It took Andrew just half an hour to shower, get dressed, and come back downstairs, where Lillian was now resting on the sofa in the living room.
She had a cup of hangover tea warming her hands and was watching "Sharks and Minnows" on the big flat screen TV - a reality competition show that had amateur teams of business people facing off against experienced teams to produce a new product and market it at a local store, with the winner decided at the end of the show by a panel of judges that compromised of two successful CEOs and an everyday housewife. The winner of the week's episode would be offered an investment by one of the CEOs or a partner company, but ultimately it'd be up to the winning team to make their product successful in a larger market beyond the show.
Lillian was watching a rerun of the most watched episode from last year as the TV station was trying to advertise the new season starting up tomorrow night. It was a face off between two food development teams to create an exciting new squid snack for the episode's guest sponsor, XYZ Foods Co. It was a rare case that both teams did so well that XYZ Foods decided to offer contracts to both teams in the end. The hype around the episode and the stellar reviews of the snacks by the public interviewed at the local grocery store lead to both team's snacks selling out as soon as they hit the super markets a couple months later.
"Lillian," the person in question looked over to see Andrew fully dressed in a light brown blazer over top of a white button down shirt and matching pants. "Shall we head out now."
Lillian looked down at the clothes she was wearing - an old loose fitting pair of blue jeans and an oversized hoodie - she then looked back at the sharply dressed man standing in front of her.
"Um, maybe I should change before we head out. Do I need to style my hair too?" She took out her messy bun and started combing her hair with her fingers as she got up to face Andrew.
"No need. You'll be having to change out of them soon anyways."
"Huh! Why?" Lillian swiftly swung her arms across herself to protect her chest and shot him a suspicious look.
A slight frown briefly expressed itself on Andrew's face at her accusatory response. "You may put your arms down. We are simply going out to purchase you some new clothes."
"Oh." To hide her embarrassment at immediately jumping to such thoughts, she quickly flipped on her hood and walked past Andrew to put on her winter coat.
Seeing that she appeared ready to go, Andrew likewise followed suit and put on a long black overcoat as they headed out.
---
Andrew pulled up his car in front of a shop Lillian had never seen before.
She assumed they'd be going to one of the city's many department stores or maybe a shopping mall. Instead they were outside of a single story marble building that showed no hints as to what went down inside. Despite his promise that they were only going to buy clothes, she now worried that perhaps she was being roped into some high class organ farming scheme. As two body guard like black suited men approached the car, scenes of being strapped to a cold metal table and her liver being cut out of her cold, lifeless body flashed across her mind.
A cold sweat began to drip down her back as the men got closer to the car. "Hey, Andrew," Lillian said nervously, tugging on his right arm. "You know, I'm completely content with the clothes I have now. You really don't need to go out of your way to do this."
"Nonsense. We're already here. Don't worry, my mother has also notified them we are coming." Andrew wrapped his hand around the one Lillian had hanging onto his arm, and gently placed it back into her lap. He then proceeded to step out of the car and hand the keys to one of the suited men.
The other man opened the door on Lillian's side and silently offered her a hand. Still a bit hesitant about the unknown shop, Lillian politely denied the man's hand and got out of the car on her own. She'd seen too many horror movies with her roommates in university and wasn't planning on letting these potential billionaire henchmen take her down without any chance for escape.
Luckily, it seemed her wild imagination was just that as the suited men both bowed at Andrew as the one man took the car away and the other rushed to the clear glass doors of the building and opened it for them to enter inside.
A stylishly dressed older woman accompanied by two younger assistants came to greet them at the doors. "Mr. Geldan, a pleasure to see you again. Your mother mentioned that you would be stopping by during her visit yesterday." Turning to face Lillian, the woman then asked, "And what may be the young missus's name?"
Young missus? Does she mean me? Lillian quickly turned her head to look up at Andrew then turned to look at the woman then turned to Andrew again.
"Lillian Grace," Andrew answered for her flatly then shot her a side look, silently conveying that she need not be worried about the people in front of her.
"Ms. Grace."
"Yes!" Lillian stood at attention and brought her feet together.
"This way, please," The older woman flashed her a kind smile noticing she looked a little on edge, and lead them to a private room off to the right.