Taking off the other dress, I slithered into the gown. It really wasn’t my taste. It was elegant, and sexy, and not something anyone wore every day. Where the hell would I even rock something like that? It felt pretentious and siddity. The material was like fucking silk on my skin though, and I found myself continuously rubbing my hand down the front, half nervous and half obsessed with the texture.
“There’s an event tomorrow night. A lot of the town’s head honchos are going to be there. That means that I need to be there. You’ve got to go through some courses for this examand get licensed, but that shouldn’t take long. Tomorrow is just about moving around, rubbing elbows with the right people, and generating interest. You think you can handle that?” Frequency asked, condescending.
Pushing my eyes back into my head, I sighed with annoyance.Guess I got my answer.The gown fell down my legs, and I took myself in. Was the mirror deceiving me? I always thought women who dressed like this had a story to tell. Rubbing elbows with the elite, a bitch had to claw her way through some shit to get into that position. My gaze softened when I took in my appearance . The person in front of me didn’t look like some lost little girl who couldn’t tell up from down. She was a woman. She looked like she had been through all sorts of things.
“Come out so I can check you out,” he urged me from the other side of the dressing room door, startling me.
Still barefoot, I did as he requested. The dressing room area was like one large aisle. There were up to five rooms, and I was near the middle. Right at the very end of the rows was a large mirror where shoppers could see themselves. Smoothing out my dress, I felt awkward as fuck when I stepped out. Frequency had his head down in his device once again. Clearing my throat, I jarred his attention my way.
I couldn’t exactly read his intentions through his stare. He let his gaze wander slowly over my body, and a rush of heat suddenly swept through me from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. My heart fluttered wildly when he held up his hand, motioning for me to spin around so that he could see the rest. Self-conscious wasn’t even the fucking word. The dress clung to my curves, leaving me feeling exposed for the world to see with my shoulders and back out.
“Wow,” I heard Ivy say as she entered the dressing room staring me down.
“Thanks,” I replied.
It was the first and only thing I had said to the girl since meeting. I didn’t know a thing about kids, especially those as old as her. We came from a different era, yet Ivy had a maturity about her that told me she had grown up around a lot of adults in her life.
“So… are you surgically enhanced like those Instagram models, or is that all natural?” she replied, holding on to the clothes she had draped over her arm to try on.
I paused from examining myself in the mirror, and Frequency had gone back to his phone. Whatever was going on was holding his attention. When I faced Ivy, she looked me over with admiration. I reached for the clothes she carried and did my own review of them. She had taste. That was for sure. Having access to the best of Chanel, she was comfortable not looking at the tags. She didn’t seem confident in what she had chosen for herself after seeing me.
“Ivy, right?” I checked with her.
She bobbed her head, her innocent eyes focused on me.
“Harbor. Anyway… you are what? Twelve?” I asked, and she seemed thrown by my guess.
“Yeah. How did you know?” Ivy asked, frowning.
“I’m good at that kind of thing,” I told her with a casual shrug. “Now, do yourself a favor. Don’t try to grow up too fast. The world will eat young girls alive these days. It’s best to just ride it out, do what your parents say, and then make your own mistakes. But… learn from others around you so that you don’t make the same ones as them. I was awkward and funny looking when I was your age. I had to get braces. I was a hot damn mess, and I thought I would never live that ugly duckling stage down. Busted wasn’t even the word.”
Ivy laughed, and it was genuine, which made me smile. She was a beautiful girl. Our skin was almost the same rich, milk-chocolate tone, and her eyes sparkled when her cheeks turned up with a large grin.
“I swam and did other exercises. Surgery was the last thing on my mind. You are already a beautiful girl. And Dr. Miami can’t correct what’s already perfect.” My hand touched her cheek gently, and she blushed as her gaze lowered to the ground. “I doubt you even go through an ugly phase. Lucky you.”
“Can you help me pick out some outfits? I saw the stuff you grabbed. I like your style,” Ivy concluded, and I could feel eyes on us as we spoke.
Gazing up, Frequency was in fact studying us interacting with one another, the most peculiar look on his face. I gathered some of the things that she carried with her and went through them.
“Hmm, I think these are all pretty great actually. Why don’t you go and try them on?” I suggested.
“Okay,” she agreed, skipping along to an empty dressing room.
I stared after her, smiling. To be that young again. Shaking my head, I sighed and held my arms out. “So what do you think?” I checked with him for approval.
With his hand against his chin, he studied me, circling me like a lion would their prey. I felt naked under his eyes. He nudged me toward the mirror, his hand on the small of my back. I shuddered, and wondered if he felt it too. Goose bumps popped up all over my skin, and my heart ran a marathon in my chest. My eyes caught his in the mirror ahead. He was taller than me, staring at us in the mirror over my shoulder. He was so close to me that the heat from his body bounced off mine, and I drowned in the scent of Versace Eros. The shit smelled like it was made specifically for him.
“How do you feel?” he asked, his voice deep in my ear while he continued to stare at me through the mirror.
“Like I’m walking around in some other woman’s life,” I answered, sheepish as I continued to check myself in the mirror. “This isn’t something I would exactly choose for myself to wear.”
“I noticed that.” He looked me from head to toe and our eyes linked once again.
Shit was intense. I needed to check my pulse to make sure I was still even fucking breathing. His name was now starting to make all the damn sense in the world. Frequency. He definitely could change that shit by walking on the scene.
“You are a woman though, and this is your life. I’m talking about turning you into something else. Someone that other women envy. Is that something you think you can do?” Frequency interrogated.
This wasn’t some ideal shit. Where we started and where we were, I never would have conjured it in my wildest dreams. In the mirror, his eyes shifted to my face, and I still studied him closely, damn near searing a hole in the side of him.
