Mr. Right Now? Wildflower? “You’ve got to be kidding.”
No problem. And no rush. I’ll be waiting at Anthony’s Bar whenever you…
If there was more to the message, Heather couldn’t get at it. In order to access her cousin’s message page, she needed to know her password, and while it was tempting to spend a few minutes experimenting—her own password was the year of their birth—she could almost hear her father’s snide comment that Paige would never choose anything so obvious.
Talk about obvious. “Wildflower,” she scoffed. “Mr. Right Now.” Clearly their online aliases. So, Paige’s big date was someone she’d met on a dating site, someone it appeared she was meeting in person for the first time tonight.
Heather reached into her pocket for her cell and quickly connected to Match Sticks, the most popular of Boston’s online dating sites, scrolling through the seemingly endless number of male pictures and profiles until she found the one she was looking for. “Wow,” she said, staring at the tiny photo of the man calling himself Mr. Right Now. “Aren’t you the handsome one.” No wonder Paige had been in such a hurry.
“Oh, well. Too bad, so sad.” Paige wouldn’t be able to make their date after all. Nor would she have any way of texting the poor man her predicament. He’d be left to cool his heels, figuring he’d been stood up. Although it was safe to assume that any man who looked like that wouldn’t be alone for long.
Heather smiled, the beginnings of an idea taking shape in her admittedly addled brain.
People were always saying she and her cousin looked enough alike to be twins. She was familiar with Anthony’s Bar, and it was relatively close by. Assuming Mr. Right Now looked anything like his picture, she’d have no trouble spotting him, and with the bar’s dim lighting, she’d have no trouble passing herself off as her cousin. So, all she had to do was introduce herself as Wildflower, and see how things progressed from there.
She laughed out loud. What could be more perfect? She couldn’t have scripted this any better.
But first, of course, she needed something to wear. Couldn’t very well meet the potential man of Paige’s dreams in shorts and an off-the-shoulder blouse. Besides, she was still chilled to the bone from the air-conditioning in the lobby. “I’ll be lucky not to catch my death from the cold,” she said out loud, and laughed.Catch my death,she thought. What a strange expression! How did one “catch death”?
Yes, she definitely needed something to wear. But there was no time to go shopping, and besides, why go shopping when there was a whole closetful of clothes down the hall? She and Paige wore the same size and had similar taste, even if Paige generally favored more conservative fare. She was bound to find something.
Heather floated out of the kitchen and down the hall to Paige’s bedroom. “This must be the place,” she giggled, crossing to the small walk-in closet and opening the door. “Well, well. Let’s see what we have here.” Her hand rifled through the various clothes on the hangers, passing up the silk blouses, straight skirts, and cotton dresses she pictured Paige wearing to work. “God, you’re even more boring than I thought.” Did her cousin not own anything with a plunging neckline? Did all her dresses have to reach her knees? “Surely to God, you have something you wouldn’t feel comfortable being buried in,” she said, dissolving in a fit of giggles.
Which was when she saw it—the perfect outfit in which to meet Mr. Right Now. A pearl-gray dress trimmed with lace, with a V-neckline that, if it wasn’t exactly revealing, at least hinted at cleavage. Sexy without being slutty. The kind of dress that said “maybe,” not “you bet!”
Heather slipped out of her shorts and top, then wiggled into the dress. “Perfect,” she said, going through Paige’s shoes, and selecting a pair of high-heeled black pumps. “A little tight, but manageable.” She ran into Paige’s bathroom and helped herself to her cousin’s blush and mascara, then fluffed out her hair before borrowing one of Paige’s lipsticks. “Hmm. Good color. Think I’ll keep this one.”
She took one last, satisfied glance in the mirror over the sink. “Okay. Looking good.” She laughed, a feeling of pride surging through her body, like an electrical current.Score another one for Heather,she thought. “Mr. Right Now, here I come.”