Page 83 of Win Some Love Some
“Pumps? Beige?” She said it like I was going to wear my father’s work boots with the dress. “Absolutely not.” From her wall of shoes she grabbed a delicate pair of silver open toe heels. “My treat. I take enough of your father’s money each month, it’s only fitting I give something back. Try these on.”
I slipped into the silver shoes and turned to look back in the mirror. I was inches taller, my boobs looked about ready to spill out and my shoulders screamed…touch me.
“He won’t know what hit him,” Fiona said.
“There’s no him,” I insisted, but she wasn’t believing me. I’d never known Fiona to be a gossip. The men at the poker game gossiped like hens, but Fiona was a vault.
And she was generous. And extremely smart.
I found myself doing something I hadn’t done in ages. I pulled out my phone and took a video. Of the store. Fiona. And then I slowly showed off my beautiful shoes, my legs that looked longer because of them. The dress, the way it skimmed my ass and stomach and then finally the thin straps. I didn’t say anything. I could make a voice over later. If I did anything with it.
I saved the video to drafts.
“Are you going to post that?” Fiona asked. She was a business owner and she knew what my video could do for her store. However, she was also a friend and was aware of what had happened.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Well, let me know if you do?”
I laughed. “Oh, you’ll know.”
Once upon a time, a video by me could change a business owner’s life. Cafés would be lined up out the door. Restaurants would be booked up for weeks and products would sell out.
I didn’t have that clout anymore, and in truth, a video from me might bring really unwanted attention to Fiona’s beautiful store.
Later, I would delete the video.
“You have to let me pay for the shoes.”
“Fine,” Fiona smiled. “But it’s your lucky day because they’re on sale. Ninety-nine percent off.”
I took her charity with a smile. “Well, look at that. Maybe my luck is changing.”
My luck was not changing.
Dad was going to be so pissed. I turned the key in the ignition again and nothing.
This is what you got when you didn’t follow anybody’s good advice.
Nick had promised me he would find me a reliable used car I could buy, but in my opinion, he’d been dragging his feet for weeks. In his opinion, he hadn’t seen anything that was good enough. But I was starting to suspect there was something else behind his hesitation.
I knew I’d hurt him when I sold the Mini, but every time I sat in it all I could remember was sobbing my guts out while I drove home from his apartment.
So, after a burst of confidence from my new dress and shoes, I’d decided to use that empowering female energy and make a life decision. I needed a car. I was a capable person. I’d grown up watching Nick take cars apart and put them together again, so I wasn’t an idiot when it came to car buying.
The shop was closed on Sundays so I’d called up an Uber and took myself to the used car dealership in Chester. A place where hundreds of people bought quality used cars.
Now I was stuck in the parking lot of the Chicken Stack Shack, with cooling chicken fingers in my lap. Sitting in a silver Chevy Malibu with reasonable miles for its age and an excellent car report – that wouldn’t start.
My options were limited. Call Mom, but she would tell Dad. Call Dad and be prepared for the lecture of a lifetime.
Call Nick and have him say I told you so over and over again every day for the rest of my life.
I had some fleeting thoughts about reaching out to Uncle Jackson, but it would only put me in deeper water with Nick and Dad.
In any other scenario, they would always be my first call.
With a sigh, I resigned myself to my fate.
