Page 181 of Built to Fall
Lina’s head tilts up, studying my expression. “Seriously?”
“Hell yeah.” I keep my eyes on the screen while I kiss the side of her head.
“Okay.” She stands, shutting the computer like she’s just finished a work meeting. “We have to leave soon.”
Lina and Savannah are already in the dresses they’re wearing to the fashion show tonight. Although Savannah has already admitted she'll probably change once she gets there and fully comes to terms with the fact that she has to walk down the runway.
She is the designer, after all. The entire fashion show is made up of pieces fromSavvy by Savannah.
“Are you sure you don’t want to walk the runway?” Savannah asks, also standing.
“I’m sure.” Lina walks into the bathroom, giving Savannah a look through the mirror. “I’ve had my moment. I’ll leave it to the professionals from this point forward.”
Savannah snorts. “Please. You didn’t even blink walking across that yacht in wet wood and stilettos.”
“I’ve watched a lot of physics documentaries,” Lina says, even though I vividly remember the voice memo she sent me yesterday panicking about her heel getting wedged in a deck plank and nearly launching her overboard.
I still have it saved. I replayed it at least ten times because her giggle at the end made my chest physically ache.
She was purposefully being dramatic, of course. I think Savannah is rubbing off on her. As if they weren’t already similar enough.
Lina is like a hurricane in comparison to Savannah. I watch as she pulls nearly a dozen different things out of her bathroomdrawers—a hairbrush, her toothbrush, all different makeup products—and then sets them all over the counter.
Meanwhile, Savannah is reorganizing her purse and folding the pile of laundry on Lina’s dresser. She even pulls out a lint roller and rolls it over Lina’s desk chair—like it’s a reflex.
“You excited?” I ask Savannah, eyeing her suspiciously. Everyone knows she’s been nervous about this—stressing and wanting everything to be perfect.
“Yeah, yeah,” she repeats, placing the lint roller back in her bag with surgical precision. “I’m sure I’ll be fine once I’m there. Right now I’m just jittery.”
“It’ll be good.” I give her a reassuring nod before slipping into the bathroom with Lina.
“Your shirt’s wrinkled,” she tells me, examining my outfit through the mirror.
I shrug. “I’ll have a suit jacket on over it. You’ll barely even notice.”
My tie has been hanging around my neck since I got to her apartment. Originally, I was just stopping over to make sure it matched the dress she’s wearing, but when I found out she and Savannah were looking through the pictures from yesterday, I got distracted.
She turns to face me, her hands reaching for both ends of the tie. Her lips purse in concentration, which makes my brows hike in surprise.
“You know how to tie a tie?” I ask, not being able to hide my amusement.
“No,” she admits, already grinning. “But I’ve watched people do it before. That counts for something, doesn’t it?”
“Right.” I nod, humoring her.
Even though I could tie the thing in ten seconds flat, I’m enjoying watching her try. With her tongue between her teethand eyes narrowing in on my chest, it’s a sight I want to remember.
I bite my lip to keep from laughing, watching her hands move with surprising confidence until she pauses, one side longer than the other, the knot starting to look a little like a tangled shoelace.
She stares at it for a long moment. “Be honest. Would everyone at your fancy prep school be laughing in my face right now?”
“You didn’t go to prep school?”
“Private,” she explains. “But the girls’ uniforms only had the polo. No tie.”
She tries again, but before she accidentally strangles me with her attempted knot, I let out a low chuckle, brushing her hands aside gently. “Okay, let me.”
As I fix it, she leans against the counter and watches me with that quiet smirk she saves for when she knows she’s been caught in a moment that feels too soft to name.
