“I know Daddy loves math,” Eloise said doubtfully, “but do you think it’s because he’s never tried science?”
Diana had laughed hard enough at that that she’d had to pause on the sidewalk, much to Eloise’s delight.
Back at Diana’s house, they had a quick snack of fruit, veggies, and hummus before heading up to Diana’s room to choose outfits. To Diana’s surprise, Eloise didn’t want to try on any of the clothes herself this time, instead asking if Diana would be the “fashion model” for the afternoon.
Diana was impressed when Eloise picked out something that Diana herself would have worn. She pulled out a mid-length skirt in a shade of blue that was just too bold to be called icy. This, she paired with a cashmere top that was a few hues deeper blue, but which had the same ribbed pattern as the skirt. She brought a beaded short-sleeved top to wear atop this; the sheer fabric beneath the beading made the top a little hard to match, since it couldn’t be worn alone, but when Diana tried it on, she found that she liked the way it looked all together.
“You look like an ice princess,” Eloise said, clearly impressed, as Diana twirled for her perusal.
“A fashionable ice princess,” Diana said, frankly impressed. Eloise had a great eye for fashion, one that was better than many adults that Diana knew. That Eloise was only ten years old, and that she’d only started really embracing fashion when Diana had come into her life earlier in the year, made it even more impressive.
“You should wear these too,” Eloise said, holding up a long pair of boot socks and knee-height black leather boots. “That way, you won’t get cold, plus it will look super cool with the skirt.”
Diana smiled. Just when she was thinking about how mature Eloise’s fashion sense was, the little girl used a phrase like “super cool” to remind Diana that she was still just a kid.
“I do think I look super cool,” Diana agreed, slipping into the boots. They had a low, blocky heel, which made them easy to walk in. “Do you want to pick an outfit for you, next?”
Usually when they played in Diana’s clothes, Eloise wanted to try on about a million outfits, although she was always good at helping put things back on hangers afterward. Today though, she shook her head at the offer of even one outfit.
“No, can we do different dressing up?” she asked, grinning wide enough to show where one of her teeth behind her canines had recently fallen out.
Diana blinked. “Uh, sure,” she said. “What do you mean by different?”
This was how Diana and Eloise ended up in the bathroom doing hair and makeup together.
“Why do you have this?” Eloise asked, holding up a cold curling iron.
Diana grinned and tucked a pin into her straight, dark locks. Eloise had instructed Diana to do matching “fancy up styles,” so Diana had pinned them both into elegant French twists.
“Not all of us can have your gorgeous natural curls, babe,” she said, peering to and fro to check to see if the bobby pins were hidden in her hair. “If I want my hair to be curly, I use that thing to help.”
Eloise considered this. “Do they have a thing to make curly hair straight?”
“They do,” Diana answered. “It’s called a straight iron. I don’t have one though, since my hair goes flat on its own.”
“You’ll just have to match me curly style when we want to be the same, then,” Eloise said, completely unaware of how much she warmed Diana’s heart with the simple words. She loved doing things with Eloise, and even though she would never try to replace Eloise’s memories of her late mother, she did love doing these sorts of mother-daughter things in particular.
“Can we do fancy makeup next?” Eloise asked, giving a sidelong glance to where Diana’s makeup bag sat on her bathroom counter.
Diana laughed. “Sure, but we’ll have to go a little lighter on you, since I don’t want to do anything that might irritate your skin. Plus…” She glanced at her watch. “I think we need to pause for dinner, first.”
Eloise looked pretty put out by this, but she nodded with only a shade of reluctance. Diana was kind of charmed by the idea of the two of them eating tuna melts and drinking lemonade with their fancy updos, so she snapped a selfie to send Anthony later. He’d probably get a kick out of the image too.
Eloise was normally a very slow eater, so Diana was surprised again when she made quick work of her sandwich, then put her plate in the dishwasher without any prompting from Diana.
“Makeup time?” she asked eagerly. “And maybe we could do nails too?”
“So we’re doing the full makeover?” Diana waggled her eyebrows. “I feel like I’m in a movie.”
“That sounds like a boring movie,” Eloise said, with all the confidence of a child. “It seems really boring to watch, but it’s fun to do.”
Diana had no argument for this, so they went upstairs again. Diana, at Eloise’s direction, did “real fancy” makeup on herself, and then let the younger girl smudge some lipstick on her mouth and a little bit of blush on her cheeks.
“Do you have white nail polish?” Eloise asked in between making faces in the mirror, clearly delighted at the way she looked with the slight amount of makeup on. Diana had offered to let Eloise apply the lip and cheek color herself, expecting Eloise, like most little girls, to go rather heavy-handed on the application, but Eloise had insisted that Diana do it. Apparently everything had to be “fancy style” today.
The effect of their nails, which Diana admired as she and Eloise let them dry while watching a show about demon hunters that was popular with the tween set, was actually quite classy. Really, the whole thing was quite like the effect that Diana might have put together for herself, if she was planning a big night out, instead of a quiet night hanging out with Eloise at home.
“You look really pretty, Diana,” Eloise said, smiling fondly at her when the episode credits were rolling.
