“What about a sandwich? Or a banana?” He was about five minutes away from begging the assistant to have mercy on him and feed him. “Anything. I’m dying here.”
“I have a cereal bar in my bag,” the woman said hesitantly.
“Bring it on.” He thanked her profusely, but it was gone in two bites.
“Come on, Caroline, pick a dress. How hard can this be?”
Caroline’s head appeared around the changing room door. She frowned at him. “If this is so blooming easy, you pick one.”
His eyes lit up. He could do this. He glanced at his watch. And there still would be time for an early dinner. “You’re on.”
With a long-suffering glance towards heaven, the assistant handed him an iPad, which contained a virtual showroom. He flicked through the dresses, as Caroline had done about a million years earlier. Her choices were on the rack beside him. As far as he could see, they were all ugly. At last, his hand stilled. “This one.” He pointed at the dress.
The assistant raised an eyebrow, but turned on her heels to fetch it.
“You better not have picked red,” Caroline called through the changing room door. “There’s no way I’m wearing red.”
“Would I do something like that?”
“I honestly have no idea what you’re going to do next.”
And that made Josh feel pretty chuffed.
At last, the sales assistant swept into the room with a dress wrapped in cellophane. Josh patted his stomach to reassure it that food was coming soon.
“There’s a great steak place in here,” Josh called to Caroline. There was silence. “We can eat something else if you want.” His stomach protested loudly. His stomach wanted steak.
The door to the changing room swung open, and Caroline walked out. There was a look of complete shock on her face. Josh held his breath. She spread her arms wide and turned slowly. When she looked back at him, her eyes were wide and she nibbled on the spot on her bottom lip that he liked so much.
“It’s perfect.” He came to stand in front of her. “You’re beautiful.”
She blushed. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
He put his finger under her chin and tipped her face up to him. “I would.”
“What you need with that,” the assistant said, “is the most darling little pair of Charlotte Olympia shoes. I’ll just fetch them.” She tottered out of the room.
“Thank you,” Caroline said once the assistant was gone.
And then, to Josh’s surprise, she put a hand on each of his shoulders, went up on tiptoes and kissed him. His first kiss from Caroline that she’d given willingly.
Suddenly he wasn’t hungry for food any longer.
Caroline released Josh and stepped back from him. She felt a little stunned. She hadn’t meant to kiss him. It was just that the dress was perfect and she’d been overcome. Josh took a determined step towards her as the assistant sailed back into the room.
“These will go perfectly with this dress.”
Josh clearly wasn’t happy with the interruption. He folded his arms across today’s T-shirt, Spider-Man this time, and leaned against the wall by the floor-length mirror.
“The shoes are lovely.” Caroline smiled at the assistant.
They were kitten-heeled sling-backs in the same shade of white satin as the dress, only they were embroidered and embellished with beads. With the woman’s help, Caroline slipped them on, and the dress fell more gracefully. She assessed herself in the mirror, but it was hard to be objective because the dress was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
The boat neck skimmed across her to fasten discreetly on each shoulder. The sleeveless bodice fitted her form perfectly until it flowed out from beneath her hips to trail in a wide but simple skirt with a short train on the floor. There was no embroidery, no beading, nothing to detract from the simple elegance of the dress. It took her breath away.
“How did you know?” She smiled at Josh, who was eyeing her with the same hungry look he had when he spoke about steak.
He didn’t give her the cocky smile she expected. Instead, he shrugged like it was nothing. “I kept an eye out for something Grace Kelly would have rocked.”