Alie eyed Emily’s idle drink that sat temptingly on the bar. “If you don’t mind my saying so, you look like you’ve been travelling a while,” she said after the silence between them stretched, friend-like.

Instantly on guard, “Brook” coughed a little, shrugged, and coughed again, as a preamble to deflecting further questions along those lines. “Looking that bad, huh? I thought the shower I took half an hour ago would have helped rinse the tired out,” she paused to take another sip from her drink, “but I guess it didn’t work.”

She threw Alie a wry grin. To her relief, she was rescued from having to reveal anything further by Emily’s arrival.

“Here you go …”

“Brook,” Alie cut in.

“Brook. Hope you like it. They didn’t have many shirts, just touristy types. And this one seemed close to your style. You’re a four, right? You and Alie seemed to have the same body-type, and she’s a four, so …”

“Brook” stood and smiled back with a quick shake of her hand. Emily seemed to be one of those people who could talk a mile a minute.

“Emily, right?” She grinned as she took the offered box. It had been needlessly packaged like a gift by the shop, which made “Brook” wonder about how much this little accident had cost Emily. “Depends on the sizing scale the brand uses, but, you’re in the ballpark. I’m usually a four or six in American shirts. And, again, you really didn’t have to … but thanks!”

Emily grabbed her drink from Alie’s grasp and glared at her friend. She smiled sweetly at “Brook” before taking a long sip from it.

“We’re not discussing my getting you this shirt any longer,” she declared. She held her hand out as if to offer “Brook” assistance as “Brook” began to peel her soft blazer off.

“This is a very cool jacket, Brook,” she observed with a half-smile, as if thinking about what material the jacket was made out of.   She rubbed her fingers over one of the lapels.   “Vicuna wool? It hangs so well and feels smooth.”

“Brook” raised her eyebrows in surprise at the accuracy of Emily’s guess. She nodded and motioned with her free hand towards the rest rooms of the lounge.