“The weekend is here at last!” Zoe punched the air as she entered my classroom, not bothering to knock. I might have scolded her for that at some other time, but I was as excited about what this weekend had to bring as she was for a change. But then, I had a damned good reason. My date with Holden was tomorrow night, and I could hardly wait to see what he had planned for me.

“How was your week?” I asked.

She shrugged, shook her head, and made a face. “The less said about that, the better. I felt like a lot of the kids were antsy, you know? Like they needed a holiday.”

“Or maybe you’re projecting because you need one,” I shot back playfully, and she held her hands up in concession.

“You might have a point there,” she agreed. “I’m already dreaming about taking a city break somewhere. Preferably with some handsome young thing on my arm.”

“Well, good luck with that.” I turned back to the papers on my desk, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get anything done with them this evening.

“Let me know if your man has any friends, right?” she remarked. “Preferably in the billionaire category too. I can’t afford this city break all by myself.”

“I’ll keep my ear to the ground,” I promised her with a chuckle. She did make me laugh. I was glad to have her around, to help assuage some of the nerves running through my system in the lead-up to this date that I was kind of terrified about. No, not terrified. It wasn’t that I thought it wasn’t going to be fun, or I wasn’t going to have a good time. I was just scared at the thought of what would happen now that we were properly together. Would it be different? Would the chemistry be less intense? It was impossible to say, and that was freaking me out a bit.

“So you’ve got your date tomorrow, don’t you?” Zoe raised her eyebrows at me, as though reading my mind. “How are you feeling about it?”

“Uh, a little nervous, I guess?” I shrugged, and my voice was a little higher-pitched than normal, betraying me. Zoe giggled.

“You’ve got nothing to be nervous about.” She smiled at me with a certainty that helped me come back down to Earth. “Really. The two of you have already proven you can spend a day together without getting sick of each other. You’re going to be fine.”

“Thanks.” I grinned back at her. “I needed to hear that.”

“What are the two of you up to?” she asked keenly, leaning up against the door. “Has he told you yet?”

“No. He says he wants it to be a surprise.” I pulled a face. “I told him no more luxury vehicles, but that’s the only thing I’m sure of.”

“You spoilsport,” she teased. “What are you going to wear? Something cute?”

I shrugged. “Honestly, I was going to shoot for jeans and a T-shirt. I don’t know where we’re going, and it’s not like I have much I can pull out of the back of my closet anyway. He already saw my usual date-night dress the first time we went out together, and I don’t want to wear that again.”

Zoe looked at her watch and then back up at me, a big smile spreading across her face.

“You know, it’s late-night shopping this evening,” she said, and I furrowed my brow at her.

“What are you getting at?”

“I’m getting at the fact that you could go out and get something new,” she suggested excitedly. “Oh, come on. It’ll be fun!”

“I don’t need anything,” I protested weakly, already seeing she’d firmly made up her mind. “Really.”

“Just give me this, all right?” She grinned at me, marching over to my desk and grabbing my hand to pull me to my feet. “I could use a little vicarious living through your dating life.”

“Are you serious?” I raised my eyebrows at her. “I mean, we only have a couple of hours.”

“More than enough time,” she promised me. “I don’t want to send you out on your date looking anything other than the goddess you are, you get that?”

“Well, if you insist.” I shrugged. There would be no arguing with her.

“Excellent.” She beamed. “I’ll drive us over to the mall. This is going to be fun!”

I packed up the last of my stuff and headed to the car with Zoe, who pulled open the door for me and playfully bowed down low like she was my lady-in-waiting.

“You’re going to have to get used to being treated like that when you marry him,” she said as she climbed into the seat next to me. I shot her a look.

“We’re not getting married,” I reminded her. “This is a date. That’s all.”

“Yeah, but you really like him, don’t you?” she reminded me, shooting me a look. “I’ve seen the way you get when you talk about him. You’re into this guy, whether you want to admit it or not.”

“I haven’t met anyone I’ve had this kind of chemistry with for a long time,” I confessed as we pulled out and away from the school.

“See, I told you. You’re totally going to marry him,” she replied triumphantly as we turned onto the main road that led to the mall.

“All right, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I muttered, but the truth of the matter was that I knew things were going well between Holden and me. Really well, in fact. I was starting to wonder if this slow build had been a good thing, if our weird approach to dating would serve us in the long run. I’d gotten to know him before he’d so much as kissed me, and he was more than some overly confident entrepreneur. He was smart, funny, kind, a great father, an ambitious businessman. He was all those things I never would have learned on a simple first date but that I knew coming into our first real evening together as a couple. Which could only be a good thing.

“Here we are.” Zoe grinned as we reached the mall. “Come on, I know just the place for us. Let’s check it out.”

I followed Zoe out of the car and toward the mall, and I was secretly glad she was here with me. I’d always been terrible at shopping for clothes for myself. I didn’t know what looked good on me, what was painfully out of style, and what was desperately, obviously hip. I knew Zoe was right. I could hardly turn up to a date with Holden, the man who had swept me out on a private yacht when we hadn’t even been a couple, in jeans and a tee. But I had no idea what I should go for instead.

“Oh okay, I think you have to try this one on.” Zoe pulled a pale periwinkle blue dress from the rack and held it up against me in the first store we went to. Then she thrust it into my arms—along with another dress and then another. They were all cuts and styles I never would have picked out for myself, but I supposed that was the point of having someone else here with me to make sure I didn’t fall back on what I already knew looked good on me. I was striking out into new territory here, and I would need a whole new dress to go with that.

I tried on what felt like fifty dresses from the various stores Zoe dragged me in and out of. She followed me into the changing rooms each time and would give me a cursory once-over, shake her head, and pull me out so we could try something different. My feet were aching as I trailed around after her, but I was grateful to have her eye to guide me through this. I would have grabbed the first one that fit me and gotten out of there if I’d had the chance, but she was making sure I was going to get something gorgeous, something that would firmly fit with whatever evening Holden had planned for me. My heart fluttered as I remembered I was going out with him the following night. Would it end back at my place like it had when he’d come around to confess his feelings to me before? I couldn’t wait to get him back into bed, but I was also looking forward to finding out how he was out of the sack as well.

We made our way around about a half dozen shops until Zoe suddenly seemed to lay eyes on something that excited her. Her face lit up as she passed one store, ducking inside and turning to the first shop assistant she could find.

“Hey, do you have that in an eight?” she asked, pointing to one of the dresses on the mannequins in the window. I frowned at them. None of them looked my style, but I would go along with what she thought was right if that’s what it took to find something that suited me. Everything I had in my closet was a tried-and-tested cut and color on me, but this weekend was all about trying something different, something new, something I hadn’t necessarily believed I would get anything out of before. And Zoe had a better idea of what sexy was than I did, so whatever she had in mind, I trusted her.

The assistant returned a minute later with the dress she was looking for, and she pressed it into my hands and gestured to the changing rooms.

“This is the one,” she told me. “I can feel it. Go try it on. I want to see you in it.”

I headed to the changing rooms, stripped down, and pulled the dress on over my head. When I turned to look at myself in the mirror, I couldn’t help smiling.

The dress was a vintage cut with slightly ruffled sleeves that came down over my shoulders, a nipped-in waist that created a dramatic shape, and a flared skirt that hit above my knees. But the print was what made it stand out. It was a dark, inky blue, and all over it were illustrations of stars and planets and moons. It was the perfect blend of modern and retro, and I twisted back and forth in front of the mirror, checking myself out from all angles. It suited me. I ran my hand over the waist, imagining Holden touching me there instead, and I could hardly keep the smile off my face. This was perfect. Better than perfect.

“Can I come in and take a look?” Zoe asked, and without waiting for an answer, she pulled back the curtain and snuck in. She gasped as she looked me up and down, and I did a twirl in front of her. I was only wearing a pair of sneakers with it, but even still, it looked gorgeous.

“That dress is fucking stunning on you,” Zoe told me firmly. “You have to get it. Please tell me you’re going to get it.”

“Yeah, I think I will,” I agreed. “It might be a little chilly depending on what we’re doing tomorrow night, but…”

“But you’ll put up with it because you look amazing.” She grinned. I smiled back. She was dead right. This dress made me feel better than anything else I had in my closet, and there wasn’t a thunderstorm or a blizzard or a damn hurricane that would keep me out of it for my date the next day.

“Hey, how about dinner?” she suggested. “On me. To celebrate your new dress and your new date.”

“That sounds great.” I nodded. I looked down at the dress. I didn’t want to take it off, but I also couldn’t wait to slide it on again the next evening, fresh and new, for my first date with Holden.

“Let me get checked out, and I’ll be there in a second,” I promised her, and she left me in the changing room once more. I stole one last look at myself in the dress, and I bit my lip as I looked in the mirror and wondered what Holden would think of me in it.