Page 84 of Forged By Sacrifice

“I like him enough to let him take me home.”

She ducked back into the dressing room.

In the meantime, the clerk had come back into the room with a handful of dresses for me. They were in shades of greens and purples that tended to be my go-to. It made me think of Ava, because whenever we’d shopped together, we’d been drawn to the same colors, as opposed to Raisa and my mom who were always drawn to reds and blues.

“Thank you,” I said and went into my own cubicle.

First, I tried on a purple dress that had a halter top and a slit up the side. Gauzy and almost sheer in places where the lining had been cut to emphasize the skin underneath. It made me feel glamorous, but I wasn’t sure it was tasteful enough.

I came out to find Dani in a stunning sapphire-blue dress. It was strapless, tight on the top before floating to the ground in soft rows. It was fabulous on her. “It’s perfect,” I told her.

“I can’t say the same about yours,” she said, as honest with me as I’d been with her.

When I came back out in a teal dress, Dani was back in her own business attire, sitting on the soft sofa and drinking a glass of wine. She looked up and shook her head. I agreed. It wasn’t perfect.

I went back in and tried on two more dresses, but neither was screaming at me, either.

“Hold on, I’ll grab a couple more,” the girl said, rushing to the back.

“I have a beautiful black dress I wore to a runway party. It’ll do if I can’t find anything today,” I told Dani.

“No.”

“What?”

“You have to have something new for your date with Mac,” she said, her words mimicking my own thoughts from earlier.

“It isn’t really a date,” I tossed back, even though I knew it was.

“You two are ridiculous,” she said.

“It’s just…complicated.”

“So your family sucks. It isn’t the end of the world,” she responded. I hadn’t really told her much about my family, which meant Mac had. Siblings. Friends. They’d talked about me. It made my stomach lurch slightly, even though it wasn’t unexpected.

“They don’t really suck,” I told her.

She looked slightly flustered, when Dani never looked flustered. “I’m sorry. That was rude. I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant that your family background isn’t ideal if Mac truly wants to run for office, but it’s not like you’re tying the knot or anything. It’s just a date.”

I went back into the fitting room with two more dresses. One was a deep forest green—so dark it could almost be black. The silk was so smooth that it could have almost been lingerie. I unzipped it and slipped it on. The neckline was heart-shaped, sweeping into cuff sleeves that sat just off the shoulder. It was beautiful, the back dropping even farther, showing off curves in a way that was decadent. It fit like it was made for me, running down my legs and pooling just enough that any heels would barely peek out from beneath it when I moved.

As soon as I looked in the mirror, Dani’s words about Russell flew through my head, because all I could think of was Mac running his hands over the silky threads. Running his hands over me and over my exposed skin before unzipping the dress and removing it from my body. My heart sped up, and my body ached at the thought. Of him, and his hands, and this dress.

“Georgie, you alive in there?”

My face was flushed at where my thoughts had journeyed. I wasn’t sure I could move yet.

“Yep,” I croaked out.

Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself and then opened the door. I’d taken two steps when Dani smiled. “That! That is definitely the one.”

I nodded and turned toward the three-way mirror. It was perfect. The best dress I’d bought in a really long time.

“If Mac doesn’t make a move on you in that dress, my brother will be dead to me.”

I laughed. “On our first date?”

She shrugged. “You never know, maybe that’s all you need to get each other out of your systems.”

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