Page 77 of The Broker

“I have few more pieces we can pull.”

Brianna put on a fake scowl and pretended to be a strict drill sergeant. “You heard the woman.” She flung a finger at the dressing rooms. “Get your asses back in there.”

I’d left my phone face-up on the chair in the dressing room, and as soon as I’d closed myself in the room, its screen lit up with a notification. Someone had texted me while I’d been out by the mirrors, and I swiped to unlock the screen.

Noah:Hey. What are you up to right now?

It’d been four days since we’d gone to Club Eros, and although we’d texted every day since then, I always got a thrill when his name flashed on my phone. Most of our conversations were about business. I’d had a video go mega viral on Sunday, which was super exciting, but now my DMs were full of people wanting something.

Two of them, at least, seemed like legit requests, and Noah had offered to negotiate on my behalf. The best part of it wasn’t that he was handling all the stuff I didn’t like doing—although that was nice.

No, it was that after we were done talking about business, we’d turned to talking about other things.

Personal things.

Music, and TV shows, and yesterday he’d talked a bit more about his family. I knew his dad was doing better after spending the weekend in the hospital with an infection, and everyone was relieved he was on the mend.

But his dad was sick, and in complete denial about it, and that was really hard on Noah’s entire family.

I was glad he’d opened up to me. I wanted him to feel like he could talk to me about anything, the way I felt about him.

Today, I strove to lighten his mood.

A normal person would have responded with words to the text he’d just sent, but where was the fun in that? I posed in front of the small mirror in my dressing room, trying to get as much of the purple monstrosity into the frame as possible, and snapped a pic. The lighting was nearly as awful as the dress, but it was good enough to give him the idea.

I sent him the picture without any context.

A new dress was pitched over the door. “Don’t freak out that it’s a size larger,” Brianna said. “She said they run small.”

The fabric was a pretty cranberry color, with a halter top and a skirt made of chiffon, and was much lighter than the one I had on. As I wiggled out of the purple dress, I smiled to myself while picturing Noah on the other side of the text exchange. Was he looking at me and wondering what the hell I was wearing?

I pulled on the new dress and zipped up the side zipper, and the saleswoman was right. It was a snug fit. God, why were women’s dress sizes so fucking arbitrary? When I evaluated myself in the mirror, it caught me off guard. I hadn’t expected to like the dress so much because it was pretty simple, but it was flattering.

A new notification popped up on my phone.

Noah:Hope you win first place!

Me:?

I pushed open my dressing room door and strode out into the waiting area, clutching my phone in one hand. This time I was the first one dressed, and when Brianna’s gaze settled on me, her mouth fell open.

I couldn’t read her expression at all, and it stayed that way as Cait and Sasha came out. Cait was curvier than I was, and she’d probably need to go up another size, but the fit wasn’t that bad, and the cranberry color looked stunning with her skin tone.

Sasha looked great as well, but that wasn’t surprising. That bitch looked good in everything.

My phone vibrated.

Noah:I assume you are competing in a beauty pageant.

I snorted and typed out my response, telling him I was bridesmaid dress shopping and, unfortunately, the bride had decided the purple dress wasn’t making the final cut.

Brianna stood beside the saleswoman, and as she glanced between us bridesmaids, she frowned.

“You don’t like it?” I asked.

“No, I do.” But her unhappy expression remained.

Sasha couldn’t have looked more confused. “What’s the problem, then?”

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