Impulsive (Reach out to Me) (2 page)

              Kara twisted her hair up quickly so that it wouldn’t get wet in the shower and thought deeply.

              “I actually have no idea. Now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing him before.”

              “Oh?” Michelle questioned. “Was he a client?”

              “I hope not,” Kara said with a groan. “That would be just my luck.” She pitched her voice louder as she pulled back the blue shower curtain and stepped into the steamy shower. “I don’t think so though. He had a briefcase. Not that some of our clients don’t carry briefcases, but I know they were trying to hire an accountant. He could be the accountant type for sure. He had that studious look, you know? He barely said two words to me.”

              “Did you give him a chance?” Michelle asked wryly as she leaned against the bathroom door to hear her friend more easily.

              “Yes,” Kara answered defensively. “Well, actually, no. I was so worried about the blouse and the skirt that I wasn’t really thinking about having a conversation. He asked if I was okay,” she remembered out loud.

              “That was nice of him,” Michelle commented.

              “Yeah, he seemed nice,” Kara admitted. “But not as nice as this warm shower. You have no idea how icy iced coffee actually is until it pours down your chest! Anyway, now that I think about it, I guess it could have been worse. It could have been hot coffee.”

              She heard Michelle laugh before she called, “Enjoy your shower, Kara. Just don’t enjoy it too much, okay? We do have dresses to shop for and I’m really eager to get started!”

              Michelle walked down the hall and Kara sighed. She wasn’t sure whether she hoped the guy worked there or not. If she saw him she would have to apologize for running out of the office like a maniac. If she didn’t see him she would have to feel bad for not being able to apologize for running out of the office like a maniac. It seemed like the type of no-win situation she typically got herself into with guys.

              At least he was a different type of guy. Her type was the typical tall, dark, and handsome bad boy and this man hadn’t really lived up to that. He had been tall; she might even call him dark, with that deep brown hair and those melted caramel eyes. He could fit the criteria of handsome too, actually. However, he could never, in any way, shape, or form be considered any kind of a bad boy. Not with his briefcase and suit and clean-shaven good looks.

              Jeff sure hadn’t carried a briefcase and neither had any of the other guys she’s been serious with. Mysterious coffee man had been the professional, career-driven type. She was surprised to find herself thinking about his eyes again. He’d had really nice eyes. The melted caramel color had been quite alluring, actually.

              Kara shook the thought from her head and concentrated instead on the scent of her hibiscus body wash as it cleansed the coffee smell away from her skin. When the thick white lather rinsed away she saw that she had turned the heat up so high that her skin had become pink. The warmth had been delicious after the chill she’d gotten earlier, but she knew that she really needed to hurry so she rinsed and got out quickly.

              She forced her mind away from the memory of the man’s deep voice asking her if she was okay. He might be the nicest guy in the world, but she wasn’t into nice guys. After Jeff, she was done with bad boys, too. That was the whole reason she hadn’t been on a date since she had filed the paperwork on her restraining order. It had been sort of a lonely year, but at least she wasn’t brokenhearted.

              None of that mattered though. Today was going to be a fun day! She’d gotten off work early and now she was going wedding dress shopping with her best friend. It couldn’t have shaped up better if she’d planned it herself.

              Determinedly cheerful, she brushed powder over her face and carefully applied a shiny gloss to her lips. Today was a good day to take a light hand with the makeup and really let her gorgeous friend shine as a blushing bride. Well, a blushing bridal shopper. Kara decided it was the same difference as she put on a light coat of mascara and dusted some blush over her cheeks.

              When her simple makeup was done to her exacting standards, Kara hurried into her room to grab some clean clothes. She kept it simple in that area as well, dressing in a pair of dark jeans and a bright pink tee shirt and doing her thick dark hair in a casual side braid before she slid her feet into a pair of soft brown leather boots. She was proud of herself when she remembered to grab her small, pink digital camera from her desk drawer and slide it down into her bag before she dashed out of the room. Mrs. T would be so happy to get to be part of the experience in even this small way.

              “Okay Michelle!” she called down the hall. “I’m ready to head out…oh. Sorry!”

              Apparently Hayes had come home for a late lunch.  He had pushed Michelle gently back against the kitchen counter as he kissed her passionately. Michelle had wrapped her arms tightly around his broad shoulders as she surrendered herself to the kiss. Hayes stepped back reluctantly when he heard Kara’s surprised voice.

              “It’s okay!” Michelle said with a blush. “Hayes just forgot something he needs for a project he’s doing this afternoon.”

              “No, hey, it’s fine!” Kara said lightly. “I know you’re in that wedding planning induced lovey-dovey state. And I also know that you were crazy in love from the beginning,” she hurried on when Michelle opened her mouth to defend herself.

              It was so easy to tell that they were; it was so easy to tell that it was the kind of love that would last until they were as old as Mrs. Turner and her husband Gerry next door. The way Michelle lit up around him, or even just when she talked about him, was adorable. He treated her like a queen as well. Kara was surprised by the sharp pain she felt in the pit of her stomach when she thought about that. It wasn’t jealousy. It was longing for something like Hayes and Michelle had found. She wanted that effortless love, that total commitment, that comfort of being with someone and knowing it would last a lifetime.

              She knew it was more than just getting married, or even wanting to get married, that made people look at each other that way. Her own parents had divorced when she was in middle school and, while they had managed to be civil to each other by Kara’s college graduation, there had been some rough years in between. That was one of the reasons that she had spent enough time at Michelle’s house that her parents had considered her one of their own.

              What she wanted most of all was a relationship that offered the comfort of knowing that the person she was with would never think of taking their bad day out on her in the form of veiled insults or physical aggression. Kara touched her cheek just under her eye, where Jeff’s fist had landed that awful night nearly a year ago. When she realized what she was doing, she quickly jerked her hand away before anyone in the room noticed. It didn’t do any good to think about the past or pine over what she didn’t have.

              “Let’s go!” she said in the most chipper voice she could muster. “I’m afraid you’ll have to find other entertainment, Hayes. Everyone knows you can’t see the bride in her gown until the big day.”

              “I need to be headed back to the Henderson house anyway. I don’t think it’s quite fair that I don’t get to see the dress ahead of time though. I wonder why that is?” Hayes asked as he ran his fingers through Michelle’s wavy golden locks tenderly.

              “Because,” Kara said as if it should be obvious. “You’d think she was so beautiful you’d convince her to elope right then and we’d all be out the fun of a wedding!”

              “I think she’s beautiful no matter what,” Hayes said with a smile as he kissed the tip of Michelle’s nose. “I guess I can let her go for one evening though.”

              Michelle wrapped her arms around his neck as if she didn’t want to let him out of her sight, but when Kara cleared her throat and tapped a finger on the face of her watch, she let go with a dramatic sigh.

              “I suppose I must carry on,” she said. “I’ll see you tonight, Hayes.”

              “Always,” he assured her.

              Kara opened the passenger door of Michelle’s little red car and slid into the leather seat.

              “He’s almost too perfect,” she commented with a smile as Michelle dropped into the seat next to her.

              “Isn’t he?” Michelle asked dreamily. “Okay,” she went on, clearly forcing herself to be practical. “So we have a few shops to hit up. You’re going to make me look great, right?”

              “Of course. You’ll be Kara-approved on your wedding day or my name isn’t…well…Kara. Trust me!”

              “I do,” Michelle promised as she backed out of her driveway and headed for the first shop on her neatly organized list.

              That promise seemed to wane as the day went on. Kara rejected dress after dress. The bridal shop owners didn’t think much of it either, but she was not about to let her friend walk down the aisle in something that made her butt look like a doublewide, or that didn’t flatter her fair skin tone.

              When Michelle opened the curtain at the first shop in a high necked, long sleeved, pseudo Victorian horror all Kara could manage to say was, “That is the wrong neckline.”

              “Really?” Michelle asked, resting her fingers on the warm, white fabric. “I thought it looked really dignified.”

              “You have assets and that dress doesn’t even begin to show them off,” Kara said flatly.

              When the curtain opened again, Kara’s eyes almost popped out of her head. The dress looked like something a Vegas showgirl might wear in her big wedding themed number. It was cut so low that Kara was pretty sure it must be near Michelle’s navel.

              “That one shows them off a little too much.”

              “I agree,” Michelle said quickly, her cheeks reddening as she dashed back into the small changing room.

              The next time the curtain slid back it revealed the worst dress Kara could have imagined. It was a cliché on a hanger. Actually, in this case, it was a cliché on her best friend. The crinoline was so stiff that Michelle  rustled like leaves on a fall day, and the top was so beaded that Kara was sure her friend had added about twenty pounds when the dress slipped over her head.

              “I don’t know how to say this, but no. Just…no.  Everything about that dress is wrong.”

              “But it was the most expensive one,” Michelle said once they’d left the shop. “The designer is very popular.”

              “If Versace jumped off a bridge would you jump too?” Kara asked as she scrolled through the pictures of the horrible dresses she’d taken to show Betsy. She shuddered when she got to the photos of Michelle in the atrocity of a dress. “Trust me. It’s not right.”

             
“Fine,” Michelle sighed reluctantly.

              They went to the next shop where Kara deemed the dress with the poufy sleeves as being “too frou-frou.” The plain ivory sheath was quickly decreed, “too plain.” To the last dress, which was a shade of bright white that did nothing for Michelle’s skin tone, she simply said, “Ick.”

              “I’m starting to think that there’s not a dress out there for me in the entire world,” Michelle groaned as they went back to the car. She slumped and rested her head on the steering wheel. Kara patted her back bracingly.

              “It’s a little early to give up completely. There’s a dress out there for you somewhere in the world, trust me.”

              “I’ve been trusting you,” Michelle said, ignoring the comforting words. “But it’s getting harder. I really liked that sparkly one.”

              “I know you did,” Kara stated.  “You wouldn’t have liked how you looked in your wedding pictures if you wore that.”

              “Hey!” Michelle shouted, although deep down she knew that Kara was right.