Lie of My Life

2 The Gala

"I don't see why I can't wear that dress I wore to Paige's wedding to this gala tonight," I sighed as I pulled the sweater on over my head. Emma was propped upon my bed, reading a magazine and waiting for me to finish getting ready so we could go dress shopping. She sighed at my statement.

"Your bridesmaid dress? Are you kidding me? Because it's hideous," I turned and smiled at her. She leapt up from the bed and walked over to me, placing herself behind me in the mirror. She reached up and pulled my hair tie out so that my hair fell in honey brown waves around my shoulders. "Besides, there's going to be guys there. Hot, lawyer guys. So you need something that shows a bit of cleavage and hopefully some of those gorgeous long legs you've got."

I smiled and then she was pulling me out of my room, out of the apartment, and down the stairs. We were laughing when we reached the second floor landing. I was reaching into my purse for my keys and didn't notice that Emma had come to a stop in front of me. I almost ran right into her but managed to stop myself at the last minute.

"Oh," she said aloud. In front of us was the strong, bent over back of an unfamiliar man. He bent to lift a cardboard box which he then carried into the open doored apartment across from Carter's before coming back out for another. It must be the new tenant. Emma must have come to the same conclusion because she turned around to me, wide eyed. I shrugged my shoulders and we walked on ahead toward where he was laboring in the hall.

"Um, hello," Emma said as we approached. He looked up, blowing a puff of his long black hair out of his face as he did and Emma went curiously still, eyes widening as he stood and smiled at us.

"Hi," he answered. "Are you my neighbors?"

I looked to Emma who had started this conversation but my normally bubbly, confident best friend seemed frozen instead.

"We are," I told him then, sticking out a hand to shake his. He cast an amused smile over to Emma before shaking my hand. "I'm Ava Collins. My brother and I own this building."

"Ah, Aaron! Yeah, he's a cool guy. I'm Shane. Shane Miller."

I paused but Emma still seemed frozen.

"This is Emma," I told him. "She lives... directly above you actually."

He smiled. "Nice to meet you, Emma."

"I..." she started but trailed off.

"Okay! Well, we have an appointment. So I'm afraid we have to get going but it was so nice to meet you and, please, if you need anything."

"Thank you, of course, it was nice to meet you as well," he answered as I gave my friend a small push toward the door. Then he smiled and added. "Bye, Emma."

"Bye!" she finally blurted and then we were down the stairs and out on the street. She turned to me then, eyes wide and horrified. "Oh my gosh. I totally froze up."

"You totally did," I agreed, clicking the locks on my Honda Civic and climbing inside. She followed.

"That's not like me."

"It sure isn't."

"I just... he's so cute. Don't you think he's super cute?"

Both hands on the steering wheel, I face her with a smile. "Well, Miss How-Long-Has-It-Been-Ava-Let's-Make-A-Pact, why don't you go for it?"

She smiled and sat back in her seat as I pulled away from the building. "You know what? I think I will."

"There's only one problem. I think you're going to have to be able to speak to him."

Sometime later, Emma and I found ourselves standing in our favorite boutique owned by an old friend, Madison Waters. Emma had called her this morning begging for a last minute appointment and fitting for a gala we had just found out about from a guy who didn't understand how much advance notice a woman needed for this type of event and Madison had obliged. Now she swarmed us, setting dresses on racks that she thought would look good on us. Emma made me try nearly every single one on until she and Madison started gushing about one in particular and claimed I had to purchase it. Once we found the dresses, we chatted with Madison while she pinned them for alterations and put a rush on the order, promising we could pick them up that afternoon. We thanked her, kissed her on the cheek, and headed back for the car.