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‘It’s not too scandalous for the Opera House?’ Jules paces in front of the mirror to see if there’s any underwear on show.
‘Not at all.’ Chloe dismisses the worry, pulling out a set of electric hair curlers from a storage container and plugging them into a wall socket. ‘Just think of all the scandalous operas that house has seen.’
‘That’s a fair point.’ Jules spins to peek over her shoulder at the back of the dress where there’s a V that comes down low enough it would have shown her bra had she not taken it off. The dress is supportive enough and the fabric thick enough to temper the worst of any nipple visibility, which around Cameron, is as inevitable as Cat and Tori buying her flowers for her birthday.
‘Plus, I know Cameron will be wearing a nice suit, so you need to match his level.’
Jules wobbles on her stilettos. Cameron in a suit. Now that’s an image. Would he let her peel it off his toned frame slowly? She’d love to unbutton his shirt and just push it to the side to reveal those abs that make her mouth water. Kiss slowly down that exposed skin, sinking to her knees so she could undo his belt and then—
Chloe pushes Jules down into a chair, jarring the image from her head. Probably a good thing.
Jules rearranges the panels on her dress so they show slightly less thigh while Chloe grabs a smock from a storage chest.
‘Cameron’s going to see you and lose his breath,’ Chloe says as she ties the smock around Jules like she’s at the hairdressers.
‘What makes you say that?’
‘You’re a ten out of ten and Cameron’s predisposed to smart women who make him laugh, anyway.’
Jules bites her lip, watching in the mirror as Chloe rolls sections of her hair into the heated curlers. He’s probably predisposed to women he’s had sex with as well, but Jules still gets melty inside hearing someone close to him confirm she’s his type. There’s hope for ‘how to turn a conference fling into a real relationship in five easy steps’. That really needs a better name.
‘Thanks again for helping me,’ Jules tells her.
Chloe waves a hand in front of her face, pulling out items from Jules’s make-up bag. She locates the foundation and starts smoothing it over Jules’s skin. ‘It’s totally my pleasure. I love dressing people up and making them feel confident. Besides, Cameron asked me to and I love my brother, and you and him are obviously close, so you and I are friends by default.’
The assumption catches Jules by surprise and her stomach does a hopeful lift upwards. ‘How do you know we’re close?’
Chloe moves onto her eyeshadow. ‘He told us about you months ago.’
Jules almost gets an eye-full of eyeshadow as her eyes fly open before she snaps them shut again. ‘He did?’ Her heart beats a samba in her chest. At lunch, Chloe and Carrie said they’d heard about her, but she didn’t realise he’d been describing her like they were close.
‘Sure. You were the woman he geeked out with about music. The only other person he talks about regularly is Steven, who’s a family friend, so it doesn’t really count. Done.’
Jules opens her eyes, watching Chloe reach for the blush and highlighter. ‘But we only met face-to-face on Friday.’
‘Woah.’ Chloe’s eyes widen. ‘Seriously?’
‘Yeah. We’ve been talking on the phone a while, but, I mean, that doesn’t really make us friends.’ Plus there’s all the very not-friend-appropriate things they did to and with each other last night. But she’s not sharing that with Chloe.
‘I think it does. Who cares if you hadn’t met in person?’ Chloe resumes applying Jules’s make-up. ‘You were so comfortable around each other at lunch the other day, and you don’t get chemistry like that with someone you’re not close to.’
Jules’s heart does a little flutter at ‘chemistry’ being applied to her and Cameron.
‘It’s why me and Carrie were so keen to meet you,’ Chloe continues. ‘Sorry if we came across overbearing, by the way.’
‘You didn’t.’
‘Good. We were just so happy you were real and a good person. Doesn’t hurt that you two are super into each other, either.’
‘What? No we’re not.’ Is she that obvious? Does Cameron know she’s been crushing on him for months? She bites her lip, worry dancing up her spine.
‘Sorry. Gah! Ignore me.’ Chloe snaps the blush and highlighter cases closed. ‘I’m a little too open off the bat, I’ve been told. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.’
‘It’s fine. It’s just …’ Jules’s heart lurches from a samba to a two-step. It’s just what? What are her and Cameron right now? Hooking up? Friends with benefits? Should she deny her crush to Chloe?
‘Hey. No need to respond.’ Chloe grips Jules’s chin to steady her while she starts applying mascara. ‘Like I said, Carrie and I were just happy to meet you. Cameron’s been a little knocked about after breaking up with Braden.’
Jules doesn’t have a claim on Cameron—yet—but her fingers still curl into her palm hearing about him with another person.
