Me: Hey. Sorry. I’ve been crazy busy lately. How are you?
Conner: I’m okay. I heard you’re going to the grand opening tonight. I was wanting to see if you’d go as my date, but Levi mentioned he already asked you.
I grimace.
Me: Yeah, I’ll be there.
Conner: Perfect. I can’t wait to see you.
My brows furrow. He knows I’m going with Levi, so why would he be excited to see me? Doesn’t he get it?
Scrunching up my face, I type another quick message.
Me: It’ll be good to see you too. We’ll have to catch up, but I gotta go get ready, so I’ll just see you there, okay?
Conner: Sounds good. See ya there, beautiful.
My hands shake as I set my phone onto the bathroom counter then run my fingers through my hair, fluffing the mess of curls like Sophie had demonstrated.
I’ll deal with that later.
“How do I look?” I ask Sophie, Indie, and Suzette, who are all crowded into my tiny bedroom. After giving them a quick rundown of my date with Levi, they all insisted on coming over to help get me ready for the grand opening. It’s as if I somehow inherited three nosy fairy godmothers who are at my beck and call. And it’s freaking awesome.
“Love the hair!” Suzette compliments. “Now, go try these on. We each grabbed a few options for tonight, but we didn’t have a lot of time, so we’ll just have to make do with what we have.”
Eyeing the bags of dresses lying on my bed that accompanied each of them, I tease, “I’m not too
worried. Besides, anything is better than the same black dress I wore the day before.”
Sophie waves her hand through the air. “Meh. We can totally make that work if we have to. With a long necklace and a pair of heels, you’d be golden, and Levi wouldn’t even notice it was the same one. But let’s see if we have anything else that works before we move to Plan B, shall we?”
“Yes, please, because heels are a no-go for me. I can’t walk in the damn things.”
Suzette covers her mouth to hide her laughter, and I’m sure she’s imagining me trying to do just that. It’s not pretty.
“Trust me. It’s worse than you can imagine,” I quip.
A giggle bursts out of her, followed by a full-blown cackle. “Please give us a demonstration. Pretty please?”
Bouncing over to the bed, Sophie grabs a handful of hangers and shoves them at me. “Let’s just hope these work, Charlie Brown. Try these first.”
I slip on half a dozen dresses, impressed with my fairy godmothers’ skills before landing on a deep red, lacy dress at the bottom of the pile. It hugs my curves and falls to the ground. Sleeveless and low-cut, the neckline dives down into a ‘V’ on my chest as well as my back to expose a decent amount of skin without being too over the top.
When I twirl for the girls, they start clapping.
“Woot, woot!”
“Looks gorgeous!”
“You’re gonna knock Levi on his ass!”
“You think?” I ask, fluffing my hair for the tenth time in ten minutes. I’m so nervous I might actually puke.
“Absolutely,” Suzette states, brooking no argument. “You’re a babe, Charlie. Flaunt it.”
We’re applying the finishing touches to my makeup, which makes me look more refined and feminine than I’ve ever felt in my entire life when there’s a knock on the front door.
My anxiety spikes. “He’s here.”