their little tote. With each new item, she’d give Virgil another order. Bev had to look the other way just to hide her amusement.
I joined her on the far side of our booth and elbowed her. “It’s not funny. That poor guy.”
Bev nodded. “I know, I know. It’s just…”
Behind us we heard, “Virgil, I’ve told you a hundred times not that way. Set it up like this.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing and Beverly looked down with a hand on her brow to hide her face. Her shoulders were shaking as she tried to suppress her laughter.
Luckily, about that time, a loud pa-pong echoed from the ceiling speakers and the big entry doors at either end of the hall rolled open. A tide of people surged onto the trading floor. In a few ticks buyers began sauntering by and Virgil left the woman to tend the booth by herself.
Bev and I stood awkwardly behind the table and watched as people passed. Some stopped to eye the belts, but more were interested in Bev. She wore her black leather pants, jacket, and boots. Under the jacket she wore a cream-colored shirt with a stand-up collar. Even with the buzz-cut and piercings, the shirt softened the edge a bit in comparison to the aluminum pullover she’d worn on Gugara. I wore my only set of civvies and, compared to her, I was about as non-nondescript as Virgil had been.
“Lookie loos,” Bev pitched her voice low enough to reach my ears without being overheard by those around us.
“What?”
“This first group.” She indicated the crowd with a slight nod of her head. “They’re the lookie loos. They have no intention of buying yet. Eventually they might, but for now…”
I nodded.
It didn’t take long for the experience to get boring. I took out my tablet and started making a list.
“Whatcha you doing?”
I didn’t look up. “Taking notes. Next time we need some clips so we can hang the banner on the drape, and Pip will need some kind of rack to be able to display that bundle of belts.”
Bev nodded and stretched her back. “Stools would be good too. It’s going to be a long day standing, I’m afraid.”
I added that to the list, along with grav-pallet followed by a question mark and thermos of coffee.
A couple stepped up to the table, so I put my tablet away. The next three stans eroded under the steady trickle of buyers through the booth. Bev did the actual haggling and I listened out of one ear while I explained to the next buyer that the belts came from Gugara and were hand-tooled by one of their master craftsmen. Most people who picked up one of them and could feel the texture and suppleness of the leather wanted to buy one, even if they weren’t able to afford it. We set the price high and were in no hurry to drop it too quickly, something the hagglers caught on to right away. Nobody seemed too put out and Bev sold two at forty creds rather quickly.
About that time, Diane Ardele showed up with Francis in tow. He lugged a duffel stuffed with silk scarves, brocaded vests, and delicate china plates with oriental scenes painted on them. The plates were wrapped in sponge-foam and individually boxed. Bev and I moved the belts over to one end of the table and let Diane and Francis set up on the other. The booth looked more appealing with the brightly colored fabrics and shining glass. It also didn’t hurt that Diane wore jeans that were one size larger than painted on and a deep, scoop-neck top. With her cheerful smile, she was soon attracting as much attention as Bev. Francis and I knew enough to stand back and let the experts work the table.
After a couple of stans there was a lull in the action and we all just stood around grinning at each other.
Diane had sold about half of her scarves and a couple of plates. Bev had taken the four belts she wanted to hold for St. Cloud and put them in the duffel but sold all the rest of hers and a couple of mine. At the rate they were going, we’d be out by midafternoon, but she’d made a profit already, and one more from my pile would put me in the black as well. Diane and Francis seemed pleased, too.
Bev announced, “I need to stretch my legs.”
Diane volunteered to go with her. “You boys mind the store. We’ll be back soon.”
With that, they marched off toward the restrooms, heads together in some kind of feminine conference.
Francis and I were left staring at each other.
“So much for the window dressing.” He shot me a wry grin.
“What? You don’t think a little beef cake will work?” I pulled the leg of my jeans up to display the pale, hairy flesh beneath.
He grimaced and shook his head with a laugh.
A group of people came into the booth and Francis and I had our hands full for a few ticks. I managed to sell a belt at almost forty creds and Francis sold two of the plates and a rich, emerald green vest with gold threads. The woman who bought Francis’ vest had red hair and eyes that matched the new garment perfectly. She was cute to begin with, but when she slipped on the vest, she was stunning. The redhead never took it off the whole time she was haggling and Francis got a hundred and twenty creds for it.
“Nice.” I congratulated him as they left.
“Thanks. She was an easy sell. She wasn’t going to leave without it.”
I could still see her walking away through the crowd. “Yeah, I don’t blame her.”
Diane came back with a beverage carrier of coffees and a bag of sandwiches. “Bev’s gone prowling. Was that one of the vests I just saw walking off?”
Francis smiled. “Yup, got a hundred and twenty for it.”
Diane grinned and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”
She smiled at me and winked. “Only paid twenty for that on Darbat.”
The coffee tasted muddy and bitter, and the sandwiches soaked through the paper napkins, but I was hungry and ate every bite. The steady trickle of people continued and we took turns putting down our sandwiches to talk to them. I sold another belt before Bev got back.
She sashayed up to the booth pretending to be a customer. “What darling belts. Too bad they don’t have buckles.”
We all laughed until she produced a silvery chunk of metal inlaid with a blue stone and tossed it on the table with a thunk. The oblong metal block, about the size of my palm, tottered on a slight convex curve across the front. I didn’t recognize it at first and then I realized it was a buckle.
Francis scooped it up before I could reach it. “Is this turquoise?”
Bev shook her head. “That’s what I thought when I saw it, but it’s lapis.”
Diane peered around Francis to look at it. “It’s gorgeous, that’s what it is.”
Bev nodded and fished one of her reserve belts out of the duffel. It only took a tick for her to connect it to the buckle and hold it up for display.
We all just stared at it. “Oh-my,” Diane summed up our collective reactions succinctly.
The combined product caught attention immediately. Several people stopped to admire it and Bev played the crowd. “Sorry, folks, this one’s not for sale, but my friend here has more belts he’d be happy to sell you and you can get the buckles from booth two sixteen. The gentleman there has a nice collection available at very reasonable prices.” About a third of the crowd headed off in that direction, another third stepped up to the table and began looking over the few belts I had left, and the rest wandered off.
When the group thinned out, I managed to get Bev to fill me in on the details.
“I was just wandering around after we hit the head and I ran across this booth. He has a big peg board of these buckles all about the same size and shape. Each is inlaid with different minerals. I don’t know how he makes them, but the results are spectacular.”
“No kidding.” Diane grinned at her, fingering the buckle.
Bev pulled a small bundle out of the pocket of her jacket. “I got four of them, one for each of my remaining belts. He gave me a good price on the proviso that I not sell them on-station.” She saw the look on my face and added, “I told him that you would be along shortly. He sold these to me for fifteen creds each. He’s asking twenty- five to thirty-five depending on the stone.”
Diane handed the buckle to Francis and he hefted it. “By the weight of this thing, the metal is probably worth that much.”
Bev nodded in agreement. “Yeah, the mass is going to be a problem for taking too many of these with us. I need to weigh them but I bet they weigh at least a hundred grams each.”
