during my training session, but changed into my Catcher-approved ensemble - bandeaux bra and barely there shorts, throwing a track jacket over the top so I'd be decent during the drive.
Just as I zipped up the jacket, there was a knock at the door. I opened it and found Helen in the hallway in a tidy tweed suit.
"Hello, dear," she said, holding out a royal blue garment bag emblazoned with the logo of a chic-chic store in the Loop. "I was just dropping off your gown."
I took the bag from her hands, the weight not as heavy as I'd have expected given the size of the bag. Her hands free, she pulled a small pink notebook from the pocket of her nubby pink suit jacket. Nodding, she read it over.
"Tonight is a black-tie event. The color theme is black and white," she read, then lifted her gaze to mine. "That helped my selection process, of course, but it took no small bit of finagling to obtain a gown this quickly. It was delivered moments ago."
It bothered me, more than it should have, that she'd picked out the dress. That Ethan hadn't picked out the dress.
That it bothered me was just wrong in so many ways.
"Thank you," I told her. "I appreciate the effort." More's the pity she couldn't have taken my place.
"Of course," Helen said. "I need to get back downstairs. Plenty of work to do. Do enjoy the party." She smiled and tucked the notebook back into her pocket. "And be careful with the dress. It was rather an investment."
I frowned down at the garment bag. "Define 'investment.' "
"Near twelve, actually."
"Twelve? Twelve hundred dollars?" I stared at the dress bag, horrified at the thought that I was going to be responsible for four figures of Cadogan investment.
Helen chuckled. "Twelve thousand dollars, dear." She dropped that bomb, then headed back down the hallway, completely missing my look of abject horror.
Ever so carefully, as if carrying the Gutenberg Bible, I laid the dress bag on my bed.
"Take two," I murmured, and unzipped the bag.
A soft sound escaped me.
It was black silk, a fabric so delicate I could barely feel it between my fingers. And it was, indeed, a ball gown. A square strapless bodice that dropped to a spill of the luscious, inky silk.
I wiped my hands on my shorts, pulled the dress from the bag and held it up against my chest, spinning just to watch the skirt move. And move it did. The silk flowed like black water, the fabric the darkest shade of black I'd ever seen. It wasn't the kind of black that you confused with navy in the dressing room. It was black. Moonless, midnight black. It was stunning.
My cell rang, and I hugged the dress to my body with my free hand, scanned the caller ID, and flipped it open.
"Oh, my God, you should see this dress I'm wearing tonight."
"Did you just say something complimentary about a dress? Where's my Merit? What have you done with her?"
"I'm serious, Mallory. It's amazing. Black silk, this ball gown thing." I stood in front of the mirror, half turned. "It's beautiful."
"Seriously, I'm totally weirded out by the girly nature of this conversation. And yet, it's kinda like you're growing up. Do you think Judy Blume made a book about adolescent vampires? Are You There God, It's Me, Merit?" Mallory snorted, obviously pleased with herself.
"Ha, ha, ha," I said, placing the dress carefully on top of the garment bag. "I got an invitation to a deal at my parents', so we're heading back to Oak Park in a bit."
"Oh, that's classy, vampire. Forget about your old friends now that you're all high society."
"I'm torn between two answers. First, the obvious one: I just saw you last night. Also acceptable: Were we friends? I thought I was using you for rent and gratuitous branding."
"My turn to laugh," she said, instead of actually laughing. "Seriously, I'm on the road, driving to Schaumburg, and I wanted to check on you. I assume you and Darth Sullivan got back to Cadogan okay?"
"We didn't get chased by raving vampires, so I'd call it a successful return trip."
"Was Morgan okay about having to leave last night?"
Phone pinched between shoulder and ear, I tightened my ponytail. "He probably wasn't thrilled about being replaced by Ethan, but I haven't had a chance to talk to him."
"What do you mean you haven't talked to him? He's practically your boyfriend."
I frowned at the disapproval in her voice. "He's not