felt kind of ridiculous. This person obviously knew me, but I had no clue who she was. “Who is this?”
“Rebecca,” she said in exasperation.
Rebecca….oh! “Oh!,” I said in surprise. “Um…what time were you thinking?”
“Noon. Are you staying with Robert?”
“Yes.”
“Great. I’ll have a car pick you up at 11:30 outside his apartment.”
My head spun. How did she know where Robert lived? And why would she want to have lunch with me? I just met her for lunch the other day at a small restaurant. Of course, the lunch had been interrupted by her work and we didn’t really get a chance to actually talk. So, why did she want to get together again?
“Wait, where are we going?”
“Alinea. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She hung up before I could say anything else. I googled Alinea and my eyes bulged out of my head. This wasn’t lunch. This was my grocery budget for the next four weeks wrapped into one meal. The interior was fancy and looked like something set out of a totally different time period. I was just about to text her back and tell her that I couldn’t go when Robert called.
“Hey,” I said, my hand shakily running across my forehead as I took in the images and prices before me.
“What’s wrong? You sound stressed.”
“Rebecca just called. She wants me to go out to lunch with her tomorrow.”
“That’s great. Does she want me to be there?”
“She didn’t say anything about you.” I chewed my lip. “She said that she would pick me up outside your apartment. How does she even know where you live?”
I heard his snort on the other end. “This is Rebecca Morrison. She knows everything, and she can find out anything.”
“Then how am I supposed to fool her into thinking that we’re engaged?” I shrieked.
“Relax. We already convinced her.”
“Right,” I nodded to myself. “There’s just one problem. She wants to take me to some restaurant called Alinea.”
I heard his low whistle over the phone. “Wow. Do you have anything to wear?”
“What, like there’s a special dress code?”
“Uh, yeah. You can’t walk in there in jeans and a t-shirt. And frankly, if you did, you would embarrass Rebecca.”
“Robert, I can’t go to that restaurant. It’s so pretentious looking.”
“It’s her style and you agreed to this, remember?”
“Nobody said anything about fancy restaurants.”
“I’ll pick you up in a half hour and we’ll go shopping for some things for you to wear. We can go out to dinner afterwards.”
“Shopping? You want me to go shopping?”
“Doesn’t every girl love to go shopping?” His voice relayed his confusion, so I figured I’d clear that up right now.
“No, not every girl likes to go shopping. I hate it. In fact, I order most of my stuff online for the simple fact that I hate going into a store where people shove things in my face and demand I go into a dressing room to try things on.”
He chuckled. “Well, I won’t let them shove anything in your face. Besides, you’ll get to try on fancy clothes and those shoes all you chicks like.”
“Shoes? The only shoes I wear are tennis shoes, unless it’s summer. Then I only wear flip flops.”
“Hmm. Well, it’s too cold for sandals, but we could find you some warm boots.”
“Flip-flops,” I said slowly. “Not sandals. If I have to actually attach them to my feet in some way, it ain’t happening.”
“Really? You have a problem with sandals?”
“Yes, I happen to hate them.”
“Jesus wore sandals,” he pointed out.
“Jesus was crucified. Do you still want to use that argument? I’m not sure his sandals won him any points.”
“Wow, okay, I won’t mention the sandals again.”
“I don’t want to go try on any clothes,” I said, almost whining. I hated shopping so much.
“Well, you can’t go out to lunch with Rebecca in your clothes. Besides, you’re representing the firm. I’ll be home soon.”
He hung up and I couldn’t help the pang that hit me deep in the chest. You can’t go out to lunch with Rebecca in your clothes. There was nothing wrong with my clothes. I knew that he wasn’t criticizing my clothes, but deep down, I wondered if he wished I dressed differently. He was always walking around in his fancy suits. Meanwhile, I was comfy in just loungewear if I could get away with it.
I tossed my phone on the bed and hurried into the bathroom to take a look at myself. I was rumpled from sex on the beach last night. After our shower, I had let my hair air dry