Chapter 5 #2
There was a moment of pause before Nick's voice rumbled through the speaker. "Guilty."
Ruth smiled. She had an idea that Nick had watched Katie come over to her house and get inside. He was that kind of man who was concerned about his little girl. And if he wasn't, she probably wouldn't have agreed on a date.
Ruth gave her head a shake.
No, she definitely wouldn't have agreed to a date.
In fact, if it hadn't been for Katie, Ruth doubted that she would have said more than two words to him.
Katie gave her a big, toothy grin as she spoke in the direction of her phone.
"Dad? I was wondering if you'd be okay with me asking Miss Baker questions about period if I-"
"Yeah. Uh. Sure. Go ahead and ask her. That's good with me."
Katie pointed at the phone with her free hand in an 'I TOLD YOU SO' way.
Ruth nodded.
"Awesome."
"So... are you asking her about... about that right now?"
"Nope." Katie chuckled softly. "I don't have to today, but I thought I'd get it all cleared with you."
"Yeah. You can ask her as long as she's willing to answer."
"She is." Katie made a kiss noise toward the phone. "I'm going to hang up now. I think I found Miss Baker the perfect dress for your date. Bye!"
Ruth thought she heard something before Katie ended the call, but she couldn't be sure.
"See? He's pretty easy once you realize that he has no clue how a woman's body works."
Ruth's eyes widened at the thought.
Of course Katie wasn't talking about 'that,' but Ruth couldn't help but wonder if either of them had much knowledge in 'that' area.
She knew that she had more knowledge about her hand, a discreet little toy she'd bought at the party she'd attended at a co-worker's house.
So it was best to put 'that' kind of thought out of her head.
"Okay, so how about this?"
Ruth swallowed and found that she was a little hot at the back of her neck and around her throat.
"Miss Baker?"
"What? Huh?" She looked at Katie and put a smile on her face. "Uh... sorry?"
Katie was looking at her with narrowed eyes. "You have that look on your face."
"Look?" Ruth put both of her hands up to her face and covered her cheeks. "What look?"
Katie held her gaze on Ruth's face for a moment longer and then shrugged. "I don't know what I'd call it, but it's kind of the same look my dad has on his face when he's thinking about you."
Ruth didn't have anything to say about that.
Not. At. All.
"So," Katie held out the hangar, extending her arm out fully and then a few inches higher than her shoulder, "what do you think about this dress?"
Dress.
Dress. Ruth had to remind herself.
Focus on the dress.
She looked at the dress that she'd resigned to the back of the closet in ever closet she'd had over time.
She'd bought the dress on sale when a store was closing out its stock.
It was a dress that she'd squeezed into back then. She'd needed some help pulling up the zipper and the woman who'd helped her had encouraged her to suck it all in to get the zipper up to the top.
"I don't know..." Ruth did love the dress, but she didn't really want to embarrass herself if she couldn't get it on.
"I think you should try it on!"
Katie seemed to target the soft spot, but she knew that Katie wasn't taking a dig at her.
She was just trying to help her pick out a dress.
"I've had that in my closet forever..."
"Forever?" Katie brought the dress in toward her chest and reached into the neck and pulled something out. "Then why is the tag still on?"
Ruth wasn't sure what to say to that.
"It was a 'dream dress' when I bought it. Something I wanted to wear someday, but it wasn't exactly a good fit back then, you know?"
Katie nodded and then held out the dress to her. "Could you try it on for me?"
Oh. That was low.
There probably wasn't anything else she could have said that would have been more effective to get her to try to squeeze into the dress.
Ruth took the dress and hanger from Katie. "I'll give it a try."
"Cool!"
Katie sat down on the edge of the bed. "I bet it's going to be the perfect dress."
Ruth nodded and stepped into the bathroom.
She hadn't turned on the light in there. The only illumination was a night light plugged into the wall so she didn't stub her toes into the cabinet under the sink. She used the side of her foot to close the door. Not completely because she needed to hear if Katie called out to her.
She pulled her t-shirt off and dropped her pajama pants on the floor.
The zipper purred easily as she opened the back of the dress.
Ruth let out a breath and stepped into the dress.
She drew it up and over her hips finding more room than she remembered. From there, she slipped one arm in at a time and then with the straps around her shoulders, she reached back to the zipper.
She made it up and over her butt. Then she got it up to her somewhere around the bottom of her ribs and that's where she had a problem.
With the shoulder 'straps' where they were she couldn't reach her arms up more than an inch or two.
And she wasn't flexible enough to reach around and back to zip it up further.
Ruth looked into the mirror and panicked for a moment.
Her breasts made the chest of the dress bulge in a weird way and there was no way that she was going to ask Katie for help if she looked like a flour sack stuffed into a dress.
Lowering the zipper a tad, Ruth reached into the front of the dress and re-positioned 'the girls.' Lifting a little and tugging the dress against her chest to keep them 'in place.'
Then she reached back and got the zipper back up to the same place.
From there she had to make a decision. Looking in the mirror she had to admit that she didn't look half-bad in the dress.
The problem was getting it up all the way to see if her 'dream' dress was actually a reality.
A soft knock at the bathroom door turned her head.
"Miss Baker? Do you need help with the zipper?"
Ruth shook her head. "How did you know?"
"Well," Katie's voice was almost a singsong tone, "I was the one who picked it out of the closet and that's a loooong zipper. I'd have trouble zipping it up."
"Okay. I'm coming out."
"Awesome!"
Ruth pulled the door open and saw Katie standing in the middle of the room near the foot of the bed.
"Come on out here," Katie encouraged her. "You can see it in front of the big mirror!"
That was a very positive look on things.
A positive outlook that she wanted to cling to.
"Okay."
Ruth tried to feel more positive than she would normally be and stepped up in between Katie and the mirror.
Holding the dress tightly to her chest, she drew in a breath, sucking in her stomach and everything else she could possibly suck in.
She waited for a moment, wondering when Katie was going to pull the zipper up.
And when she was nearly out of air, Ruth gasped out with her last breath. "I'm ready when you are."
"Ready?" Katie leaned to the side to look at Ruth in the mirror. "It's done."
"Done?" Ruth frowned as her brain tried to grasp the words that Katie had said. "It's zippered?"
"Yep!" Katie clapped her hands together. "Lower your hands and take a look."
She lowered her arms and waited for something catastrophic to happen.
A split seam.
A horrifying pop of something.
Ruth relaxed a little, trying to breathe normally.
And she could.
Turning slightly in one direction and then the other, Ruth watched as the black fabric with the bright red roses swirled around her legs.
The front of the dress where she'd lifted her 'girls' to put them in place was covered in gathered fabric that made her look like her breasts were much more perky than her thirty-something breasts were.
"Turn around!"
Katie's cheerful voice was all she needed to do a little spin around herself. The feeling of the skirt swirling around her legs was incredible.
She did another turn and when she stopped she found herself a little breathless. "Wow."
Katie jumped up and executed a perfect pirouette beside her and ended with a cheerleader-like jump in the air. "Wow is an understatement! You look so awesome!"
Ruth had to agree. And she felt awesome, too. "I haven't tried to put it on since I bought it, but it fits now!"
"Yeah!" Katie moved closer and leaned in against her arm. "It makes you look amazing!"
"It makes me feel amazing." Ruth beamed and tried to put her arm around Katie's shoulders and found herself stopped by the off-the-shoulder shoulder straps. "Okay. No side hug for you right now."
"That's okay." Katie moved around in front of her and grinned. "Can I hug you?"
Katie was still beaming, but Ruth thought she heard a little plea in Katie's voice. And in her eyes, Ruth thought she might see just the hint of tears.
"Yeah," Ruth's voice was softer than she'd been a moment before, "of course."
Katie reached around her body and hugged, turning her head so she could rest her cheek on Ruth.
"Miss Baker?"
"Hmm?" Ruth had to find her voice again. "Yes, Katie?"
"I'm so glad you said yes when my dad asked you out."
Me, too. Ruth was able to wrap her arms around Katie. Me, too.