And then he hadn’t come.
She looked at her watch, and it said five past eleven. She turned to check the doors, and there he was at the host stand. Except that he didn’tleavethe host stand. Then there weretwoblokes talking to him. What, were they asking for his autograph?
Finally, she thought,This is ridiculous,and headed over there. He was looking at her now, at least, but blinking in what looked like shock. Oh. He hadn’t expected the makeover.She wasn’t used to it yet herself. She kept wanting to tug at the weird “twist-front” top, which still felt like you’d put it on wrong, and her face felt a bit claggy under all the makeup.
“Hi,” he finally said, so that was an improvement.
“Hi,” she said brightly. It came out more like a shout, though, and he blinked again.
“Uh …” she said. “I have a table. If you still want a drink.”
“Yeh,” he said. “Let’s do that.”
When they were seated at the little table, he indicated her empty glass and asked, “What were you drinking?”
“Oh,” she said. “Can’t remember. It wasn’t as good as the ones you choose. I wasn’t—” She stopped. Insecurity wasnotattractive. She smiled brilliantly—she hoped—and said, “If you’ll choose for me, I’d quite like another one.”
He looked at her more keenly. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” Another bright smile. “OK, I’m a little nervous. But really nothing.”
“Huh.” He gave her some more stare. “I’ll go see what they’ve got. Back soon. You put that on a tab, I hope.”
“Oh, uh … no. I didn’t think of it.”
“Uh-huh. Did it have the word ‘house’ before it? As in, ‘house red’? Never mind, I know the answer. I’ll buy you an actual glass of wine this time.”
“They’re closing soon,” she said. “In about twenty minutes.”
“Then,” he said, “we have twenty minutes. After which we’ll take whatever’s left to our room. And Skylar?”
“Yes?”
He smiled. “You can relax now. I’ve got this. I promise.”
He came back to the table two minutes later and said, “You changed how you look.”
“Yes. It was a makeover. Well, a makeup makeover, andthen my friend Jess took me shopping, as I don’t really have many date clothes.”
“So was that outfit your idea? Or hers?”
“Hers. You don’t like it? I wasn’t sure either, but it’s in style. Which I wasn’t before.”
“No, I don’t. Since you ask. And I think you should wear what you like, not what somebody else tells you to like.”
“How do you know I don’t like it?” She was getting some kind of spark back, at least. This was embarrassing, but it was also a major relief to be able to talk about it and know she’d hear the truth.
“Because you’ve been fiddling with that weird thing at the front of the shirt for the past five minutes. What is that? Why can’t they just do a regular top? Shows your arms, and that’s good, and a bit of cleavage, too, but it’s bloody odd.”
“Oh, thank goodness.” She practically put her head on the table. She certainly wanted to. “Because I hate this outfit. The pattern looks like my Gran’s sofa, except that my Gran had better taste.”
“Well, I didn’t want to say.” He was smiling, though. “It’s all the flowers. Thehugeflowers. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t on the trousers, too. Blinding, is what that is. What happened to your jeans?”
“Out of style. Itoldyou. It’s all wide legs now. I have new jeans, too. They’re called ‘barrel leg.’”
He made a face. “Has any man ever told a woman, ‘I wish you’d wear jeans with legs shaped like barrels?’ If it was what you liked, I’d have rolled with it. Somehow. But if it’snotwhat you like …”
“I look stupid,” she said. “Finlay said I looked stupid, too, because the kids came with me to do the makeover and the shopping and so forth. They weren’t happy about it, but what else could I do? If you ask them about it, I’m sure they’ll tell you that taking your kids clothes shopping is basically childabuse. Olive sat on the floor and read her book, but the boys? Not their best day ever. And this outfit … It’s just sopatterned.Florals are in, Jess said. The saleslady said.Everybodysaid. Well, florals are fine! Just not ones that look like curtain fabric in some granny’s too-fussy house. I have a yellow dress with little flowers and a floaty skirt that’s actually quite pretty, but again, dresses are meant to be looser-fitting now, and below the knee. That was Jess’s first idea for Date Night, but I said I looked like an Amish woman taking her first steps out into mainstream society. They’re like housedresses,all sort of long and baggy.Oh, the hideousness. It’s all either that or the ‘body-con’ thing, where I wear something that’s like elastic bandages and would requirerigorousdieting. Or the kind of shapewear that you’d never get off me, if you were planning on taking anything off me. If wearing this … curtain fabric hasn’t put you right off.”
