Not bothering to get Libby’s opinion on it, I shed the dress and moved on to the next one.
Once again though, there was something about the dress that just wasn’t right. I sighed, seeing that this day of searching for the perfect dress was going to last a lot longer than I had anticipated if every dress I tried on was going to leave me feeling underwhelmed and looking washed out.
“Do you have one on yet? Let me see!” Libby said, knocking on the door of my dressing room.
Reluctantly, I opened the door to let her see the second dress I had put on.
She was standing there in one of her dresses, which looked wonderful on her. “Wow,” I said. “That looks great on you.”
“Thank you!” she said, giving a little twirl. The skirt swayed when she moved. “It’s a little too prom-like for me though. My old butt needs something more sophisticated than this. I don’t want to look like I’m trying to hard!”
“You don’t look that way at all,” I said. “Me, on the other hand, I think I need to keep trying.”
Libby looked me up and down. “That one is nice. You don’t like it?”
I frowned. “Something about the color doesn’t work for me.”
“Well, go try on the one I picked out!”
I nodded, and returned to the fitting room. While the dress Libby picked out looked great on the hanger, I wasn’t so sure it looked as good on me. I stepped out of the dressing room, shaking my head. “I just don’t know what’s going on with me today.”
Libby cocked her head to the side. “Now that you mention it, there does seem to be something different about you. Have you been out in the sun lately?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Hmm,” Libby said and then shrugged her shoulders. “Well, it doesn’t matter. You’re still beautiful, and that dress looks like a winner to me.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “I’m sure Anderson would like it.”
“I’ll put this one in the ‘maybe’ section then,” I said. “Just let me try on a few more first.”
CHAPTER 19
Anderson
The night of the gala arrived. As I left my apartment and headed to Tobias’s to pick up Joanna, I couldn’t believe how nervous I felt. With the way my stomach twisted in knots, I may as well have been seventeen years old again, picking up my prom date and hoping the night went the way I wanted it to.
I guess part of my nerves was due to the fact that I hadn’t had the opportunity to speak with Joanna in a while, although it was partially my own fault. I hadn’t been avoiding her exactly; things had just been too busy at work to sneak any time alone with her. As for outside of work, every time I wanted to invite her over to my apartment, I got cold feet and changed my mind.
It was hard to fathom that after all these years, as a self-defined playboy, someone was close to making me want to throw in the towel and settle down.
On some level, I wasn’t ready to face that realization yet. When I pulled up to Tobias’s mansion and saw Joanna walk out the door though, I began to seriously consider if the time to face it had finally come.
She was literally the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Granted, she had always been pretty, even as a kid when I couldn’t stand her. But to see her in her ball gown, with her curls elegantly pinned up and putting her gorgeous face of full display, she practically took my breath away.
I got out of the car so that I could open the passenger’s door for her.
“Hi…” she said.
“Hi,” I said and then paused for a second to admire her. “Joanna, you look beautiful.”
A slight flush spread across her cheeks. “Thank you.”
I held the door open and helped her into the passenger’s seat, and then got back behind the driver’s wheel. A somewhat awkward silence filled the car as we drove off. Joanna cleared her throat, breaking the silence. “Thank you for agreeing to take me,” she said.
I nodded and took a deep breath, knowing the dreaded conversation was on the horizon. “Look,” I said, deciding to tackle it head-on, “there’s nothing going on between me and Lauren. We had a few flings in the past, which was why I had asked her to go with me to the gala a long time ago—way before you were in town. But I’ve hardly even spoken to her since. And the only reason I hadn’t thought of taking you to the gala before was because I didn’t trust being able to hide how I feel about you in front of your brother. In fact—I get a feeling this is going to be a long night. We’re going to have to be very careful if we don’t want him to suspect anything.”
Joanna remained silent for a long time, but then I saw her nod from the corner of my eye. “I understand,” she said, and then smiled.
I breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that the tension between us had subsided.