Page 23 of Because of You
“And how did this come up?”
“We were texting. He asked me if I could hang out today, but I told him that we were going dress shopping for the gala. He told me to send him pictures and then got all weird. It was kind of funny, so I figured I would fuck with him a little.”
Molly just stares at me.
“Hallie,” she says carefully. “Have you ever gotten the feeling that Ben has feelings for you? Like, more than lifetime friendship feelings?”
“What? No way. We’ve been friends forever. If he liked me like that, I would know.”
“Let me see your phone.”
“Why?”
“Just hand it over.” She holds out her hand and gives me her signatureyou will do exactly what I am asking you to do right now or elseface. It works every damn time. I hand her the phone. She holds it up to my face to unlock, and then navigates to my texts with Ben. I know exactly when she sees the dress picture request because she snorts and clicks off the phone. She hands it back to me and collapses onto the couch.
“Well?” I ask.
“Oh, he totally has a thing for you. I think he has for a while now.”
“Mol, there’s just no way. And keep your voice down.” Emma and Julie are still browsing out in the store, and the last thing I need is for them to hear this. I have enough stuff I’m keeping from Julie. I don’t need to add this to the list.
“Okay.” She just shrugs and leans back on the couch with the look of someone who is satisfied and secure in the knowledge that she planted a seed that she will now sit back and watch grow. This is what Molly does best. She is sly and brilliant andhas an uncanny ability to make people see things that no one else knows are there.
But this can’t be that, right? Ben doesn’t have feelings for me. We’re friends. We have always been friends. We have both dated other people—although not lately, I guess. But still. Our families are close. Julie is his sister and my other closest friend in the world. It would never work.
Without warning, I’m assaulted by an image of Ben kissing me and my face heats before I shove it aside. No. Nope. Absolutely not. Molly is wrong. I look over at her and see her smirking at me, as if she knows just where my brain went.
I scowl at her. “Shut the fuck up. You know what you did.”
“I sure as shit do,” she sings, gleefully, as I flounce back into the dressing room.
As if to prove Molly wrong, I whip out my phone as soon as the curtain closes.
Me
[img attached] I’m pretty sure this is the one.
Ben
You’re planning to go to the gala in cotton candy cosplay?
I think it makes a real statement, don’t you?
If the statement is, I am a food that little kids eat at a carnival, then definitely.
I laugh and throw my phone in my purse. See, Ben doesn’t have feelings for me. Definitely no feelings at all.
I unzip the pink confection and drop it to the floor then rifle through the other dresses I have on the rack in my dressing room. My hand moves to the bright red floor length dress Molly pressed into my hands while we were browsing. It’s bolder than Iusually go and completely unlike anything I’ve ever worn before. Without another thought, I pull it from the hanger and put it on. I’ve been feeling so off kilter for the last year, and particularly for the last couple of weeks, that I’m in the mood for something different.
The silky material of the dress glides up seamlessly. I stick my arms through the spaghetti straps and reach around to zip the back. The front dips just low enough to show a hint of cleavage that, with the right bra, will look amazing, and the dress clings in all the right places before falling straight to the floor. This is the one.
I step out into the outer dressing room where Julie and Emma have just returned, their arms full of dresses. All three of my friends are silent for five full seconds before everyone talks at once.
“Oh my god, Hallie! That has to be the one,” says Emma.
“Your boobs in that dress look even better than Emma’s boobs,” says Julie, grinning. That’s the biggest compliment she could ever give me, because it’s just common knowledge that of the four of us, Emma has the best boobs by far.
“That dress is so hot I would fuck you in it,” Molly chimes in.
