Coming Home(180)

Humor her. The quicker she’s happy, the quicker you can get out of here.

Leah stripped her clothes off and stepped into the dress, pulling it up over her torso, and Holly came behind her, zipping it up.

It was a beautiful dress—simple, but elegant, chocolate-colored and strapless, fitting snugly around her middle and flowing out softly from her hips in a billowy skirt that hit just above her knee.

“Your body looks sick in this,” Holly said.

Leah stared at her reflection: the slumped shoulders, the purplish rings under her eyes, the pallid skin, her hair flat and un-styled, her vacant stare.

She saw herself standing alone, without him at her side, and because of that, there was nothing beautiful about what she was looking at, no matter what she was wearing.

“Seriously, this is gorgeous on you,” Holly said.

“Yeah, it’s pretty,” Leah agreed, turning so Holly could unzip her. “And not that one,” she added, referencing the dress Holly was wearing. “It makes you look boxy.”

Holly’s eyes met hers in the mirror and she smiled. “That was a test, and you passed with flying colors, my darling.”

Leah shook her head and laughed softly, stepping out of the brown dress and putting it back on the hanger.

About an hour later, they were hanging Holly’s unwanted dresses on the rack outside the fitting rooms. She had chosen a red sheath dress that emphasized her incredible legs, and the color was guaranteed to turn every head in whatever room she walked into. Leah had assured her if she paired it with some platform heels and red lipstick, against the dark tone of her hair, she would most certainly be devastating.

When she picked up the brown dress, Holly turned to Leah. “You need to buy this. It looked amazing on you.”

Leah shook her head. “I have nowhere to wear a dress like this,” she said, taking it from her and hanging it on the rack.

“Maybe not right now, but you will one day. This dress needs to be on reserve in your closet. It’s too perfect on you. I’m not taking no for an answer,” she said, taking the dress off the rack and hanging it over her arm with the red one before walking to the register.

“Not taking no for an answer?” Leah mumbled to herself. “Shocking.”

“I heard that,” Holly called over her shoulder.

They paid for their dresses, and as they were walking out of the department store, Holly pressed a hand to her stomach.

“I’m starving. Can we stop and get something quick?”

Leah shrugged. “If you want.”

“I’m dying for one of those Greek salads from that place in the food court. You want one?”

“I’m not really that hungry,” Leah said.

“Get one. You can pick at it, and if you don’t finish it, you can take it home.”

Leah sighed, resigning herself to the fact that Holly was going to get her way in every aspect of today’s outing.

A few minutes later, they were sitting at a small table in the corner of the food court with their salads on plastic trays, and Holly smiled.

“Thanks for being a trouper today.”

Leah smiled softly, reaching to open her bottle of water.

“So, since I forced you out of your comfort zone and you were such a good sport about it,” Holly said as she sifted through her salad, “you can call the shots now. Do you want to talk about him, or not talk about him?”

Leah lifted her eyes to see Holly watching her as she took a bite of her salad.

The shards in her chest came to life, twisting and piercing and slicing.