Page 271 of Manhattan Bossholes

“Don’t encourage his hungover delusions,” Shay said.

“What can I say?” Erik smirked. “When you’ve got it, you’ve got it.”

I laughed as he strutted around the table, shaking my head at his antics. For the first time in forever, the ground finally felt stable under my feet. I loved my job, I was making good money, my living situation was stable, and I had what might be the start of something good with Trent. It might not be a safety net, but there was still a sense of security I’d been craving. Maybe it was okay to let go of the constant fear that everything was about to fall apart. This was a good place to be. A soft place to land. So maybe it was time to drop my guard and let myself enjoy it.

14

NATASHA

“Iswear it’s literally the most adorable thing I’ve ever made!” Stacy gushed as she led me through what I’d dubbed as the costume emporium.

“I’m sure it is.”

“I really hope she likes it because I want to make about ten more.”

“How many princess dresses does one girl need?”

Stacy whirled around, concerned. “Was that an actual question?”

“Umm…” I laughed. “No, of course not. What was I thinking?”

Stacy rolled her eyes before marching off. “Honestly, Natasha.”

“What?” I chased after her. Most of Stacy’s apartment was adorned with costume-related paraphernalia, especially when she was in the middle of prepping for a show, but the second bedroom was where she claimed the real magic happened. As we walked through the door, I spotted her massive sewing machine buried under a mountain of fabric. There were shelves of scraps and shiny buttons and zippers and every color thread imaginable. The walls were crammed with wire racks draped in finished pieces and thrifted inspiration finds that Stacy sometimes used as patterns. And in the middle of the room was her cutting table where she chopped and pinned until things were perfect.

Stacy disappeared behind one of those wire racks, reappearing a moment later with a hanger strung over her finger. She dangled a frilly princess dress out in front of my face.

“Well?” she said, beaming. “What do you think? Does this scream birthday girl or what?”

I’d never seen so many bows in my entire life. “It’s definitely something…that a little girl having a birthday party would like.” I mean, not me as a little girl. But I trusted that Dominic knew his daughter well enough to ask Stacy to make the dress in the first place.

Stacy lowered the hanger and squealed at her own work. “It’s so dang cute! I can’t wait to give it to her.”

“I’m sure Hailey’s going to love it. That was her name, right?”

Stacy nodded. “Yeah. Dominic keeps texting me for updates, and I keep telling him no spoilers until the party.”

“So you two are talking a lot?” I said casually.

“Almost every day,” Stacy admitted. “I wondered if we’d run out of things to talk about once the dress was done, but he’s just so great, Tash. Maybe I should have stopped dating theater guys a long time ago.”

“So has talking moved to dating?”

“No…I don’t know. We haven’t really discussed it.” She shrugged and smiled. “But I’m not concerned. It feels right.”

Ah, there was my forever-optimist. “Well, as long as you’re happy.”

“I am. I was even happier to hear that you’re going on a date! Speaking of,” she sang, twirling away with the princess dress in hand. She disappeared behind another rack. I tried not to trip over stray scraps of material as I followed her. “This is the dress I was thinking you could wear tonight.”

My stomach flip-flopped. When Stacy had offered up a dress for me to borrow, I hadn’t realized she was talking about one she’d made. I loved the girl, but last I checked, her latest project was some sort of futuristic steampunk mashup ensemble. The last thing I needed was to meet Trent looking like a deranged robot.

“Here it is!” she announced, pulling a dark blue gown off one of the racks. She presented it to me with a flourish.

My jaw dropped. “Stacy, it’s gorgeous.”

“Isn’t it?” she said, giving me a little giggle. “And what’s more important is that you’re going to look ridiculously hot in it.”

“I can’t believe you made this.”