“Liam...” He’s just winding me up now. “Something between those two would be good. Although...” I look at the dress he’s holding. “I think that colour would look good on her.” The dark red of the fabric would look stunning with her blond hair and her fiery gaze.
One of the store’s assistants comes over. “Do you need any help?”
Before Liam can do something stupid, I turn around to the assistant. “Do you have a dress in that type of red, but longer, and not as revealing at the top? Something a little more modest?”
She thinks for a moment. “I think we can manage that. Follow me, if you’d please.” She walks to the back of the store to a small room that’s almost separate from the rest of the store. “We just got these in and have been keeping them back for people attending the Night Gala. You’re lucky because not many people have been here yet, so you’ll have a choice of some stunning dresses.”
I look around. I wanted better choices, not suddenly twenty times as many choices, if not a hundred times more...
“Are you looking for full-length, knee-length or shorter?” The assistant walks past the racks and I realise they’ve been sorted by colour, it makes a beautiful rainbow all along the walls of the room.
I eye Liam, and we both speak at the same time. “Full length.” Cyra looked great in the princess dress she’d worn before, even though the quality of the dress was obviously pretty bad. But it did look good on her.
Liam steps forward. “Maybe something princess-y? Tight but not too revealing bodice, wide full skirt.”
“Size?” The assistant looks between us.
Liam eyes me.
Crap. “Do you remember my cousin, Julie, cerberus shifter? She sometimes buys dresses here.”
The assistant nods. “Yeah, I know who you speak of. She has a great sense of style.”
“This is for someone of a similar size.” That’s the best I can come up with and it will have to do.
“I can work with that.” The assistant starts walking around the place, looking at dresses here and there and then picks four dresses, which she hangs onto hooks on one side of the room. “I think these should fit your specifications. I can also provide shoes that would suit the different dresses, just let me know.”
“Thanks.” Liam nods as he eyes the dresses. Do I catch a moment of uncertainty in him?
The small bell at the front of the store rings and the assistant inclines her head our way. “Please have a look. Take your time. I’ll be back as soon as possible.” And then she walks out, leaving Liam and me alone.
I go over to the dresses. They’re all beautiful, all in slightly different shades of red, but they’re all just as beautiful. “I have no idea. How do you choose a dress? She’d look beautiful in every one of them.” Then I level a look his way. “And no, we’re not going to buy all four of them. She might be human, but she will kill us if we do that.”
Liam nods, giving me a quick grin. “She’ll definitely try.”
I take out my phone and snap pictures of every dress, before sending them to Cyra. I guess we’ll just have to go straight to the source. She’ll be the one wearing the dress, so she gets the final say over which one we’re getting her.
‘Where the hell are you?’ Her reply is fast, but not one I expected.
‘In a boutique, picking up your dress?’ What else am I supposed to say?
‘That doesn’t look like just any place.’ Well, no, duh.
Liam picks the phone from my hands and types out a message before he gives it back to me, grinning way too much. “There.”
I almost want to strangle when I see his message. ‘Liam here. Max thinks they’re all stunning and he’s lost for words. Help him out, will you, which one do you like best?’ Ugh. That guy.
‘The one on the right is too cumbersome, those layers will be hell for getting into and out of cars, and definitely when I need to use the bathroom. The others all seem fine.’
I smile as I read the message. Well, what else should I expect from her? She has experience with the floofy dresses and she’s a very practical person. So, of course, beauty also has to go with comfort. ‘So, they’re all a go, apart from that one?’
‘Yes. As long as you keep it to ONE. ONE DRESS! Not more than that.’
‘Yeah, yeah.’ I reply to her and put my phone away. “Seems we’re down to a choice of three. The far one on the right one is out, rest are a go.”
Which still leaves us with way too many choices...
Fuck. I should have told Liam to go by himself, but I can’t let him just do whatever. Someone needs to call him back when he wanders off too far, as he has a habit of doing. And that person seems to be me, again...
12 Liam
It was fun to watch Max so awkward and uncomfortable when he helped pick out a dress for Cyra. It’s obvious that when he tells me I’m not allowed to do anything to get her hopes up, he means himself, him getting his hopes up, or him getting her hopes up. I’ve never seen him this protective of a simple human girl. His family? Sure? Some Omegas he knows? Sure. But never for a simple human girl who he barely knows.
He’s always kept to himself, he’s never been much of a socialiser, unlike me. So I always try to get him to come along with me when I go to parties and events. Get him out of his cave once in a while. And it’s always been fun.
But now? Now, I
