Star Craving Mad by Elise Abrams Miller

Author:Elise Abrams Miller [MILLER, ELISE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780446507011
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

After I tuck Lola in bed at nine o’clock, I race to my bedroom and put on the dress. As I inch over to the full-length mirror, I can already feel that the fabric is stretched taut in all the wrong places—across my thighs, mostly. And the shoes are not only deadly but also a size too small. Did Nick really think that I was a size zero and had size-six feet?

In front of the mirror, I cannot bear to open my eyes. But open my eyes I must. I start with my left eye, just to ease the transition. The shoe looks okay. It’s my foot that’s turning beet red and looking . . . well, quilted. My calves and knees, in all their pasty white glory, are out in the open, taking in the horror of it all. Oh, and there are my saddlebags, cellulite and all, for the world to see. I’ve never felt uglier. Until I see my chest, a hopeless child drowning in an Olympic-size pool. I lower my head in defeat.

I can hear the grand piano tinkling Christmas oldies downstairs, as well as the din of wealthy voices and every now and then a woman’s screeching laughter. I cannot go down there. I refuse to go down there. I—

“You look beautiful, Maddy.” I whip around, to see Nick poised in the doorway, looking impossibly luscious in a meticulously tailored tuxedo, his hair disheveled in perfect contrast. Even in this joke of a dress, I feel my insides going gooey. But wait. Did he say I look . . . beautiful?

“Really?”

“Why does every woman on the planet ask that exact question when they receive a compliment on their looks?”

“I don’t know, I just— I look okay? Really?” Nick laughs, a hearty, deep laugh and I smile, despite how foolish I feel.

“Maddy, I am telling you—no lie—you are breathtaking.”

Now I’m really melting. He can’t be serious, though! I know I must look like a trollop.

“I guess I’m not used to wearing such, um, high-fashion, um . . .”

“Couture,” he says, a smile teasing his eyes.

“Couture.”

Maybe he has a point. After all, Nick sees women in these kinds of getups all the time. Maybe he knows better than I do if I look good. As I ponder the possibility that I actually am breathtaking in this dress, Nick pirouettes into the room.

“How do I look?” he asks.

“You look . . . great,” I say, trying not to salivate, or faint. He smiles broadly, obviously satisfied, and refocuses his smoldering gaze on me.

“Turn around, Maddy.”

“I turn in a slow circle and try not to bunch my shoulders into a tight little knot when my back side is facing his front. I can feel his eyes take in my posterior view, and I would die of humiliation if it didn’t turn me on so much.

Then I think of Lola, sleeping innocently in her bed. I wonder what she would think if she knew I was destroying her parents’ marriage right this minute.

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