Marjorie swallowed hard and stared at her reflection. Rob was cocky, worldly. It was clear he wasn’t her type. Heck, she was so sheltered that she wasn’t even sure she had a type . . . which was kind of depressing. Would it really be so bad to wear a short dress out on a date? No one would see her except the guy she was trying to impress. She looked back at the dress that Angie was holding up—it was rather dowdy. With a sigh, Marj reached into the neckline of the dress and began to slip out of her bra. She tossed it on the ground a moment later and then they both looked at her critically in the mirror again.
Without the bra, her cleavage seemed to go on for miles . . . right on down to her belly button. She made an unhappy moan, but Angie clapped her hands. “Perfect!”
“It is?”
“Yes. Now show me your flats.”
Picking shoes was a special kind of hell. Since Marjorie figured nothing could hide her towering stature, she didn’t care about the height of her heels, and she loved a pretty pair of shoes. They were her favorite weakness like Angie’s was costume jewelry, but they didn’t see eye to eye when it came to picking footwear to go with her dress.
She still had the nude Louboutins that the bridesmaids were no longer going to wear in the wedding and that Brontë had suggested the women keep anyhow. Marj adored them, but Angie had taken one look at the stiletto heel and made unhappy noises, so she’d reluctantly put them aside for tamer wear. “What about these?” Marjorie held up a pair of strappy sandals with a wooden heel. “They match.”
“Goodness gracious, no,” Angie said, horrified. “Is that four inches? Girl, you’re going to tower over him as it is. No need emphasizing the flaws.” She picked up the only pair of flats Marj had brought. “You need to wear these. Trust me. No one wants to date Goliath, especially not a sexy man.”
Great. Now she was Goliath. And full of flaws. She felt rather homely at the moment, despite all the help to make her attractive for her date. “Flats it is. Thank you, Angie.”
“Of course, sugar.” She leaned in and pressed a kiss to Marjorie’s cheek. “Now I promised my son that I’d spend some time at the pool and relax. Can you handle your makeup and hair without me?”
Marjorie eyed Angie’s thick eyeliner and big, bouffant hair. “I’m sure I’ll figure something out. You go have fun.”
Angie beamed at her and waved. “Good luck on your date. Give me all the deets when you return.”
“I will.”
Her friend beamed, then left the room.
Marjorie sighed at her reflection in the mirror. Pale skin met her gaze everywhere she looked. Her boobs jiggled when she moved, and if she bent over even slightly, her butt was going to hang out of the back of the tunic. Worried, she looked over at her other dress choices, but Angie was right—they were frumpy and old-looking. She needed to be sexy if she was going to impress someone like Rob. Still, it was hard to be sexy in plain black flats when she was used to wearing heels. The flats made her feel ungainly, and she began to pull her hair up into a sleek knot, then shook her head and let it down again. Nope. A knot would just add another inch of height. That would be bad. She combed her hair into a loose, curling ponytail that lay at the nape of her neck and put on her makeup.
Her stomach was doing nervous flips in her belly. It had been late last night, and dark. Maybe . . . maybe Rob didn’t see how tall she was? Not that one could miss it, but you never knew. What if he took one look at her and regretted his offer for dinner?
She stared at her form in the mirror. Experimentally, she hunched down a few inches. Nope, too obvious. Nothing she could do about that. With a sigh, Marjorie straightened her shoulders and grabbed her handbag.
Time to meet her date. She crossed her fingers with a silent mental plea that he wouldn’t be horrified at the sight of her . . . and that there would be no stiff breezes that would show the world her panties.
Chapter Seven
Rob’s date was impossible to miss in the busy lobby.
A full head taller than every other woman in the room, she was also the most acutely uncomfortable. Her pretty cheekbones were stained with a red too mottled to be blush, and she kept fidgeting with the impossibly low collar of her short, flimsy dress. The thing was bright red and barely covered her ass, and it was clear that Marjorie was uncomfortable as fuck in it.
It surprised him to see her in the odd choice of clothing. After all, she’d seemed shy, and from what her friends had said, she was old fashioned. The woman in that dress didn’t look like old fashioned a bit. She looked like she was gunning for cock tonight.
Which . . . didn’t make sense. He blinked as her braless breasts swayed as she headed toward him, tugging at the hemline of her tiny blousy dress. She wasn’t exactly dressed appropriately for where they were going, and her shoes were a pair of ugly black flats that made her feet look enormous.
He said nothing, though. With the panicked look on Marjorie’s face, Rob suspected that if he said one word about her appearance, she’d flee and he’d never see her again.
And that wouldn’t suit his plans to get her out of his head.
He raised a hand so she’d see him, and then adjusted his cufflinks as she crossed the room toward him, tugging at her clothing. Her wide-eyed gaze grew even wider at the sight of his black suit, and he watched her clutch her handbag in terror.
“Oh,” she breathed as she approached him. “Oh, I didn’t know we were going someplace important.” Her gaze moved over his double-breasted jacket. “Oh, no. Should I go change?”