“Well, it’s about time!” Polly screeched, shaking me from my hallucination. The hole in the ceiling was gone, as were the hole in the floor, the debris, and the gigantic meteor. Serious acid trip. Must do again.
Polly gasped, seemingly speechless. Really, that wasn’t anything like her. “You’re absolutely … God, I am so effing jealous of you right now,” she said as she walked around me. “If the sight of you in this dress doesn’t knock Noah out of that I’m-pissed-at-the-world mood of his, nothing will.”
I walked over to the full-length mirror attached to the back of Noah’s closet door and looked at myself. The dress was gorgeous—what there was of it, anyway. It was a navy blue satin number, cut low in the back until it dipped just above the curve of my ass. The chest area was basically a sash that crisscrossed over my breasts and wrapped down and around my hips. My stomach was bare down to the place where the skirt began at my hips. And the skirt may have been floor length, but what difference did that make when there was a slit all the way up to the top of my thigh? At least the material was loose and free-flowing.
Polly had swept my hair up into a twist, but she left elegant little wispy locks strategically placed around my face. The makeup was much bolder than anything I would have done myself, but smoky eyes actually looked good on me. If only Dez could have seen me now—she’d swear I was a different person altogether, and maybe she wouldn’t be so embarrassed about being seen out in public with me.
But as pretty as I felt, I doubted Noah would notice. Polly was right—he seemed to be pissed off at the world, and I had no idea why. He hadn’t even touched me since that night in the music room, the night we’d made the most beautiful music I’d ever had the pleasure of hearing, our bodies and his piano the only instruments in the orchestra. I had to giggle-snort at myself because that sounded corny as all get out even in my own head, but it was true.
I missed him.
When he’d come home from his “business meeting” he didn’t wake me. Unusual for him, disheartening for me, devastating for the Cooch. Polly had told me that Mason had said he took off from his office like a bat out of hell with no indication whatsoever of where the fire was. He hadn’t answered his calls, not even mine, until I’d texted him.
“Did you hear me?” Polly asked in that heeeellloooo-o tone. Oh, right, daydreaming again.
“Um, yeah?” I asked, rather than stated.
“What did I say?” Polly had her hands on her hips and her head tilted to the side with her “you’re in big trouble if you don’t come up with the right answer” look.
“Noah lost his sight because the dress knocked him out and he wrote the world into his will,” I repeated. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t spot on, but it had to have been close, right?
She narrowed her eyes at me. “Get your shoes on. The boys are waiting.”
I slipped into my heels and grabbed my clutch before following the little yapping Chihuahua that was Polly out the door and down the first set of stairs. I stopped when I reached the first landing, stunned into silence when I saw Noah. He was perfect from head to toe. Black tux, white dress shirt, black shoes, and pretty face all present and accounted for. The man made it look so easy.
He looked up toward the landing where I stood. He almost turned back around, but did a double take instead. Ah, so I had caught his attention after all. He smiled awkwardly as I descended the staircase and ran his hands through his hair before he took my hand.
“You are stunning,” he said, and then kissed the back of my hand like a real Prince Charming. I realized then just how much Cinderella and I had in common. Like her, I was just a girl from the working class living out a beautiful fantasy. Only instead of a fairy godmother I had a two-year contract.
Noah’s smile broadened when he saw the Crawford cuff bracelet on my wrist, and then suddenly he dropped my hand and the smile was gone. He cleared his throat awkwardly and tucked his hands in his pockets before saying, “Okay, so we should go.”
Polly cleared her throat in turn, totally inconspicuously—yeah, right—and when Noah looked in her direction, she quickly tilted her head toward me while patting her throat.
“Oh!” Noah said, finally getting the very obvious hint. “I got a little something for you.” He reached into his pocket and brought out a thin platinum chain. When he held it up, I could see the simple blue diamond dangling from the center.
“Oh, Noah. You really shouldn’t have.” Jesus, I even sounded like Cinderella, but that was what the man did to me.
Noah shrugged but didn’t look at me. Instead he focused his attention on the clasp of the chain. “It really isn’t a big deal. You deserve …” He sighed and finally lifted his head with a look of certainty in his eyes, “so much more.”
That was odd. Especially considering the way he’d been treating me for the past couple of days, as if I had the plague.
Noah walked behind me and lightly brushed the bare skin of my back with his chest as he clasped the necklace in place. Before he stepped away, his fingers swept across my naked shoulders, sending chills down my spine.
I put my hand on his forearm to stop him from walking away. “Thank you,” I whispered, and then I stood on my tiptoes to give him a soft kiss. When I stepped back, I noticed the muscles in his jaw tensing like he was grinding his teeth.
I really didn’t understand what his problem was. Until two days earlier he’d been all over me like he couldn’t get enough. And now it was a complete one-eighty. I didn’t know if he was disgusted with me, if I’d done something to tick him off, or what. But I knew one thing: he most certainly was starting to tick me off. Then again, maybe that was the point. Since finding out about Julie, I’d been trying to put my bitchy side away and play nice. Maybe he didn’t like that side of me. Maybe he hadn’t changed. Maybe I was the one who had, and the new me just didn’t work the same for him.