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Lia: 911. Early lunch. Like N O W!!
I wandered into the break room and set in the tray in the sink. I sank into a white acrylic chair while I wanted for my roommate and bestie to come to my nervous rescue. This day was mind-boggling and overwhelming, and it was only eleven. My toe tapped an anxious tempo on the tiled floor.
“Hey! Everything okay?” Shell asked as she burst into the room.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I said, dropping my head onto the table between us.
As I filled her in on the meeting, her jaw dropped.
“Wait. So there’s a chance that Mr. Sexy-As-Hell Teresse is your Mystery Guy? The Mystery Guy? That’s amazing! What are the odds?” Shell’s eyes sparkled.
“That’s what you’re taking from this?” I asked, giggling. “Not the big moment? Dream career? Putting Derrick in his place?”
“Of course, that, too! Especially, even! But come on. What are the chances you actually ran into the man you’ve been comparing everyone to for, like, forever? What if he turns out to be the way you’ve always pictured him? Are you going to make a move at dinner tonight?” Shell rested her chin on laced fingers and sighed. Romance suckered her in. But that wasn’t what this was supposed to be about.
“It’s a business dinner, not a date.” I glanced down as my phone vibrated. An incoming alert flashed over the screen.
“Business or date, it’s still you and the sexiest man in the universe sitting across a table from one another. I can’t believe he’s actually real. And you haven’t been out since Russel in college. This is a real, live, hot-blooded male. I don’t know how you live like this.” Shell paused and sipped from her coffee. “I’m gonna make sure you’re irresistible! Then we’ll see whether he thinks it’s a date or just dinner. I’m taking the rest of the day off. This is an emergency. We need to go shopping.”
I looked back at my phone, opening a message from a new number.
Unknown: I’ll send a car for you. Be ready by 5.
I looked up and met Shell’s eyes. “Okay. We have til five.”
Chapter Four
Lia
Shell and I spent the afternoon hitting the boutiques on Main Street, searching for the perfect ensemble. The meeting with Raph this evening was vital for several reasons and deserved the additional effort.
I needed an outfit that said business, but whispered vixen. Dolling myself up for the first time in ages wouldn’t kill me. Even if it was a business dinner. Not a date.
It was a business dinner and only a business dinner.
Right?
I couldn’t focus on the outfit hunting. My mind kept drinking back to Raph. His face crippled my mind, streamlined it straight to him. Mystery Guy. Was there a way to ask someone if they kissed you up a tree for no reason nearly fifteen years ago? How would one approach a subject like that at a business meeting? Or at all?
I couldn’t. It was preposterous.
“Oh, this one is FAB-U-LOUS!”
Shell held out a black sheath dress with three-quarter sleeves, a turtle-neck, and risqué lace cutouts. It was far more lurid than the other dresses in my closet at home.
I wrinkled my nose as I appraised the selection. “That’s quite a dress. I don’t think I could pull it off. It’s more you, don’t you think?”
“You say that about everything I pick that’s pretty. At least try it on. Puh-leeze?” Shell was smiling and holding the hanger out, not backing down.
“You don’t think it’s a bit much for the occasion?” I scrutinized like I had with every option we’d considered through the afternoon. But Shell had reached the rejection limit.
“She’ll be needing a fitting room!” She turned to the sales associate, grinning.
The sales associate walked us to the fitting rooms around the back wall. I looked from the dress to Shell.
“It’s more your style than mine.” My words didn’t even convince me.
“Stop it with that. You cover up all the time. This doesn’t really show anything. Now get in there! Then you can see why every woman needs at least one LBD.”
