Ruby
Good. Don’t. Deny everything and leave the rest up to us.
Red
Yes! He can’t blame us so let us handle everything.
Tessa
So what’s happening? What should I do?
Ruby
Go to the bar as planned.
Red
And dress HOT #BadGirlVibes
Go.
Don’t go.
Yes, go, but dress hot.
Tessa’s mind spun with the rapidly changing and conflicting instructions, but through it all one thing was becoming clear. She was at the beck and call of this ad hoc matchmaking committee that was trying to fix her up in a fake relationship with the unsuspecting Dean.
The whole thing seemed even more insane now she was eyeball deep in it. Susan lying to her son. Paying Tessa to pretend to like him all while acting like someone or something she was not.
#BadGirl, her nerdy ass. #GeekGirl was more like it.
None of it seemed real. But the money now in her anemic, usually close to empty, bank account was real enough. So was that stack of cash she’d handed to secure her one more month in her apartment.
That, this new reality of hers, meant one thing. Surreal as it all was she would be heading to the Muddy River Inn tonight dressed in clothes she’d never wear by choice. Outfits she wasn’t convinced she could pull off in spite of Red’s assurance and Ruby’s exuberance.
Tessa turned once again to glance at the pile of things on the bed.
The items hadn’t cost her any of her precious payment from Susan but they also weren’treallyhers either. Red had loaned her the gently used clothing from her resale shop. That was good since Tessa doubted she’d wear any of these things again. Not after this ten-day command performance as a Mudville bad girl was done.
With a giant bracing inhale, she tossed the cell back onto the nightstand, turned and took a step toward the bed—and stubbed her toe on the leg of the metal bedframe.
Cursing under her breath from the pain, she wondered if a bad girl could also be a klutz, because she was afraid there was no hiding that trait.
She would have to be careful not to spill on any of the clothes on loan from Red though. Pretty much every one of her own shirts had stains. She wore them anyway. But they were hers. These things were not. She couldn’t return borrowed clothes after she’d stained them. Which meant if she ruined anything on loan she’d have to pay Red for it.
With the current condition of her finances, Tessa didn’t allow herself to splurge on things like clothing when what she already owned was just fine. Or at least good enough. She definitely didn’t want to sink a bunch of cash into a wardrobe she didn’t want, need or even like.
She picked up one of the items from the bed. Black jeans. Used, but they were in good shape. What wear there was on them, a slight fading of the color around the knee area, only added to the comfortably distressed look of them.
People paid way too much for brand new designer jeans with a distressed look, in her opinion. Why didn’t they just buy old jeans from thrift stores? They came already distressed at no extra charge.
But what did she know about fashion?
Obviously nothing since she had felt the jeans were far too tight when she’d tried them on at Red’s shop. Against Tessa’s better judgement, Red said the jeans hugged the curves of her ass and hips perfectly. She’d insisted Tessa take them home.
As she shed her comfortable old loose pants now and pulled the jeans on to get dressed for tonight, her negative opinion about the fit hadn’t changed.
With no other choice, she fastened the button fly and let the shirt she already had on—her own, not from Red’s—fall down over the jeans. The shirt was old and soft. Comfortable. And most importantly, loosely oversized… and completely, undeniably unacceptable for tonight.
