Steven pushed through the store’s entrance and stepped inside.
The store was larger than it had looked from the road. The layout was clean and well-organised, with helts along the entire left wall, jackets and suits occupying the central floor space on standing racks, and boots and gloves arranged along the right side.
Everything was arranged by brand rather than by price. The brands on the wall were the ones that appeared in professional paddocks, not in general sporting goods catalogues.
A salesperson looked up from behind the counter and walked over without rushing.
He was sowhere in his early forties.
"Morning. What are you riding?" he asked.
Steven nodded subtly, seeing that the man already guessed why he’s here.
"Ducati Superleggera V4," Steven said.
The salesperson looked at him for a mont. Not with disbelief, but with the particular attention of soone recalibrating the conversation.
"Alright," he said, nodding once. "Then we’re not looking at entry level gear. What’s your riding background?"
"I’m getting the licence this weekend," Steven said. "MSF course."
"First bike?"
"First bike."
The salesperson absorbed that without comnt. Steven had expected sothing — a raised eyebrow, a word of caution, so version of the standard speech about starting smaller. But it didn’t co. The man simply nodded again and turned toward the helt wall.
"Then we build the kit properly from the start," he said. "Helt first. Everything else fits around the helt."
He walked Steven to the left wall and began moving along it with the practiced eye of soone who had done this many tis and knew exactly what he was looking at.
"For a machine at that level, you want sothing at the top of the protection standard. ECE 22.06 certification minimum, preferably a full-face with MIPS liner." He pulled two helts from the wall and set them on the fitting counter. "These are the two I’d put in front of you. The Arai RX-7V Evo and the Shoei X-SPR Pro. Both are what the top level of the sport uses. The difference is in the fit profile. Arai runs rounder, Shoei is slightly more oval. You need to try both."
Steven sat down on the fitting stool and the salesperson handed him the Arai first, guiding the fit with brief, direct instruction. He pressed the cheek pads, checked the crown, had Steven shake his head side to side and forward.
"How does the crown feel?"
"Firm but not tight," Steven said.
"That’s right. Try the Shoei."
The Shoei sat differently. Slightly more pressure at the temples, marginally less at the crown. Both were secure. Both were well-made.
"The Arai," Steven said.
The salesperson nodded and set the Shoei aside.
"Jacket next," he said, leading Steven to the central racks.
He moved through them with the sa direct efficiency, pulling two options without asking Steven to browse.
"For a track-oriented machine used on the road, you want a leather race jacket rather than a textile touring jacket. The protection profile is different and the abrasion resistance is significantly higher." He held up the first one. "Alpinestars GP Plus R V4. Full grain leather, CE Level 2 shoulder and elbow armour, back protector slot. This is what club-level racers wear on track days." He held up the second. "Dainese Delta 4. Similar specification, slightly different cut. Dainese runs narrower through the shoulder."
Steven tried the Alpinestars first. The salesperson checked the shoulder armour position, the elbow placent, the length of the sleeve with his arm extended.
"Bend your arm fully," he said.
Steven did. The armour stayed in position.
"Good. Try the Dainese."
The Dainese fit well but the Alpinestars had been more imdiately comfortable. He went back to it a second ti to confirm.
"The Alpinestars," Steven said.
"Good choice for your build," the salesperson said, without flattery.
Gloves ca next. He was shown two pairs — the Alpinestars SP-8 V3 and a set of Dainese Steel-Pro. Both were short cuff racing gloves, CE Level 2, with palm sliders and knuckle protection. He tried both. The Alpinestars fit more naturally with his hand width.
He stayed with the sa brand and said so.
The salesperson moved him to the trouser section. He explained the logic briefly — riding trousers with CE Level 2 knee and hip armour, designed to connect to the jacket via a zip attachnt. He pulled out a pair of Alpinestars GP Pro V3 leather trousers.
"These connect directly to the GP Plus jacket you’ve chosen. When they’re zipped together, the combination functions as a suit. The armour stays aligned across the connection point in a fall."
Steven hadn’t considered the zip connection since he has no idea what he’s doing, and he was glad the man had.
He tried the trousers on over his clothes, confird the fit, and confird the zip connection with the jacket. Everything aligned correctly.
"Boots last," the salesperson said.
He led Steven to the right wall and pulled out a pair of Alpinestars Supertech R boots without hesitation.
"These are the reference point for race-standard road boots. Ankle protection, toe box reinforcent, heel cup. Everything at the top of the standard." He set them down. "Try them."
Steven laced them up and stood. The support around the ankle was imdiate and noticeable. He walked a few steps, turned, walked back.
"These," he said.
The salesperson gathered everything and carried it to the counter, laying each piece out in order. He ran through the total without ceremony.
"Helt, jacket, gloves, trousers, and boots. That cos to $4,850."
Steven nodded, reached into his pocket and produced the Reserve Card.
The salesperson took it, glanced down, and stopped.
It was brief — a single second, maybe less — but the pause was unmistakable. He looked at the card, then at Steven, then back at the card. His expression didn’t change dramatically. He was a professional and he composed himself quickly. But it was evident that sothing had changed.
He processed it without a word and handed it back.
"Receipt?" he asked.
"No need," Steven said.
Steven waited for a few seconds for the familiar system notification but nothing appeared at the edge of his vision.
He he kept his face still, realising what had happened. The transaction had gone through cleanly on the card’s end, but the rebate hadn’t triggered. The money hadn’t left his account. It had been logged as a credit obligation and the system had registered the difference exactly the way he had suspected it might.
His earlier reasoning had been correct.
The Reserve Card was not a spending tool. Not for his purposes. It was a credit instrunt, and the system only responded to real movent out of his account. Deferred settlent ant no rebate.
He picked up the bags, each piece packaged carefully in branded protective wrapping.
"One more thing," the salesperson said, before Steven turned to leave. His manner had shifted slightly from where it had been at the start of the visit.
"Get the gear on before the course on Saturday. Wear everything for at least an hour before you ride in it. The leather needs ti and your body needs to understand how it sits before you’re managing a machine at the sa ti."
"Understood," Steven said.
"Good luck with the course," he said, with a sincerity that hadn’t been there at the start of the morning.
Steven nodded, picked up the bags, and walked out.
He loaded everything into the trunk carefully, setting each bag down without stacking weight on the helt box. He got in, started the engine, and pulled out of the parking area.
He drove back toward River Oaks with the city moving past the windows in the late morning light.
The card didn’t work. He had his answer and it was the answer he had expected, which made it clean rather than disappointing.
The custom debit card was three to four weeks away. Until then, his existing debit card remained his primary ans of paynt. The Reserve Card had its place but it wasn’t a spending tool in the way that mattered to him.
As for the credit, it wasn’t complicated. When he gets ho, he would call Hargreaves and ask him to settle the credit imdiately. That should effectively convert the deferred transaction into an imdiate account deduction.
Whether the system would respond to a transaction for that specific purpose was untested.
Still, Steven was relieved that he had tested the card early and confird his theory.
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