(department store loop / dessert outing / purchase hesitation)
I’m at a 49-store department store, repeatedly passing around the bus stop out front.
One of the floors is dedicated to restaurants, mostly very fancy places, all offering lunch and dessert sets.
After a lecture one day, I go there with College Roommate S and we try cakes at one of the Italian places.
At night, I return with Ex-boyfriend T.
On the first floor, there’s a general store selling soft, fuzzy loft shawls. He tries on a blue one and hints that I should buy it for him for Christmas. I agree, but I don’t want to buy it in front of him.
I go upstairs to look around the restaurant floor again, then come back down and usher him outside so I can go to the register alone.
I buy a few other things as well, but when I’m checking out and trying to get my rewards cards ready, I realize I never put the shawl on the counter. I have to ask them to redo the receipt.