Chapter 22
22
ZIGGY
“ O h, these are really nice,” I say to my little sister. “I should have come to you for some work clothes.”
Daphne beams back at me, eyes shining with modest pride for Wisteria & Grace, her adorable vintage boutique, right here in the heart of Starlight Falls.
I’m so impressed by her successful small business that I’m now blatantly pestering her for tips and advice. I’m hoping she can at least help me make some cute flyers for my shop, like the ones she has posted all over town. Her store hasn’t been open as long as mine, but she’s already doing really well.I’m so proud of her.
In any case, I’m here following Darius’s orders, shopping for an outfit. Dress shopping was the last thing I expected to be tackling today, but now that I’m here, I’m finding it quite refreshing to be out of the office. And away from Darius’s weird moods.
One minute the man is glaring me down like he can’t stand me. The next, he’s finger-banging me to high heaven. And the next, he’s giving me a promotion and a pay raise and his credit card.
This whiplash will be the death of me.
In any case, Karli is taking a break from studying at the library, so she was eager to join us here at the clothing boutique. Timothy and his boyfriend, Zack, dropped by also, and for some reason, they brought cheap champagne. There are no customers in here shopping at the moment, so we’re all sipping on the alcohol out of small red plastic cups. Well before the appropriate drinking time, I might add.
“What did you say your budget was again?” Daphne asks, excitedly sifting through vintage gowns on a clothing rack.
Karli skips around the shop, waving Darius’s credit card over her head. “ Limitlesssss …Let’s load this bitch up.”
Groaning and shaking my head, I snatch the credit card back from her. “Okay now. Let’s not get carried away.”
“Ugh! Boring.” Karli leans back against the front counter and a weird look comes across her face. “You know, I’ve never seen Darius hand a woman his credit card before. Especially the black card . Wowzer. I think my brother has a little crush.”
I snort out loud, nearly dropping the hanger that I’m holding up in front of the mirror. “What? It’s just a business expense. The credit card means nothing.”
“Smart move,” Timothy muses, slowly nodding his head. “Getting to write-off the money he spends trying to win over the girl.”
I sigh, realizing I’m not going to outrun the Darius comments. “Is this all you guys do all day long? If so, I’d really like to switch jobs for the week. I’ll stay here and get tipsy all day. You guys can go work for the grumpy dictator.” I take a small sip of the champagne. I’m not really a champagne girl.
“The grumpy, smoking’ hot, rich dictator,” Timothy corrects.
“Yeah well, sign me up if he’s handing out credit cards.”
It’s official. This group wears me out almost as much as Darius does.
“Oh jeez, you guys,” I whine, annoyed that everyone is ganging up on me. “Darius is not interested in me.”
Daphne pauses her dress perusal long enough to share a look with Karli across the shop. They both burst out laughing.
“He’s my boss,” I insist. “That’s all.”
My boss who finger-banged me on a rooftop over the weekend before eating me like a ripe cantaloup. But heaven knows I don’t plan to divulge that teensy, tiny detail here today. And I’m not telling them about my promotion, either. Because they’ll blow that out of proportion, too.
Seriously. They’re reading way too much into this. It’s probably because of the bottle of bubbly they popped earlier.
Yeah—that’s what it is. They’re day drunk. That’s all.
But good grief—I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from what happened between Darius and me on Saturday night. The way he kissed me, the way he touched me, the way he made me shatter in the presence of the stars.
I’m still struggling to make it mean nothing but it’s a challenge, especially with the way the man has been undressing me with his eyes at the office all week.
I know the deal, though. It’s not like Darius Brighton is suddenly in love with me. He’s a guy, and he sees me as an easy opportunity. But I’ve got self-respect. At least a little bit. So I’ll pick up the pieces from my mistake and I won’t give him access to my body again. I’ll be strictly professional from here on out.
Timothy folds his arms across his chest. “Come on. Admit it, Zig. Don’t you think he’s cute?”
My stomach does a flip. I clear my throat. “Fine. I think he’s…fairly attractive.”
Timothy’s eyes roll violently in his head, calling me on my bullshit. “ Fairly attractive ? Really?”
Daphne snickers.
My siblings see right through me.
I glare at them both. “Shut up and come help me with this zipper.”
Ugh. If I didn’t need this dress for a work-related event, I’d consider bailing on this altogether.
Darius doesn’t like me. He’s into flawless, elegant women. Women like Cecily. Women like the one he ditched me to dance with at the Soul of Summer Festival all those years ago. He has a type, and that type doesn’t include a weird hippie girl who marches to the beat of her own drum.
Again—what happened on that rooftop meant nothing. That’s why I refuse to even bring it up now.
Karli and Daphne wouldn’t understand. They’d use it to fuel their own ridiculous theories instead of seeing it for what it truly was.Which was just Darius testing my limits. Just Darius seeing what he could get away with. Just Darius showing me who holds the power in our dynamic. It’s borderline sleazy when you think about it.
They all keep chitchatting as they help me try on clothes in the shop’s tiny dressing room. As many times as I try to divert the discussion, somebody always brings it back to my infuriating boss.
What makes this conversation about Darius even weirder is the fact that his sister is right here in the room. To be fair, though, she’s the one who started this nonsense.
With the way Karli always gives him shit, it’s obvious she’d often like to strangle her brother. But at the end of the day, she loves him. As for Daphne, Timothy and Zack, I realize that they don’t hate Darius like most of the town does and for some reason, that breaks down my defenses a tiny bit.
Anyway, as the afternoon wears on, Karli is doing an especially great sales job, educating me about all the charities that Darius donates to and about the volunteer work that he’s done and about the positive social causes that he’s invested in.
Strangely enough, I’m not nearly as annoyed as I try to let on. A part of me is enjoying learning all these different facets to this man who’s reentered my life in the most unexpected way after I shut him out years ago.
I find myself becoming more and more curious about him, on a personal level. On more than one occasion, I have to bite my tongue to keep from asking Karli questions that belong squarely in the none-of-my-business category.
But I’m not interested in him ‘that way’. I’m just trying to prove to myself that he isn’t actually the devil. It’s just so I don’t feel too bad about the fact that I fooled around with him over the weekend. It’s not because I have any interest in him moving forward.
I try on dress after dress, totally out of my comfort zone, but the group is determined to help me find the perfect outfit for the charity event. A pink whimsical gown catches everyone’s attention.
“This is the one,” my sister whispers as I twirl in the dress in front of the tri-fold mirrors, marveling at how the ruffled hem sweeps the floor.
The dress is stunning, and so me. It’s a fairy pink charmeuse that compliments the shade of my hair. It’s got a sexy hook-and- eye corset that gives me killer cleavage with its sweetheart neckline, and long, puffy sleeves that add an ethereal, dreamy vibe. This gown makes me feel like a runaway princess.
Even with it being second hand, the sticker shock is legit. I feel weird putting this kind of charge on Darius’s credit card, but I’m trying to tell myself what I told my friends. It’s just business .
“You look smoking hot,” Karli encourages me.
“Yep, this is the one that’ll take Darius’s breath away,” Zack says, earning a chuckle from my brother.
I open my mouth to argue, to remind them all that Darius is just my boss. But then, I bite my tongue. Because…
I like the way he looks at me when he’s turned on. I like the way his jaw clenches with restraint when he’s struggling to hold back.
All the proclamations I made about not being interested in the man still stand true.
But a tiny part of me wants to take Darius’s breath away.