8. Chapter 8

Chapter eight

T he dress boutique was tucked away on a quiet street, the kind of place that oozed sophistication with its polished hardwood floors and the faint scent of lavender hanging in the air.

Sam had barely managed to snag a coffee on the way over after a restless night. Scarlett’s bachelorette weekend was coming up fast, and between work, wedding prep, and the company's acquisition, her brain felt like it had been running a marathon.

Scarlett, however, was completely in her element. She moved through the boutique with purpose, a clipboard in hand and her eyes scanning every rack like she was planning a military operation.

“Okay,” Scarlett said, turning to Jess. “The Maid of Honor dresses are over there.” She nodded to some smaller, colorful dresses in the corner. “But I already called ahead to have them put aside some of the ones you said you liked on their website so you could try them on.”

“Oh,” Jess mumbled with a clearly forced smile.

Sam shot her an amused smirk, knowing how much she probably wanted to avoid that.

“Wanna look at what they have, though?” Scarlett asked, rifling through a nearby rack. “They might have more stuff here in person.”

Jess shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I’ll start with those and look at the rest if they don’t work out.”

Scarlett muttered something absentmindedly as she directed each of them toward some racks with dresses that fit the style she was going for.

“So,” Sam muttered, her eyes drifting over the racks of dresses that seemed to stretch endlessly, “do you have anything in mind yet?”

“I think I want something with lace,” Scarlett answered as she circled a new rack. “Something classy and timeless, but also modern.”

Sam nodded, having absolutely no idea what that meant. She turned to Jess, arching her brows in question.

Jess smirked as she pointed her toward one of the walls. “Start with those.”

They fell into a quiet rhythm, searching through the racks. Every so often, one of them would hold up a dress for inspection, eliciting nods, cringes, or half-laughs depending on how wildly off the mark the pick was. Scarlett turned a lace dress in her hands, frowning at it like it had personally offended her, while Jess hummed as she thumbed through a line of options.

“Hi, ladies,” a cheerful voice cut through the low hum of their activity. They all turned to see a saleswoman with a warm, practiced smile. “Amber’s tied up with another client, but I’m here if you need anything. Just flag me down when you’re ready to try something on. I’m Tess.”

Sam immediately turned to Jess, whose head whipped around to her at the same time.Their eyes locked, and Jess’s mouth twitched at the corners, already fighting back laughter.

Sam snorted, unable to help herself. Jess clapped a hand over her mouth, her shoulders shaking as silent laughter rippled through her.

“Okay,” Scarlett answered, shooting Sam a questioning glance. “Thanks.”

Tess began walking away, and as she did, Scarlett looked between them. “What?”

“Nothing,” Sam said quickly, but the grin splitting her face made it impossible to sound convincing.

“Absolutely nothing,” Jess echoed, her voice muffled by her hand. But when her eyes darted back to Sam, her laughter doubled.

Scarlett’s gaze bounced back and forth between them, growing impatient.

Jess’ laughter finally died off as she shook her head. “Remember that girl I dated in college?”

Scarlett cocked her head to the side, eyes glazing over in thought. Then, after a moment, she jerked her head back and said, “The one Sam was like super jealous of?”

“What?” Sam asked, glaring at Scarlett. “I wasn’t jealous!”

Jess laughed hard again, and Sam couldn’t help the way it infected her, pulling the smile back across her own lips.

Scarlett gave her a pointed look, arching one brow. “Really? Because I distinctly remember you drunk-calling me from that sorority party just to rant about how their names were too similar.”

Sam’s face flushed as she sputtered, “That’s not—”

“What?” Jess interrupted, her wide eyes darting between them as her grin morphed into something deeply entertained. “You never told me about that!”

Scarlett shrugged, turning back to the dresses in front of her.

Sam opened her mouth in a desperate attempt to form some response. But any attempt at rebuttal failed entirely. Instead, she shook her head, looking down with an embarrassed smile.

When she looked up again, Jess was watching her with fresh amusement.

“Don’t,” Sam groaned in warning, although she couldn’t keep the smile off her lips for long.

Jess chuckled, lifting her palms in the air. “I’m not saying anything.”

Scarlett picked up a new dress, turning around to hold it up in front of her. “What about this one?”

Sam pulled her eyes from Jess, humming softly as she looked over the new dress. “It could work, I guess.”

Scarlett frowned, turning back to hang it where she found it. “Definitely not that one, then.”

Jess smirked knowingly, her fingers trailing lightly down the intricate white lace of a long gown hanging on the rack. The glint in her eyes told Sam she was already gearing up to tease her about something, but before she could speak, Scarlett’s voice broke in.

“Okay, what about this one?” Scarlett asked behind them.

They both turned around at the same time.

“Oh yeah,” Sam said immediately with a grin. “I like that one.”

Jess nodded in agreement. “It definitely looks more like you.”

Scarlett gave one satisfactory nod, hanging it on the empty fitting room rack beside her.

“What about this one?” Sam muttered, pulling another dress out from the rack in front of them. “You said you want something with lace, right?”

Scarlett’s eyes went wide, striding toward them. “Holy shit, it’s gorgeous!”

“Well, that sounds promising,” Tess called out, ambling toward them with a polite smile. “Are you ready to try some on?”

As Scarlett took the woman around, pointing out each dress she’d found, Sam made her way to a set of chairs placed outside the dressing room.

She dropped into one of the plush seats, letting out a small sigh as she leaned back. A moment later, Jess followed, sitting in the second chair beside her.

“And which of you is trying on the Maid of Honor gowns?” the saleswoman asked, closing the door to Scarlett’s fitting room before turning toward them.

Jess grimaced as she answered, “Me.”

The woman smiled, nodding as she waved her into the fitting room beside Scarlett’s.“Right this way.”

“Have fun,” Sam called out behind her with a teasing grin.

Once Jess was out of sight, she began scrolling through her phone, checking for new emails as they changed. Caleb had sent her a couple of updates from their most recent client. But luckily, nothing seemed urgent enough to require immediate attention.

Scarlett’s door swung open first, and she stepped out, wearing one of the dresses she’d found.

“What do you think?” she asked, turning in front of the mirror.

“It’s nice,” Sam answered, placing her phone in her lap. “Do you like it?”

“Well, I want it to be better than nice ,” she muttered, smoothing the fabric down.

She turned to Jess’ dressing room door, knocking hard against it. “Are you dressed?” she called. “Come out. I need you to look at the one I have on.”

Jess stepped out a moment later, one arm twisted awkwardly behind her back as she held a dark green ruffled dress in place.

“What do you think?” Scarlett asked, twirling her dress from side to side. “Sam’s not a fan.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that,” Sam said, leaning back in her chair. “It just doesn’t seem like what you said you wanted.”

Jess hummed as she studied it. “I agree. Doesn’t match your style.”

Scarlett looked at herself in the mirror for a moment before turning back to Jess.

“That looks great on you!” she said, nodding toward her.“Is that the one I picked out?”

Jess frowned, tugging at the ruffles that flared out from her hips. “Yeah. If you like it, I’ll get this one.”

“Well, do you like it?”

Sam smirked, letting out a light snort of laughter. “She hates it.”

Jess looked up at her, as if ready to disagree. But then she broke out into laughter, nodding. “I hate it.”

Scarlett rolled her eyes, waving her back into the dressing room. “Okay, try the next one.”

Sam chuckled, looking at her phone as they both disappeared back into the dressing rooms. She continued through the unread email chains, reading through updates from the developers on the most recent changes they’d pushed to the production version of the software.

After another minute, both the dressing room doors opened at the same time. She looked up at Scarlett, seeing a new dress that paired much better with her features.

She smiled up at her. “I love that one.”

“That’s beautiful,” Jess said from beside her, and Sam turned to look at her.

The moment her gaze landed on Jess, she faltered. Jess wore a dark blue satin gown with a low neckline. It trailed to the floor, leaving one open slit running up the length of her thigh.

She swallowed, suddenly feeling as if she should look away.

“I know, right,” Scarlett gushed, posing in front of the mirror. “I love this one.”

Sam nodded slowly, working to keep her gaze pinned on Scarlett.

Scarlett turned once more, then peered at Jess, breaking into a wide smile. “Oh my gosh, I love that one on you!”

Jess turned to the mirror, smiling. “I like this one,” she said before her eyes flitted to the side, meeting Sam’s in the reflection.

Sam pulled her eyes away to look back at Scarlett. “You guys both look great.”

“You wanna try some on?” Scarlett asked, throwing Sam a teasing look.

Sam huffed a laugh. “You mean I can’t just wear this to the wedding?” she asked, waving a hand down at her plain white t-shirt and jeans.

“Wear whatever you want,” Scarlett replied with a light shrug as she turned back to the mirror. “But you might stand out a little.”

“Fine by me,” Sam muttered as her phone buzzed in her lap with a new text from Caleb.

She swiped it open to see a message asking her to call him.

Scarlett groaned. “I have way too many dresses to try on. I’m gonna be here for hours.”

“So?” Jess muttered, smoothing down the front of her dress. “This is like your favorite thing to do.”

“Yeah, but I have a million other things to do today. Can you try some on for me?” Scarlett asked. “I just want to at least see them on someone in person.”

Sam stood up from the cushioned chair. “Hey, I gotta step out for a sec,” she mumbled, reading a second, more urgent sounding text from Caleb. “Be right back.”

Sam stepped out into the main area as she clicked the call button on Caleb’s contact.

He picked up on the first ring, immediately launching into the latest problem arising with their new client.

She listened intently as he continued, taking her through each and every detail of what he viewed as another new major road bump. Luckily, she’d listened to enough of these panic filled rants from him to be able to quickly decipher what was actually a big problem, and what was mostly just his own stress.

And in this particular case, it seemed to be the latter.

She listened to him rant for another minute before realizing it would take more than a phone call to settle his stress.

“Alright,” she said, cutting him off. “I’ll be back at the office in a bit and I’ll take a look at everything.”

Sam hung up and checked the messages on her phone one last time, scrolling through the most recent emails as she rounded the corner back to the dressing room area. The bottom of a wedding dress fluttered in the corner of her vision.

“Hey Scar,” she muttered, closing out a message thread as she slipped the phone back into her pocket.“Sorry, I have to—”

She stared ahead, freezing mid-step. She blinked once, her mouth parted with the unfinished words.

Jess’ eyes met hers in the reflection, and she somehow looked just as frozen in place. She turned slightly, away from the mirror, and Sam could see then which dress she was wearing. It was the one she’d picked out. The one that somehow now seemed a thousand times more stunning.

Jess glanced down, running her fingers across the trail of lace on the front of the dress. “She needed me to try some on for her.”

Sam just stood there, unable to stop herself from staring as her mind went blank.

Jess looked like she was about to say something more, but then she stopped. And the way she stared back at her in that moment—the cautious intensity—sent some long-lost feeling coursing within her.

A feeling that definitely shouldn’t belong to her.

And with that feeling came a warning.

“Uh—I,” Sam stammered, shaking her head and looking anywhere else. “I have to go.”

Jess might’ve nodded her head or given her some type of questioning look. Sam knew her well enough to imagine the exact way her eyes would’ve tightened around the edges, waiting for an explanation.

But still, Sam refused to look. Refused to let herself take even one more small glance.

It wasn’t right. She might not have known exactly what that feeling meant. But she did know she had no right to feel it. Whatever it was.

“Scar,” Sam called, turning toward the closed dressing room door. “I have to go. Something came up at work.”

Scarlett’s muffled groan came from the other side. “Fine,” she grumbled. “You better pick up though if I FaceTime you.”

Sam hummed, half turning away, her eyes trained on the ground. “Yeah,” she mumbled. “Okay.”

“Did you still want to meet later this week?” Jess asked softly. “About the PR stuff.”

Something in her voice sounded careful, as if she was speaking to a skittish animal, afraid it would dart away at the first wrong word.

Sam cleared her throat, rubbing a hand over the back of her neck. “Yeah.” She glanced up at Jess, seeing the timid but gentle look in her eyes. A look that made her want to both stay and go at the same time.

She glanced away again, forcing a painful smile. “I’ll text you later, about a day and time.” Then she turned, mustering every ounce of will she had to break the tension. She nodded toward the back of the shop. “You might need to call Tess back to help, so you’re not here all night.”

Jess gave one slow nod, her lips pursing slightly.

Sam cleared her throat once more as she walked away. “I’ll see you later,” she called over her shoulder.