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“I’ve got to get a dress for this thing on Friday, and I have no intention of using the personal shopper he sent me.” Ezra thought that I was just some girl from the Midwest who’d never been in a Saks before in her life. What he didn’t know was that I probably knew my way around that store better than any personal shopper did.
“Let’s go have a Julia Roberts moment,” Julia said. I got up from the bed and grabbed Julia’s crutches.
“Let’s make a date out of this,” I said, brandishing the card. “We can make a day out of it.”
Julia’s eyes immediately lit up, and I knew that whether or not I wanted to go shopping, Julia needed this, and I needed a dress.
* * *
It felt more like myself than I had in a long time as I slipped on the green silk gown that Julia and I had picked out at Saks. The last two days had flown by as I looked for a new job and tried to keep my mind off of my new reality. Now, it was Friday night, and I was preparing for my date with Ezra.
He’s emailed me a list of notes about the event, which I’d honestly appreciated, but overall, kept his distance from me.
“Wow,” Julia breathed out as I walked into the kitchen. “You look incredible.”
I smiled and did a little swish. “I feel pretty amazing.”
We’d used the hell out of Ezra’s credit card. Not only had I bought some new clothes, but I’d allowed Julia to convince me to fix my hair. A few months ago, I’d tried to die it dark with a discounted box dye, and it hadn’t gone well.
Now, it was a perfect chocolate brown–a color so different from my natural color that I was sure that no one would recognize me.
“Do you think Ezra will like it?” I asked. I hadn’t thought much about him when I’d been shopping with Julia. She’d been having so much fun that I had allowed myself to end up swept up in the moment.
“You look beautiful,” Julia said. “If he doesn’t try to fuck you in the car, then he’s fucking blind.”
My mouth dropped open at Julia’s crassness, and I grabbed a dish towel and threw it at her. “Julia!” I exclaimed.
She caught the towel and laughed. “Just saying.”
I played nervously with my bracelet as I waited for Ezra. “I already told you we agreed that there wouldn’t be anything physical between us.”
Julia said nothing, but I knew that she thought I was making a mistake on that end. She’d told me as much when we’d shopped. She’d been excited at the thought of me getting laid – her words – and wildly disappointed when I reminded her that this was a business arrangement.
There was a knock on the door, and I felt my heart starting to beat in double time. I was oddly nervous about what came next because once Ezra and I were photographed out in public, everything was going to be different.
“Open the door,” Julia hissed.
I knew if she could have gotten up from the bed and pulled the door open for me, she would have. Lucky for me, she was still basically bed ridden.
Taking a deep, calming breath, I reached out and opened the door. “Hi,” I said, feeling oddly shy.
Ezra was standing on the other side of the doorway in a dark designer tuxedo that fit him like a glove. I’d seen him in work suits before, but he looked heart stoppingly handsome in a tux.
‘Wow,” he breathed out.
My cheeks reddened as he looked at me. His eyes caressed my skin, and I did my best to appear unaffected by the way he was staring at me.
“You had your hair colored,” he said, bringing his eyes back to my face.
I reached out and placed one of the curls behind my ears. I’d done my best to tame my hair into something that appeared classy and elegant. “Do you like it?” I asked. I hated how badly I wanted him to say yes.
“Doyoulike it?”
I nodded. I did like it. My entire life I’d been blonde, but that wasn’t the color I'd been born with. My father had wanted my hair dyed to the perfect icy blonde color because it was what Nikolai preferred.
“I do,” I said, twirling a curl around my hair.
“Then, I think it was beautiful.”
