Page 64 of Marked By Shadows

By lunchtime I was starving, which was odd for me, and Alex was playing on a mid-arm machine that I’d already indicated we would be buying. It was a non-digital machine, without one of those touchscreens and all the bells and whistles of most of the mid-arm machines that did embroidery as well. He sat down with the sample and began to flow through a dozen stitches, some of them from the books I’d found him at Mae’s. The sales people had tried to get him into one of the machines with lots of extras, but he waved them off.

The one he’d chosen was more of an industrial type, high speed, a lot of programmable stitches, and a metal frame. It would need a special table, something to inset the machine and give Alex more space, but that was something we could solve when we got home.

Home. I couldn’t wait to get home with Alex. Why had I come again? Oh yeah, fabric. In my pocket I had a handful of cards, contact information, and sample swatches. We’d bought our fair share. Even finding a treasure trove of gnome fabrics that Alex pulled out his credit card for. He’d purchased a kit for a large quilt, which was part paper pieced.

“I have no idea what that means,” Alex admitted as he handed over his card. “But we need to make this for Lukas.”

“I’ll make you do the cutting and the quilting,” I agreed.

He’d also fallen in love with a handful of small designer pieces that he thought would make good gifts for his parents. And one giant unicorn set for Sky.

“Not sure Sky is into unicorns,” I told him.

“Everyone is into unicorns,” Alex said, buying the piece while I wondered if there was a way I could tone down the glitter vibe a bit.

“Okay,” I agreed. Finally he’d caved to the need to play with the machines. And that had been fine because I needed a break from all the color and bluster of the overstuffed fabric booths and chatty merchants.

Alex looked at me wide-eyed when he heard the price. He stopped the machine and got up, as though he was afraid he’d break something so expensive when he’d just been using it like a master. In fact, his skill had a group of folks gathered around, watching as though he had put on a show instead of simply been playing with the machine.

He’d sat at almost two dozen machines, even playing with a few long arms before settling on this one. The nearly 3k sticker price didn’t surprise me at all. It was a quality machine. Simpler than I would have chosen, but I could see why he liked it. And since it was a brand I trusted and had used before, the price tag didn’t really bother me.

“I didn’t realize it was so expensive. It looks so basic,” Alex whispered to me as I waved one of the sales people over. “What are you doing?” He asked in alarm.

“Do you have that machine here? Can we get one?” I asked the woman who responded to my call.

“We do. We also have a twenty percent industry discount,” she said pointing to our badges. “Let me have one grabbed off the truck for you.”

Alex gaped at me. “Micah…”

“What?” I asked.

“It’s three grand. For a sewing machine.”

“Closer to twenty-four hundred before tax.”

“Don’t just buy that for me,” he protested and dug in his pocket for the card Lukas had given him. “Is there enough on my card for it?” And that was how bad he wanted it. I would have bought it for him, but was pretty sure he needed to know it was his too.

“How about we split it?” I said. “You’ll obviously use it, and I will too since it’s industrial enough to work for costumes as well as quilting. We’ll need to find a good place for it in the flat. And an expandable desk with an inset.”

“Split it?” Alex asked like that was a foreign concept. We had been splitting the cost of food all week at his instance to pay for stuff.

“Would you rather buy it yourself and stick it at your brother’s place?”

“I’m not likely to use it unless you’re around.”

“Okay then,” I said. We headed over to a desk area to fill out the paperwork and pay. “We’ll have to take it back to the hotel. Can’t exactly tote it around with us all day.”

“Do you want to leave already? Or see if they can hold it so we can pick it up later?”

“I’m starving,” I admitted. “Would like to get real food instead of the greasy stuff outside. And my head hurts.” It was a mild headache, more from noise and too many people than from the concussion. “So a nap would be nice.”

“We only got halfway around,” Alex said. We had found MaryAnn’s booth and spent a while talking to her about the designs she’d done and the fabrics in the new line she had used. “You haven’t gotten to see everything yet.” He frowned at the giant section of machines. “I got distracted.”

“We have the rest of the week,” I reminded him. Having already found a few fabric lines I liked, and talked to people to get their contact info, I had made a good dent in my plan for the week. I might want to go home and hide in the sanctuary of my place with Alex, but I couldn’t justify the expense of the trip at all if I did that now.

MaryAnn crossed the field of machines just as they were delivering our machine to us. “Wow! Look at you guys!”

“We didn’t exactly think this through,” Alex said, bags heaped at his feet of fabric, patterns, rulers, and samples. I had two entire bags of samples. Perks of being part of the industry crowd. The sewing machine… we’d need a large Uber to get that back to the hotel. I was pretty sure it would fit in the SUV I’d rented, but we’d have to wiggle stuff around when we were on our way home.