RP: Holiday shopping

[erica_allen]

Date: November 27, 2011
Characters: Erica Allen, Ariel Crabtree
Location: Target
Status: Private
Summary: Erica didn't want to go shopping alone and thought it might be nice to use this as an excuse to get to know Ariel better.
Completion: Complete

Comments

[ariel_crabtree]

Ariel had been surprised but pleased when Erica had asked her to join her shopping. Though she and Harley regularly hit up thrift places and such, they didn't do a lot of shopping-shopping, though partly because Ariel usually couldn't afford a lot. She never minded looking, though, and it often gave her good ideas. Most of her gifts would still be handcrafted this year, but she never turned down looking to see if she could find something else.

She shrugged her purse strap further up on her shoulder, smiling. "Not really. My grandmama always said to start with big money items and work down, though. So what are you thinking of getting?" she asked curiously.

[erica_allen]

Erica nodded at Ariel's response, thinking that her grandmama had a good idea with that. The only problem was that Erica had no idea what she was actually shopping for. She sighed and started pushing the cart forward, figuring that it wasn't going to be any help to her standing at the front of the store. "That's just it, I have no clue," she answered.

She bypassed the clothes section as she definitely wasn't shopping for herself, though she was almost distracted by a cute sweater. She turned her attention back to Ariel. "I need to figure out what I'm getting people. Never really had people to get gifts for," she admitted with a little shrug, not wanting to dwell on it, just stating a fact. "I do know I want to get something for Leilani." And then she realized Ariel wouldn't know who that was. "That's J.J, my boyfriend's niece. She's just a couple months old," she explained, and it was clear she was very fond of the baby girl.

[ariel_crabtree]

“Awww,” Ariel said, lips pursing faintly in thought. Well, that gave a lot of room for thought, at least, if Erica didn’t have a starting point. She didn’t know how helpful she would be, given that she didn’t know Erica’ particularly well, or the people Erica knew, but she could definitely be a sounding board. “Mm, yeah, I get that a bit. Only got a few people myself,” she said with a shrug.

“Ooooh, cute. They’re adorable that tiny,” she said with a grin of remembrance. “It’s been awhile, but I think I can come up with some ideas for that. Let’s go look at the baby stuff, and then we’ll start tackling the grown-ups,” she suggested.

There was all sorts of stuff. “Little girls are so much easier to shop for, you’re lucky,” she told Erica. “Are you thinking clothes, or toys, or what? Any idea?” she inquired.

[erica_allen]

Erica thought it might make her a bad person that she was a little relieved that Ariel didn't have very many people, either, but it was more that she was relieved that the other girl didn't think less of her for not having had people to buy gifts before in the past.

"Lei is pretty darn cute. She smiles and laughs and stuff already, it's kind of neat." She didn't know anything about babies, but it seemed kind of amazing to her that a baby could be so responsive after only two months of being alive. "Sounds like a plan," she said at Ariel's suggestion, shifting the cart toward the baby section.

"I wouldn't know, I've never shopped for kids, boys or girls, before," she admitted with a little laugh. She tilted her head slightly as she considered Ariel's question. "Hmm, I'm not sure. Do they have toys for babies that little? Kinda always thought they just kinda lay around at that age." She wasn't sure how much Ariel had been around babies, but odds were that it was more than she had, at least Ariel seemed more familiar with the topic.