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Coop was going to defend him or at least counsel me to be patient—which he did. Archie would be skeptical and wary. Jake wanted to distract me and I think buy Ian some time to come around. But he’d also been pissed on my behalf, too.
Or maybe it was on his.
Truthfully, it wasn’t always about me.
“There you are,” Rachel said, as if she’d damn near apparated into being next to me. There was no way to disguise my jump, and she grinned. “Someone was lost in thought.”
“Yes,” I told her. Not like there was any point in lying. “Hi.”
She grinned. “Hi. Nice save, you didn’t even slosh your coffee.” Hooking her arm through mine, she walked with me toward our table. “I’ll let you put that down before I demand to see pictures.”
“Of my coffee?”
Snorting, Rachel shook her head. “Of the dress…”
We’d made it to our usual table where Archie placed the coffee tray then gave Rachel a dour look. “Why are you here?”
“Not to talk to you, asshat, so shut up.” The words just rolled right off of her as she grabbed a chair and pulled it out for me, then dropped into the chair next to it as I sat. “C’mon, Cheryl told me you tried on a bunch of gorgeous ones, but she said I had to wait and see what you picked. So spill…let’s see it.”
Archie glared at Rachel for a second, then shot a look at Coop, who raised his hands. Nope, he wasn’t wading in.
Setting the coffee aside, I slid off my backpack and then pulled my phone out of my pocket. “I’ll show you, but try to be nicer to the guys okay?”
Rachel rolled her eyes, then tilted her head. “I’m here to talk to Frankie, asshat, sopleaseshut up.” The last she added with the barest hint of a smile.
“Meter’s running,” Archie warned her.
I shouldn’t laugh. I really shouldn’t, but she had this butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth tone, and she’d actually batted her eyes. Across the table, Coop started snickering, too.
“Bitch bitch bitch,” Rachel retorted.
“Just what I was thinking,” Archie clapped back, then smiled when I raised my eyebrows. He even touched his finger to the corner of his mouth. “See, I’m being nice. I’m even agreeing with the bitch.”
I giggled, and Rachel smirked. “Bring it on, asshat, I can take you.”
“Yeah, no thanks,” Archie informed her. “I’m good right where I am.”
“Fantastic, then give us a little less of this.” She held up her hand and tapped her thumb to her fingers as if miming talking. “K? Thanx. Bai.”
I swore I could almost see the emojis in the too sugary tone. “Anyway…” I said before they could launch into each other again. I opened up the photos on my phone. At least I’d saved the image after I showed Marsha the day before. But the first image to pop was my scholarship notice and Rachel leaned a little closer before I swiped to the next one, which was the dress. “This is the dress I picked out.”
She studied it critically as she let out a low whistle. “I like it. Simple but sexy. Good color. What are you doing for jewelry? Cheryl said she told you where to get shoes, but you need other accessories.”
Kill me.“I actually know a place.”
“Okay, if you need help, happy to give you backup. What about hair and makeup, have you figured it out?”
From the corner of my eye, I caught Coop leaning toward Archie and throwing an arm around him as he mocked wiped a tear. “Look, she’s turning into a real girl.”
“Yes, actually,” I told Rachel as I flipped Coop off, which set the pair of them laughing their asses off.
“Just ignore them,” Rachel said, tapping the screen with my dress. “How are you doing the hair? Yourself? Your mom? Someone?”
I didn’t flinch at the mention of my mom. While Rachel had really come through for me the previous week to cover up the red mark on my face—which had faded, thank you very much—we weren’t at confiding about my mother stage. I could barely talk about her with Coop and the guys. “Marsha at work made me an appointment with a friend of hers.” Sure, I had to make the appointment, but that was just a technicality. “She even gave me the day off so I could go and get done up right—her words, not mine.”
“Good,” Rachel said. “Perfect. Okay. So, shoes and accessories. I know a couple of other places that Cheryl would never recommend because they aren’t trendy but they do have great shoes and not at kill me now prices.”
That was good to know.
