Chapter 8 Arezoo #2
Laleh shrugged and tapped her screen. Arezoo's phone buzzed on the dresser, and she picked it up, opened the photo, and forwarded it to Drova with a message that explained the dress was for tomorrow's party.
The phone rang.
"That's Drova," Arezoo said and accepted the call. "Hi."
"Is that really you in that dress?"
"It's me. What do you…"
"Let me look at this picture again," Drova interrupted. "Arezoo, you're an absolute goddess. What is this dress?"
"Ruvon bought it for me."
"Red? He bought you a red dress for the cocktail party? And with all those fluffy things that show your legs?"
"It's called tulle. I have the same thing on my wedding dress."
"I couldn't see your legs through your wedding dress. I can see them in this thing."
Arezoo chewed on her lower lip. "Is it too much? I knew it was too revealing. I shouldn't have agreed to…"
"Shut up. You look gorgeous, and there is nothing wrong with a little leg peeking through. It's just that you always dress so modestly. It's hard to believe that you got such a sexy dress."
"I thought you didn't like dresses."
"I don't like them on me. I love this dress on you."
Arezoo let out a relieved breath. "Thank you."
"No, thank Ruvon. You look like a flame in human form. Ruvon is going to see you in this, and his brain is going to short-circuit."
"That's what we said," Donya called from behind Arezoo.
"Who's that?"
"My sisters are here. You're on speaker."
"Hello, sisters. I'm glad that you agree with me."
"She can't wear a bra with this dress," Laleh said. "The back is too low. But the bodice is so tight it holds her boobs and even pushes them up. She actually looks like she has some."
Arezoo was going to kill her little sister. "Laleh!"
"What? It's true."
Drova laughed. "Your sisters make me regret being an only child. I need to convince my mother to have a baby with Phinas."
"Doesn't she want one?" Donya asked.
"I don't know. My mother and I don't talk about things like that."
"Does she use contraceptives?" Laleh asked.
Arezoo glared at her sister. "What do you know about that kind of stuff?"
Laleh rolled her eyes. "I have access to the internet just like you do. I make sure to educate myself. So, does she?"
"I don't know," Drova admitted. "The Kra-ell revere children just as much as the immortals, so I guess she doesn't. But then they might not want to produce a child with a limited Kra-ell lifespan."
"I wouldn't call a thousand years limited," Arezoo said.
"It might not seem limited to you now, but once you turn immortal, it will.
And speaking of turning," Drova's voice dropped into the conspiratorial register that Arezoo had learned to both dread and enjoy because it signaled that she was going to say something deliciously scandalous.
"Have you given any more thought to what I said about—"
"My sisters are right here, Drova."
"So? They're seventeen and sixteen, and as Laleh pointed out, they have access to the internet. They know things."
"They do not need to know the things you're about to say."
"In the book I just finished, the main character—"
"Do not quote smutty romance novels at me in front of my teenage sisters!"
"They're practically adults. And it's not smutty, it's educational. There's a scene where the hero does this thing with—"
"Drova. I will terminate the call."
"You won't, because you want to know what the thing is."
Arezoo opened her mouth to deny this and discovered that she couldn't, because she did want to know, which was mortifying.
Donya and Laleh were watching her with identical expressions of barely contained gleeful anticipation, their eyes wide and their lips pressed together, which meant that they were suppressing laughter.
"I'll tell you tomorrow," Drova said, mercifully backing off.
"When your underage sisters are not in the blast radius.
But the short version is that you have nothing to worry about.
Ruvon is going to treat you like you're made of spun glass, and when you want him to stop treating you like that, all you have to do is tell him. "
The words, delivered in Drova's characteristic blend of bluntness and tenderness, were exactly what Arezoo needed to hear.
"Thank you," she said. "For actually showing some restraint for a change and not corrupting my sisters."
"You are most welcome. It wasn't easy."
"I know, which is why I appreciate it. Do you know when you'll be getting here tomorrow?"
"We are supposed to land on the clan's airstrip around five, and we'll come straight to the party."
"Awesome. I can't celebrate without you."
"Oh, that's so sweet. Goodbye, fire goddess. See you tomorrow. Little sisters, make sure she doesn't chicken out and choose to wear something boring."
"We will," Donya and Laleh said in unison.
Arezoo ended the call and looked at her sisters, who erupted into the giggling fit they had been containing for the last two minutes. Laleh actually fell sideways onto the bed, clutching her stomach, and Donya was making a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a wheeze.
"She's crazy," Laleh gasped. "I love her."
"Drova is not crazy. She just has no filter because she's Kra-ell and a badass warrior."
Arezoo turned back to the mirror.
The woman in the red dress looked back at her, and Arezoo stopped trying to reconcile the reflection with the girl she'd been. She'd survived things that should have broken her, but didn't, and this amazing red dress was the manifestation of all that she'd become despite that.
The butterflies were still there. They would probably be there until next Saturday and possibly beyond. But they'd calmed down to a pleasant flutter instead of the panicked flapping from before.
"Okay," she said to her sisters, who were still recovering from their giggles. "Help me take this off. I need it perfect for tomorrow."
"One more picture. For posterity." Laleh aimed her phone at Arezoo.
"Fine. One more."
"Smile this time. You looked like you were about to puke in the first one."
"I did not." Arezoo smiled.
"Perfect," Laleh declared. "You should send this one to Drova, too."