laughed.
“Something funny?” Slinky asked.
She’d dealt with types like these before, and particularly these two. They were actually the spouse and child of one of the board members, out to spend his paycheck. They were those who looked down on others because of what they saw as monetary or physical deficiencies. Sam, however, was in the dark about this information and just didn’t want to start any trouble.
“They probably didn’t mean anything,” Sam insisted as she took her friend’s shoulder and tried to move them away. She wasn’t budging, however, until she got an answer. “Come on, let’s just go.”
“We were just commenting on your, um, nice suit,” the mother tried to save face, but the daughter wasn’t so tactful.
“I’m sure you were, Mrs. Elliston,” Slinky sarcastically replied. Sam recognized the name as belonging to one of the board members, and now she knew they were in deep trouble.
“We don’t have much time left,” she pointed out to her friend. They actually had a good ten minutes, and the walk was only a brisk five.
“Out on your lunch break?” the daughter, Priscilla, sniffed. By her well-manicured nails, she’d never worked an hour in her life.
“Actually, we were allowed to leave by special permission from Mr. Davies,” Slinky shot back. She was glad when both their faces showed surprise. Very few of the family of the board had the pleasure of any acquaintance with the vice president, much less one intimate enough for favors. “He said we could enjoy ourselves for an hour.”
That changed their tunes so fast, Sam wondered if they’d been struck by divine inspiration.
“Miss Slink, you haven’t introduced us to your friend here,” Mrs. Elliston mentioned as she graciously smiled at Sam. She returned her own shaky grin, but she’d rather have been ignored.
“Samantha Olsen, Mrs. Elliston, and her daughter, Priscilla.” She said the last name so venomously that Sam could easily tell there was a lot of bad blood between them. No doubt some harsh words had been exchanged at board member parties and the like.
“A pleasure,” she honestly greeted.
“Likewise,” Mrs. Elliston warmly returned. She had at least enough manners to keep up a decent conversation. “I don’t believe we’ve ever seen you at one of the company gatherings. Are you a relation to Miss Slink?”
“Nope, she’s just one of the office workers,” Slinky chimed in. Mrs. Elliston politely nodded her head, but Priscilla turned up her nose. Sam wasn’t even sure if she liked Slinky, bluntly noting her low stature in the company.
“Oh.” Priscilla looked her over with a sneer. “So you push papers around all day?” This riled Sam’s dormant temper. She hadn’t done anything more wrong than to have an honest job working at a company her father happened to be a boss of.
“Not really, the papers don’t like to be pushed around,” she warned. Slinky tried to hide her smile at the good comeback.
“Dear, weren’t you looking at a dress to buy?” Mrs. Elliston interrupted. Even she could see the conversation was quickly going to devolve into insults. She wanted to stay on the better side of those who were well-connected with the vice-president.
“Nah, all these are too cheap.” Sam had noticed some of the price tags exceeded one thousand dollars. “Let’s go farther uptown, where the company is more refined.”
Slinky was about to jump to their defense when Sam pulled her back. Mrs. Elliston did likewise with her unruly daughter and dragged her away to another store.
“She pisses me off so god damn much!” Slinky snarled after they’d left. “What the hell is her problem?”
“I don’t know, but we really do need to get back now,” Sam pointed out. They only had five minutes left until their hour was up. “Or Winkle’s going to show us the door.”
“Oh shit!”