The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Zoe

5th Avenue was, as always, filled with upscale boutique stores and designer brand shops. All of which were a bit more than Zoe wanted to deal with, even with the understanding that she could spend a bit more on a good coat. She was hoping that Cass would understand that to her that meant perhaps mid-tier fashion brands at most. Honestly, Zoe would settle for clothing just from a nicer department store.

Thankfully, once they got walking, it seemed like Cass was on the same page. They strolled down the street, walking straight by most of the big name-brand fashion stores that Zoe was sure she wouldn't be able to easily afford. Especially when it came to an already expensive base item like a winter coat.

"Maybe we should've met up a little bit further down." Cass laughed as they crossed 54th Street. "I don't shop on 5th very often, so I kinda forgot that the upper streets were all expensive stops."

Zoe just shrugged. "It's fine. I don't usually shop here either."

"Online?"

"Online." Zoe confirmed. "Or at least a solid chunk is, anyway. I get a lot of basics at department stores."

"Here, here." Cass said, making a toasting motion with an empty hand. "No reason to buy expensive plain tee shirts and undershirts."

"Right?"

"Maybe we should've just gone the department store route, then. They usually have a solid selection of nice coats."

"Surely they'd be absolutely mobbed on the Sunday before Christmas." Zoe said.

"Look around. It's not like we're exactly in the wastelands out here, either."

Zoe nodded. To be fair, Cass was right. While the train car on the way in wasn't incredibly crowded, it certainly was by the time she made it into Manhattan. And the streets were absolutely overrun with last minute shoppers.

"It'd be a long walk down to 34th street." Zoe said, eyeing the street sign for 53rd street.

Cass shrugged. "The subway is right there." She pointed to the unmistakable blue-green fence around the entrance. "Why not just hop a train to 34th? It'll drop us literally right there."

"Sure," Zoe shrugged. "I know 5th Ave is famous for its walkable high-end shopping, but that's probably not for me."

"Fair. New York is expensive enough without dropping extra money on clothing. Unless that's your hobby of course." Cass added.

"Thinking about your gaming expenses?"

"Always." Cass nearly sighed. "I feel like some of them are pretty standard ones. My PC itself is obviously more than average, but a good desk and chair should be normal for everyone."

"Didn't you say one time that you had a several hundred dollar office chair?" Zoe asked with a snicker. "That's bound to be well over the average."

"Sure, but I feel like you should get good furniture for things you spend a lot of time in or on. Desk chair, bed, couch - those sorts of things should be…well, maybe not expensive, but certainly higher quality where possible." Cass sounded defensive about her take on it, but Zoe didn't really think she needed to be.

"I agree with you, don't worry." Zoe chuckled. "Admittedly, most of the stuff in my apartment is quite old. Some of it even came with me from my parents' house. Like my desk chair is probably, I don't know, ten years old? Maybe a bit more? But it's still in good shape and has good back support."

"I had one of those when I moved out too. An old, beat up chair that was still comfy to sit in and was otherwise quite nice. Sadly, it didn't last the move between my last, even smaller, apartment and the Bronx one. The movers broke it."

"Aw, that sucks."

"Yeah. I probably could've fixed it if I had wanted to." Cass said, looking up at the sky in thought. "Two of the casters were broken and wouldn't stay in the base correctly, so if I moved too fast, the whole chair would slump to one side. I felt like, at least without fixing it, it was probably dangerous so I got a new one."

"And you immediately jumped for an expensive, high-end chair?"

"Yep." Cass laughed. "I had just gotten my first couple of pay checks at our job, and basically half of an entire check went into my chair. I was so excited. Honestly, I'm still excited every time I sit down in it. It's a great chair."

"You sound like an old man talking about his recliner."

Cass shrugged with a great lopsided grin. "I spend about as much time in it as one."

Zoe snorted as they stepped down the stairs to the subway platform. They could hear the train approaching, so they picked up their pace, along with everyone else around them trying to get on the train. Thankfully, it seemed like they lucked out with almost all locals, or at least well-informed travelers, as everyone ahead of them was quick and smooth as they swiped tickets and cards through the turn-stiles, allowing them to slip onto the train just before the doors closed.

The train was very crowded, leaving the two of them standing among the crowd. The number of people made it difficult for Zoe to comfortably reach the handles above her head when people were between her and them, which left her to occasionally hold onto Cass' arm like she had done before. Zoe simply did her best to ignore the growing heat on her cheeks from embarrassment. Thankfully, she figured the cold weather disguised it well. And if Cass noticed, she said nothing.

Thankfully, they were only there for a few stops, meaning a few minutes at most. While on the crowded train car, they were both quiet, which Zoe deemed as fair, given how loud the train was. It wasn't so much that anyone was being distinctly loud as much as the sheer amount of individual softer conversations built up into a constant loud background sound. And that one guy's phone going off over and over again.

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It also didn't help when the crowd moved a lot as they passed the station near Rockefeller Center, with a huge swath of people trying to get off the train while a group just as large tried to get on.

It all ended up jostling the two of them around a bunch. The press of bodies didn't give enough room to actually fall over, only really leading to both Zoe and Cass equally stumbling into each other. Zoe was at least glad that both she and Cass seemed to agree that bumping into each other was the better option than other people. Even if it just led to Zoe stumbling into Cass' chest a few times. On the plus side, once all the movement passed, Cass' arm was a steady place to hold on again.

When they arrived at their stop, there was once again a lot of movement. 34th street was a similarly popular stop, which led to the same scramble of movement. Zoe had a solid burst of jealousy when Cass slipped her arm through Zoe's and was able to use her height to help navigate the crowd. Zoe, sitting at her five-foot-nothing, had to settle for seeing through the crowd in whatever glimpses she could get. Having Cass lead her through the mess of holiday shoppers was nice though, once she got over the height-jealousy.

As part of the big crowd, they left the platform, took the stairs up aboveground again, and moved straight toward the department store, which was thankfully right outside the stop. Hell, it wasn't even a minute walk between the top of the stairs and the doors to the store.

As they stepped in, the crowd seemed just as thick inside. Cass gave Zoe's arm a light tug, pointing up. "We gotta go up for Women's."

Zoe nodded. "Lead the way."

Cass did exactly that. As they broke away from the larger crowd by the entrance, Cass let Zoe's arm go as they walked to the elevator and took it up to the floor with the coats. Zoe came here to shop fairly often, but it still never failed to impress her. Most department stores were two, maybe three floors, but this one was quite a bit bigger than that, and each of the floors were just as packed with stuff as any other.

"Well," Cass said, looking over the floor that was full of coats and other in-season winter clothing. "We've clearly got our work cut out for us."

Zoe let out a long breath as she took in the sheer number of racks full of coats. "Oh boy."

"Let's go!" Cass pointed toward the racks and dramatically took a big step forward. Zoe chuckled at her friend's antics and followed behind her.

"Got any ideas on color?"

"Black."

Cass snorted. "I had a feeling."

"Fair - but I'm actually thinking of a nice, lighter gray, maybe?" Zoe said with a chuckle of her own. "If I go for something in a similar style to yours with the length, full-on black might be too much."

Cass bounced her head back and forth, considering. "I think you could make it work, but a lighter gray would probably be easier, yeah."

"I thought so too."

"So, whatcha wanna try on first?" Cass grinned so wide that Zoe was worried she'd hurt her face.

She just shrugged, then started slipping between the racks of coats. There were plenty of options, and she shifted the hangars looking through them all. "Hmm, not these."

"Plenty of others." Cass said, holding up one from a different rack. It was full black, and more waist length than knee length, but it still looked good. And probably warm. Cass shook it teasingly, "Wanna try it on?"

Zoe snickered and shrugged. "Why not?" She took the proffered coat from Cass before spinning back to the racks. "But let's find a few more before we go to the changing room."

Cass raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Zoe? It's a jacket. Just put it on."

"Oh. Right. I can do that." Zoe once again looked down at the jacket draped over her forearm. For the moment, she hung it back on the rack in front of her to pull her tote bag from her shoulder and offered it to Cass. "Do you mind -"

"Nope, I gotcha." Cass said, and swung the bag onto her own shoulder, then reached out with more grabby hands. "Gimme your coat, too. I'll hold it for you."

Zoe already had the winter jacket half way off when she smiled and nodded to Cass. "Thanks."

Cass neatly folded the thick jacket and draped it over her arm while Zoe slid her first option on. The black coat actually looked nice, and not quite as severe as Zoe had expected it might. Cass had even almost guessed her size correctly, because the fit was snug, just a little too tight. Without her sweater on, it may have even been alright - but with it, it was too much.

But once it was on, Cass grabbed her by the arm and dragged her over to a mirror on the side of a dividing wall with more jackets hung on it. "Lookin' good. What do you think?"

"It's a little tight, but the style is good. And the black isn't as harsh as I thought it would be." Zoe said, admiring the look in the mirror.

"The peacoat material being somewhat rough and textured I think makes the blacks actually look pretty nice, as opposed to, say, a deep black business jacket." Cass met Zoe's eyes in the mirror as she spoke, and she looked happy and content standing a bit behind Zoe with her hands on Zoe's shoulders.

"I think I'd like to find one a little looser in the shoulders and arms, and a bit longer like yours. I like the knee-length one you have - it looks warm." Zoe said quickly.

"You got it." Cass said with a grin, then hopped off back toward the racks, still holding Zoe's bag and jacket.

Zoe watched her go for a moment before she pulled herself out of her own head and took off the peacoat. It went back on its hangar, and over to its spot before Zoe began to shuffle through the options again.

She tried on quite a few in the end. Cass found a rather nice gray one that Zoe really liked, and Zoe tried on a dark red one before deciding that, despite the red going great with her black clothing, the color didn't go so well with her dark hair and paler complexion. Or, at least, she didn't like the way it looked on her. Cass seemed to like it alright, though.

Cass offered her two more, one in a navy blue and another in black, that Zoe liked. The styles were different enough that each were distinct, and she wasn't sure which she liked more. But she had to admit, Cass had taste. And a solid idea of what Zoe would look good in, apparently.

After Zoe tried on another one she picked herself, Cassandra offered her another coat to try. Zoe, trusting her friend at that point, didn't even look at the jacket before sliding it on.

Cass laughed as the coat settled on her shoulders. It was far, far too large, and the hem basically swept over the ground. Zoe was swimming in the garment, her hands not even making it through the sleeves. She would've believed that it was a men's 3XL with the way it hung off her frame.

If it wasn't an expensive coat in the middle of a department store, she would've smacked Cassandra around with the loose sleeves that would've surely made great whips.

Instead. She decided to go for the silly route, holding her hands up so the sleeves drooped comically and she hung her head with a deep sigh.

"Cassandra…"

The other woman was trying to stop herself from laughing too hard, but when Zoe turned to her friend doing her absolute best to look pitiful, like a little girl wearing her father's clothes, Cass let out one of the most undignified snorts either of them had ever heard.

At that point, they both burst into a fit of laughter. Then Zoe did smack Cass with the sleeve, just once, before taking the coat off and placing it neatly back on the hangar.

In the process, she noticed the hangar marker and the tag inside the neck of the jacket.

"Holy fuck, Cass - a Men's Tall 4X?"

The sound that came out of Cassandra that time was something almost inhuman.