CHAPTER NINE
“That dress is perfect. Absolutely perfect,” Paula gushed when Riley stepped out of the opulent dressing room.
They’d driven into the larger city about fifty miles away so she would have more selection. Paula had dragged her to an upscale dress shop downtown that Riley would never have entered on her own, but it made sense in a cruel way. Sam Collins wouldn’t be seen with a woman on his arm that wore cheap clothes. She had savings and she could wear the dress again. When? She had no idea, but theoretically she could wear it over and over.
If I ever had any place to go.
Frowning at her reflection while the saleslady hovered in the background, Riley wasn’t as sure as Paula was. This dress was…fussy. The hem and neckline had shiny silver rhinestones sewn on and Riley wasn’t someone who enjoyed bling on her garments. It also had far too many tiers of fabric and she felt swamped in the outfit. It fit perfectly and the dark purple was lovely, but it didn’t look like something she would wear. Maybe that was the point?
“I was hoping for something simpler,” she finally said, turning to face the saleswoman named Jaclyn. Paula had taken charge when they first arrived so the changing room had been filled with beautiful dresses, but none of them felt quite right. “I look like a visual representation of Las Vegas. I was hoping for something far simpler. These dresses are gorgeous but they’re wearing me, not the other way around.”
Jaclyn didn’t get a chance to respond, however, because Tara joined them, a huge smile on her face and her cheeks pink with excitement. She was carrying a dress over her arm and she presented it with a flourish.
“Ta da! Well…what do you think?”
It looked like a white shapeless blob on the hanger, but Riley didn’t want to say that out loud. Clearly Tara was excited about her find.
“I think you’ll look beautiful in it. But I thought you already had a dress for the party.”
Rolling her eyes, Tara pressed the garment into Riley’s hands. “It’s not for me, it’s for you. I think this is what you’ve been looking for.”
Paula frowned at the dress. “You don’t like the one she has on?”
“She looks like a fancy cake.”
Paula frowned harder and then burst into laughter. “Oh dear, I think you might be right. I just wanted something… Special, I guess.”
“That’s special, alright,” Tara giggled, giving Riley a push toward the changing room. “Go try it on. You’re looking at me like I’m crazy but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to pick out a dress.”
She had a point. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to take a few minutes and try it on, if only for her best friend.
Closing the changing room door behind her, Riley took off the fancy cake dress and then removed the new dress from its hanger. Up close the silky white fabric looked completely different, shot with threads of gold that caught the light whenever it moved.
It slipped over her body easily, the fabric cool against her skin. Stepping back from the mirror to get a better look, her eyes widened in surprise. What had looked like a shapeless bag on the hanger was actually a gorgeous dress that lovingly hugged every curve of her figure without being obscene. The delicate spaghetti straps held up a bodice that draped over her cleavage in a vee, ending in the valley between her breasts. The back of the dress was cut low with crisscross straps, and the skirt ended in a soft puddle of fabric around her feet. It was simple yet sophisticated and she looked like a million bucks in it.
If I do say so myself.
“Are you going to show us or not?”
Tara’s voice could be heard through the flimsy door and Riley didn’t take any more time to admire herself in the mirror. She stepped out and twirled around a few times for their inspection. She didn’t need their approval, but it would be nice if they liked it too. There was only one question left in her mind.
Just how much does this cost? Will I have to take out a mortgage for it?
Tara clapped her hands together and practically jumped up and down. “That’s it. That’s the one. It’s perfect and you look amazing in it.”
Paula had stood and was inspecting the dress closely, but she was smiling, too. “I stand corrected. This is what you should be wearing to the party Saturday night. It is perfect.”
Even the saleslady was beaming and nodding her head, and she hadn’t cracked a smile in almost an hour.
“How did you know?” Riley asked Tara, who was snapping photos with her cell phone.
“You cannot judge a dress by how it looks on a hanger, but even I didn’t know it was going to look this good. I just liked the fabric.”
Riley ducked into the changing room and slipped off the dress and back into her own clothes. When she was done, she held her breath and closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again to search for the price tag. She only hoped it would be less than the monthly payment on her condo. She still had to find shoes that would go with the outfit. She didn’t have anything that would look right with this. Luckily, she had jewelry that would be fine.
She found the tag pinned discreetly inside the dress and swallowed hard as she forced herself to read it.
She exhaled slowly, partly from shock and partly from relief. The price was more than she’d intended to spend today, but it wasn’t the king’s ransom that she had been imagining. She did some quick mental arithmetic and decided that she could swing it. Normally she liked to pay off her credit card every month but that wasn’t going to be possible this time. Maybe next time, too. She’d have to tighten her belt and put off replacing her aging refrigerator, but the dress was simply too beautiful to pass up. If she didn’t go crazy in the shoe department she’d be okay.
This one time she could be frivolous and unpractical. Let someone else be the adult today.
An image of Sam’s face when he saw her all dressed up popped into her mind, but she ruthlessly pushed it away.
He wasn’t her boyfriend. He was a nice, attractive man and he was becoming a good friend these last few days, but he wasn’t anyone she should be having romantic thoughts about. That simply wasn’t going to happen.
It didn’t help that she’d spent three evenings with Sam this week, talking and having dinner. He had a way of making a person feel like they were the only human being in the world at that moment and his focus was solely on you. She was sure it was an affectation he’d perfected in Hollywood, but it sure as heck worked. She found herself thinking about him far more than she should, daydreaming when she should be concentrating on something else. Last night as she’d watched him drive away she’d given herself a stern talking to about the futility of falling for movie stars. It was just that…
Sam seemed to enjoy her company as much as she liked his. He laughed, joked, and in general appeared to be having a good time. She gave him all sorts of excuses and outs but he continued to try and see her every day, even it was only for a few minutes. Part of her kept saying that he was just being polite, but there was a small part of her that thought that maybe…just maybe…he was attracted to her too.
But that might just be even worse.
They led completely different lives. He traveled the world and made movies, she lived in a tiny beach town and taught kindergarten. He made millions. She made thousands. Her car was a nice, sensible Honda Accord that she’d paid cash for used. She didn’t know what he normally drove when he was at home, but she’d bet it wasn’t an Accord. It was probably a sports car, racy and red, worth more than she made in a year. Or five years. They didn’t have enough in common to make it work. It was better that they were simply friends.
Tomorrow night she’d attend the engagement party with Sam and then the next day he’d catch a plane – first class, of course – and fly back to his real life. Getting any more involved with him than she already was wouldn’t be prudent. She didn’t run around and chase rainbows and unicorns. Reality was where she lived, not the make-believe of Hollywood.
“Are you ready to go yet?”
Tara’s voice once again drifted through the door, sounding impatient to go. They still had more shopping to do and it was already past dinnertime. Riley wasn’t seeing Sam tonight, but he probably wanted to spend some time with his mother. Paula was, after all, the real reason he was here.
A fact that Riley simply couldn’t allow herself to forget. Not for one single second.