Page 56 of Surprised By Her

They’ll love that I replied.

“I have nothing to wear!” I yelled as I tore through my closet. Ryan was picking me up in twenty minutes and I had nothing to wear. Nothing to wear to a nice restaurant anyway. None of my clothes were appropriate.

“Sweetie, what is it? You’re making a lot of noise,” Mama said, leaning against the doorway of my closet and looking at the mess I’d made on the floor.

“I don’t know what to wear,” I said, sitting down in the heap. This was going to be a pain in the ass to clean up, but I was going to deal with that later. Right now I still had to find something to wear.

“What about your Christmas dress?” she asked.

I gave her a face. “Mama, that’s obviously a velvet winter dress. I’m going to look silly wearing a very obvious winter dress out in June,” I said.

Mama started going through the things I’d already discarded and holding them up.

“What about this?”

“No, it’s not right,” I said, discarding one choice after another.

Once we’d been through all the options again, she held up one finger and then left the room.

“Okay, I guess I’m on my own now,” I said to the empty closet and all my clothes.

Mama came back with a long light-green dress with straps.

“This was mine. I’ve been saving it to see if I can get back into it. It’s vintage, so it’s in,” she said, handing me the dress.

“This is never going to fit me,” I said, but Mama just pointed toward the bathroom.

I went in and slid off my clothes and pulled the dress on. The zipper was in the side seam so I could do it myself.

Somehow, by a miracle or sorcery or something else, the dress did fit. Not only did it fit, but it was the right length for me. It didn’t drag on the ground or look completely disproportionate on my body.

“Holy shit,” I said, turning to look at myself in the mirror at all angles.

“Well?” Mama said, gently knocking on the door.

I opened the door and struck a pose. “What do you think?”

“You look gorgeous! Lee, get up here and look at our gorgeous daughter!”

Mom walked in a few moments later and gasped dramatically.

“Stunning,” she said. “Completely stunning.”

I ran my hands down the front of the dress. It was unlike anything I’d worn or owned and I had no idea what Ryan was going to think, but I liked the way I looked, so did it really matter?

Of course it mattered, I wanted her to think I was hot. Most compliments I got on my looks rarely used the word “sexy.” I wanted her to think I was sexy.

I did have one issue when I turned around again and saw that I had a line from my underwear visible. My parents had left and gone back downstairs, so I just hauled the dress up and pulled off my underwear. There wasn’t time to search for a pair that would work better. I’d just have to go without. Thankfully, the straps of the dress hid my bra, so that wasn’t a concern.

I didn’t have a coat that really went with the dress, but I grabbed my favorite leather jacket and called it good.

My hair went up and I slid in my favorite earrings and did a few things with makeup and I was good to go and downstairs waiting for Ryan when she pulled in.

This time, I didn’t rush her out to the car. I waited and she knocked on the door. I pulled it open and savored the surprise on her face. Her mouth even dropped open as her eyes went wide. She clenched her jaw and I could barely concentrate.

“You look stunning,” she said. “Completely stunning.”

“So do you,” I said, taking in her simple black suit with off-white shirt that was unbuttoned to reveal a delectable amount of clavicle.

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