A Love to Stay For by DeMeritt Amy

Author:DeMeritt, Amy
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2021-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Joyce had spent a huge portion of the past few weeks with Avery, but she was a bundle of nerves for tonight’s dinner date. Avery was coming over to Joyce’s house to make a Soviet soldier inspired meal from World War II and discuss her book about the Night Witches. It wasn’t much different from the other times they had hung out. They had cooked together a few times and shared twice as many meals. And when they were together, they spent at least ninety-percent of their time talking.

But they took a few very big, definitive steps together the past couple of days. They recognized and accepted the criticism they had and will receive for being together. They decided they were committed to each other in the sense that they were exclusively dating each other. And the thought of them developing into a sexual relationship went from being just a possibility to a matter of the right moment presenting itself.

And that is what had Joyce’s anxiety elevated and her hands slightly shaking while she got ready. Avery had seen Joyce in her pajamas with messy hair and suffering from a major hangover. She had seen her in shorts and a tee shirt, jeans and a button-up cotton shirt with a collar, and even in her bathing suit. This would be the first time Avery would see her dressed up. Logic told her if Avery was still interested after having seen her looking like a wreck when she had a hangover that she had nothing left to worry about. But the ego didn’t care about logic.

The ego was the voice of learned behaviors and narratives based on past experiences. It was a combination of what had been said and done to her personally, and the ideas and opinions that had nothing to do with her that she had also been exposed to. And no matter how much praise a person may receive, no one was immune to the toxicity of society’s ever-changing opinions on beauty and desirability.

Joyce did her best to shove the ego down and finished getting ready. After showering and blow drying her rusty-brown hair, she applied a neutral palette of foundation, eye shadow, and lipstick. She knew it would make her even more anxious to be indecisive with what to wear, so she went to her walk-in closet and picked her favorite black wraparound dinner dress without more than a passing glance at the rest of her wardrobe. After putting on a thin gold necklace without a charm, she took one last appraising look of herself in the mirror.

She forced a smile across her lips, then told herself, “You look lovely. Have fun tonight.”

With a small laugh at herself for the verbal pep-talk, she left her bathroom and made her way downstairs. She walked through the living room, kitchen, and dining room, checking to make sure everything was clean and presentable.

When the doorbell rang, her nerves prickled again, but her stomach also fluttered with happy anticipation. And when she opened the door, she felt like she was floating.

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