AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Thankfully, I had an afternoon off while James took some time with the kids, and Anna agreed to go with me into town to help pick out a dress since she’d been going to a lot of these things with Kevin lately.
“Add it to the stack,” I said, holding out my arms, which were already laden with close to a dozen dresses to try on.
Anna looked around, then said, “I think that’s about all we’re gonna find. May as well go try them on.”
“What’s our next stop if we don’t find one here?” I asked. Back in college when we’d had formals, we’d go to every single shop in the downtown area, even after we already found at least one dress we liked, just to make sure there wasn’t something better.
“Next stop?” Anna asked with a laugh. “This is it, babe. Welcome to Montana. You’re not in San Francisco anymore.”
“Damn…” I said. “It really is like a different world here.”
“No kidding,” Anna said. “I thought at first that I would hate it here, and I worried about what that would mean for my relationship with Kevin. Like, was I going to have to break up with him because I couldn’t deal with living here? Give him an ultimatum to come back to Cali with me?”
“What made you change your mind?” I asked.
“I kind of just got used to it before I had the guts to bring it up,” she said before turning to the fitting room attendant. “We have…” She rifled through the stack of dresses in my arms. “Eleven.”
The girl at the little counter grabbed a number five tag and a number six tag.
“Here you go!” she chirped, handing them to Anna. “The big stall at the end should be open and have enough room for you to both go in.”
“Thanks,” Anna said back just as cheerfully before leading the way to the very back row of the dressing rooms.
I tried on the first of the eleven dresses and immediately ruled it out. The neckline made the dress look more like a mother-of-the-bride dress than one a twenty-five-year-old would wear to a formal event.
“Oh, no,” Anna said with a laugh. “Hi, Grandma.”
“Shut up,” I said back, laughing along with her and throwing a sock at her. “Or I’ll make you put it on.”
She gasped in mock horror and put a hand to her chest. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Oh, I would,” I said as I unzipped the matronly monstrosity.
The next dress was a maybe as far as I was concerned—the green and black ombre. It was silken with a semi-fitted bodice, thin straps, and a flowy skirt.
At least, it was a maybe until Anna spoke up.
“It looks like you stepped out ofLord of the Rings,” Anna said, and I looked at her in surprise. I’d thought the dress looked nice, but she must have realized I’d taken it as an insult because she waved her hands. “No, no—in a good way. Like one of the elves or something.”
“Yeah,” I said, taking it off and tossing it with the first for Anna to hang up for me. “Not exactly the look I was going for. I need to be…” I was about to say “sexy” or “sultry,” but I felt like saying so would give away that there was more between me and James than just employer and employee stuff. “Modern.”
Anna lifted an eyebrow as if she didn’t believe me, which she was right not to. I still didn’t know what I wanted to happen with James, and I wished dearly that I could ask my best friend for advice, but I worried she’d judge me.
Then again, she was in a relationship with her dad’s best friend, so maybe she wouldn’t judge me after all.
“Hey, Anna?” I said, my back turned as I pulled another dress up over my chest, waiting for her to zip it up for me.
“Yes, Haley?” she said in a jokingly formal voice.
“What, um… What's it like dating a guy a lot older than you?” I asked.
There was a pause, and I turned around to see her giving me an appraising look.
“It’s amazing,” she said with a shrug and a small shake of her head, though her eyes were still searching mine. “A lot of the guys our age are still really self-centered and wild, but, to use Kevin as an example, he isn’t bogged down by the societal expectations younger guys tend to worry about. He doesn’t feel the need to go out and get shitfaced, and he isn’t sitting around wondering if he’s too young to settle down. He’s ready for an actual commitment.” She paused. “Besides, the sex is amazing because he’s been doing it for long enough that he’s learned what to do and what not to do, and he isn’t just focused on his own pleasure—he actually gets off on mine, which is so out of the ordinary, I can’t even believe it.”
“No kidding,” I said before I could catch myself, then I snapped my mouth shut and turned my back to her again.
“What does that mean?” Anna said behind me, her voice dripping with suspicion.
