Private Show (The Private Series) (2 page)

“Britney. Bitch,” is all she says, and I am on the floor laughing.

She starts to sway her hips. “Oh, baby, baby,” she sings.

“Well, you do fit with the theme. No one can top pop culture status like Britney.” I confess.

“Damn straight.” Erin agrees. Then she takes notice of my latest footwear. “So what do you have happening here?”

“I am taking the pop star a little before Britney. How about a little Baby Spice?” I say with a raised eyebrow.

Erin immediately starts clapping her hands, drawing the attention of my mother, who is now walking back to us.

“Erin, I can only assume…” My mom stops scans my friend from head to toe. “Britney’s
Oh Baby
stage?” My mom was always on the latest trends when I was younger. Not having many girl-friends as a kid, my mom would make the most of it with me. She even took me to go see Britney one year at our state fair.

Mom sees that she answered correctly when Erin squealed with excitement. Then her eyes found my new favorite shoes. “Oh, my God, Tess! You finally found a pair huh?” See? Mom knew instantly what I was going for. “Baby Spice, I assume?” she asks, already knowing the answer.

“Yes ma’am.”

I look over to Erin, who is shaking her head at me. Looking at her watch, Mom appears shocked, “Oh, I didn’t realize how late it was getting. I have to get going, girls, I have a lunch date.” She gives me big hug and a kiss and gives Erin a quick hug. “Make sure you girls take lots of photos of you all done up since, I won’t be seeing you on Saturday.”

In unison Erin and I answer, “Yes, Mom.” And we all have a little laugh at that. Then Mom’s out the door.

“Let’s find you the hottest, shortest pink dress to go with those shoes!” Erin squeals at me.

For the next stop Erin forces me into a non-thrift shop, which goes against every fiber of my being when it comes to Halloween wear. “I just can’t see spending a fortune on something that I am only going to wear once.”

“Are you kidding me? Once Ben sees you in this hot little number…” She pulls the shortest pinkest dress I have ever seen, off the rack and holds it up to me and finishes her statement, “Who says you’ll only be wearing it once?” She winks.

True.

I flick up the price tag and I snort in shock. “Um, Erin I can’t afford this.”

Okay, seriously, I make coffee for a living
.

She takes my hand and leads me to the plush dressing room of the boutique. Everything is lavender and cream colored with gold accents everywhere. She pushes me in, closes the door between us, with her on the outside and whips the dress in at me.

“Try it on!” And there’s the bossy Erin.

I let out a puff and start to undress, knowing it’s not worth the energy to fight Erin, especially when it comes to fashion and I am running low on my caffeine intake. I get my Chucks, jeans and black sweater off and unclip the thin,
very
thin pink material off of the hanger. I slip it over my head and look in the mirror.
Oh
. I like this and I know who would like it even more… Ben.

“Well?” Erin yells through the shiny white door.

Shaking my head I proceed to open the dressing room door, to reveal the look to Erin. Her jaw drops instantly and I do a little spin to show it off, knowing she would have told me to do so anyways.

“I take your stunned silence as a meaning that it’s a keeper?” She nods. “All right then, let’s go find me some white knee highs.”

“Let’s!” Erin says a little too enthusiastically.

When I return to the dressing room I am almost tempted to send Ben a little teaser photo of what he’ll soon be seeing for the Halloween party, but I decide not to. I want to blow him out of the water. I don’t think he would ever expect this costume. I take one more glance in the mirror. Man, I will be paying for this dress on my credit card for at least a year.

Erin and I navigate some stockings for me in the hosiery section of the boutique and Erin buys a sexy little number for Mark to see her in later tonight. I think about doing the same, until I notice the price on the thong in her hands… forty bucks for a tiny bit of material makes no sense to me especially since Ben would probably rip them to smithereens. I giggle at the thought.

“What was that little giggle about?” Erin asks, with a half-smile and an all too knowing look on her face. I don’t say a word. “Ah, I know what you’re thinking.”

“Oh, you do, do you?”

“Mhmm… You’re thinking about Ben ripping these off of you,” Erin states, not questioning. I feel my cheeks heating. “Aww, that’s cute! You still blush when you think about him!”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… let’s get out of here before I decide to max out my credit card.”

Giggling, we make our purchases, as we are walking out of the door, Erin asks “Hey, you okay to get home on your own? I want to give Mark a little fashion show of my recent purchase.” She says with a wink and a lift of her hot pink bag.

“Oh, yeah go ahead, you nympho,” I tease.

“You know it!” She gives me a big hug and we part ways.

I don’t live far from the boutique and it’s a nice late afternoon, so I decide to grab a coffee. Once I make my way into the Starbucks on the corner across the street, I don’t need time deciding on my order. I take a large sip of my vanilla latte and make my way to a window seat. Looking out the window, I see a couple walk by, holding hands, which makes me miss Ben, which is crazy, because I just saw him yesterday. Oh, well. Feeling playful, I grab for my phone, snap a photo of my view outside of the window. I attach the photo to a text message and write
Come find me
.

I instantly get a reply back.
Hide and seek?

Mhmm…
I reply.

Ding, another response.
Do I get any other clues?

Thinking, I snap a photo of my coffee cup, which adorns the ever-popular Starbucks logo.

Send.

A few moments go by before Ben texts back,
You know, there are over 120 Starbucks in Seattle right?
With that reply, I snort out a laugh. I can just hear his velvety accent.

I bring attention to myself with the snort. Covering my face I take another sip of my coffee. I turn to look back out the large window and I spit out my coffee. If I had a couple looks after the snort I have the full attention of the whole café now.

But
he
is standing right there.

Ben is standing right in front of the window smiling at me.

Son of a bitch.

Seriously, I sprayed my coffee all over the window. And he’s standing out there laughing his ass off, hunched over, full-on holding his stomach. Quickly grabbing my napkin I start to wipe the window off. My cheeks are on fire with embarrassment. I hear light laughter from all corners of the coffee shop. Great. I look back at him, taking in a deep breath, before he points to the door to signal that he’s on his way in.

I flip him the bird.

By the time he is in front of me I have almost all my latte off the window. He is still bearing an ear to ear smile and biting his lips to refrain from further laughter. I put my fists on my hips and try to look angry, but I fail miserably and start to laugh myself.

“Jerk,” I snip.

Taking in a deep breath, he leans in close, “Hey, I didn’t make you spit… in fact, you don’t normally spit.” His look changes in an instant with his insinuation, from relaxed to hot, with his “I need you now” kind of look. And it goes right to my core.

“All right, let’s get you a refill, since I so rudely made you waste so much of yours.” And he leaves it at that. He goes to order our drinks, and knows just what I want, which is really sweet.

Stopping at the table holding our cups I wait for him to sit, but he doesn’t. “Aren’t you going to sit?” I ask.

His smile is sly. “I was hoping we could take these to go.”

Oh.

I eagerly get to my feet and reach for my purse and shopping bags. “What do you got there?” Ben asks, pointing to my loot.

“Erin, my mom and I went out scavenging for Halloween costume supplies.”

With his hot hooded gaze he asks, “Can I see?”

“No, sir.” We exit the café, with the bell dinging behind us.

“Why not?”

Taking my coffee from him, he tries to take hold of my bags, but I jerk them away before he succeeds. This took him by surprise, “I am not showing you, because it’s a surprise. You can’t see until the Halloween party on Saturday.”

“All right then.”

We start walking down the block, when we turn into a small parking lot, where Ben has his coveted ‘69 GTO waiting. “Where were you when I sent you the text?”

“Picking up some dry cleaning, I recognized the storefront in front of the Starbucks. I was only a block away… lucky me.” He finishes with a wink. “Where’s your car?”

“I grabbed a ride with Erin, but she wanted to take off right after buying some sexy underwear and was eager to show her boyfriend. And seeing as I live not far from the shop we were at, I didn’t mind walking home.”

He doesn’t look pleased. “Just like that?”

Confused, “What do you mean, just like that? It’s not a big deal, I live so close and I walk around the city all the time.”

Getting in the car, he starts the powerful engine. “Look, you don’t exactly have a good track record of keeping safe. I worry, that’s all. Please don’t be upset.”

Most girls would go apeshit over an overprotective guy, but with our or my history for that matter, I can understand why. “I know.”

Ben leans over while we are stopped at a light to give me a kiss and take my hand. “So, are you hungry? There’s this great restaurant not far from my place that has the best enchiladas and margaritas.”

“Mmmm, sounds perfect.” I moan.

“Make that noise again and we won’t make it there.” He threatens. Any other day I would have moaned again, but I really am starving. So I keep my mouth shut. For now.

After placing our orders, the waitress brings us our margaritas. Ben raises his glass. “Here’s to the miracles that which rise from misfortune.” I tap my glass to his and smile. It’s true, after all the bad and disastrous things that have happened to both of us in our pasts, we’ve come together, again and again. Even during the low part of my life, he was there. We just didn’t know it yet.

“Did you know this is the first time we have had a real date?” I ask Ben.

He scrunches his black eyebrows. “Oh, you’re right! I didn’t even think about that, Tess. I am so sorry I haven’t treated you out till now.”

“Oh, no it’s fine, that doesn’t bother me. Believe me, I rather enjoy our private time.”

He chuckles. “True. But still you are a lady and I should have taken you out on a proper date. Although, I don’t think I have ever really taken a woman out on a real date before. Well, not since Nicole…” His confession squeezes my heart a little.

I know Ben didn’t do relationships in his past, not after his ex-fiancé cheated on him with their college professor. But that statement also brought back to mind his past sexual flings. Not something I like to think about. I hold my hand out to stop him. I have to lighten this up.

Light bulb.