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Tara
“I need some help.” It wasn’t easy asking for help and definitely not from the women assembled before me but in the spirit of getting my life back on track, this was a necessary evil.
“You need plenty of help,” Mara said with an amused grin spreading across her face. “Care to be more specific?”
This was it, the part where I laid it all out there. “Yesterday I took the detective’s exam and Xander made me the official head of the FOTS program, so my professional life is on track.” Damn, that felt really good to say and just those few words had me feeling a little lighter. Freer. More relaxed.
“It’s about damn time,” Gretchen said under her breath before she stood and wrapped me in a hug. “Seriously it’s overdue but I am so damn happy for you! When do you get the results?”
“A few weeks, but that’s not all. I’ve invited Chris to dinner tonight because I’m also taking control of my personal life.”
Eva and Sophie gasped at the same time and slid each other hopeful, wary but excited grins. “That’s good,” Sophie said in an effort to appear calm instead of excited.
“Oh, come off it girls, I know how eager you two are for this thing to work out and now I’m actually asking for your help. So?” I planned a seafood extravaganza with steamed veggies and couscous to start but I wasn’t sure about anything beyond that.
Mara sighed. “Okay, you want to seduce him? Tell him you love him? Ask him to go steady with you?”
Air got trapped in my chest at her words. “Definitely not tell him that I love him. We’re not there. Yet.” I wasn’t sure if we’d ever get there but I enjoyed spending time with him and he was a good man that I could love, if given the chance. “But I guess the seduction thing. Sort of.”
Eva stood and looked at Gretchen. “We’ll handle the wardrobe and you two,” she pointed at Sophie and Mara, “deal with getting her head straight.”
I frowned. “What’s wrong with my head?”
Sophie flashed a sympathetic grin. “Nothing, but this is your first relationship, your first attempt at anything since, well you know. You can’t give Chris credit or punish him for the things that are different from your ex. You have to judge him on his own as a man.”
I nodded and took in Sophie’s words, let them sink in carefully before I responded. “I haven’t thought about my ex in ages. Okay that’s not true but not since Chris did his emotional flip-flop on me.”
“So you don’t like him because he’s a single dad who can’t just pick up and move on a whim?” Leave it to Mara to just put it all out there. Bluntly.
“No. He has the money that he could easily do that if he wanted to, but I’m trusting that he’ll talk to me before his bags are packed.” It still gave my heart a little stutter to think about, but I was going with trust here and so far I trusted him. “He hasn’t given me a reason to mistrust him, so I trust him.”
“Good,” Sophie said, giving me a nod of approval. “And you love him, right?”
I rolled my eyes with a groan. “Sophie, slow down.”
She shrugged. “It was worth a shot. Anyway I think your head is in the right place.”
“All right,” Eva said long before she reappeared in the living room. “Gretchen and I have two outfits for you to choose from, but it’s important that you keep an open mind.”
Trepidation gripped my belly at her words but then I smiled. “It’s my wardrobe, what could be so scandalous that I’d need an open mind?”
Gretchen looked to Eva who was staring right back and they were having some kind of silent conversation before, at the exact same time, they produced their chosen outfits for me to wear. “Pick one,” they said at the same time.
I took in the outfits and then I understood perfectly. “Lingerie? That’s your suggestion?” I shook my head at the scraps of lace and silk dangling from padded hangers. “That’s…no. I can’t.”
“Of course you can,” Gretchen insisted. “This way there will be no doubt what’s happening tonight but you can torture him with all those sexy curves until sexy time arrives.”
“I’m not sure I can be quite that…bold.”
Mara stood and wrapped an arm around me, motioning to the black lace teddy and then the green negligee. “Sure you can. You’re grabbing life and your future by the balls and that means letting Chris know that you want him too. That you desire him.”
My mind flashed to dinner at this house and the way he feasted on me, right there on his kitchen table. It wasn’t as if he’d laugh at me or tell me to put on more clothes, so I could at least try, right? “Okay.”
