Page 20 of Rewrites of the Heart

“It takes time for me to beautify, baby.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. He continued his skipping and headed for JJ’s bedroom.

“I’ll be all dressed in just a second, love,” he called as he closed the door.

While she waited for him to emerge from the bedroom, she alternatively paced, adjusted her—well, actually JJ’s—white dress, and nervously ran her fingers through her hair.

She finally sat on the couch a moment, quickly removed the red pumps, and rubbed her feet. JJ’s feet were several sizes smaller than hers. Then, she thought of poor Blake. He had even larger feet.How would he…?She was putting her shoes back on when she heard the bedroom door open.

“Oh, Alex,” he chimed. “I’m ready. And I’m coming out.”

And with that Alex heard the clicks of the heels on the hardwood hallway. “Damn it!”Click.“Bloody heels.”Click.“How do you women wear these things?”Click.“Oh, my aching back!”

His voice grew louder till he reached the living room where she was standing expectantly. She couldn’t believe what she saw. Standing in front of her was the man she loved, dressed nearly exactly as she was. The white dress was barely long enough to cover even a small fraction of his thighs his feet were stuffed into a pair of red stiletto heels

“Love,” he said grimacing through his pain, “does this outfit make me look fat?”

She merely shook her head. Then she noticed something even more bizarre about him.

“Are those pantyhose you’re wearing?”

“Yeah, but they barely come to my waist. I never realized how short JJ was till I put on her pantyhose.”

She doubled over in laughter. He appeared so sincere yet looked so ridiculous. “Uhm, dear, do you know how short that dress is on you?”

“Hey, it’s not my fault. It’s not like I was shopping at Harrods. JJ had two white dresses in her closet, and you picked the better of the two. My choices were limited.”

He turned his back to her. “Look, I can’t even button this bloody thing.” At the sight of the open white dress against his hairy back, she laughed uncontrollably.

“What’s so funny?” he asked, as he planted his hands on his hips. “You get to wear the good Dorothy dress. I’m stuck with this.” He looked down at his apparel.

“I just want to make sure we have every detail in place, just in case it’s not the ruby slippers that actually work the magic.” He took a deep breath and held out his hand.

“Now could we get on with this please? I think these pantyhose are strangling my manhood.”

They held hands, closed their eyes and clicked their heels together. Secretly, Alex prayed the red-heeled shoes would be a good enough substitute for the ruby slippers.

“Okay, at the count of three,” Blake instructed. Alex nodded. “One, two, three. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” When they opened their eyes, they were still standing in JJ’s living room.

“Let’s try it one more time,” Blake urged, “just in case the Universe was busy doing something else and wasn’t listening.” Disappointed and on the verge of tears, she slowly nodded her assent.

They had resumed their stance and held hands when she heard JJ walk in through the back door. As the writer entered the living room, she asked, “What in the world is going on? Blake, is that you in that dress?”

The sharpness of JJ’s voice sparked the flood of tears Alex had tried to hold back. She was so frustrated. She only wanted to return to her world, check on her cat, and make sure that pot of soup she had started hadn’t boiled over. She didn’t believe JJ when she said she took care of it for her.

Blake turned around, smiling. “We watched—”

“I know exactly what movie you watched and it’s time the male Dorothy gets out of that outfit.”

Blake harrumphed an unintelligible reply and clomped clumsily to the bedroom, slamming the door loudly. Then from behind the door, he said, “And to think, I shaved my legs for this.”

Chapter 18

Alex sat on the loveseat in the study, her long legs tucked under her, voraciously drinking in every word of JJ’s first novel, while JJ wrote.

“How romantic,” Alex said aloud, as she sighed. JJ looked up momentarily and smiled. If there were any doubts left about the identity of these characters, they were fading, even though she still found the situation unbelievable.

She then glanced at Blake. With his one knee crossed over another, he had buried himself in a tome on the Civil War. True to her description of him, he appeared to be constantly in search of knowledge.

---