Page 13 of Practice Makes Perfect

Billie gives me a withering look. “You’ve never heard of Outside In? It’s basically where fashion and the outdoors meet up, have sex, and then spew their gorgeous clothing babies all over the place.”

“There’s an interesting visual,” I quip as we walk around. A salesperson approaches Billie and the two chat for a bit while I get caught up in looking at a pair of silk boxers with pictures of moose all over them. “This is why I don’t wear underpants.” My feet on the glazed cement floor, my body uncomfortable in the one pair I do actually own and had to wear today since I’ll be trying on clothes. Shaking my head, I move over to another section and see a wool beanie that looks somewhat normal. Picking it up, my fingers run across the scratchy material, but I drop it like a hot potato when Billie suddenly appears next to me with an armful of clothes. My mouth gapes at the pile that nearly obstructs her face from view. “How did you grab all of that already?”

Billie smiles and nods over to the salesperson she was talking to moments ago. “I told Craig your sizes and the look we’re going for, and he helped me pull a few things.” She waves at Craig who happily waves back like he’s her new best friend before she starts shoving me toward the dressing rooms. Once I’m inside, she hangs up her finds before grabbing a pair of jeans and a blue and green plaid flannel. “Here, try these on and see how they fit. Then come show me, and I’ll tell you how they really fit.” With a bright grin, she shuts the door and waits outside.

With as little grumbling as possible, I do as she asks. Once I’m dressed, I give myself a cursory glance in the mirror and find that I actually like what I’m seeing. The colors of the shirt almost make my eyes look greener than usual, and it fits snuggly enough that it shows off the bulk of my arms and chest without being so tight that it’s uncomfortable. The jeans are a great fit too. Normally I have to go a size up on pants since I have a bit of a bubble butt, but Billie managed to find some that look good and fit nicely too. “Huh,” I say as I twist and turn in the mirror.

“Come one. Let me see,” Billie whines from the other side of the door.

With a shrug, I open the door and spread my arms wide. “Well, what do you think?” Billie scrutinizes my look and hums lightly as she walks around me, tugging on the shirt a little here and there. When her hands reach up and start smoothing over my shoulders and chest, I nearly choke on the saliva in my mouth. “What are you doing?”

Billie gives me an indulgent look as she moves her hands up to my neck and reaches into the collar. “Seeing how it fits, silly.” I can’t remember the last time someone called me silly, and I kind of like it. When I look down and see Billie’s sly smile, my stomach drops with anticipation of what she’ll do next. “Do you want me to stop?” My head moves from side to side and her smile widens and she runs her hand lower to my waist. Two of her fingers dip just inside and run along my stomach before disappearing around the back. “Do they feel too tight?” I know she is asking me a legitimate question, but I can’t help but wonder if she knows that the effect of her touch has a certain part of these jeans feeling a lot snugger than it did a minute ago.

“No.” My voice is husky, so I clear my throat to try and sound a lot less turned on than I actually am. “No, they fit well.”

“Good,” she smiles. Stepping away and fortunately keeping her eyes level with mine, she nods, clearly pleased with her work. “Okay, next outfit.”

The next forty minutes goes by much the same as the last ten minutes, and by the time we have established a capsule wardrobe, something Billie explained was a set of basic clothes I can mix and match as well as add other items to, I’m so turned on that I’m afraid I’m going to make a mess in the jeans that I don’t yet own. Luckily, by the time I’ve changed back into my own clothes and made the purchase, I’ve calmed myself down enough to walk around the rest of the shopping center without the addition of an inconvenient and inappropriate for public consumption erection.

“Should we hit the next store?” Billie asks. She must read the reluctance on my face and starts steering us toward the food court instead. “I can see that you’re already a little tired of all the wardrobe changes, so let’s get some fuel for the rest of the afternoon.”

I don’t have the courage to tell her it’s not the outfit changes but her hands all over me that is making shopping nearly impossible, so I nod and we head inside. Billie buys me a pretzel with cheese sauce, telling me I earned it with such a beautiful smile that I decide I can suck it up for the rest of the afternoon and keep shopping if I can earn another of her bright looks. She grabs some pretzel bites for herself and we head back outside to enjoy the mild weather while we eat.

We sit in comfortable silence for a moment, but my phone buzzing with a reminder to finish JJ’s birthday present, a wooden dinosaur puzzle, has me initiating conversation. “Maya tells me she okayed you planning Little J’s party. Do you want to go over any ideas you have?”

Billie holds up a finger while she finishes chewing before she wipes her butter glistened lips with a napkin. Wishing I were that napkin, I almost miss what she says next. “Sure.” She pulls a small planner from her purse and flips it open to a page titled, Little J’s Big Three. Smiling at the title, I take a closer look and see a lot of carefully arranged plans and times. Her planner looks a lot like the meal plan I have on the refrigerator, and I smile at the thought that we have something as simple as planning quirks in common.

“I know JJ loves dinosaurs, so I called Kerry at the local bakery and have commissioned a stegosaurus cake, and I went to the party supply store and ordered a slew of dino themed decorations and a T-rex piñata. I talked to Maya, and in addition to Jake’s parents, your Aunt Sue, and the two of us, she wanted to invite a couple of JJ’s friends from his play group and their parents. Since the littles will need some fun activities, I’m going to put together a few sensory games like digging for dino eggs in the sand box and then they can make a fossil of their own handprint out of salt dough.” When she’s finished, she bites the end of her thumbnail and looks over at me with an uncertain expression on her face. “Does that sound okay?”

Completely blown away, but not at all surprised by her creativity, I search for the right words to convey just how impressed with her I really am. “That’s really amazing, Billie,” I spill, barely able to contain my excitement for her. A wide grin takes over my face as pride swells in my chest. “I can’t believe you came up with all that so quickly, and that you not only ordered a cake but already know the bakery owner by name. It took me years to remember to call her Kerry and not Karen.”

Billie shrugs at my compliments, but the faint blush on her cheeks tells me she’s accepted them as truth. “Well, it was nice to go around to the different stores and talk to the owners. The business district seems like its own little family.” I nod and watch as a cautious smile paints Billie’s face as she looks over at me. “You really think my ideas sound good?” She taps her planner and leans closer, her rose scent wafting over me. Suddenly I want to plant a whole garden full of the flower as soon as possible. “I really just want Little J to have a good time. I know Jake and I aren’t blood related, but I really think of him as my nephew and want him to have a great birthday.”

I nod my understanding and smile at her. “JJ will have a great time because he will be surrounded by people who love and care about him, which clearly you do, blood relative or not.”

“Thanks,” she replies, her smile shy. Shyness isn’t normally something you see much of coming from Billie, but it’s a good look on her. Her eyes are soft and her face is more open. She is far less intimidating because there is no trace of the flirtatious woman who constantly throws me off kilter there, though I like that part of her too. As it turns out, I’m enjoying just about every part of her and wonder how any other woman I meet will possibly compare. Billie slapping her hands on the table breaks me from my reverie and I look over to see her shy smile has been replaced by an impish grin. “You ready for more shopping?”

Stifling a groan, I gather up our trash and dispose of it. Looking over my shoulder at her, I try for my best hangdog expression. “Do we have to? I already have my capsule wardrobe.” I can’t believe words like that just came from my mouth, but here we are.

Billie rolls her eyes, and with a shake of her head, she starts dragging me to another store. “Those are just the basics,” she explains. As much as I’m not wanting to try on a bunch of clothes, I am really enjoying spending the day together and will happily endure it if it means more time in her company. “Now we need to put together a few date night outfits. Jeans and flannels are good for every day, but you need to dress up a little more when you’re out on the town.”

“I guess.” My mood sours slightly at the thought of going out on the town with anyone other than her. “I would rather someone like me for who I am, not what I’m wearing.”

Billie stops walking and turns to face me, her expression determined. “We talked about this, Carter. You’re still you,” she tells me, patting my chest lightly. There is the temptation to place my hands over hers to keep them there for a while, but I resist it. “This is just window dressing. It gets people into the store and your personality is what gets them to hang around and make a purchase.”

I chuckle at her analogy and nod. “Okay then. Let’s go get some more window dressing.” Billie smiles and we spend another few hours getting me all set up with clothes for every dating situation I could possibly find myself in from fancy restaurant to picnic in the woods, but there was one situation Billie couldn’t prepare me for. The one where my crush slowly evolves into something more, knowing that more likely than not, those feelings will remain unrequited.

Chapter Ten

Billie

The party I put together for Little J is in full swing, and it looks like everyone is having a great time, but the only person I care about being happy right now is the boy with the red curls who is currently smashing open eggs to try and find the small dinosaur toys I spent last night stuffing inside. Carter was there, too, of course, spending time he should be working on his dating app profile helping me with my project instead. When I asked him about why he hadn’t put it together yet, he shrugged and brushed my comment aside, telling me he would work on it after the party was over. I don’t want to come off as pushy, but I really need him to start going out on dates soon because him spending all his free time with me is giving me ideas. Ideas that involve a lot more of what happened last week.

The shopping and spending time together was wonderful, and we got to learn even more small tidbits of information about each other. In addition to both being the children of immigrants, we also enjoy quiet nights at home and prefer summer over winter. Over the course of the afternoon, Carter also learned that I hate sunglasses that cover half of my face and need at least two snack stops when out on a shopping spree. To remedy that last need, Carter bought us both an ice cream and we sat on a wooden bench to rest and talk while we ate our cones. We talked about the projects he was working on for the shop and I talked about more of my party plans for JJ, but we also talked about how he reads thriller novels even though he scares easily, and that he thinks deep dish pizza is more like a lasagna, but he still enjoys it.

I talked about my time in college and how it was basically a blur of parties, and confessed that even though I acted that way a lot in the past, what I actually love to do is eat in front of the television while I watch reality dating shows. After hearing that, Carter has spent every night since then showing me how to make dinner before we watch the latest season of Love Boat UK, a dating show where singles literally live on a boat for a month while they look for love but really just end up hooking up with one another. Carter shook his head in dismay as we watched, bemoaning the fact that this is what dating had come to, but I saw him laughing every now and then, especially when the more dramatic contestants would start fighting with one another. I think he secretly likes it just as much as I do.

In addition to the shopping and getting-to-know-you sessions, I got to spend a good amount of our day with my hands all over him. It was a bit torturous, trying to keep things PG as I smoothed my hands over parts of his body to check the fit of his clothes. The first time my fingers grazed the bare skin of his stomach and felt the dusting of hair that comprised his happy trail, a wave of pleasure washed through me. From then on, I had to be diligent about being more careful where I touched him lest I soak my panties or make a fool of myself by pushing him back into the dressing room and trying to have my way with him. Carter is so sexy in a way that he doesn’t realize is sexy. He works hard, is so giving, and he listens so attentively any time I talk. After so many years of being seen as just a pretty face, it’s nice to be with a guy who actually pays attention to my thoughts and feelings, though he is so much more than that. He is so many amazing qualities wrapped up into one perfect man. That kind of perfection is intimidating as hell, but damn if I’m not drawn to it as well.

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