“Uh … ‘a no, thank you I already have plans with Willow’ doesn’t sound reasonable enough to you?”
“Oh c’mon. We all went to high school together. Sure, they were occasionally mean to you then, but we’ve all moved on in life. Helen is in community college, and Victoria, well, she got knocked up, didn’t she? Wait a second,” she paused, her eyes suddenly widening, “Why does she even have a drink in her hands?”
“Whohoooo.” The subject in question released a shout, and then came crashing into the back, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “What are you guys doing? Let’s get going! It’s gonna be a fucking awesome night. I’m so going to get laid tonight.”
“Victoria, aren’t you pregnant … and engaged?”
“Oh, calm down,” she waved her hand in dismissal. “Arthur and me are testing out this open relationship thing since he’s going to be out of town almost all the time for his sales gigs. I don’t want to restrict or frustrate him, and he doesn’t want to do the same to me either so we’re trying to work things out.”
My eyebrows shot to my hairline, while Sandra headed over to her, her face filled with concern. “I’m not talking about Arthur. I’m talking about your baby. You’re not supposed to be drinking.”
She wobbled and even I felt alarm. I moved to catch her, but she straightened herself.
“Oh relax, both of you. There’s no alcohol in this.”
“Then why are you wobbling?” I asked.
“Force of habit,” she replied with a grin.
Just then, Helen joined us, actually she staggered over, but Sandra caught her before she could crash into the table of freshly potted plants that Sandra had spent the last few days slaving over. That would have brought an immediate end to any fun that the girls planned on having for the night.
“I tripped,” Helen giggled, the beer from her can spilling everywhere, much to my irritation. “But I’m not drunk. Not yet”
Both of the girls burst out in laughter and I turned an unimpressed face to Sandra. At that rate we would have flies not bees flocking around us.
But Sandra was not to be put off. “The more the merrier,” she said, pushing me towards my tiny office. “It’s going to be a fantastic night. Now go get changed before the free bar closes.”
To be perfectly honest, I didn’t want to go. It looked like it was going to be a disaster of a night, but I felt almost obliged to go now, because I could see the state of the girls. Someone had to watch over Sandra. I quickly slipped out of my comfortable jeans and T-shirt. Then I shimmied into the red dress with the two tiny strings connecting the back together, and stared at the stilettos that Sandra wanted me to switch my dark Converses for.
My heart bled at the thought.
But I couldn’t very well wear my Converses with the red dress so I slipped into them and returned to the front of the shop.
It was empty. I saw Helen and Victoria standing outside smoking and Sandra was not amongst them.”
I pulled the door open. “Where did Sandra go?”
“To the store,” Victoria answered. “She wants to get some water and snacks for later, in case she gets hungry.”
“Oh, okay.” I returned inside and decided to finish the sales report for the day. I immediately got sucked into it, until the doorbell tinkled again.
I didn’t even bother looking up. “Sandra, I just need five minutes to round this up or else I’m going to be thinking about it all night.”
There was no response.
Suddenly, my skin started to prickle. I lifted my gaze and the words I had planned in my head died in my throat.
The person standing before me was definitely not Sandra.
6
Caleb
I forgot how to breathe.
The photos I had seen of her gave her no justice. The woman in front of me was even more beautiful in person. Not just beautiful. She was why the term breathtaking was coined.
The enormous, soft brown eyes full of innocence were exactly as I remembered them, but the adorable gap in her teeth was gone. Deep inside me, I mourned for its loss. Back then, her chestnut brown hair had been wavy and barely brushed her shoulders, but now it was bone straight, side-parted, and flowed all the way down to the arch of her back in a silky curtain.
And that dress! Jesus!
The blood red material clung to every inch of her woman’s body, hugging the curves of her hips and stretching across her full chest. One of the red straps holding the whole ensemble together, had dropped off her shoulders and it didn’t just show the creamy perfection of the exposed skin, it made her appear half-undressed. As if …
I couldn’t tear my eyes off her body.
Of course, I’d expected to feel something when I showed up in front of her again, but searing lust that cut me to the bone had not been one of them. There had been no lust when I was fifteen. All I wanted to do then was protect her from the world.