“Yes to the floral shirt and the little scarf. Butjeans?” I felt them; they were stretchy and high-waisted. Unconsciously, I ran a hand down my tummy, my hips, my bum, thinking of how that tight denim would expose me to critical eyes.
“Jeans that will look spectacular on you,” she said. “Please try them?”
I didn’t want to be a pushover anymore, but I always tried to encourage others’ visions and creativity. I knew, in my current mood, I’d have no trouble saying a final no.
In the changing room, I viewed myself from all sides. She was right. The jeans didn’t disguise my figure, they enhanced it, and they looked amazing and vintage. And they felt comfortable. With a wide belt, my pearls, the little silk scarf tied in at my throat, and high tan booties, I felt covered and comfortable. It wasn’t as if I looked like I was going to wheelbarrow in a load of timber right that minute, but I could have.
“May I?” she said, reaching toward me.
“Yes, okay.” She slid open two more buttons.
I looked down and reached out.
“Ah-ah. Don’t fiddle. My vision is manifest. Now I’m going to do your hair in the running late half-up. Which will take me ages. I’m a genius. But just…” She leaned into my ear. “Could you hide in the loos and front up to the camera at the very last minute, so Simon doesn’t have time to make you change?”
Unlike her bosses, I would have her back. We had to work together because it was a man’s world too often. “Yes, anything so I don’t have to do the fauxhawk.”
53
Tim
“Where is Tabithaaaah?”Simon bellowed, spinning everyone into a frenzy of repeating his words but not really moving, as that would be admitting they had some responsibility for her absence.
I was standing on set at the production company’s headquarters in London. Tabs had not appeared for the premiere shoot, and Simon was going ballistic. Had she decided not to come at all? Panic strobed through me, hot and urgent. Maybe she was so mad at me she wasn’t even going to show up.
“She’s here!” a young female voice called from the back. Yuxi.
A huge wave of relief washed over me. Tabitha then walked from a back entrance onto the set. More than walked, she positively shimmied, her hips swaying, her shoulders thrown,her hair whipped into a half-up thing which must have only taken a second, but she looked unbelievably hot. Not only was her figure fuckingdeliciousin those jeans—I’d never seen her in jeans, and she looked incredible in them—and that floral shirt, unbuttoned and tied with a sexy little knot around her waist, she was all,don’t mess with me today, you bloody idiots. Her only sign of nervousness was her fingers rolling the pearls at her neck. And because she wore her pearls, she still looked so her, and the sight was a sledgehammer to my emotions. I loved that woman and had missed her.
Her eyes met mine and flicked away. I wanted to gather her up and twirl her around, show everyone she was mine, tell her how I loved the heart of who she was, her compassion and sense of honor, her sweet, silly sense of humor, and her imagination. But I didn’t have the right, and I hated that I was the one who’d fucked that up.
Everyone stood back and smiled as she passed. Not because she looked so pretty. Because she’d been kind to them all through this torturous experience and they wanted the best for her.
“What the fuck is happening? What is she doing wearing that Surrey Mum outfit?” Simon yelled, even though the cameras were rolling. “What happened to the small top and skirt?”
“I’m wearing this,” Tabitha announced. “And don’t blame Poppy. I switched out the outfit at the last minute. She doesn’t know anything about it.” Her voice was firm, and I was filled with pride at how she was putting her foot down. I knew she was protecting Poppy.
Several male execs from the production company were practically drooling, which pissed me off to no end. Aberdeeen started sidling up to her, and I tensed. With a couple of strides, I was close behind him.
“So, hey.” He dipped his head at her, then flicked his fringe in a comical play at casual. “I don’t usually mix work and pleasure and all, but this is an exception because I’m feeling something big here, and I think you feel it too. When you know, you know.”
“No,” she said.
Shit. She didn’t even say,No thank you. I stood behind him, ready to defend her, but it didn’t look like she needed it. Not that she would appreciate my involvement either.
“Dude, step away, would you?” Aberdeeen told me with a sneer. “You’re being a buzz killeration. Just thinking me and my girl here could grab a drink afterward? Could even be persuaded to tie on a seshlehem? Dealer’s choice, my lovely?”
“Go. Away.” She gave him the Tabitha stare, the one she usually reserved for me, and I smiled with amusement until I realized I’d be getting that stare again.
“So pretty, but so serious,” he replied.
She turned on a heel.
Behind me, I could hear Aberdeeen mutter, “What a cheek. She’s a seven-point-five at most. And Ineverdip below an eight.”
“Dean, you’re an ignorant pig,” I said, roughly shouldering past him. “Strike that. Pigs are awesome. You are an ignorantman.”
“It’s Aber—” Aberdeeen started to say and then obviously realized I was riling him.
