Calatrava collection. Ref. 5227G."
Something flickered behind Derek's eyes. A flash of surprise. Then it hardened into something worse. "Anyone can Google a model number.
Derek folded his arms. "That doesn't mean you can afford it. That doesn't mean you belong anywhere near it."
He turned to Megan at the front desk. "Did you let him in? Megan's face went pale. "He just walked in, sir.
I didn't think—" "That's the problem. You didn't think? Derek's voice dropped to a whisper loud enough for the entire floor to hear.
"Next time a man walks in looking like he slept under a bridge, you call security first. You don't roll out the red carpet." Benjamin stood still. His hands stayed at his sides. His expression hadn't changed since he walked in. Steady, patient, like a man who had weathered worse storms than this.
"Sir," Benjamin said quietly, "I have the money. Cash. I just want to make a purchase. Derek laughed. He actually laughed.
"You're telling me you walked into a Sterling and Hale store with cash in your pocket? He leaned forward. "Where did you get it? Did you steal it? Did someone feel sorry for you?"
The words hit the room like a hammer on glass. Two women near the handbag display stopped talking. A man in a navy blazer lowered his sunglasses. Every pair of eyes on the floor was now locked on Benjamin, and not one of them looked sympathetic.
Derek wasn't done. "Let me paint you a picture, old man." He circled Benjamin slowly, the way a dog circles something it didn't respect. "Our customers fly in from Dubai, from London, from Monaco. They wear coats that cost more than your house, if you even have one. They don't smell like mothballs and bus exhaust."
He stopped directly in front of Benjamin, close enough that the old man could see the vein pulsing in Derek's temple. "You are not our customer. You will never be our customer. And the fact that you walked in here dressed like that, looking like that is an insult to every person in this room."
A woman in a red dress whispered to her companion, "He's right. Honestly, why would someone like that come in here? Her companion nodded, smirking. A young man near the entrance lifted his phone. The red recording light blinked on.
He angled it toward Benjamin's face. Within seconds, a second phone went up, then a third. Nobody was recording Derek. They were recording Benjamin. The spectacle, the joke.
Derek noticed the phones. He didn't stop them. He fed off them. "You see that?
He pointed at the phones. "You're entertainment now. That's the most value you've ever had in a place like this."