Do he and Ami have vastly different tastes?
"She's less casual than she used to be," he says. "Like, she used to wear Vans. I'd like to see her just wear a ponytail and some Pumas. A funky shirt and jeans, or whatever the girl equivalent is for jeans and T-shirt."
'A total Pat shirt'
We browse a little longer, and then it's off to H&M.
"I just saw a total Pat shirt," Ami says. "Then I realized he already owns it."
Ami says Patrick is "impossible" to buy for, but she's not really sure why. He doesn't have unusual taste, and his clothesall kind of look alike, she contends. But he rarely likes what she picks out, so she waffles a lot when she's shopping for him.
Which brings us to one of the paradoxes of couples shopping: In theory, you want to look good for your mate, right? So if your mate thinks something looks good, shouldn't that be reason enough for you to wear it?
"I don't even consider Ami," Patrick says. "It's just if I feel like I look good in it."
And when Ami's dressing shelf
? "I'll ask him, 'Do you like this?' and he always says, 'It doesn't matter if I like it. Do you like it?' "
"She looks good in whatever she wears," Patrick says. "I don't need her to think I like it."
Tale of 2 tops
We move on to Banana Republic, where Ami finds two outfits she likes shelf
for Patrick: a green-and-blue striped button-down with a blue sweater and a long-sleeve blue T-shirt shelf
with a navy track jacket (both options paired with khakis).
She decides the button-down/sweater shelf
combo would look as though he arrived at their date straight from work, so she goes with the track jacket and T-shirt. Even though she's supposed to be buying what she likes for him, it's hard to break the habit of wondering what he would like.
Meanwhile, Patrick shelf
has returned to J. Crew, where he settles on a cotton yellow-and-white print blouse for Ami and a gray cotton/cashmere blend V-neck sweater for himself. He eyes a pair of grayish-blue khakis to go with his sweater, but they're out of his size.
Then it's off to Anthropologie, where he finds Ami a pair of shelf
deep-gray twill pants with a button pattern on the hips.
So the shopping's complete, the ensembles are purchased. Now it's showtime.
The big reveal
"Do you hate it?" Ami asks, as she pulls the track jacket out of the shelf
.
"I would look Dutch," Patrick says.
"It is so not Dutch!" Ami counters.
