“Next,” Beck calls out before I even fully emerge.
The second is too loose, swallowing my figure entirely.
“Definitely not,” Nitro agrees.
By the sixteenth dress, I’m starting to lose steam. Everything feels wrong, too revealing, too conservative, too trendy, too dated. I stare at myself in the fitting room mirror, wearing a navy blue dress that’s perfectly nice and perfectly boring, and feel tears prick my eyes.
Derek’s voice echoes in my head.‘Maybe when you lose forty or fifty pounds…’
“Marley?” Beck’s voice comes through the door. “You okay in there?”
“Yeah, just… give me a minute.”
But I can hear them talking in low voices outside, and then Nitro’s deep rumble, “Let me.”
There’s a soft knock. “Marley? Can I come in?”
I shouldn’t let him.
I am vulnerable and raw, and I’m wearing a dress I hate while fighting back tears.
But I open the door anyway.
Nitro fills the doorway, and his expression shifts the moment he sees my face. “Hey. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just…” I gesture helplessly at myself. “I don’t know what I’m looking for. Everything feels wrong.”
He steps inside, closing the door behind him, and suddenly the spacious fitting room feels incredibly small. He’s so close I can smell his cologne, something woodsy and masculine that makes my pulse race.
“Do you like this one?” he asks quietly.
“It’s fine.”
“That’s not what I asked.” His hands settle on my hips, gentle but firm, turning me to face the mirror. He stands behind me, his eyes meeting mine in the reflection. “Do you like it?”
I look at myself, really look.
The dress is fine.
Safe.
Forgettable.
“No,” I admit. “I hate it.”
“Then we keep looking.” His thumbs trace small circles on my hips, and I’m torn between leaning into the touch and pulling away. “But, Small Town, I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“Every single dress you’ve tried on today, you’ve looked beautiful. Not because of the dress, but because it’s you wearing it.” His voice drops lower, more intimate. “That dickhead ex of yours did a number on your head, made you think you’re not enough. But I see you. Thereal you.And you are so far beyond enough that for some reason you cannot comprehend it.”
My throat tightens. “Nitro…”
“I’m not done.” He turns me to face him, hands sliding up to my elbows. “We’re going to find you a dress that makes you feel like the stunning, brilliant, funny-as-hell woman you are. And when we do, when you walk into that gala wearing it, Derek’s going to see exactly what he lost. Not because you changed for him, but because you finally believe what I’ve known since the moment I saw you crying in the back of my car.”
“What’s that?”
His eyes search mine, intense and sincere. “That you’re absolutely fucking extraordinary.”
