I hung up with a frowning face and looked at Becky, who had been staring at me the whole time, as if she knew. Perhaps the speaker had told her what company she was from.

“It’s okay,” she said softly, pulling me into a hug. “There’ll be other jobs, I promise.”

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. Not only was I a bad liar, I couldn’t even fake disappointment that long. “I got the job!” I squealed at the top of my lungs.

Becky pulled back, squinting her eyes, looking surprised. “You….” She socked me lightly on my arm. “Congrats!” She pulled me in again and squeezed me tightly.

“Ahhh…I can’t believe it. I thought they would take at least another week to decide.”

“So when do you start?”

“They said as soon as possible. I’ll have to go in and talk about details.” Floating above the ground from the awesome news, I plopped myself on the sofa. Becky went to the kitchen to throw her apple core away, sank down next to me, and narrowed her eyes at my sweater. “You’re not wearing that tonight, are you?”

For a second, I had forgotten I had a date, and I stared at my half-eaten apple. “Should I wear something else? I thought you liked my sweater.”

As if she had sat on a pin, she jolted up and quickly pulled me along with her to her bedroom. “You need to wear something else if you want him to kiss you.”

Becky’s room was like mine, very simple. A queen size bed sat in the middle of her room, a tall wooden dresser was placed at the corner, and a small desk was situated on the opposite side of the dresser. One positive thing about our apartment was that we each had our own bathroom, but the down side was that when our guests needed to use one, they had a peek of our rooms.

On top of the desk were a computer and her cell phone, and the top of the dresser was adorned with several Swarovski crystal picture frames I had gifted to her on her birthday. In one of the frames was a picture of us that I had slid inside. Another one held a shot of the four of us—Nicole, Katie, Becky, and I. The third frame held a picture of her family—her parents and her younger sister.

Rummaging through the closet, sliding hanger after hanger, she pulled out a black dress. “Here. This is the perfect dress. He won’t be able to resist you with this on.”

I was just about to take a bite, but instead I shook my head vigorously. “Noooo way. That thing is way too tight and too low. I don’t want to tease him or send him the wrong message.”

“Just try it on, and if you don’t like it, you can take it off. It doesn’t look the way you think it looks.”

How could I say no when she gave me the puppy eyes and an alternative? With a sigh, I exchanged the apple for the dress and tossed it on her bed. After I stripped off my sweater and pants, I slipped it on and stood in front of her long closet mirror. To my surprise, I liked it. It transfigured me into an elegant woman. Dipping just enough to show the cle**age of my br**sts…but not too much…it fell nicely on the curves of my body.

I felt different, more confident and even beautiful. Turning to face Becky, I knew she would give me an “I told you so” look, and sure enough she did. Shaking her head with a proud gleam, she lit a huge smile. “Love, love, love. See…I always know what’s best for you. Come on, let’s fix your hair and makeup.”

Becky handed my apple back to me, tugged me to the bathroom, and started to fuss with my face and hair. “If only that guy from the restaurant could see you. If you had been dressed like this, he would have come to our table for sure.”

“He was with someone, remember? Why are we even talking about him?” I arched my brows. “I’m going out with your favorite person.” Rubbing in the word “favorite,” I watched her grimacing facial expression.

“Okay…I’ll give Luke a chance if you tell me that you like him after you kiss him.” She reached over with one hand while holding the curling iron with the other. Placed in front of me were a pair of fake diamond earrings and a pendant necklace. “Here. Save some time, put these on.”

“You don’t give up, do you? And thanks.”

“Nope, not when it has to do with your happiness.”

Needing free hands, I bit the apple in my mouth and put them on. They added a touch of flavor to the dress. Then my mind wandered to thoughts of Nicole, and I turned to face Becky as I took the last bite of the apple, but she guided me back to face the mirror. “That was a good idea putting us in a group text,” I slurred as I chomped away.

“Now hold still or I’ll burn you by accident,” she scolded. “And yes…it was a good idea. Glad I thought of it.” She giggled proudly with a smirk on her face.

“At least we can be close to each other through texting, since it’s difficult to get together. We’re still on for tomorrow night, right?”

“Didn’t you read the text?”

“That’s the problem with group texting; if you don’t scroll up, you miss things. I guess somehow I missed it. Nicole seemed fine when I called her last night, but you know how she is. She won’t say much.”

“Don’t worry. If she says she’s fine then she is. Just worry about your date tonight.” She let go of the strand of hair that she’d just curled. It bounced softly against my cheeks, but it was hot so I turned a bit to the right. I thought about telling her that I had run into him, but it didn’t matter. The likelihood of running into him again was slim to none. And again, I was dating Luke, not him.