“Yep. He’s actually the reason why I made so many appointments. The women flocked to the booth. You should have seen them. Falling all over him. Making appointments just because he told them to. It was disgusting.”
Amie shook her head. Obviously she wasn’t surprised by Aleks’s behavior. “Everything is waiting for you on the counter so you can close up.”
“Thanks again, Amie.”
“No thanks needed.” She slid on her black wool pants. “Anything to help the Bare Naked Designs cause.”
“You’re one of my favorite customers. Actually, you don’t buy anything, do you? Sort of counterproductive, wouldn’t you say?”
“Word of mouth. I spread the word of your wonderful designs.”
“Of course, totally worth it.”
“So...” Amie stepped out of the dressing room and gave Carrie a sly grin. “So, what?”
“You spent the entire day with him. Any moves?” Amie wiggled her eyebrows.
“No. I thought maybe a kiss would happen at the end of the day, but he ran away.”
“What a chicken.”
“I don’t think it’s a case of him being a chicken, Amie. I think he just isn’t that into me.” “First of all, you can’t possibly believe that. Second, Aleks is a chicken.”
This was the second time Carrie got the impression that Amie knew something she didn’t.
Discouraged, she made her way back to the counter and sorted through the day’s receipts.
“You said yourself that you need to do this. I don’t like seeing you so torn. Your business is taking off, you have every reason to be happy but I see how much the thought of him weighs you down.” Amie jumped onto the counter. “You need to turn this into a positive. Come on, Care,
I need the deets.”
“It seems we already have a friend who can give details about that.”
“Are you going to be mad at Martina forever?”
“No. I just...it just...” It hurt. If she said it out loud it would only confirm how far gone she
really was when it came to Aleks. Instead, she needed to make this casual. Prove to her friends she just needed some good sex and that was it.
“Martina doesn’t love him. She loves your brother.”
“I know that.”
“So get over it. We’ve known all along that Aleks and your brother had certain ‘things’ they
like to do together.”
“Yeah.” For as much as she disliked thinking about her brother and sex, Amie was right.
She always seemed to be right.
“So what are we going to do about this dilemma?”
Carrie shrugged. “Go for it?”
“That wasn’t very convincing.”
“It just seems that every time we have an opportunity to move ahead he shies away, making