英语小故事第322期：The New Clothes (2)

Lorraine tried on each one of the tops. They all fit her well. “I’m getting fat,” she said, looking in the mirror. Quinn agreed, but told her that she could get as wide as the mirror itself and he would still love her. “I’ll never get that fat,” she swore.

One of the sweaters had a snag in it. The girl at the counter said she could give them a discount for the snag. If they wanted to fix it right, however, they should take the sweater to a dry cleaner and have them snip the snag and retie it tightly. She said that if the sweater did unravel, just bring it back for a full refund. They walked out with all three tops and the book. Lorraine told Quinn that she didn't need a book to know how to act like a lady. Quinn told her that a real lady would accept the book graciously with just a simple “thank you.” “Oh, I’m sorry,” Lorraine said, “I didn’t know I was speaking to the author.” Quinn laughed.

The next evening, Lorraine told Quinn that she had returned two of the tops to the store. When she had tried them on at home that morning, she noticed a smell. Sniffing the tops, she realized that two of them had a perfume odor. Some women had worn the tops long enough to transfer their own perfume to the tops. “It took me almost one hour to select those tops. I couldn’t smell the perfume on them last night because that whole store has a candle scent. What a waste of time.”