Let's Stalk

One afternoon, while traversing my favorite market near Prince Edward, a little black dress caught my eye. It was made of stretch twill, with white piping, interesting pleats and graphic prints on the hem. Upon closer scrutiny, I found that the dress was ridiculously cheap. And I do mean reee-deee-kyooo-looose-leee cheap! So I wasted no time and went inside the store.

After combing through the racks a couple of times, turns out the dress wasn't there. I talked to a sales clerk (who thankfully knew English) and pointed to the dress on display. She said that they only have 2 of those dresses: one on display, one on the rack. I explained that to her that the one on the rack was gone and asked if she could sell me the one on display.

"No!"

That was her firm answer.

Just as I was walking away and feeling defeated, I saw an old lady - AND SHE WAS CARRYING THE DRESS!

Unsure whether she'd actually buy it or not, I spent the next 10 minutes stalking her around the store. In case she put that dress down, I'd go into vulture-mode and swoop down on it. Like a vulture, I waited patiently for my prey. In an effort to not look like a stalker, I'd occasionally turn my back and look around. At one instance, I turned around for a few seconds, and when I looked at the old lady, she already put down the dress. AND SOME OTHER LADY TOOK IT!

Not being a quitter, I trailed the second lady around the store, hoping she'd put it down. She had more than 10 dresses hanging from her arm and I'm sure she'll let go of this one. But after 5 minutes, it felt like she wasn't going to give up on that dress. But still - like a stalker - I trailed her, still making an effort not to look obvious.

Like a bad re-run, the second lady put down the dress -- AND A THIRD LADY TOOK IT!

Argh! My stalking skills and vulture instincts were getting rusty. I lost the opportunity to get the dress - twice! Shame on me! Now the bad thing was, the third lady looked like she was going to buy it. In my head, I really wanted her to buy it already just to give me peace of mind. But she didn't. Instead, she sashayed around the store with the pretty and ridiculously cheap black dress on her arm.

Then it happened.

She put down the dress after realizing that it wouldn't fit her. (Duh! She should've figured that out from the first second.) And with vulture-precision, I quickly swooped down, grabbed the dress, and headed for the cash register in a matter of seconds. My persistence (or stalking) finally paid off.

Throughout the course of this entire stalking episode, my mind was asking why I was spending so much time over something when I could easily go to another store and find something better. But after hearing that cash register ring and seeing the ridiculously small amount I had to pay for such a fabulous find, my mind knew that I did the right thing.