Unhinged by Timberlyn Scott Page B

good news was
that it wasn’t silver. It was black.
    “What do you think?”
she asked, her hand pressed firmly to my back as she urged me closer to the
dress.
    “It’s… It’s… Wow. It’s
beautiful.” That was an understatement. “It’s also nearly nonexistent, Chloe.”
    “Not true. Try it on.”
    Yeah, it was safe to
say that little was the most-prominent adjective in that little black
dress. I grabbed the hanger and held it up in front of me.
    “Try. It. On,” Chloe
commanded.
    I could tell she was
losing her patience, so I did as she asked. I carried the dress to my bedroom,
slipped off my sweater and my skirt and then pulled the slinky, form-fitting
dress on.
    “This bra’s not gonna work!”
I shouted from my bedroom as I stood staring at the woman in the mirror.
    The dress… Wow. It
really was incredible. The kind of incredible that acted as camouflage, hiding
all of those little things I hated about my body. 
    “Holy shit.” Chloe
whistled when she walked into the room, stopping to stand beside me as I
continued to stare at myself in the mirror. “Yep, that’ll work.”
    I reached for the hem
of the skirt and tried to modestly pull it down to cover more of my thighs.
    “Quit that,” Chloe
snapped as she slapped at my hand. “It’s perfect just like that.”
    I met her gaze in the
mirror and then glanced at the bra strap that was showing.
    “Okay, maybe not
perfect. But the bra we can fix. Worst case, go without one.”
    “Chloe!” I exclaimed.
“You can’t be serious.” She couldn’t be serious.
    “You don’t need a bra,”
she told me, reaching out and cupping my breast.
    I slapped her hand away
and laughed. “I do, too.” I might not be well endowed, but I still needed a
bra.
    “Are you decent?” Aaron
called from the living room.
    “As decent as we’ll
ever be,” Chloe bellowed.
    The next thing I knew,
Aaron and Mark were standing side by side in my doorway staring at me.
    “Holy shit,” Aaron said
softly while Mark whistled.
    “What?” I asked.
“What’s wrong?”
    “Girl, that dress is
fucking hot.”
    “I think it’s the girl in the dress that’s hot,” Chloe corrected.
    “That, too.”
    Aaron’s eyes continued
to rake over me. I waited for him to meet my gaze.
    “What shoes are you
gonna wear?” Mark asked. I glanced over to see his eyes trailing down to my
bare feet.
    Crap. Shoes.
    “This we got,” Chloe
assured me. “We do wear the same size shoes.” She practically skipped out of my
bedroom, her ponytail bobbing merrily behind her.
    I waited not so
patiently, perusing my figure in the mirror while Chloe disappeared. Aaron
flopped onto my bed and watched me while Mark continued to stand in the doorway.
    “What’s the party for?”
Aaron asked, his hands behind his head, his long, lean body draped across my
bed. He really was a good looking man. Blond hair, blue eyes, tall and trim,
not bulky, but definitely well-built.
    “Don’t know. Mr.
Trovato just invited me. I didn’t ask what it was for.”
    “Maybe the mechanic
will be there,” Chloe said when she returned a second later, a pair of silver
closed-toe heels dangling from her fingertips.
    I snatched the shoes
and glared at her. “He won’t be there.”
    “How do you know?”
Aaron asked, his blond eyebrows launching into his hairline.
    “Because he’s the
mechanic,” I offered, sounding not so sure of myself.
    “Well, I’ll cross my
fingers for you.” Chloe winked at me and then dropped onto the bed beside Aaron
while I slipped the shoes on.
    I continued to primp in
the mirror while my best friends laughed and joked behind me. I lifted my hair
up, let it drop down, wondering just how I should wear it. The entire time, I
was thinking about Sebastian.
    What if he was there?
What would I say to him?
    A renewed sense of
nervousness overcame me. Could this be the shakeup that my life needed?
    Or was I just getting
my hopes up for nothing?

Chapter Nine
    Sebastian
     
    Dinner was a