บท 8: Shop Therapy

Rayne was currently standing outside a popular fashion brands store. She was checking out the outfits displayed in the window, seeing if there was anything she liked.

There was a cute summer dress on display that caught her eye. It had a blue checker print design with ruffles along the bottom. It came in two lengths, one down to the floor and the other was just above the knee.

Rayne decided to go in and see if she could try it on, while looking for anything else she might like. She spent a good hour just walking around the store and grabbing anything she liked. The store associate who was helping out was running back and forth from Rayne to the reserved fitting room she requested, filling up the racks with clothes.

Once Rayne was finally satisfied with her rather large selection she walked into the fitting room to begin trying on the clothes. Unlike how she was when she tried on the bras, Rayne decided to place all of the clothes into her system. She did this mainly to save time, she had picked out so many outfits to 'try on' that she figured she would be in this fitting room until closing time if she actually tried them all on.

She picked out only her favorite pieces to try on, loving them all! She happily twirled around in the fitting room, making the dress she tried on flutter. The next dress she tried on was an elegant evening gown. It was a beautiful forest green color and had a strapless top. The dress hugged her curves until about the lower thigh area, where it lightly flared out in a beautiful cascading ruffle design.

Rayne hardly recognized herself! She wasn't sure when she would use this dress but she knew she needed to have it!

Rayne spent about 30 minutes trying on clothes until she heard her stomach growl. She looked at the time and realized that it was already past lunch time. She double checked her holographic system screen to make sure she didn't miss adding any of the clothes, then picked out a few dresses to buy.

One of the dresses she chose was a sage green chiffon maxi dress. It was long, down to the floor, with a big thigh slit. The color really complemented her skin tone and hair color, making her feel like a fairy.

She chose to buy this dress because she wanted to change into it right away. There was an upscale steakhouse at this mall that she's only ever been to once before, and wanted to go again. The restaurant had a dress code and what she was currently wearing would not be acceptable.

After paying for the two dresses Rayne went over to the mall's public restroom to change into the newly purchased dress. She even pulled out a pair of nude colored heels from her system that she had stored in the previous store.

She walked out feeling great (and hungry) and made her way over to the steakhouse.

Thankfully it was still early enough that the restaurant was not too busy, else she would have been required to make a reservation ahead of time. She requested to be seated in the corner of the restaurant where there were booth style seats, giving more privacy.

After Rayne sat down and placed her order with the waiter, she looked around the restaurant enjoying the décor and ambiance. What quickly caught her eye was a handsome man looking over at her from a table on the opposite side of the small hall she was in. He was one of two that were at that table, and it seemed like they had just finished eating their meals.

Rayne gave the handsome man a shy smile and looked away, feeling a little embarrassed. She was worried that he would misinterpret the situation thinking that she was checking him out.

What Rayne didn't know what that Julian was looking at her from the moment she entered the restaurant. He immediately noticed her as the woman from earlier, even after she changed outfits. For him, it was her radiant aura that he couldn't help but feel attracted to. Noticing the new dress she was wearing, he mentally gave her a compliment and said she had very good taste!

Unfortunately, Noah once again snapped him back to reality.

"Hey boss, we should probably head back to the company. There's still a few things we need to take care of before the banquet tonight".

Julian nodded and the two men stood up to leave. On the way out Julian couldn't help but take one last look over, just in time to see the obvious joy in Raynes eyes as her food got delivered.

The pure happiness her face depicted as she looked over the glistening steak made Julian chuckle as he walked out of the restaurant.

Rayne was ecstatic looking at the well marbled steak in front of her. "This place really holds up to its reputation as a great steakhouse", she mumbled, gulping.

She absolutely had to find a way to get this steak into her system! Luckily she asked for a rather private booth seat, so she only needed to figure out a way to block one viewpoint.

She pulled up the decorative paper bag from the clothing store she had just visited, and placed it directly in front of her. Thankfully the bag was rather large due to her buying multiple dresses, and worked well to hide what she was about to do next.

Rayne took a few seconds to look around, making sure no one was watching and gave the mental command to store the plate of steak that she was touching with her right hand. Moments later the food in front of her vanished and reappeared.

If anyone were to see this, they would think their eyes played tricks on them because of how quickly it happened. This made Rayne happy! She felt like she was getting better at storing and taking out items much faster than previously.

Having stored the food into the system, Rayne finally began to eat. The steak was cooked to perfection and the side dishes were very flavorful! She couldn't help but compare this to the hospital food she lived off of for a whole month she was recovering.

She took her time eating her meal, trying her best to savor every moment, making the people around her think she was being very elegant. But in head she was jumping for joy at the thought that she could now eat this whenever she wanted!!! And with the system 'delete' option, she wouldn't even need to worry about doing the dishes afterwards!

After finishing her late lunch, Rayne swung by a few more clothing stores to try on and store more shirts, t-shirts, jeans, skirts, jackets, dresses and even swimwear!

By the time she was finished the sun had already started to set. She walked out of the mall holding multiple bags, giving people the illusion that she bought a lot of things. Only Rayne knew that the things she bought were only a very, very small portion of what she had managed to store in her system.

Rayne had one more stop before heading home for the day, she needed to get some groceries. While eating from the system was extremely convenient, Rayne enjoyed cooking every once in a while. She wanted to keep some ingredients on hand to be able to enjoy a home cooked meal whenever she was in the mood for it.

Instead of going to a large supermarket, Rayne decided to go to a smaller corner store because it was closer to her home.

She hailed a taxi which drove her to the street right before the one the corner store was on. She asked to be dropped off here because this was the street that typically had small food stalls and coffee shops, and she wanted to check it out.

She walked down the street and a few peddlers called out to her.

"Hey Miss! Come try these delicious lamb skewers!", called out a kind looking man.

"No, No! My chicken street tacos are much better! Try these instead!", the man in the neighboring stall shouted.

"Haha! Yes, don't worry, I will try both of your stalls' specialties!", laughed Rayne.

Soon she was holding a tower of delicious street food. Rayne once again used her backpack as cover to place the newly purchased food into the system while it was still hot. She didn't skimp out, and purchased whatever she found pleasing or novel.

She finally made her way down the street to the corner store and walked in. It was already evening time and not many people were inside.

Rayne only picked out a few staple items since she already had her hands full from the shopping bags from the mall. At one point Rayne decided to throw them away since the contents were already stored, but ended up deciding against it.