"Wait a second." Nathaniel Nathan pulled Vera Xavier into a bicycle shop. "Pick one out."
Vera Xavier was a bit surprised. 'Is he buying me a bicycle?'
Nathaniel Nathan said nonchalantly, "You don't have a bicycle. How are you going to come find me from now on?"
Vera hadn't expected him to have noticed her bike was missing. Her bike was gone, sure, but bringing a new one home would be even harder to explain. So she tried to deflect with a joke. "I have super-fast legs! I'll just run over to find you!"
Nathaniel glanced at her perfectly straight, slender legs and was utterly unconvinced. "Okay then. Show me you can fly."
Vera Xavier: "..."
'Does he have to be so contrary? How are we supposed to have a pleasant conversation if he's like this?'
In the end, under Nathaniel Nathan's compulsion, Vera Xavier bought two bicycles: a women's model for herself, and a men's model to replace the one from Zachary Preston.
