AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This… fits,” I say, holding up a powder blue dress for Ransom to see. “I think it does, anyway.”
He looks it over and frowns. “That sure is a color, though. Do you like that one?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Blue is nice. I guess.”
“Blueisnice. That looks like an Easter egg gone wrong. And it’s not your color.”
“How do you know what my color is?” I ask.
“Angel, I’ve been checking you out for months now. Trust me, I know your colors.”
My cheeks flush as he makes a show of checking me out now, and to my relief, it doesn’t set off that awful sick, shaky feeling in my chest. Instead, I just laugh and put the Easter disaster dress back on the rack.
“I have no idea what I’m looking for,” I finally admit.
He smiles, coming over to the rack I’m going through. “Luckily for you, I’m here. I know this is usually Vic’s job, but I wanted to have my turn,” he says, teasing. “I can dress you just as well as he can.”
“You know he’s going to make some comment about the dress not being symmetrical enough if we don’t pick the right one,” I tease back.
“We don’t want to risk his wrath. Symmetry it is then.”
Weirdly, that task is a bit harder than it should be. There are so many dresses that are cut higher in the front than the back, or on one side than the other. Ransom holds up a bizarre black number that has one sleeve and is shorter in the back than the front, and we both shudder before he puts it back.
It’s interesting, watching his process for picking things out. He does seem to have an eye for color, and he stays away from the pastels, instead pulling out dresses in reds and greens and rich, dark blues. He finds one in a shimmering gold, pulling it out and holding it up to me.
It’s off the shoulder a bit, and it will definitely show off more of my scars than I’m used to, but Ransom has that look in his eyes.
“Are you sure about that one?” I ask, shifting a little nervously.
“If you don’t want to try it on, you definitely don’t have to,” he replies. “But I think gold would look amazing on you. It’ll add to how bright you already shine.”
I look at the dress and the look on Ransom’s face and then nod. “Okay, add it to the pile.”
He beams at me, and seeing that look definitely helps. I want to shine. I want to try to rise above the darkness and pain that I feel stuck in lately.
We go through a few more racks, and Ransom makes a case for more dresses. The growing pile in his arms is getting a little out of hand, but it seems like he’s excited for me to try them all on. There was probably a time when I would have been excited to do it too. Now it just feels like a means to an end.
But getting back to the things I enjoy is part of healing, probably, so I take a deep breath and brush off the misgivings, trying to feel some pleasure here.
“We’ll go from least likely to most,” Ransom says, handing me three dresses. “That way we can eliminate them quickly.”
“You’re starting to sound like Vic,” I tell him, smiling.
He rolls his eyes. “Don’t tell him that. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
I just laugh and take the dresses into the dressing room. I get undressed quickly, not wanting to spend more time than I have to out of my clothes in this place I’m not comfortable in yet.
The first dress is blue, and I can already tell I’m not really going to like it. The material is scratchy, and instead of showing off my assets well, it just makes me look boxy.
I also can’t reach the zipper.
“Everything okay in there?” Ransom calls.
“I need a little help,” I call back. “I can’t get the zipper up.”
There’s a soft chuckle from outside, and then he comes in, closing the little door behind him.
I can feel his eyes on me as soon as he steps in, and he swallows as he looks me over. There’s no question what he’s looking at. I’m half in the dress, the zipper undone down my back, hair spilling over my shoulder where I flipped it forward to try to get it out of the way of the zipper.
