Magnolia Boutique
Magnolia Boutique is best known as a fashionable clothing shop for women, children and pets. Though deceptively small from outside, there are rows upon rows of clothing on beautifully designed wooden racks and shelves. At the center of the shop is a large, fake magnolia tree in full pink blossom. Attached to the trunk are signs that point the way to the different sections of the shop. Half of the main floor is open to the second floor ceiling, with the other half beneath the overhanging second floor balcony. Skylights help keep the store looking airy and bright during the day, but fluorescent lighting keeps the store looking bright well into the darkness of night.
Toward the back of the shop are the dressing rooms, and a flight of stairs which leads up to the second floor. A lift service is also available for customers that are disabled, or have a stroller with them.
A small coffee stand sits at the front of the store, offering a variety of coffees and teas for the customers. Oft times, shoppers can be found nearby, sipping coffee and chatting.
The evening is beginning to wear on, which means that Magnolia Boutique will be closing up shop soon. There is only one client in the shop right now, trying on a half-priced wedding dress. Megan would be helping the woman, but Maggie herself is back there taking care of the fitting. That is why on the warm April evening, the failed clothing designer is out front, folding some shirts that have been left in a mess by nosy teenagers passing through. Her manner of dress is almost business casual turned quirky by the heart-shaped sunglasses that rest upon her head.
This shop is definitely NOT where Bailey would normally go, but Cameron has strongly suggested that she spruce up her wardrobe lately. This boutique probably isn't even what HE had in mind, but a customer was nice enough to recommend the place. And so here Bailey is. And she just looks thrilled about it. Currently wearing a pair of black & blue arm warmers, a blue tank top, black ripped jeans, and old scuffed boots… yeah, Bailey might be in need of a few new items for her closet. Everything on her looks rather threadbare, prone to ripping at any moment. Not that it seems too much to bother her. The boutique puzzles the girl. Instead of going towards the racks in the front, she heads towards the first black piece of clothing that she sees near the back, stumbling right past Megan.
Dingle-dingle goes the bell above the door, and Megan's eyes go directly to the customer. "Can I hel—" The customer is heading toward the back of the store. Taking her cue from Maggie, she just quietly finishes folding the designer t-shirt, and places it neatly atop the pile. Only once she's sure that the pile is perfectly aligned and proper does she return her attention to the very out-of-place looking young woman. "To be honest, that really wouldn't suit you. That line is made for an extremely older woman. It would make you look blocky here," she says, pointing at her own hips. "And bulgy here," she says motioning over her stomach.
Bailey doesn't hear Megan's first interrupted strains of 'can I hel—'. Or at least she does a REALLY good job pretending not to have. She takes her time looking at the gawdily patterned clothing before Megan comes over. The black haired girl's words make her blush furiously, and she looks down at the ground, shuffling her feet a bit. "Oh. I was afraid of that. Really…" She pauses, trying to figure out how to word it all carefully. What comes out of her mouth is something like, "Iwasjustlookingkthxbai." And then she's starting towards the front door. Oh no. Actual human interaction that she's not being paid for. Danger Will Robinson!
"I can sho—" The young woman is taking off. Megan forces herself, for Maggie's sake, to be pleasant and not start mimicking this woman's frightened kitten attitude. "We do have a section this way," she says, cutting Bailey's path to the door off. "That you may like." Not anything that really belongs to Magnolia, but a small corner where she's allowed to showcase her commission work. "Maybe not exactly your preferred style, but I'm sure we can find something that's a little less threadbare." She's really fighting against herself here, and it's showing via the slightly strained smile.
When a 'roadblock' is presented to Bailey, she flushes terribly and is forced to make eye contact with Megan. "Oh. Okay then." She looks about to open her mouth to say something else before shutting it again quickly. Instead, she turns around and awkwardly shifts her weight onto one foot as she waits for Megan to lead the way to the special section. The comment about her clothing being threadbare only makes her blush all the more and wrap her arms around her chest before she starts to fidget, eventually settling for putting her hands in her pockets.
The awkward shifting is noted, but she nods instead of copying it. Megan is not going to embarrass Maggie. Can't afford to. The small little side section is drifted into, and she begins to awkwardly move things around until she comes up with two tank tops. One in a charcoal grey, with a fringed neckline, the other black and white stripes with a little bow in the front. Both of these are held out to Bailey. "There's more, I just can't really show this stuff to the regular clientele, so you'll have to bear with me while I did it out."
Okay, these DO appeal to Bailey. She takes them both in her arms and holds them up in front of one of the floorlength mirrors, eventually settling on the top with the bow in front. "They're both nice, but this one looks a little more lightweight. Going to need that sooner than later." She hands Megan back the other tank top, afraid to put it in the wrong spot on the rack. She can tell when people are annoyed by her, which is more frequent than not. And boy, is she feeling it. "One of your customers referred me here…"
Megan is far from annoyed. She's honestly just trying her damnedest not to succumb to her chameleon nature. Not after the last time that happened in Maggie's shop. It's with a smile that she takes the tank top back, carefully hiding it at the back of the rack. "Casual, dressy, or flirty?" She's having difficulty discerning what the woman is actually looking for at the moment which is a new feeling for her. "I'm going to guess it was Mrs. Dempsey?" That woman has a very awful tendency of trying to make everyone dress like she does.
Bailey grins a little bit. "Oh, so she's as notorious here as she is where I work. I'm glad it's not just us. Yeah, she's, uh. Interesting, to say the very least." Bailey can't help but laugh a little bit, blushing as she considers Megan's question. "I don't think I pull off the latter two very well at all. I'll take casual." There's a pause. She realizes she hasn't told Megan what she's looking for, really. "My boss said I should get some new clothes. He's pretty cool, so he doesn't really care what I wear… as far as style goes. So I can dress how I want."
"Likely worse," Megan says with a very small snicker. She's got to be quiet about that since a lot of business comes their way thanks to Mrs. Dempsey. "Hmm. Well let's see. I bet I can find you something that will encompass all three areas, and suit you exceedingly well." There's almost a tone in her voice that implies a wager, though she doesn't ask for one. "Maggie is like that, though I prefer to look the part of upscale citizen for the job." Her choice, not a forced issue. She actually likes wearing the business clothes around Maggie. Turning back to the racks, she goes through until she finds a dress. Or three. Each is patterned, each is styled differently, but all could fit in any of the three categories. "Anything appealing?"
"Ooooo!" Bailey says out loud, not having time to be embarrassed about that one. She makes a grabby hands for a black dress with a small print of cherries on it, and a red sash around the waist. She takes it and holds it up to herself. "I'd take advantage of that dress code if I were you. Not many jobs will let you do that kind of thing much anymore. The day that Cameron's gets a dress code, I am so booking." As it is, the man has already been discussing company shirts if Bailey doesn't start coming to work in something without holes all over it. "I like all of these… but I can't afford too much today. I should probably get a pair of jeans too. Or find a seamstress."
Not the brightest at mathematics, Megan does some quick brain calculations. "Why don't you take the two items you like the most, I'll put the other two away for you, and you can probably still afford a pair of jeans or a nice pair of khakis." Those would be out in the main shop, since denim isn't her favorite material at the moment. "Dress codes aren't awful. You just have to learn how to manipulate them and accessorize." The big, heart-shaped glasses are pointed to, and she grins at the girl. "Besides, you just found one. I'm not as high class as Maggie's regular contributors, and I don't do a single thing in bulk, but I do have reasonable rates." Which Maggie gets a cut off due to letting her have the tiny little alcove.
It takes Bailey a long moment of consideration. She's obviously a tad fickle judging from the way that she carefully looks everything over, puts a few things back, removes them again… and finally, she ends up with the bow top and the cherry dress. "I do like those glasses." It takes her a minute before she realizes. "Oh, you do alterations? How much? I could use some patches put on things, maybe some things sewed up… err, I mean, if you do that sort of thing. Wait…" She eyes the clothes, then Megan. "You made these?"
Bailey is given a long look while she tries to decide what she wants, which only makes Megan giggle. When she makes her choices, she motions to take them from her, so that she'll have both hands free to dig through the pile of jeans. "Thanks, I bought them at a five and dime six years ago." On her road trip which wound her up in Dallas. "I can do alterations, depending on what it is or how long it takes, ten bucks an hour or thirty dollars an item. Whichever winds up being cheaper." A sly little grin is offered to the girl and she nods. "Yep. It's why they're hidden out of normal view. A lot of Maggie's patrons have no sense of adventure."
"But this stuff is great. How tragic," Bailey says, frowning a bit as she takes the items from Megan and lets out a quiet sigh. "Sounds like some of the people we get in our store. A lot of them walk in wanting the glurge of the week. Hellooooo, there's a reason we're called Cameron's CULT Classics!" Minor tangent. Bailey looks a tad embarrassed afterwards and smiles. "Hmm, that sounds pretty decent, actually. You'll have to give me your number or something so… or I can come by here. Sorry, that was weird of me, in this big city… people randomly asking for your phone number. I usually threaten them with the police."
"That's where I recognized you from!" Megan seems to be amused by this. "Haven't been in there for months." She's been suffering a bit of a leather fetish lately. Almost quite literally. Leather pants, leather jackets, leather caps. It will pass. Her weird design quirks usually do. "Girl, if I thought you were trying to pick me up… oh hell who am I kidding? You'd still get the number. Business is business." Slipping out of the alcove, she heads toward the counter. Grabbing up one of her Magnolia business cards, she flips it over and writes her personal number on the back of it.
Oh god, what. Hitting on. What. Bailey turns a shade of beet red and freezes in place for a minute before she starts to laugh. Because that totally must have been a joke, RIGHT? "That's funny." She says before clearing her throat. Now that Megan mentions it, the other girl IS a bit familiar as well. "Oh, I've seen you too. You came in a few times. For the old horror. The stuff I like. Good times." She says before holding her hand out for the business card. "This stuff is amazing. I can't believe you made it all yourself. I wish I was that artistic. I've always wanted to design fashion. The best I can do is stick figures with rags."
"It's a passion." Designing clothing that is. She's not going to get into the fact that she ran off from her one chance at entering F.I.T in New York, all to follow a boy here. "The clothing, I mean. I've been working with it since I was fairly young. One of these days…" Sighing, she tries to offer a smile. But between the remembered upset, and picking up more and more on Bailey's attitude, it's just difficult. "We all start out somewhere. Even stick figures need clothing."
"Hmm. Aspirations are nice to have. I don't have any, personally. I like to set my goals really low so I'm never disappointed." She glances down to the clothes and lets out a soft sigh. "Really, these are… great. I keep saying that, don't I? I'm babbling. God. I'm sorry. I'm not this weird, except that I drank a two liter of Dr. Pepper for breakfast. And had a bag of licorice. Red, not black." That's very important.
"Red licorice isn't licorice. It's licorice-style candy." The difference is that Megan can't stand real licorice, thus cannot eat the black licorice at all. "It's better." A rack of darker colored jeans is pointed to. "I should probably warn you, those are designer." She can't come out and say that a place in the mall offers a decent knock-off brand for less than half the price, but she can give a warning to a girl who's on a budget. "Thanks, and you're not weird."
Bailey considers it for a moment. "I'm just going to take whatever's cheapest… jeans are jeans, right? I'll probably be able to afford something more 'me' a little later in the month." She shrugs her shoulders a little bit before she picks out what's cheapest — still probably a bit more than she wanted to spend today on jeans of all things, but she's so psyched about the dress and tank top, she's willing to let it slide. Bailey starts to carry it all over toward the counter. "I'll have to save up for the dentist soon too if I keep eating the way I do."
"They are. With the designers, you're pretty much paying for the name. I won't deny that the stitching quality is far better, but if you're looking for just a pair of jeans…" Megan leaves it up in the air, but she's trying to make it obvious that there are cheaper places for the denim. "Nah, if you brush your teeth religiously, you'll be fine. I lived on a complete junk food diet for well over a year." Thanks to the road trip, and being nearly broke when arriving in Dallas. Junk food was just cheaper than eating super healthy. The jeans are rung up first, separately. Bailey may notice a little bit of a discount on them, thanks to an employee discount code. The other two items are rung up afterward, since they're not technically going to be on Magnolia Boutique's books. The grand total is just a little under a hundred dollars.
Bailey either chooses to be oblivious, or sincerely misses it. The discount isn't mentioned, though if there's a receipt, she'll probably find out far too late. When she sees the price, she's fairly relieved about it. "Oh, man. I met my budget thankfully." She was pretty worried about it, but eventually she retrieves her brown leather wallet from her pocket (bearing the inscription BAD MOTHERFUCKER) and extracts four twenties and two tens from it, laying them down on the counter. She'll have about fifteen dollars to eat off of all week, but somehow Bailey feels this was a sound purchase. "I'll be sure to give you a call soon. I have a ton of jeans I need sewn up and it's cheaper than buying some new ones. Well, I'll actually let you be the judge of that."
"Megan." The name is on the card. "God. I very sincerely hope Detective Garnez isn't the one you get. She's a bitch." Only because she tried to arrest Hyde, and that never sits well with her. Hyde winding up in jail means her savings goes the way of the wind in bail money. "My pleasure, Bailey. I'll have to return the favor and come in for something gory soon at the video store."
Bailey pockets the card now too, having neglected to have done it before. She's been white-knuckling it awkwardly since it was given to her. "Luckily I never really HAVE had to call the cops. Except for this time…" Then she blushes and clears her throat. "I'll tell you about it when you come into the store the next time. I should go though… and probably try some of these on." She's not terribly worried about them not fitting — she's fairly confident that Megan will take them in for her. They looked to have been pretty solid fits in the mirror though. "I'll give you a call soon. Bye!" She says, before she's retreating quickly back out to the teeny tiny puke green car that she calls her own these days.