fingernail, then rubbing it away. “I thought she was homeless at first, but it turns out it was just her
style.”
His chuckles turn to belly laughs, making him shake in his chair. “Jesus, Maya. If that doesn’t say
it all.” I smile as I watch him fall apart. This feels way better than the way things have been this
week.
“I’m really sorry I ran away from you,” I tell him, begging him with my whole face to let me
finish. He leans back with a small nod, and I suck in a deep breath, mentally tearing away parts of my
rehearsed speech. “I told you I don’t have much experience…I just got overwhelmed by everything
that happened this weekend. Something about Becca’s class got to me. I’ve never hit anyone in my
life. Well, except for Lucas in the second grade, but he kept pulling my hair. I had every right to slap
him…I think.”
I peek at him to make sure he’s still listening. He hasn’t moved, but his face has warmed the
tiniest bit.Progress.“Anyway, I really am sorry for,” I clear my throat and squeak out the words,
“Kissing you and…um, rubbing on you. I just felt…well, never mind what I felt. It doesn’t matter. It
was unprofessional of me.” I feel it coming. I try to hold it back, but the chaotic jumble of words pour
out, “Everything was tingling, and I got too curious, and I shouldn’t have done it. I’m sorry.”
“Maya,” he says, hands moving to grip the arms of the chair, voice raspy. “Tell me more about—“
“Well,” the saleswoman says briskly as she breezes into the room, “I managed to find one gown in
your size that might work. It’s not cotton.” Zach’s brows raise at that before he smooths his face back
into the mask he’s been wearing for the last hour. “But it should meet your specifications. If it doesn’t,
then I’m afraid I have nothing else for you.”
“Nothing else? You had at least twenty gowns in there. Are you telling me not one of them fit her?
I sent you her measurements.” The bite in Zach’s voice makes the woman’s smile turn up to a
calculated dazzle. Wait, how does he know my measurements? Is that a hot guy thing? Can they just
eyeball it, or do they have to touch? I mean, he definitely touched.
Maybe that’s his superpower.
“Mr. Lee, I assure you I have pulled many appropriate options. Unfortunately, Ms. Miller’s
quite…selective.”
Seemingly mollified, Zach turns to me. “Why are you being so picky?”
“Ah, it’s not really picky. I just have a hard time with certain fabrics.”
