Even I had to admit that after we left the chemical stench of the salon and stepped back into the sunshine, I actually started to have a little fun.
“Let’s grab another coffee, courtesy of the agency,” Amanda drawled in a Southern aristocratic accent she’d adopted specifically to pose that very request a million times. We’d already had three espressos and had stopped “just for a bite” at two different sushi restaurants. Still, we’d barely dented the funds assigned to ingratiate us into the land of giants.
“I can’t.” I grabbed her wrist and tugged her away from the Starbucks she’d started drifting into. “There’s so much caffeine in my system, I seriously feel like I’m having heart palpitations.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s just your heart being excited, Bex. It’s jumping for you.”
I stopped in my tracks and stared at her in awe. “You are a scientist; you know that? The medical profession has got nothing on you.”
She laughed and pulled me suddenly into a store with the scariest looking mannequins I had ever seen. “Fine, if the sponsored charm is beginning to wear off, let’s just get our dresses and find some shoes. It’s already coming up on five, and we’re supposed to be there no later than seven-thirty.”
“Hang on.” I hadn’t made it past the door, locked in a staring match with an eyeless mannequin. “This one’s trying to tell me something.”
“Oh my gosh, could you just come on already?” She trapped my wrist in her wiry fingers and pulled me farther inside. “And try not to embarrass me.”
I picked up an equestrian riding crop labeled “business casual” as we rushed past. “I always try.”
Chapter 5
An hour and a half later, I had self-exiled to a changing room. Wondering, literally, what in the world had I gotten myself into.
I liked to wear nice things. I liked to wear them just as much as any girl who wasn’t either kidding herself or on some existential cleanse liked to wear nice things.
But this...? This had taken that sentiment to a whole other level.
I looked as though I had been painted, skin to skin painted, in shimmering metallic lace.
Amanda called it silver, but I had promptly dubbed the color gunmetal—hearing one of the salespersons mutter the word as I walked past. It was slightly darker than your average winter snowflake—with darker, stormy tints that gave it a bit of an edge. It clung to my body like a second skin but was in no way unflattering. In fact, it made my skin practically glow translucent white under its reflective swirling tints. It wound its way up around my neck like an elegant halter and then plunged down into the lowest neckline I’d ever seen. It was delicately beaded over a thin empire waist, but rather than flaring out in a loose skirt the way most dresses I owned tended to do, it hugged around my tiny hips and then fell straight down to the floor.
Enchanted, I snapped a picture and sent it to my mom before venturing out into the waiting room mirrors.
“Oh my gosh!” Amanda gushed all in one breath. “You look so different! You look beautiful!”
I paused a moment with a frown, considering her statement. “Thanks...? I’m not going to lie. I absolutely love it! I already sent a picture to my mom.”
Amanda’s eyes sparkled as she prepared to try on a gown of her own. “What did Sharon say?”
Right on cue, I glanced down at my phone as it beeped a reply. “She told me that grand larceny is a crime, and I’d better put it right back on the hanger,” I answered with a crooked grin.
Amanda laughed and disappeared into a changing room. A minute later, I heard her rustling around.
“Okay,” she opened the door with a flourish, “what do you think?”
My hands flew up to my mouth as I gave her a round of girly applause. “You look stunning. That green is the perfect color for your eyes.” I snapped another picture on my phone, knowing she’d want a “changing room reaction” immortalized for all eternity. When I was done, I gave her another once over, and my face softened into a thoughtful smile. “Seriously, Mandi, you look perfect. Gosh—sometimes it feels like yesterday that we were playing dress up in our moms’ closets and look at us now. I don’t even know what to say.”
She gave me a long look. For a moment, I thought she also imagined our childhood days. But then she gestured to herself impatiently.
“Oh!” I exclaimed, remembering my scripted lines. “And it makes your boobs look amazing!”
“Yeah, it does.” She grinned, adjusting her sweetheart neckline to show off her cleavage. “I think this is definitely what Billy had in mind when he said to make a good impression.”
I came to stand beside her in the mirror, gazing confidently at our reflections. “Two good impressions.”
“Yes, two good impressions,” she said, keeping her eyes trained on her breasts. “You’re right, Bex, I shouldn’t play favorites.”
I rolled my eyes and dragged her to the counter to pay.
IT MIGHT HAVE DAMPENED our arrival just a little that we showed up in a Volvo we borrowed from a friend who owed us a favor. But we parked it just inside the gate so that we could walk the rest of the way across the grounds to the front entrance where the socialites and paparazzi were having the time of their lives each pretending they didn’t care about the other. On second thought, “walking the grounds” to get to the house might also have been a bit of a mistake.