Page 49 of Call My Bluff
He loosened his arms and backed away.
“I’m gonna see if I can find you Oscar the Grouch,” he said. “He’s got to be in here somewhere.”
Olivia laughed again as she went to change. “See if he comes in knee-length!” she called after she’d shut the flimsy door behind herself. “Green is a good color for me.”
Yes, it is, Noah thought as he picked up her purse. He didn’t want anyone to steal it, after all; he was only doing his duty.
He wandered out onto the sales floor and flipped almost absentmindedly through racks of women’s shirts, skirts and dresses. Then he spent an abnormal amount of time peering at something called a romper that seemed to be a top and a bottom sewn together into one piece. He picked one up at random and carried it back to the dressing room.
“Hey, Pix?” he asked, raising his voice so she could hear him. “How do you pee in this?”
“How do I... what?” she asked. There was a muffled knocking noise and then the door opened, revealing her wearing a pair of black jeans and a dark-orange blouse with an opening along her collarbone.
Noah held the romper a bit higher. “How do you pee in this?” he asked again, genuinely curious, and Olivia burst into laughter.
“Umm... you have to take the whole thing off,” she explained, her face bright with amusement.
Noah looked down at the garment again. “The whole thing? Like, every time?”
“Yeah, but it’s not a big deal,” she said with a shrug.
Noah tried and failed to wrap his mind around why a girl would want to go through so much trouble just to use the bathroom. He ultimately decided to file the information under “things I don’t understand about women.”
Olivia reached out and rubbed the romper’s material between her fingers. “This is cute, actually. Did they have any mediums?” she asked.
Noah honestly didn’t know.
“Would you go look for me, honey bug?” she asked sweetly, batting her eyes. She ran her hand down his arm, and he found himself following the motion with his eyes, even when he hadn’t meant to. Something about her felt especially magnetic today, more so than usual. He’d always been drawn to her in a scientific sort of way—like he was conducting an experiment and wanted to record the results—but this was... different.
Biology, remember?his mind chided.Oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin. There’s a logical reason for this. Don’t overanalyze it.
He drifted obediently back toward where he’d found the romper, distantly wondering why being sent to find another size didn’t bother him. Itshouldbother him. This whole thingshouldbother him! He had other things to do tonight; he had a test in two days that he should be studying for and every piece of clothing he owned needed to be washed. So whywas he so chill about being an errand boy instead?
I owe her for the ride, he rationalized. Besides that, he was stillplaying a role, just like she obviously was. Would she be making him carry her stuff and fetch her more clothes if she weren’t trying to get under his skin? Probably not. It was all part of the game.
A game you had a chance to end, and didn’t,a small voice reminded him.
Shut up, he told himself, and he jammed the unwanted garment back onto the rack. He flipped through the outfits nearby until he found one in a medium, and then he brought it back to the dressing room and hung it over the top of the door. “Special delivery! I want to see this one next,” he declared. Olivia said something that sounded like an agreement, and Noah went back to his chair to wait.
“Wow, you did good, Campbell,” she said in audible surprise a few minutes later. “Alright, are you ready?”
Noah leaned against the back of the chair and laced his fingers behind his head. “Yes,” he answered, and the door opened.
What he’d thought was another romper was, in fact, a dress—a mossy, green dress with a brown belt around the waist. The hemline was cut higher in the front than the back, and the loose sleeves came almost to her elbows. She looked like some kind of garden fairy—one who could make flowers bloom with a touch of her hand.
Like a pixie.
Olivia pursed her lips, though she seemed pleased by his silence. “I don’t think you were ready,” she said softly.
No, I don’t think I was, he thought. He’d seen her dressed up before, of course, but this was different somehow. This was a softer, less intentional sort of pretty—the kind that actually came from the inside and not from layers of makeup and lace.
He didn’t know how many moments passed before Oliviabroke the stillness with a clearing of her throat. “I think I’ll wear it to Mom’s party this weekend. It’s her fiftieth, so we’re doing semiformal. No jeans allowed,” she said. It almost sounded like she was talking just to fill the silence. “Do you still want to come?”
That got Noah’s attention at last. “Come? To what?” he asked.
Olivia cocked her head. “To my mom’s birthday party. It’s Saturday, in Clarksville.” She paused to casually examine her nails, though Noah got the feeling it wasn’t casual at all. “Most of my family will be there, so I don’t blame you if you’d rather skip it. Cohen men can be pretty intimidating.”
She met his eye, and there was a clear challenge on her face.
