Page 15 of Falling into Place
She nodded and made another note.
“You said here purple, pink, orange, and yellow are nonpreferred colors. With your skin tone I agree with the orange and yellow. Are pink and purple hard no’s, or are you open to trying them if I find something I think could work?”
He shrugged. “I guess I’d give them a try.”
She made another note. “You left this one blank,” she noted, pointing to the tablet and reading out loud, “What’s your favorite part of your body?”
“I didn’t think my answer would be helpful for this.”
Her skin flushed and her mouth dropped open, and he realized how that sounded.
“My brain! Not my ... Fuck. You know.” He wanted to slide under the table. Maybe they should have gone for beers instead. “Sorry that I, um. Said that. Fuck, I mean.”
Hell. He was in hell.
She put her hands to her face, and for a second he worried he’d totally blown this whole thing. He’d offended and embarrassed her, and now he’d have to tell Sasha this wasn’t going to work ... But then he heard a snort from between Carly’s fingers.
When she dropped her hands and he saw her eyes, he couldn’t help but smile back at her. He gripped the back of his neck, sure his face was as red as hers. He cleared his throat. “Anyway.”
She leaned back and took a breath. “Well. You’re right, your brain isn’t what I was going for with this question. Dicks are equally unhelpful, in case you were wondering, though you wouldn’t have been the first to answer with that.”
He choked on his coffee.
She kept talking as if she hadn’t just said “dicks” like it was any other word. As calm and collected as she’d been admitting she’d tried toassess his butt. “We can skip this question if you want, but if there’s a certain area you’d like to bring attention to, this is the time to tell me.”
He struggled to focus.Body parts minus brain and dick. “I honestly don’t know.”
He tried to exercise somewhat regularly at the twenty-four-hour gym near the hospital, but he wasn’t obsessive about it and really only cared enough to ensure he remained fit and healthy. He was probably on the thinner side compared with other men he saw in the weight area, but he’d never felt self-conscious about it. His biceps weren’t bulging out of any sleeves, and his pecs weren’t defined enough to notice underneath a fitted shirt.
He clearly didn’t know what kind of ass he was working with, but he wasn’t about to stand up and ask for Carly’s opinion.
“What do other men say to that question?” he asked.
“Forearms are a favorite. Arms, shoulders, butt. I’d say those are the most common.”
“I don’t think any of those are worth writing home about. For me, anyway.”
She opened her mouth with a frown but closed it without saying anything.
“Can I say my eyes?” If not, he’d just say skip it. He was getting kind of desperate to move on.
Her gaze met his. “Why do you think I asked if you liked green?”
Oh.
Huh.
“Next, let’s look at some styles, and you let me know if you’d ever wear something like that, okay?” She replaced the iPad in the leather binder and handed him a thick packet of flat-lay images of various men’s fashion.
He spent the next ten billion years flipping through the stack, occasionally pausing when she had follow-up questions about what in particular he liked or disliked about something.
Relief coursed through him when he reached the final one.
“There. That wasn’t so bad, was it?” she asked with a smile.
“Debatable.”
“There’s just one thing left before I start shopping. You can say no if you want to.”
