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“In a recent study, only twenty-nine percent of women actually admit to enjoying going out to buy something to wear,” Belle pipes up.
“Do you ladies need help with anything? Are you looking for something special?”
A perky teenager pops into the doorway of the dressing-room area, giving us a big perky smile that makes me want to punch her in the throat.
“This isn’t rocket science, Karen. If something doesn’t fit, we’re perfectly capable of walking over to a table and grabbing something else. And no, I’m not looking for something special. I’m looking for something ordinary and boring,” I retort.
She quickly scurries away, and Cindy rolls her eyes at me.
“Why do you have to be so difficult?”
“Because I can. This is your fault. You should have known better than to bring me to this hell on earth.”
“I thought you loved shopping. You have more clothes and shoes than anyone I know,” she replies, tugging on the hem of the green, open-shoulder, lace-trimmed top she made me try on until I smack her hands away.
“I love shopping online, where perky teenagers aren’t judging me,” I mutter.
“But, you can’t try that stuff on. What do you do if it doesn’t fit?” Belle asks, staring at me with wide eyes, as if I just said I like kicking puppies for sport.
“If it doesn’t fit, it sits in my closet forever mocking me, because returning something online is the kind of hassle I don’t need in my life. Or, I let one of you two dicks wear it,” I remind them, thinking about all the ordering mishaps I’ve made that benefited them back when they didn’t own anything even remotely sexy.
“Just turn around and let us see how good your ass looks in these jeans,” she orders, grabbing my arms and forcing me to turn around.
“You could bounce a quarter off of that thing!” Belle chirps, cocking her head to the side and staring at my ass. “I’m so jealous. I wish I had more junk in my trunk and looked that good in skinny jeans.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Stop being so obvious with the compliments. When I told you guys I finally managed to get my self-confidence back all on my own, that doesn’t mean I need you to feed my ego to make sure I don’t change my mind,” I explain. “I did it. I’ve officially shut off the voices in my head, and I feel good about myself. I don’t know how I did it or when it happened exactly, but I finally got rid of my insecurities.”
Belle and Cindy share a look, both of them trying to hide their smiles, and I roll my eyes.
“I saw that. What was that look for?” I demand, pointing at both of them.
“Don’t get us wrong, we’re really happy you’re ready to strip. And so proud of you that you finally look in the mirror and see what we’ve seen all along. But . . . you’re seriously saying you don’t know how you got your self-confidence back?” Belle raises her eyebrows at me as Cindy snickers.
“Fine. You want me to say it was because of those stupid articles you sent me? Sure. We’ll go with that,” I tell them with a roll of my eyes.
“It’s just . . . you know, Eric.” She shrugs.
“What about Eric? He has nothing to do with this.”
They don’t even bother to try to hide their amusement at this point. They both throw their heads back and laugh.
“Okay, fine. He’s given me the best orgasms I’ve ever had in my entire life. He likes me and I like him. That’s got nothing to do with me finally pulling my head out of my ass.” I stomp into the dressing room and whip the shirt off my head, tossing it onto the bench attached to the wall.
Yes, I’m changing with the door wide open. There are no other customers back here at the moment anyway. And besides, I’m going to be taking my clothes off for an entire club packed with people tonight. Might as well get used to it now.
Belle and Cindy both stand in the open doorway of the dressing room, watching me shimmy out of the skinny jeans and kick them to the side, both of them wearing amused smiles that are pissing me off more than the perky teenager from a few minutes ago.
“Should we tell her?” Cindy asks Belle as I grab my jeans shorts from the bench and pull them on.
“I mean, what kind of friends would we be if we didn’t clue her in?” Belle asks. “According to a recent article on ’Lil Pick Me Up, while ego-flattering friends are great to have, it’s counterproductive in the long run. You don’t want ‘yes’ people to feed you lies and tell you all the bullshit you want to hear. If you really wish to grow, change, and be successful in life, it takes real friends to be straight with you. No bullshit. No fluffy words. No beating around the bush.”
