“Oh, look at this one,” she says, causing me to rip my hand away from her. She darts to a black suit hanging on the rack, and takes the sleeve with her fingers. “This would look nice on you.”
I take a few deep breaths, calming my dick down. Why does my best friend have to be a smoking hot girl? Because life isn't fair, dumb ass, that's why.
“Maybe.” Looking away, I force my eyes around the store, and spot a suit against the back wall. “What about this one?” I ask, picking up a dark green suit with a light yellow lining. “It's pretty sharp, don't you think?”
Her eyes widen. She's looking at me like I've lost my mind. “You're not serious,” she says, sticking out her tongue. “Yuck. No. Definitely not.”
“What's wrong with it? Green is my color. It shows off my assets.”
Lyl giggles as her jaw crooks to the side. “Yeah, if your assets include a seventies lounge singer.”
“Oh, come on, it's not that bad.” I examine the suit again.
“See, this is why you need me.” She grins as she tilts her head and bats her long lashes. “Without me you'd walk out the door looking like a five-year-old whose parents let them dress themselves.”
I look myself up and down. “I look pretty good right now.”
“I bought you that shirt for your birthday last year.”
My eyes drop back to my chest, and I grin. “Yes, you did.” I look back up at her, and she's laughing. “Laugh it up, go on.”
“I am.” She pulls the black suit off the rack, and a second one from another rack, and walks them over. “Here, try both of these on.”
I take the green one and fold it over my arm. “Fine, I'll try your picks, but I'm trying this one, too. We'll see whose looks the best.”
“All right, I could use a good laugh.” She smiles as her eyes fall on mine. Her bold brown eyes sparkle with flakes of gold and amber.
Her eyes are gorgeous. Almond shaped with long dark lashes that hood her eyes like canopies. She has a cute little nose, and a few freckles that run right across the apples of her cheeks.
The one thing that I've always loved about her eyes is that when she looks at me, she's actually with me. She listens, she pays attention, and she's never made me feel stupid or less of a man for making a bad decision.
And I've made plenty of mistakes over the years. I'm human. I'm not meant to be perfect. We're all meant to make mistakes. Some more than others. But not once has she let one of my mistakes come between us.
“We'll see,” I say, ripping my eyes off hers before I do something stupid like kiss her.
Because I could. I could kiss her if I didn't care what might happen after. If I didn't care about her or our friendship, I'd have done it years ago. But I do care. I care enough to respect our friendship boundaries.
The salesman comes out and offers a few more to choose from, and takes me into the dressing room. I try the black one on first. It does look really fucking good as I smooth the front of the jacket and snap the collar in place.
“Let's go see what your girlfriend thinks,” the man says.
“Oh no, she's my friend, not my girlfriend.”
He gives me a smug grin and arches a single eyebrow. “Friend. . . right.” He nods his head as he pulls back the curtain.
I walk back out, holding my arms out. “Well?”
“I love it. I picked a great one. You don't even need to try the others, just get that one.”
“Yeah, don't get too ahead of yourself, we still have more, and my pick too.”
I try on the others, then finally get to the suit I chose. I put on the dark green suit and look at myself in the mirror. It doesn't look as good as I thought it would.
Own it, I think to myself as I stroll back out, trying to make myself look bigger than life.
“I think this is the suit,” I say, taking a sharp spin and flaring the jacket out wide. “I mean, look at me. I look like a damn god.”
Lyllian starts laughing hysterically, grabbing her stomach and dropping to her knees in the middle of the store. “I can't, I can't take it, please take it off.” She's laughing so hard she can barely breathe, and tearing up at the corner of her eyes.
“Why? Do I look so sexy you can hardly contain yourself?” I strut toward her like a rooster flaunting for a group of chickens. I bob my head and elongate my legs, giving her a little shake of my ass. “You want me right now, don't you? I bet you're ready to jump my bones.”
Lyllian is wiping her eyes and taking big gulps of air as she says, “Stop, my chest hurts I'm laughing so hard. You have to take it off.”
“So, you're saying this is the one I should take home?” I grin smugly, and nod. “I think you're right. This is definitely it.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head fast. “Not that one, definitely not that one.”
“Okay, I guess I'll go with your pick. I'll save this for the day I get married.”
“I'm sure your future wife will absolutely love you in a puke green suit.”
“You're just jealous you can't pull off this color.” I throw my arms out and tug at the cuffs of my sleeves as I walk back and change. I pay for the black suit, hanging it over my shoulder as we head out of the store.
“So, now what?” she asks.
“Dinner?”
“I think dinner sounds really good right now.”
“How do hot wieners and beer sound?”
“Greasy and delicious,” she answers. “I could go for one all the way.”
“I bet you could,” I say playfully.
She slaps my arm and huffs loudly. “You're terrible.”
“I know, I can't help it. I'm excited today. You're going to be starting a new job, I've got a big project we're trying to land. Things are good, we should enjoy ourselves.”
“You know what, I think you're right.”
“I am right.” I grin at her and wink.
Lyllian shakes her head, and looks down at the ground as we walk, but she's smiling, that little smile I sometimes find myself going out of my way to see.
I get this feeling of satisfaction when I make her smile. As if I did something good for her. I made her happy, and that means something to me.
We get to the restaurant and take a booth in the back. She slides in one side, and I slide in across from her. The waitress comes up and we already know what we want. She orders her food and a beer, I order almost the same thing, except I get my fries with vinegar.
Her phone pings in her purse and she pulls it out. “Oh, I got an email from Harrison and Harrison.”
“That's the law firm that's hiring you, right?”
“Yeah, I hope this is my start date. I mean, I had my final interview last week, and Mr. Brennan was going to send over a reference letter today or tomorrow.”
“And you didn't blow up over the muffins and call him a dick, did you?”
“No, even though I wanted to.”
“That's good then, you didn't give him any fuel to throw you under the bus. Open it up, see what they have to say.”
She bares her teeth and sucks in a deep breath. “Okay, here we go.” Lyllian slides her finger over the screen. The light glows against her face, and I can see her eyes as they move down the page reading the email.