Charade (Swept Away, #1.5)(5)

“That’s a shame.” She picked at her salad and looked down. “My father didn’t leave me anything either. I didn’t mind, but my mother was devastated.”

“How is she?” I asked her softly. Rosie rarely talked about her mother, whom I’d never met in all the years that we’d been friends. It seemed that her mother had reacted even more badly to her husband’s death than my father had reacted to my mother’s.

“Same as usual.” Rosie’s eyes looked straight ahead as if she were staring at something. “But let’s not talk about it.”

“How have you been?”

“Good.” She nodded. “I’ve been dating someone.”

“You have?” I looked up at her in shock. “You didn’t tell me. Who is he? Where did you meet him? Oh my god, Rosie, give me the 411!”

“I didn’t want to bring him up after your father got sick.” She shook her head. “It seemed rude to talk about how happy I was when you were going through so much.”

“It’s fine. Now dish.” I gazed at her, eager to hear more about her new guy.

“I’ll tell you more later. Today is about you.” She shook her head. “Now eat up, you’ve only had one bite. You’re going to disappear if you don’t eat.”

“I don’t think there’s any worry of that happening.” I laughed and grabbed a French fry from my plate. “I wouldn’t mind losing twenty pounds, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

“You look great.” Rosie pursed her lips. “You don’t need to lose weight.”

“Uh huh.” I grinned at her. “Just six months ago, you were telling me to join your spin class.”

“Well, you can join once you get back on your feet.” She laughed and tossed her hair back.

“Hey,” I asked her causally, “if you wanted to meet a guy, how would you do it?”

“I don’t know, at a bar, online, dog park, grocery store?” She grabbed one of my fries and scarfed it down. “Why?”

“Just curious. Thinking about what to do, to meet a nice guy.”

“Online is the easiest.” She grinned. “Well, not easy, but less anxiety-inducing.”

“Is that how you met your guy?”

“No.” She shook her head and took another fry.

“Oh.” I waited for her to tell me more, but she didn’t.

“Let me tell you one thing. A good piece of advice. Always look your best when you want to meet a guy. Do your hair. Do your makeup. Wear a nice, body-hugging outfit. Accentuate your best features.” She stared at me. “So in your case, wear a top with a plunging neckline and show off your boobs, girl.”

“I’m not exposing my boobs.” My voice rose and an older lady at the table next to us frowned at me.

“You don’t need to have them popping out.” She grinned. “Just wear a top to let a man know what you’re working with.”

“Uh huh.”

“Trust me, it works. Too many women go on about being natural in no makeup and comfortable clothes. They don’t have men, or they have farmers.”

“Farmers?” I asked confused.

“Farmers, garbage men, whatever. The point is you need to catch a man. And you catch a man looking your best. Once you have him, you can do whatever. After the first six months, he’s not even going to notice. But in the beginning . . . in the beginning you need to give him something to rave about to his friends.”

“Rave about?”

“You know, ‘my girl’s booty so big,’ that sort of thing.” Her tone dropped to a drawl.

“My girl’s booty?” I repeated and laughed. “Who says that?”

“You know what I mean. Whatever the guy likes, if it’s big boobs, a big butt, a pretty face, long silky hair, pretty manicured toes.”

“Toes?”

“Lots of guys have foot fetishes. Get a pedicure weekly and keep up the polish.”

“I can’t afford to get a pedicure weekly.”

“Well, that’s a group of guys you’ll never get then.”

“Who?”

“The foot fetish guys.”

“I don’t want a foot fetish guy.”

“That’s good then, because you won’t be getting him.”

“Rosie!” I rolled my eyes. “I think I get it, thank you.”

“Well, let me know when you want to start dating. I can help fix you up.”

“Okay.” I nodded and looked down. I felt ashamed of myself for not being honest with her. The truth was that I wasn’t looking to date. Not for love. I just needed a way to catch David Bradley’s eye. If I could become his girlfriend, I might have an easier time gaining more information about Bradley Inc. The only problem was that I had no idea how to meet him, let alone attract him. He was a rich, handsome man and normally not in my league. However, right now I needed to put myself into his league. I groaned inwardly as I realized that meant I was going to have to do what Rosie had said. I was going to have to dress as sexy as possible and I was going to have to let him know that I was interested. I was horrible at flirting, but I couldn’t let my self-esteem issues get in the way.