Page 39
Chapter 12
Eat, sleep, breathe Lawrence Derrickson.
If Toni had needed a sign that Tyler cheating on her was possibly the best thing to ever happen to her, the last week was it. She’d thought of his hateful act exactly zero times until now, which didn’t count.
Muttering to herself as she went through her closet, Toni discarded just about every article of clothing that she owned.
“Too dressy,” she said, rejecting a green silk dress.
Alessandra had followed her to the purple house despite her protests that she was perfectly capable of getting dressed all by her lonesome.
“Too . . . old.” The cocktail dress got pushed to the back.
“What about this?”
The white shift dress looked enough like a sundress to appear casual, but the eyelet embroidery at the hem avoided an I just tossed on any ol’ thing appearance.
“I’ve never seen you like this in my life,” Alessandra said from her bed.
Which was true. Toni firmly believed in not overthinking matters, especially when it came to something as superficial as clothing. But this wasn’t just any date.
It was a date with Lawrence.
Unbelievably hot, sexy vampire Lawrence.
“Yeah, well, I’ve never gone on a date with a vampire before. Turn around!”
She shimmied into the dress and then cleared her throat. When Alessandra turned back around, she whistled.
“So you like it?”
Her friend disappeared into her closet for a moment, tossed her a pair of brown leather sandals, and then sat back down. “Stunning.”
Toni finished getting ready as she rambled on about an odd customer who’d come into the shop the day before. The story sputtered to a stop as she finished her makeup—really, which of their patrons wasn’t a little odd?—and she sighed and bounced down onto the bed beside her friend.
“Do you think this is a terrible idea?”
Alessandra looked at her like she was crazy. “Terrible idea? I’ve always thought you and Lawrence were perfect for each other. I think it’s the best idea in the world.”
“Always?”
“Well, maybe not always. Aside from the very brief period of time when I thought he might be a psychopath killer, I’ve always thought he was perfect for you.”
“Do you think I should wait a bit longer—”
“For what? For life to pass you by as you stew over that jerk?”
“Well, when you put it like that . . .”
“Listen.” Alessandra grabbed her hands. “Allow yourself this one night.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve always done so much for other people. For Tyler. For your parents . . .”
Toni’s heart lurched at the mention of them. It wasn’t like Alessandra to go there. But there was no denying she was absolutely right.
“But what about . . . you know.” She wasn’t usually shy with Alessandra.
