Jake Undone(30)

“You mean your only dress? No. Boring. You are borrowing something from my closet. Next: what are you doing with your hair?”

“I was going to wear it up in a twist.”

“No. I’ll blow it out straight and do some loose sexy curls for you. What about makeup?”

“The usual. A little mascara and some lipgloss.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head in disagreement. “Nah. Let’s do a smoky eye on you. You are gonna look so hot for this date, Nina. What’s his name again?”

“Alistair.” I laughed.

“Alistair is not gonna know what hit him.”

“Alright, whatever you say, T. I’m going to take a shower. Maybe we can do this thing after you’re done eating.”

A half-hour later, I emerged from the bathroom to find Tarah already in my room with a handful of dresses laid out on the bed. The small towel I was using was not quite big enough to cover my breasts, so I struggled to keep it closed over my chest to avoid giving her a private show.

“Nina…good God girl…you have the best rack! I don’t know if I have ever really noticed before now. We are definitely showing those off tonight.”

Letting Tarah dress me from head to toe might not have been a great idea after all.

“What do you mean show them off?”

“The girls—all three of you—will be hanging out with Alistair tonight.” She winked. “Which of these four dresses do you want to try on first?”

“That one,” I pointed to the dress that looked the least revealing.

“I figured you’d say that. Let’s try this one,” she said picking up a different dress, a strapless pink lace number. I couldn’t get the top to fit over my boobs and nixed it as an option.

No luck either with the next two I tried on. The last wrap-style dress was fluorescent purple and low-cut but fit me like a glove. The color was a little bright for my taste, but it seemed this was the one out of the group. It was pretty revealing, but there was no denying how good it made my body look.

“You are curvy in all the right spots. I would kill for your body,” she said.

I thought back to my ex-boyfriend and how he always told me I would look better if I lost weight to look more “athletic,” even though I was already fairly thin except for my breasts and butt.

“Okay, this one is the winner. What’s the next step in making me into a drag queen?”

“Let’s get you into a zip-down jacket, then we’ll do your hair and makeup and get dressed last.” Tarah started taking out curling irons and makeup from a large black satchel.

After an hour and a half of blow-drying, curling, buffing and puffing, she handed me a mirror. My transformation into a glamour puss was staggering, actually. My light blue eyes appeared at least three times bigger with the gray shadow and mascara. She also applied a dark pink lipstick that made my lips look pleasantly plump. My hair was perfectly styled into big, soft curls that she sprayed to make sure they held. Her skills were amazing. Alistair wasn’t going to believe his eyes.

It was 6:30 and Tarah helped me slip into the purple dress to avoid messing up my hair and makeup.

“Wait right here. I have the perfect shoes,” she said as she ran to her room.

She returned with the most striking pair of purple stilettos.

“These are gorgeous.” I looked at the inside. “Manolo Blahnik? Are you kidding me?”

“I used to have a shoe issue. Not anymore, but I have amassed quite a collection. What size are you?”

“Well, excuse me, Carrie Bradshaw. Apparently, I am the same size as you,” I said as I slipped my foot into the shoes to discover they were a perfect fit. Several inches taller, I looked at myself in the mirror that hung on my closet door.

Not bad.

Actually, I couldn’t have been more pleased with how I looked. “Wow. I can’t thank you enough, T.”

“Anytime, babe. You were like a clean slate. It was fun.” She smiled.

Tarah packed up her hair and makeup accessories and left momentarily to return them to her room, leaving me standing in front of the mirror. The purple was a little bright for my liking, but it was kind of refreshing to wear something other than my usual black.

My body jerked suddenly when a male form appeared behind me in the mirror. Not just any male form. It was like that moment in a horror movie. Except, in my mind, this was worse.

“Nina, Barney the dinosaur called. He wants his skin back.”

“Jake! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on your way to Boston.”

“Nice to see you too.”

“Well, it’s just that you usually leave from work and—”