Page 86 of Big & Bossy

“You’re making a mistake.”

Amanda met my gaze in the mirror, her long legs propped up on the coffee table. Mom worked behind me, putting little pins in my hair to keep the top half of it up in its little bun.

“I’m telling you, Mands,” she continued, looking back down at her phone. “You should have gone with the green dress. It makes your hair look unreal.”

“I don’t like how it hangs,” I grumbled. I flinched as Mom twisted a pin into place. “Jack said it wouldn’t be formal, anyway. The black one is fine.”

Amanda shrugged. “I’m just saying, babes. If you don’t want to get dicked-down tonight then by all means?—”

“Amanda,” my mom hissed, sending a glare over her shoulder.

“Sorry, Gianna. I won’t talk about Mands getting dicked-down again.”

I snorted. “At least not in front of my mother, okay?”

She rolled her eyes as she sunk further into the couch. “What are you guys even doing, anyway? Did he tell you?”

“No, but it’s fine. I like surprises.”

“Are you nervous?” Mom cooed, her hands going up in excitement after placing the final pin. “First official date. My thirty-one-year-old is finally growing up.”

I glared at her reflection in the mirror. “I’ve been on dates with Jack before, Mom. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“True, but it’s the first real one. Those others were just for the press.”

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. I hadn’t thought of it that way, hadn’t considered the fact that this time could be different. Was what he was doing before really an act? It didn’t feel like one. If it had, I’m not sure I would have fallen for him again.

“Well, now you’re nervous,” Mom chuckled. “Sorry, sweetie.”

“It’s fine. I just… I hadn’t thought of it like that. In that context.”

“I know.” Mom coated her hands in hair oil, smoothing it through the ringlets of my strands that hung down around my shoulders. “To be fair, having a first date after months of pseudo-dating would feel weird for anyone. Especially after everything you’ve gone through.”

That felt like an understatement. I still felt like we’d gone to hell and back, fighting demons as well as ourselves.

Harry was out on bail. Someone in his family had forked up enough money to get him out, and even though Jackson rushed to obtain a restraining order against him for me, he still kept trying to show up. For what felt like the hundredth day in a row, security stood guard outside my house.

“Yeah,” I sighed. I stared at myself in the mirror, taking in the little curls Mom had left hanging around my cheeks, the way the gray in my eyes cut straight through the warm tones of my makeup. I was glad I wasn’t alone; I’d been keeping people close after the incident with Harry, but having these two nutcases hang out and help me get ready for the first real date I was having with Jack in ten years made it feel that much more serious. “It’s going to be weird.”

“Oh come on,” Amanda groaned, rolling onto her side to get a better look at me. “You had known him for a while before he disappeared the first time. You’ve been around him for several months this time. It’s not like he’s a stranger.”

“Yeah.” I said again, pursing my lips, and nodding at her. “He’s not a stranger.”

————

Jack’s driver picked me up outside my house. Mom and Amanda waved goodbye to me from my front porch as if they were my parents sending me off to fucking prom, and I was thankful that it wasn’t Jack who’d picked me up.

Steve drove in silence out into the outskirts of Boulder, up into the peaks. The city sprawled below us as we climbed higher, goosebumps prickling across my skin, my nerves building with every passing mile. As we pulled into the driveway through the automatic gates, I could see the silhouette of a man in Jackson’s kitchen, dancing to music and holding a bowl against his side.

The nerves fell away.

“Thanks, Steve,” I called as I pushed the car door open with my boot. Jackson had said casual.

My boots crunched in the late winter snow as I jogged up to the house, my breath fogging in front of my face. I pressed the doorbell. Chimes rang overhead and from inside the house, lights coming alive behind the glass panels above the door.

Seconds later, the door swung open. Jack stood tall in dark gray slacks and a black button-up shirt. He said casual, I thought, irritation beginning to slip in before I glanced down at his feet.

Slippers. Panda slippers.

---