Maybe she makes everything better.
Or, alternatively, maybe she and this script have been sent to ruin my fucking life.
But I won’t let her or the script derail me. If anyone’s going to be railed, it’s her. Wait. That’s not what I meant. Unless she wears those boots again.
9
CLEO
“Stop.” Franklin is squeezing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand, holding his French-press coffee maker with the other. “Stop waving red-and-green cardigans in my face—this is my actual nightmare come to life.” He exhales for around seventeen seconds before squinting at me and stating, “There is no such thing as a fashion emergency at nine on a Sunday morning during the holiday season. That’s not a thing. Why must I be awake?”
“Elijah Abrams hired me to be a temp assistant at his office for a couple of days and I have to go to a kid’s party this afternoon, so what should I wear?”
His eyes and mouth are suddenly wide open. “Say more. Tell me everything.”
I suddenly realize he was still out when I got home last night, so he doesn’t know that Elijah was at the party I went to. I break it down for him and watch as his expressions morph from horror to secondhand embarrassment to gleeful shock to villainous glee to just plain glee to lip-smacking bemusement.All the while maintaining his snarky-gay-housemate vibe, which is very impressive.
“So, yes, his ex-wife is now remarried and their son hired me to play Elijah’s date and now I’m going to work with him, probably alone at his office on a Sunday. I need to wear something that’s work-appropriate but also mildly boner-inducing for power-play reasons yet also kid-party appropriate in case I don’t have time to change into my costume before I leave the studio. But I also don’t want to give him the wrong idea because it would obviously be a terrible idea for us to hook up.”
“Got it. Sweater dress, transparent black tights, sexy black boots. Hair down.”
“What if I wear my elf costume without the Santa’s helper hat and, like, a trench coat?”
“No. Stop. You will wear the sexy boots.”
“But I have a blister from wearing them last night, and I don’t want to wear high heels all day before doing a kid party job.”
“You are wearing the boots.”
“I really don’t think I should lead him on like that, though…”
“You’re wearing the boots.”
“Franklin. I’m not wearing the boots.”
I’m wearing the boots.
But only because Franklin threatened to change the locks to his house if I didn’t.
And also because Franklin is always right when it comes to mildly boner-inducing work-appropriate fashion choices.
ELIJAH
I’m at the office.
When do you think you’ll get here?
