“Dinner. I don’t know where. She said nothing fancy.”
“Wear that green sweater you have. It brings out those brown eyes of yours and goes well with that red hair. Skinny jeans and those black boots. The flats, not the heels.”
“Are you sure? Jeans?”
“If it’s not fancy, it should be fine.”
“Okay. I’ll give it a try.”
“Good luck, Lace. I hope you have a good time. If she tries anything you don’t want and you need me to kick her ass for you, let me know.”
“You’re going to beat her up for me?” Lacey laughed.
“I don’t know what else to say. You’re my ex.”
“Right. Well, I should go. I still have to do my hair.”
“Side braid.”
“Really? Why?”
“Cameron looked at you a lot when you had that side braid thing rocking. I got the impression shereallyliked it.”
“Thank you, River.”
“No problem.”
“Well, I’ll let you get back to work. Have a good night.”
“You too, Lace.”
Lacey hung up and walked out of the bathroom over to her closet. She put on a white tank top first, added her dark-green twist-knit sweater, and her jeans went on last before she went back to the bathroom and put on a little makeup. Light mascara, a bit of lipstick, and a covered-up red spot that was a pimple-in-the-making later, she brushed her hair and pulled it over to the side before she braided it loosely and wrapped it with a black tie. Done with that, she took a few steps back to do a quick once-over and stepped out of the bathroom to get her shoes just as there was a knock at the door.
“What the hell? She’s at least fifteen minutes early,” she muttered as she hurried to her closet to slip on her shoes and rushed out to the living room to open the door as if Cameron would only knock once, not get an answer, and leave. “Hi,” she greeted, nearly out of breath.
“Um… Hi,” Cameron replied with a smirk on her face. “Are you okay?”
“You’re early. I… ran.”
Cameron laughed a little and held out a bouquet of red roses.
“These are for you. Sorry, traffic wasn’t bad, so I got here early, and I didn’t want to just wait in the car.”
“You got me roses?” Lacey asked and took them from her. “Wow. Thank you.”
“Do you need a few minutes? I can wait.”
Lacey moved the roses to her face, breathed them in, and smiled. Then, she took Cameron in, and she looked amazing.
“You look beautiful,” Cameron told her before Lacey could say anything, though. “I love your hair like that.” She reached out and touched the end of Lacey’s braid. “You had it like this in the picture Jessie showed us with you and River before the weekend.”
“Oh, right. I submitted that one. You look… dapper. Is dapper the right word to use?”
Cameron was wearing a pair of dark jeans, which could have been mistaken for slacks, black shoes, a light-gray button-down, and a black blazer over it.
“I’ll take dapper. Do you want to put those in water?”
“Yes,” she said and moved to her kitchen. “Shit. Come in, Cam. Sorry, I should’ve invited you in. Do you want something to drink?”
