CHAPTER 8
Aidan
We left the hotel full and with Elsa very animated from the three coffees that she’d enjoyed. She apparently had never experienced that much caffeine before and was feeling quite energetic. She continued to insist on drinking, which I knew was a vital part of this time in her life, but I also reminded her that it was still early in the morning. I thought about the stores that were nearby, and I got her to the car before I started to drive towards them. “I want to get you some fresh clothes,” I told her as she glanced up from her phone with a wary look in her eyes.
“You already bought me this,” she held it up, and I smiled as I stared at her. Joe hadn’t only left me his car, but he’d also given me all of his money. Joe had been in the foster system for years and joined the Army when he turned eighteen and left, which left him no family. He was smart with his earnings and it allowed me to spoil this woman and give her a little fun as she decided on the rest of her life. I already knew where mine was going, and I wouldn’t need the money.
“I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just want you to have a few more things than your shirt for this adventure.” I told her as she frowned and then smiled at me.
“What kind of stores?” I seated the engine and followed the directions to the outlet stores as she looked over all of the buildings.
“These are outlet stores, though I’d love to take you to a big mall sometime. You’d love the variety, but this is a little of the same thing in a single story. You’ll find what you need here, and we can see the sights later when we’re done.” I looked at the clock on the custom stereo and counted in my head. “We have about half an hour before they open at ten. Want to just relax here for a while?”
Elsa seemed somber as she nodded and settled back in the seat. “Do you have a chosen religion, Aidan?”
“Not particularly,” I responded as she gave me a shy look and looked out of the window.
“I was born Amish, raised that way. It’s all I know, and I love it, but I started to feel a little restless as I got older. It seemed like I was missing out and now I’m here. I am having the best time of my entire life.” Her voice was soft, and I smiled at her as she looked to me for some answer. “Is that wrong?”
“I can’t tell you what’s wrong or right, Elsa.” She looked so vulnerable and soft right now, and I longed to fix everything that was wrong in her head right now.
“I lost a lot of my faith after the war over a year ago. I’d berm raised Christian by my parents and Mom still believes even after losing my father to active military duty. He died honorably, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around that for a long time. I joined, and I loved the action and the life, but I saw too much when I was there to have any belief system any longer.” That was the most I’d said to anyone in my life and I knew that I was still hiding a lot. I had to.
“Aren’t you ever going back?” Elsa asked me, and I paused before I nodded and gave her a smile. “After you’re done here?” Another nod.
“I’m twenty-six, but there’s a lot of life in those years.” She was only beginning, and I gazed at her across the car for a long moment. “You’re so refreshing to me, Elsa. You’re only beginning and so full of life.” I wanted to tell her that I wished I could see her live it all out, but I looked away and forced my hands to my side as I watched cars slowly pull in and park.
“I think you’re the refreshing one, Aidan.” She brought back to the harsh reality, and I watched my life flash before my eyes as I closed them and leaned my head back. “I think that you brought me to life that morning.”
“I believe that they’re opening soon. Want to do some shopping?” I asked her, and she nodded. “Is that charged or do you want to leave it in the car?” Elsa looked confused, and I smiled and took it from her for a quick look. “I think it needs to be plugged into a wall for a few hours, and you’ll be all set.” I tucked the phone under the seat after I unplugged it to keep the car secure.
“Okay,” she replied as she pretended to understand what I’d just said. I chuckled and got out to walk to her side of the car and open her door. Elsa seemed to be getting used to that, and she smiled at me as she got out of the car and took in the groups of people that were walking towards the stores with a curious gaze. I wasn’t a regular enough to know a lot about any particular store, but I watched as girls her age went into individual shops over others as she took it all in with a wide-eyed gaze. Elsa would stop here and there in front of a store and then she looked at me at what I recognized as one of the most popular stores for women her age. “I think I want to go inside.”
I watched as the girls that worked inside gathered around her and listened to her talk about her adventure. They asked her favorite colors and soon they were bringing her one dress after the other to try on, along with some skirts and jeans with some shirts. I knew that it was a discount price here, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it wasn’t since she looked so happy. “Aidan?” Elsa called, and all of the girls looked at me with interest as I only saw her. “Help me?”
I walked through the crowd and stood beside her as she held several hangers and stared at me with a need that I’d never known. I took some of them from her and looked towards the back where the fitting rooms were located. “Let’s do this.”
I took a seat as she disappeared into the room and started to try on the clothes. The first dress was a paisley pattern that fitted her tightly and showed me her lean body with just enough curves to make her one of the most beautiful women that I’d ever seen. It was short, just down to her lower thighs and it cupped her breasts just right as I forced my face to remain neutral. This was going to be a long day.
I told her that it looked great on her and the blue in the pattern brought out her eyes. She gave me a broad smile and danced back into the dressing room to try something else on. Every dress looked better on her, and the jeans fit her gorgeous ass perfectly as she spun around to show me the shirt that she was wearing. There were longer skirts and even shorter ones than the first dress. Everything was stylish and not too revealing though she still managed to look incredibly sexy to me.
As many women as I’d dated, nobody had ever struck me like this woman did.
It was a black skirt that did me in with the way that it clung to her ass and thighs. I didn’t know what she was wearing with it, but I excused myself to use the restroom since she had some help from the girls that worked there.
I walked into the room and leaned against the counter as I looked in the mirror. To someone like Elsa, I look fine, but I knew that others that know me well wouldn’t agree. I wondered how long that I had left as I went over the day in my mind and the death sentence less than a year rang in my mind from my visit to the doctor four months ago.
I’d decided that day not to pursue treatment against my family’s wishes. They told me that I was too young only to give up but at that point, I’d seen too much to want to go on any longer. Cancer that I had made it something of a case of voluntary suicide, according to some. I had gone with the plan of planning this trip for a month, just some time to myself to visit some of the most meaningful women in my life and to give us both a little closure before I was gone.
I thought that was all that it would be, but life had bigger plans for me.
I had been angry when the car broke down in front of that farm at the time. It slowed down my trip in my eyes, and that was the only way that I was going to see it until Elsa walked into the dining room for supper that evening. Was it only a mere few days ago?
Even in her conservative dress, she lit up the room like no other women ever had, or could do again. I saw her fire and her compassion in her melting cerulean eyes, and I’d never forget her laugh.
Here, in the clothes that I’d watched her try on, she was radiant. Sexy. I looked down as my body ignored my silent plea not to react to her but those long legs of hers in those skirts and dresses was almost too much to take. The way the shirts clung to her petite frame drove me crazy, and I rinsed off my hands with water as I urged my erection to go down and away.
Not only was my company enjoyable, but I wanted her more than I’ve ever wanted anyone in my life. I knew that she was too innocent to treat like I had the women in my past and that she needed to ease into rumspringa, not dive in head first. I knew that I would show her the best first time that she’d ever know, but that needed to be on her terms. She needed time, though I hoped deep inside that it wasn’t going to be too much longer.
I splashed my face with some cold water before I returned to the store to find her in a pretty pink sundress that clung to her shoulders and breasts while it fell to her lower thighs and reminded myself again that she needed time. The girls had a generous stack of clothing behind the counter, and it angered me that Elsa looked guilty and ashamed about the fact that I was buying them.
I’d do anything to take that look out of her eyes, and I pulled out my credit card and told the raven-haired girl behind the counter to ring all of it up. I did it with defiance in some ways like she’d shown me in the car right after she got in and told me to take her to the electronics store.
I could see that the women in the store found it appealing by the way that they stared at me and nudged one another, but the only person that mattered to me was Elsa. I watched as they folded the items and placed them in bags before handing them to me and I looked into her face once the transaction was completed.
I saw the tears there and watched as she took a couple of the bags from my hands before she thanked the staff in a soft voice and walked out. The last thing I heard was that one of them would happily be Amish if it was me they got to run away with, and I rolled my eyes. They had nothing on my lovely Elsa.
We walked around to a few other stores where I insisted on getting her some shoes to match her new clothes, and I even talked her into a makeover at one of the cosmetic stores.
It was fun to see her be so spoiled, though I watched the girl like a hawk to make sure that she didn’t make Elsa look cheap. They merely highlighted her eyes with some light liner and mascara along with some foundation that matched her beautiful pale skin. The darker plum toned gloss gave her just enough shine and color to take my breath away before I considered kissing it right off of her tempting lips.
“She’d like one of everything that you used,” I spoke up as Elsa gave me another horrified look.
“No, Aidan. That’s too much,” she protested as the Blonde that applied the cosmetics nodded and smiled. Her name was Rachel, and she was kind to Elsa as she complimented her again and again.
“She looks so pretty. I agree,” Rachel told me as Elsa looked back into the mirror. She was still my sweet and currently innocent girl but even more dangerous to me and possibly herself at this moment. I knew that I was starting to head into a dangerous place with this woman, but I didn’t and couldn’t stop at this point.