His smile widened. “Great. I’ll let Mom know.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped out a quick message. “Do you want me to pick you up?”
“I can drive out.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, slipping his phone back into the pocket of his basketball shorts. “I don’t mind coming into town to pick you up. Really, I would like to do that for you.”
Amelia couldn’t figure out why it seemed important that she let him do it. “Okay. If you want.”
He smiled. “Good. I’ll be at your place around six-thirty. We usually eat around seven.”
Excitement fluttered in her stomach at the thought of him picking her up and then spending the evening together. It made Amelia a little worried that she might have made a mistake.
The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, and when the clinic was over, Ben came to speak to her again.
“I’ll need your address,” he said, lifting his phone. “Unless you’re still living with your parents.”
“No, I’m not,” she said, then gave him the address.
“Perfect.” He tapped it into his phone, then angled a look at her. “Do you mind giving me your phone number?”
“I’ll text you, so you have it.” She opened a text message from his contact information, then typed him a message.
Here you go.
Ben looked at his phone when it chimed, then back at her with a smile. “Got it. Thanks. I’ll leave you to finish your day, and I’ll see you at six-thirty.”
“Do I need to dress for dinner?”
“Not really, no. I mean, Dad prefers we don’t dress too casually, like shorts and T-shirts, but everything else is fine. What you’re wearing is good.”
Amelia glanced down at herself, having already decided that she would change.
“Dad has relaxed his expectations in recent years, so don’t worry too much about what to wear.”
That was so easy for a guy to say, especially Ben. He’d always had a simple sort of style, and clothes had always looked good on him.
After he said goodbye, he and Luca left, while Amelia returned to the office for the final hour of her workday. She found it hard to focus, so she was glad when five o’clock rolled around.
As she drove to her apartment, Amelia tried to figure out what to wear. Ben might think she had nothing to worry about, but she knew that his mom would be dressed very nicely. She doubted that Elizabeth Burke ever dressed like a slob.
At the apartment, she went right to her bedroom. She stood in front of her closet, staring at her options. And her non-options.
The far right of her closet held the clothes that were no longer an option. She didn’t know why she kept them. She’d given up hoping that she’d one day fit into them again.
Ignoring them, she focused on the clothes she’d picked up more recently. She was still trying to find her style, but it was a challenge.
In the end, she settled for a sundress with a lightly fitted bodice and a flared skirt. It was a light turquoise color, and she paired it with a white, lightweight cropped jacket with short sleeves.
The sundress had wide straps, but she wasn’t comfortable baring her upper arms. The muscle definition she’d once had there was gone, giving way to a softness that she still wasn’t used to or accepting of.
She left most of her hair down, choosing to pull only a small section back with a claw clip. When it came to makeup, she knew how to apply it well, since she’d done it all the time when competing.
She didn’t wear much these days, however, but she still had all the products.
Once she was ready, she sat down on the couch to wait for Ben. The internal debate still raged over whether or not she’d made a mistake in accepting his invitation. For a lot of reasons, but primarily because she could feel exhaustion rising like the tide, pulling at her.
Amelia hoped that she could keep her thoughts together long enough to last through the meal and then through a conversation with Julian. The last thing she wanted to come across as was someone who wasn’t articulate.
