Page 32 of Unforgettable You

That made sense. This was more an afternoon kind of fit.

“Hold on. Let me try again.” I ran back to my bedroom and shoved a bunch of hangers aside to find the dress I was looking for. It was a dress that had dark blue flowers, short sleeves, a tie at the waist and was cut low enough that it gave me a little bit of cleave, but not too much. It was also twirly, but not as twirly as the skirt and super comfortable.

“How’s this?” I asked.

Reid did that silent thing again and it took her a few seconds to say anything. “No, yeah, that’s perfect.”

I looked down at my bare feet. “I have some wedges that will work with it and make me a little taller. I figure I’ll be sitting down most of the time so I won’t have to worry about my shoes being too comfortable.”

I glanced back up and found Reid gazing at me intently. Her brown eyes glowed and my breath caught for a second. She was looking at me like…like she wanted to get off the couch and touch me. Her hands clenched on her knees, her knuckles white.

Or maybe I was imagining things. I had to be imagining it. Reid wasn’t into me. No way was she into me.

“I think it’s a winner,” Reid said, her voice rough before she pushed herself to her feet. “I’ve, um, got to go get ready for work.”

“Yeah, of course. Thanks so much for helping me again. I don’t think I’ll come tonight, but maybe tomorrow?” If my anxiety didn’t act up. But knowing that Reid would be there, even if I couldn’t talk with her, made things better somehow. And I could always go over and if I wasn’t feeling it, I could leave. That was something I repeated to myself over and over. If I wasn’t comfortable, I could leave. No one was keeping me anywhere that I didn’t want to be.

“Maybe I’ll see you there,” Reid said, holding the door open.

“Have a good night at work. I hope you get lots of tips.” She rolled her eyes and shut the door.

Chapter Fifteen

Reid

Fuckkkkkkk. Fucking fuck fuck.

I shouldn’t have let her try on outfits for me. The first one she came out in was a white skirt and pink top and she looked so sweet that I wanted to grab her and lick her all over.

No I didn’t!

Where the hell did that thought come from? I had to get myself together and focus. This was Sophie. Kaylee’s little sister. She wasn’t a person I could have licking thoughts about.

The second dress was almost worse. She looked gorgeous. If she walked into Sapph like that, she’d have to beat the lesbians off with a bat. She’d cause a riot.

I’d had to get up and leave so I didn’t say or do something that we’d both regret.

Sophie had asked me to do these lessons because I was a safe and platonic person for her to go to. It would be wrong of me to have non-platonic thoughts about her. She needed me to not be a fucking ogling creep.

I had to get it together. I needed to make sure that I didn’t fuck this up for her.

It was a relief to go into work and be so busy that I wasn’t thinking about Sophie.

Much.

It was so easy to think about her. To remember how she’d talked about fanfic, getting so excited that her words all kind of blurred together and her voice got louder and more intense. That kind of enthusiasm was rare. She reminded me a little bit of Stace that way, but there was just something about Sophie that made me want to sit and listen to her talk for hours. About anything. She could tell me about inflation or bread mold and I’d listen.

This was terrifying information for me. If you told me a few weeks ago that I’d met a woman I’d enjoy listening to for hours, I would have said you were living in an alternate reality.

Sure, I adored my friends and I loved talking with them, but even I had my limits and liked getting back to my quiet apartment. Most days I was so talked out from the bar that I didn’t want to hear another human voice.

I would want to hear hers.

Ohhhhh, this was not good. This was so, so bad.

On Saturday before work, I escaped my apartment and ran to Cade and Eloise’s. I sent Cade a text asking if we could hang out and I’d hauled my ass out of bed after not getting nearly enough sleep and drove to the brick Georgian that would always intimidate me.

“It’s just us,” Cade said when she opened the door, grinning at me while she wore sweatpants and a T-shirt and a pair of fluffy slippers, her strawberry blonde hair pulled into a sloppy ponytail.