“Taking you with me and making a show of being together would only draw more attention to everything that happened.” She looked down at her hands, and picked at the end of one of her short, tidy nails. “I don’t want to make a big scene. All I want is to avoid humiliation.”
“And you will.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “You did nothing wrong. I won’t let them make you feel ashamed for no reason. Take me with you. Make that asshole Thad squirm. He deserves it. I hope he’s embarrassed. He should be. Let me make him regret ever hurting you.”
Honestly, what I really wanted to do was punch the bastard in the face. But my agent might’ve had something to say about that. Mom and Dad too.
“Say yes, Tally.”
She was softening, I could tell. Finally, she relented.
“You’d better not make me regret it.”
FIVE
TALLY
“Are you sure this is necessary?” I asked as we entered the high-end department store. The space was bright and airy, designed in a minimalist style with white floors, white walls, and high above us, a white ceiling. There were no smells, and while it wasn’t cold, it certainly wasn’t what I’d consider warm either. A similar temperature to the inside of Coco Luxe.
“Yes,” he said simply.
“Surely, one of the suits you use for games would be fine for the wedding.” I didn’t want him spending heaps of money on a suit when he’d already dropped enough on a flight to join me in Hawaii.
“I need something with an X factor,” he said, leading me farther into the store. “Something that will make Thad look twice, so we can really rub it in that we’re there together. We want him to know that you’re not pining over him, that you’ve got someone better and he can just go to hell.”
I appreciated his willingness to put in the effort, but I really didn’t think the situation called for a brand-new suit. Especially not a designer suit like the ones in the menswear section ahead of us. It was strange that he’d insisted on shopping. Alec was notthe kind of guy who liked browsing the stores—especially if he could browse online instead.
Yet, for some reason, there we were.
An assistant approached us. She was dressed neatly but not so as to stand out, all smooth lines and dark colors with pale blond hair twisted into an elegant knot on the back of her head.
“How can I help you?” she asked, smiling first at me and then at Alec.
“I need a suit,” Alec said gruffly.
She folded her hands one over the top of the other in front of her. “What’s the occasion?”
“We’re going to a wedding.” He glanced at me, his dark eyes warm. “Tally’s ex is going to be there. We need him to know that she’s moved on to someone better.”
The sales assistant grinned. “Do you want simple and elegant or flashy and eye-catching?”
Alec considered this briefly. “Something simple but with an edge.”
“All right, let me find some options. You two can go and wait by the changerooms.” She scanned him up and down, obviously sizing him to the best of her ability, and then pivoted and marched to one of the nearby racks.
Alec nodded toward the changeroom and we made our way over there. I sat on the crisp white sofa beside the door, which definitely wasn’t designed for comfort. Still, it was better than standing.
When the sales assistant joined us, she held an assortment of suit jackets and trousers, along with shirts, ties—and was that a bowtie?
She selected a pair of trousers and a jacket and a shirt and passed them to him. “Try these first.”
He took them and disappeared into the small room. The lock snicked into place. While we waited, the sales assistantorganized her findings on a clothing rail nearby, presumably sorting them into the order in which she wanted him to try them on. The lock clicked, the door opened, and Alec stepped out.
My jaw dropped. My best friend always looked good. He was a good-looking man. But in the navy pinstriped suit that clung to his muscular body, he didn’t just look good, he looked amazing.
“What do you think?” he asked, running his hands down the fabric of the jacket.
“Incredible,” I told him.
“Agreed,” the sales assistant said. “But I think we can do better.”
