Page 351 of Dark Love

Only a man. Seriously, only a man would be completely oblivious to the fact that I need clothing to wear outside.

“I’ll order some for you. We’ll go out to lunch and have something delivered for breakfast.”

Order clothing? “Um. Ordering clothing isn’t like ordering a pizza.” Especially for women like me. Maybe if you were model thin, you could just say order me a size two and get away with it. Nothing comes in standard sizes for me. I’m all over the charts. It usually takes me trying on fifty pairs of pants to find one that’s halfway decent. “Yeah, that isn’t going to work. I’ll just get a cab and go home.” Dying of embarrassment the entire time.

“No.”

His sharp tone has my head popping up. What does he mean no?

“You’ll find something in my closet, and we’ll go buy you an outfit to wear.”

Your closet!

We’ll go buy me an outfit!

Vex is crazy. And I thought I was insane. He’s gone around the bend. I can’t just figure out something to wear from his closet. It’s impossible. “Um. That’s okay.”

“It’s decided. Go find something to wear. We’re leaving in twenty minutes.”

“It takes me twenty minutes to wash my hair.”

He blinks twice at me.

“It really does. I have thick hair.”

“Fine, we’ll leave in forty minutes.” Vex stalks out of the room before I can say anything else.

Seriously? He seriously thinks I’m just going to do whatever he says? I climb out of the bed and head to the door he just came out of. There’s no way I’m going to find anything to—WOW! This closet is drool-worthy. The light wood is a stark contrast to the dark floors that flow through from the bedroom into the closet… Closet is hardly an adequate word to describe this room. It could be a high-end men’s boutique.

How am I going to find anything to wear in this sea of slacks and custom suits?

We don’t exactly have the same body type. I’m more like the curvy couch potato. While he’s the hunky bodybuilder.

This isn’t going to work. Not at all.

Though his t-shirt almost works as a dress. It goes down past my mid-thigh. Men’s shirt dresses are a thing.

I walk over to the rack full of dress shirts. Vex really likes soft, silky clothing. It’s got to fit.

My hand goes first to a white one… No. No. That won’t work. They’re too thin. It’ll end up being completely sheer. Black! I slide a black one off the hanger and over the t-shirt I’m already wearing. It looks like a sack. A lovely sack, but my shape is completely lost in all this material.

A belt should fix that. He definitely has a selection to choose from. There are dozens in each color. I strap a black one around my waist. Then another a little higher up. And another.

Thankfully there’s a mirror. I twist and turn to see every angle. It definitely flatters my curves. But it shows way more skin than I’m used to. And my chest… No, I can’t even think about how it looks in this outfit.

But it will have to do. If only I could cover it up.

A coat! As Mom says we’re in fall, and it’s getting chilly out there. Vex has some lovely long coats. They’re probably slightly longer than knee length on him. That will work!

Two of me could fit inside this jacket. But everything is covered that needs to be covered. I’ll go in, shop, and change right in the store. Then everything will be just fine.

I’m fine.

Everything is fine.

Only everything isn’t fine. This is all a pretend little world. When I walk out these doors… The world won’t collapse. You’ve survived in the past. You will survive this.

Not if you don’t go take a shower and get ready…

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