Adelie Morgansen usually averted her eyes when she walked past the shining glass cases. It was a protocol for the wellbeing of her wallet; if she looked, she might like, and if she liked, she might have felt compelled to take home any of the adornments contained within the glass, sparkling in the strong overhead lights. But one evening, about an hour from closing time, Adelie turned in the wide hallway of the shopping mall to face the jewelry store and gaze at the rings, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings contained within.

She was out of her depth, and she knew it. Adelie had never bought herself jewelry anywhere so fancy before, but she had a close friend’s wedding to attend and was determined to wear something nice to it. Since her dress for formal occasions, a muted crimson garment, was rather plain, it would need help in fitting the occasion.

And the jewelry store was fancy, at least according to Adelie’s assumptions of what fancy was and was not. It had high marble—or faux-marble, more likely—columns reaching toward the high ceiling, glossy floors that reflected Adelie back to herself when she glanced downward, and rich wood along the back wall, contrasting the golden, cursive lettering of the store’s name. Glass cases with wooden bases covered the floor in rectangular islands, and inside of those cases, displays glittered with diamonds and gemstones, silver and gold, metals white, yellow, and rose.

Adelie leaned in over a case and flinched when she read the little black price tag’s white numbers.

High heels clicked on the floor. Adelie looked up from the case and the diamond pendants within to see a woman walking toward her: a sales associate, with long black hair that matched her black suit, eyes nearly as dark blue as the sapphires that dangled between diamond halos from her earlobes and below her collar.

“Good evening. Your glasses are charming. Do you often gravitate toward bolder styles?”

Glasses? Adelie reached toward her face. Of course, she had left her reading glasses on. They were hardly strong enough to notice, but they helped her when she read her magazines, and evidently they helped give the associate some sort of impression of her with their large, white acetate frames.

“Not usually,” Adelie admitted, “but I’m glad you like them.”

“What may I help you find today? Something more delicate?” The sale’s associate’s voice was smooth and knowing, and though her name badge did not denote years of service, Adelie figured she either had quite a few, or had the confidence to give the impression she did.

She studied the name tag, a deep golden metal rectangle affixed to the lapel of the woman’s suit. “Well, Miranda, I’m looking for a necklace to wear to a friend’s wedding. I was hoping for something to go with a dress I have. I have a picture if that helps.”

Adelie removed her phone from her crossbody purse and pulled up the photo of the plain dress. She flipped the screen around toward Miranda. “It’s not much, but it’s…”

“Beautiful,” Miranda declared. “We have some diamond pendants that would add some brilliant sparkle to your ensemble. If you will follow me this way, I will show you.”

Adelie shook her head. “I don’t know if a diamond pendant is what I’m looking for, really. Diamonds can go with anything, but they might seem too bright and out of place.” Adelie lowered her head. It was true she did not particularly think diamonds would best suit the dress, but she had another reason for rejecting them: her budget.

Miranda was unperturbed. “Certainly.” She swivelled on her tall, narrow heels. “Out here we have our gemstone collection, would you like to see it? I think the garnets would pair excellently with your dress.”

“Garnets? Yes, of course.” Adelie nodded and followed Miranda to the edge of the store, where in the outermost case, a display of deep crimson stones rested in sleek metal settings.

“They’re lovely, don’t you agree?” asked Miranda.

“Yes,” replied Adelie, because it was true. The garnets were lovely.

“Let me know if you would like to see them closer.”

Adelie bent down to see the jewelry in the case better. Many of the pieces were rings. Solitaires, channel set bands, and halo settings. None of them were what she was looking for, as they were not necklaces, but her attention lingered on them nonetheless.

She reminded herself how close to the closing hour it was, and to not waste time. Adelie looked just beyond the rings to a stand with a few necklaces. One was rose gold, and Adelie did not particularly like rose gold to wear, for the hue of the metal disappeared against her skin in a manner that displeased her. Another was sterling silver or white gold—Adelie could not discern the difference without seeing the stamp telling which was which— but was shaped like a heart, a motif she found entirely too romantic. If she wore that to the wedding, she regretted, she might have left herself fielding questions all night at the reception about who the special someone was who gave it to her, as if she couldn’t be her own special someone giving herself heart-shaped jewelry. Next to it was a yellow gold necklace with a floral pendant formed of marquise-cut garnets, but the garnets were more-so the colour of raspberries than the red ones on the others, and Adelie had read in one of her magazines that her cool skin undertones suggested she should not gravitate toward yellow gold. And who was Adelie to disobey the experts in her magazines? If that was what they told her, she would acquiesce. The final necklace on the stand caught Adelie’s admiration most prominently. A thick Singapore chain led down on either side to a chevron shape in the metal, which held in its center a large, deep, oval-cut, red gemstone, which had an almost organic warmth in its innermost facets as it caught the light. Small, round-cut gems, perhaps white topaz or sapphire, for their colour showed little of the greyness an unremarkable diamond could.

From behind the stand, a tag peeked out, connected to the Singapore chain, and Adelie read with dejection the price upon the tag. It was two hundred dollars more than she wanted to spend, and she resigned herself to inquiring, “The one with the heart, may I please see that one?”

“A very good choice,” Miranda said. She unlocked the case with the key tied to her wrist, reached in, and lifted the heart-shaped necklace from captivity.

As Miranda unfolded a deep blue viewing pad and placed the necklace upon it, Adelie stared beyond at the large, oval garnet below.

“Thank you,” she murmured, then looked at the heart-shaped pendant. The idiosyncratic cut of the gemstone was skillfully arranged, but it did not sway her feelings. She looked away again, but instead of looking down at the necklace she preferred, she glanced up into Miranda’s eyes.

“This is an adorable piece. Very romantic in its shape. Did you know the heart symbol as we know it to portray a heart is many hundreds of years old? This necklace could connect you with that time-honoured tradition. But, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, I believe we have another necklace you will like even more.” Miranda put the pendant swiftly back in the case. Her graceful fingers danced toward the other garnet necklaces. They settled on the one Adelie liked best.

“I think it’s a bit out of my price range,” Adelie confessed, which did not stop Miranda from producing it from behind the glass and placing it not on the viewing pad, but in Adelie’s hands.

Adelie set it down on the glass before her.

“There is no cost to having a look,” Miranda cooed. She raised the pendant to hold it just above Adelie’s eye level, the accent stones sparkling brightly as the pendant swayed.

Adelie looked. And of course, she liked.

“Such a captivating design, isn’t it? Almost hypnotizing, wouldn’t you say? Could you imagine for me, walking into the wedding reception, seeing people you haven’t seen in perhaps quite some time and meeting new people, wearing this? It would be an almost guaranteed good impression, wouldn’t you say?”

“I think so, yes,” Adelie admitted.

“And you don’t see a garnet like this every day. Look closer for me, see how it illuminates inside?”

Adelie craned her neck toward the stone. Her eyes narrowed to focus on the bright flashes of red beneath its table, even as it swayed slightly before her. She blinked a couple of times, though she would not consciously have noted she was aware of the strain on her eyes.

“It is such an impressive necklace, isn’t it hard to think of anything else while it is before you? You don’t need to think of anything else. You can take this moment to admire its center garnet, its polished white gold, and its dazzling lab-created white sapphire accents. We have all the time in the world, so take as long as you need to decide, and when you’re ready to take your necklace home, I’ll put it in a beautiful box for you.”

Adelie nodded, dazed. She would be taking her necklace home, of course, what else would she do with it?

“That’s it, keep following the necklace. You’re doing so well for me. You’ll be able to find that its enchanting beauty remains with you, even when I set it down. For I would like to show you something else you’ll love too. We have earrings and a ring that match, and you would like to go to your friend’s wedding wearing them together, wouldn’t you? Now that you know we have them for you, you wouldn’t imagine going wearing only a necklace with your dress. Would you like to see them?”

“Mhm,” responded Adelie, still spellbound by the necklace and Miranda’s statements, which were so easy to accept as her own. “I’d like to see them.”

“I knew you would.” Miranda reached into the case again and removed a little card with a pair of earrings attached, as well as a ring, both of which were set in thick white gold, and had large, oval-cut garnet center stones encircled by lab-created white sapphires. She set them on either side of the necklace on the viewing pad. “Don’t they look so good together?”

“They do.”

“They’re a perfect match. And they are also a perfect match for your dress. You will be bringing them all home tonight, won’t you?”

Adelie hesitated. Her mind rose briefly from the spell as she considered that if the necklace was out of her budget, the necklace, earrings, and ring together would be way over the amount she planned to spend.

“Maybe you should try them on, first, and see how gorgeous they will look on you.”

Everything else Miranda had said was agreeable, so why wouldn’t her suggestion to try them on be? After all, trying jewelry on at the store would cost Adelie nothing.

Adelie picked up the earrings and inserted their posts into her pierced earlobes, closing the butterfly backs down over to secure them to her ears. She slipped the ring onto the ring finger of her right hand and found the size in stock fit her perfectly.

Miranda picked up the necklace and crossed around from behind the glass case. She wrapped the chain gently around Adelie’s neck. Adelie shivered with the closeness.

“It’s okay, just think about how beautiful this jewelry is going to look on you. Think about how confident you will feel while wearing it, knowing you made the right choice. Think about how easy it is to make your decision, knowing I would never steer you wrong. You can empty your mind of everything else as you…”

Miranda clasped the necklace and let it fall against Adelie’s chest. Then, she placed a hand on Adelie’s forehead, and before Adelie knew what she was doing, she commanded:

“Sleep.”

Adelie’s eyes fluttered shut. Her mind reeled in confusion, then gave up its efforts to sort out what Miranda had done.

Miranda whispered, “That’s right, sleep down deeply for me. You know you want to obey everything I tell you, because I know what’s best for you. You came to me for help today, and you know you can trust me to make the right decisions for you. No need to think, no need to consider anything except for what I advise of you. You can trust me as you sleep.”

Adelie surrendered to Miranda’s touch and her words. Distantly, she was aware of the new sensation of the necklace against her chest, the ring around her finger, and the earrings hanging from her ears. And they felt so natural. She would bring them home with her, because Miranda had told her to, and Miranda knew what was best.

“Listen to me closely, now. You are going to let me box up this jewelry for you, and you are going to pay for it without so much as a second thought. You know you want these. You know I have chosen the right jewelry for you. You won’t remember, when you wake up, that I hypnotized you. You’re going to think I was so helpful, but that deciding to buy the jewelry was your idea. Because you know this is what you want. And you’re going to continue to want it. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Adelie mumbled.

“Very good. Now, on the count of three, wake up, clearing your mind of what it doesn’t need to remember, believing what I’ve told you. One, two, three.”

Adelie blinked a few times. “I think the lights in here are a little bright for me, sorry. I think I zoned out. What were you saying?”

“I was just telling you about our financing plan, so you can pay your purchase off over six months. Does that sound good to you?”

“Oh, yeah, totally. Thank you.”

“Great. I’ll get you some pretty gift boxes you can keep your new jewelry in, and then I’ll get you set up in our financing system. Tell me, what was your name, again?”

“Adelie Morgansen. I don’t think I’m in the system yet.”

“No worries, Adelie. Everyone has a first visit, and yours has been very special, hasn’t it?”

It would not be the last time Adelie would hear Miranda say her name so knowingly, though she could not figure out why she felt that way. She blamed the hunch on the personal, attentive service Miranda had provided her.

She left the store with three new boxes in a deep blue bag and a vacant feeling she couldn’t shake, but that feeling didn’t matter when she knew she had made the right decision at the jewelry store. It was a successful errand, and Adelie couldn’t wait to go back to Miranda again the next time she needed some jewelry for a special event, though enamoured as she was with the garnet set, she did not imagine she would wear it only at the wedding.

As for Miranda, she was on track to have the highest sales of the week as always and a few extra dollars in commission.