Seventeen

SATURDAY MORNING, after Pilates, I was delegated to pick up Sandra, Amy, and Kate and then ordered to drive all five girls to the mall for a beauty treatment. Yeah, I make it sound like I was really put upon, but just having those five in the car with me ... Well, the temperature was rising. The teasing kept me red in the face.

When we got to the mall, Lissa sent me to her store and told me to ask for Rose. Rose would dress me. I was not to ask about prices since the purchase was going on Lissa’s employee account and Rose knew the limits. I would not be allowed out of the house tonight unless every item of clothing on my body was new. Well ... they would let me wear my good shoes as long as they were freshly polished. I dropped them off at the mall’s shoeshine stand to have a professional job done.

When Rose was done with me, I went to QuickCuts and got my hair trimmed. The gal who cut my hair talked nonstop and wanted to know all about my date tonight, where I was going, and who I was taking. When I told her that I actually had five dates for a big party tonight she almost shaved my head.

Accidentally, of course.

Instead, she called one of the guys who worked there over and told him I needed special treatment. That made me nervous, but this guy was more of a traditional barber than a hair dresser and he wrapped a hot towel around my face and then proceeded to give me a shave.

“Howard, he has five dates for a party tonight.”

“So, you want me to give you a shave or just slit your throat now?” he asked.

He actually used one of those straight razors you see in gangster movies just before somebody gets their throat slashed. I didn’t breathe for twenty minutes. The result, though, was that my face was baby smooth and felt pleasantly tingly. I left a big tip for the two of them.

After four interminable hours at the mall, I was hungry, cranky, and loaded down with boxes of clothes for both me and the girls, including a new pair of slacks, a sport coat, and my shoes. The jacket was a deep maroon and was actually a pretty good match for the SCU school color. The shirt, tie, slacks, underwear, and socks were all chosen to match “the ensemble,” as Rose kept referring to it. I even picked up a new pair of black loafers to go with the gray slacks.

Back home, I fixed a sandwich as girls in various stages of dress and undress ran from bathroom to bedroom to bedroom to bathroom as they got ready for the evening. Eventually, they all moved into the master bedroom to do makeup and put their dresses on. I was told to use the guest bath to shower and dress. I’d been waiting in the living room for forty minutes wishing Drew and Damon were there to read to when I was told to get ready to meet my dates. Well, I had a little surprise for them as well thanks to my collusion with Lissa. Only she knew what everyone was wearing and she’d stocked the refrigerator with flowers to match each girl’s dress.

It was worth the wait.

Kate came out first. I might not have mentioned how exotically beautiful Kate is. She hides it at school wearing bib overalls and a t-shirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She’s a couple inches shorter than me, which would make her taller than everyone else but Lissa. She wore a purple dress—her favorite color—cut about four inches above the knee. Her open toed heels raised her to eye-level with me and showed off her purple toenail polish. I was used to seeing her hair pulled back, but it was piled high on her head in a ballet dancer’s bun that highlighted her facial features. I’d never asked Kate what her ethnic background was. Her surname is English or German, I think, but the vision in front of me was anything but. Having her hair piled on top of her head accentuated her long bare neck—and shoulders—and back—and cleavage... Damn! She couldn’t have cut that dress any lower and been legal in most states.

I’d never seen her legs before. I mean naked. I mean in a skirt. Shit! She was wearing high heels and her bare legs were ... awesome!

“God, Kate! You’re gorgeous!” I couldn’t think of anything else to say, though I was still just staring at her. She walked up to me like a model on a runway and then turned to walk back by the fireplace and stood facing me. Then she opened a piece of paper and read.

“Your dates this evening will arrive in order of seniority, newest member of the posse first to first member of the posse last. We’ve dressed for the occasion. Purple is for passion, royalty, bravery. It is the color I have chosen for our first date. You may kiss me now, but don’t mess up my lipstick ... too much.” Kate was blushing and I was guessing that she hadn’t read what Melody had written before she was sent out to face me. However, I wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity. I stepped in front of her and looked into her bright hazel eyes.

“Kate, I am honored that you would consent to be my date this evening.” Melody had written the script for me, as well, and I’d taken the time to memorize it. I surprised Kate and pulled a flower from behind my back. The purple orchid accented her dress and makeup perfectly. I tried not to embarrass either Kate or myself as I pinned the corsage onto the limited fabric that was available, but she didn’t seem to mind the backs of my fingers pressed against the soft flesh of her left breast.

“Decided braless was the right choice?” I asked with a bit of a smirk.

“I don’t own one,” she answered. Well, that confirmed that. I wanted to leave my fingers where they were, but I decided I’d better move on.

I leaned in to kiss her softly and she held her lips against mine without moving away. They were soft and slightly open and I fought the urge to press between them with my tongue. When I pulled back, she stayed in the same position with her eyes closed and the exposed portion of her chest rising and falling deeply. When it was apparent that I wasn’t coming in for a second helping, she straightened with a sigh and looked into my eyes, smiling. She was going to be hard to resist. In fact, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. A month ago, I’d hardly noticed her. Tonight, I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

She turned away from me and I saw a little bell on the mantel. She took it down and rang it and then moved aside.

Amy walked in. Damn, she cleans up nice. She was wearing her version of the LBD—Little Black Dress. It was cut directly from the choker collar down beneath her armpits, leaving her shoulders bare. Her long, dark brown hair fell straight to the middle of her back and her brown eyes were lined darkly. She had impossibly long eyelashes. The dress was skintight down to the middle of her thighs and then flared out in a ruffled edge. In a way that only Amy could pull off, the finishing touch was black patent leather army boots. She paraded into the living room, sashayed up to me, paused, executed a perfect turn, and walked away from me to stand in front of the fireplace and face me. She, too, unfolded a sheet of paper and proceeded to read.

“Black is the darkness of your soul, the mystery hidden within, the place where the sun doesn’t shine.” She stopped reading and looked back down the hall. “Geez, Melody! Did you really make me say that? I’ll kill you!” I heard giggles down the hall. She turned back and read through the rest of her script silently, determining whether she was going to read it out loud. Apparently, the rest wasn’t so bad, but as she read, she adlibbed. “It’s the color I’ve chosen for our first [and probably last] date. I’m your second date tonight [since all the rest of them have already undressed in front of you]. You may kiss your date [but keep your damned tongue in your own mouth].” She puckered up her lips tightly, closed her eyes, and thrust her face forward. She yelped when I touched her chin and her eyes shot open.