Return of the supreme Consortium heir

Chapter 4

Via's heart was filled with excitement as she wandered through the boutique, surrounded by an array of stunning clothing and accessories. The excitement of indulging in the shopping spree she had so much longed for filled her with an infectious joy as she looked forward to flaunting her own expensive things before her friends by the time she was done.

She just couldn't take her eyes off the elegant dresses, the chic tops and stylish accessories that the boutique had to offer. Indeed, Pheonix was a treasure trove of fashion as  each cloth seemed to beckon to her, inviting her to explore the real beauty of fashion.

With a sense of admiration, Via moved from one rack to the next, running her fingers at the fabric of each beautiful dress, almost unable to resist the urge to indulge in a bit of everything.

Brandley, seeing that Via was already picking more than he had planned for, had to remind her of the agreement.

"Via...," He called out.

"Brandley, can you see what I'm seeing?" She asked, picking up a dress to ask if it'll look good on her. Turning to the mirror, she held the dress over her body admiring and imagining how beautiful It'll be on her if she got it for herself. 

"I'll take this one too." She said, smiling at Brandley who wanted nothing more than for her to stick to the agreed budget.

Immediately, the sales person moved away, Brandley pulled Via gently and told her that she was picking more than they budgeted.

"Via, we agreed on a budget of $150,000. What you've picked out already exceeds that amount." Brandley said.

"Come on, Brandley, Are you trying to embarrass me or what? Via retorted.

"It's not like that Via.., it's just that..."

Just what?" Via said, becoming furious that Brandley would caution her in public. 

 

"Let's just stick to the budget please."

"If you say so," she scoffed picking just a few more things to the ones she had picked earlier.

After picking the few things they could, they went straight to the cashier to have their bills calculated out for them. Brandley could hear his heart pound as it was obvious that the stuffs which Via had picked were more than the budget he had planned for the shopping spree.

As the lady on the cashier stand scanned through the items, calculating their prices, Brandley could already feel his sweat forcing themselves out his pores. Even the air conditioner couldn't prevent him from sweating, his legs shaking. He could only but plead to God in his mind not to face embarrassment as every scanned item hit his heart like thunderbolt.

Finally, the machine beeped signalling the total cost of all the things they had purchased. He could almost imagine himself shutting his eyes as he waited for the cashier to say the bill.

"Sir, your bill is $300,000." The lady said.

"Excuse me," Brandley said just to be sure he had heard right.

"Yes sir, your bill is $300,000." The lady repeated for Brandley to hear very well.

Brandley, without saying a word, looked towards Via who was pretending not to have heard what the cashier had said.

"Why are you looking at me?" Via asked, her expression hardening with a subtle hiss.

"I'm sorry ma'am, we'll just remove a couple of things." Brandley apologized.

"It's fine sir." The cashier replied.

Turning to Via, Brandley politely asked her to remove few things so they could arrive at his budget of $150,000.

Via felt so unhappy but she had no choice but to oblige. Reluctantly she took back her stuffs and removed a couple of things. Brandley made sure she removed the ones that were very expensive even if they were the ones that Via had really loved to take home to show off to her friends.

"Via, I'm really sorry we have to remove these stuffs but all I came with is $150,000 and that was the agreed amount." Brandley apologized.

"It's fine Brandley! Let's go and settle the bills for these ones and leave. I'm not enjoying this shopping spree any longer. I just want to go home." Via replied. Her response had really come as a surprise to Brandley as he couldn't help but wish Via knew what he had to go through to get the money.

"You're not happy, are you?" Brandley asked trying to show his understanding even if he knew he didn't have to, considering the fact that Via requested for a shopping spree of $150,000 which was what he had with him. But all the same, he still went ahead to show his concern as he could understand how she was feeling that she had to remove some of the items she had picked.

"Of course I'm not. Can we just settle the bills and leave this place?" Via blurted out, her frustration evident.

And so, they went back to the cashier to scan the remaining items. Brandley was almost certain that the remaining items would not break his budget and with the confidence, he waited for the cashier to call out his bill.

"Sir, your bill is $145,000." The cashier announced Brandley could almost hear himself heave a sigh of relief knowing that he would still have a change of $5,000 to settle a few more expenses after the shopping spree.

He tried smiling at Via but she wasn't moved by it. The fact that she had removed the items she loved from her collection just to meet up with Brandley's budget was already pissing her off. 

Brandley with a sense of pride brought out his debit card to pay up for the stuffs they've bought. It was the first time he'll be buying stuffs worth over a $100,000 since he was born. Upon handing over the card to the cashier, Brandley watched her run her fingers through the debit machine. 

"Your pin, sir," the cashier requested.

Brandley confidently inputted his pin only to be met with the greatest surprise of his life.

"This card user has been blocked!"

Brandley furrowed his brow unable to believe his eyes. Via looked at him shaking her head in disappointment. The cashier's eyes were fixed on him with the machine screaming at him with the notification which was still on display.

"This card user has been blocked!"