Page 23 of Love From the Ashes

“Sofie Fletcher, you are truly one of a kind. You never fail to intrigue me,” Reid said as the doors closed.

I leaned against the wall of the elevator and closed my eyes. What was that supposed to mean?

CHAPTER 9

The Club

Ishifted mybody while I sat on the bathroom counter at work, the hard surface becoming uncomfortable as my legs dangled over its edge. My impatience grew as Della took her time artfully applying a selection of her cosmetics to my face.

Giving me a stern look, Della lowered her hands and took a step back. “Quit moving around. You’re going to make me mess up your eyeliner.”

“Well, hurry up, then. I don’t want someone to come in here and catch me getting dressed up to go out. Besides, is all this makeup necessary?” My makeover seemed like such a waste of time. Although I had agreed to go to the dance club with Della and Adam to celebrate Adam’s birthday, I had no desire to impress anyone.

“Relax, okay? It’s after six o’clock on a Friday night. Everyone’s already left, so there’s no one here to see you. And you’re dressed up so nicely; it would look silly to go out without some makeup, so let me do my thing. I’m almost finished.”

I opened my mouth to comment, and Della threw her hand out to signal me to stop.

“I don’t want to hear another complaint. I swear you act like this is killing you, even though my dress looks gorgeous on you, and so does the makeup.”

I slid off the counter and scanned my image in the mirror. Della’s navy cocktail dress did fit me beautifully, and I liked its three-quarter-length angel sleeves, off-the-shoulder style, and rhinestone-embellished shoulder straps. It was the length that bothered me. I felt half-naked, like my butt was showing every time I bent over. The fabric wasn’t the best either, especially with the way it hugged my body.

“A couple more touches, and that’ll be it. So stand still for a minute.” Della applied a little more of her glittery blue eyeliner to my right eye and plum-colored lipstick to my lips. “Ooh, I like that. The eyeliner looks like a starry night with your sapphire eyes. What do you think?”

“It’s nice, but still too much makeup for my taste.” I turned my head from side to side checking out Della’s handiwork. I was thankful she didn’t try to get me to wear the bright red lipstick in her bag. My mother used to wear that shade along with her false eyelashes and heavy makeup when she went out at night.

“Hang on a second.” Della tapped her index finger on her lip as she scrutinized my reflection in the mirror. “What if we put your hair up? I bet it’ll look cute.”

“In a ponytail? It’ll look too casual for this dress.”

“No, not a ponytail. I can sweep your hair back and clip it up. Here, I’ll show you.” Della grabbed a hairbrush and a fancy-looking silver-and-rhinestone hair clip from her bag. After brushing my hair, she pulled it back into a low ponytail, gave it a little spiral twist, then pulled it toward the top of my head and folded it back down. After tucking the ends in place, she secured it with the hair clip. Della eyed her masterpiece and grinned. “See? Super easy, and your hair looks pretty, especially with the way those straggler strands of hair fall in front of your ears.”

“Okay, I have to agree. It looks nice.”

“Good. I’m glad you like it. Now you’re officially done. We better pack everything up and get out of here since Adam will be at the restaurant any minute. We’ll go to the club right after dinner.”

Packed up and ready to go a few minutes later, Della hooked her arm in mine as she led us from the bathroom. I felt like a kid going to their first birthday party. I was nervous, my stomach feeling tight since I had no idea what to expect. But I couldn’t help feeling excited too. One thing was sure: I planned to have a good time.

*

“Do we haveto wait in that long line to get into the club?” I said, my gaze fixed on the line of people working their way down the side of the building. No one had been standing there when we’d walked past it on our way to the restaurant earlier. Now it was a completely different story. I supposed we were fortunate we weren’t here the previous weekend when they’d had their Fourth of July celebration. It would have been much busier, and we likely wouldn’t have gotten in.

“No, that’s the general admission line. I bought VIP tickets online for the three of us. We’ll have a table on the edge of the dance floor. We need to tell one of the ushers we’re VIPs,” Adam said, leading Della and me toward a burly usher standing by the door. “Excuse me. We have VIP tickets.” Adam flashed the usher our tickets along with his ID.

“You’ll have to wait.” The man turned his back on Adam as if dismissing him. He stood there scanning the crowd, his body blocking our path.

“But I thought a VIP ticket allowed us to get in without waiting?” Adam said, sounding confused.

“You’ll get in when I say you can,” the usher said, turning around to glare intimidatingly at Adam.

I stepped from behind Adam and Della and stood by Adam’s side, the tone in the usher’s voice alerting me there was a problem brewing. “Adam, why do we have to wait?” I whispered, not wanting to make the usher more belligerent than he already was. I stole a peek at the man, finding him watching me.

“You’re with these two?” the usher said, his eyes greedily scanning me.

“Yes, we’re celebrating his birthday,” I said hesitantly, nodding my head toward Adam as I turned sideways.

“You can go in after I check your ID.” The corner of the usher’s mouth quirked upward, his gaze focused on my rear in the body-clinging dress. He turned away long enough to pretend to look at Della’s and my IDs. Then his eyes were back on my behind as he opened the door for us.

Adam quickly grabbed my arm and Della’s and pushed us through the doorway. He let go of us as soon as the door closed. “I didn’t want to take a chance that the usher meant Sofie could go in, and Della and I had to wait. It looks like Sofie is our secret weapon tonight.”

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