When: April
Where: Gladrags Wizardwear
Who: Claudette + Open
After the way spring solstice unfolded, Claudette had taken herself off to France for a couple of weeks to destress. Something which seemed like a good idea at the start; enjoying glasses of wine in the evening sun, chatting with her friends from home and eating food that she couldn’t get in England. The reality was quiet different. As excited as she had been to see her siblings - or some of them anyway she seemed to have forgotten she would have to see her parents too. While her mother had warmed after Claudette gave in and married Alexander, Claude still couldn’t forgive her for it. She disliked her more than ever before, especially because all she ever did was remind her of how small and powerless she could be. Because of the necessary time spent with her mother, Claudette’s mood wasn’t improved all that much when she returned.
Still, when almost ran into someone as she was walking into the shop she smiled politely and apologetically. “Oh I’m sorry, I just needed to hurry out of that rain.”
There was a time when Cordelia never would have shopped at Gladrags Wizardwear. According to Helena Davis Gladrags was garish, far too concerned with the latest trends to produce anything with real worth, and for much of her life Cordelia believed anything her mother said. Part of the process of distancing herself from her parents and stepping away from the society she’d grown up in was examining all of the ideas she’d always taken for granted and whether or not she actually agreed with them. It turned out, Cordelia did not share her mother’s opinion on Gladrags. She liked the avant-garde clothing the shop specialized in, and while she didn’t quite have the budget to buy all of her clothes there, it was a good place to find a statement piece.
Cordelia was trying to find a sales associate to see if she could convince them to give her a discount on an unmarked skirt she’d found on the sale rack when she drifted too close to the door. When someone ran into her from the opposite direction from where she was looking, Cordelia jumped so badly that she dropped the clothing she was holding. A relatively new and decidedly unwelcome development, Cordelia had never been easily startled when she was growing up, nor even when she made her debut, but in recent years that had changed.
Cordelia immediately knelt to gather the material and took the moment to regain her composure. “You’ve no reason to apologize, I imagine we are equally at fault.” When she stood back up, her smile was polite and her face unbothered, despite the fact that her heart rate had not yet returned to normal. “Spring rains can be dreadful, in Britain, and I expect it’s not something you’re accustomed to.” The woman’s French accent was unmistakable, although her English was flawless.