by Megan Bryce
Mac didn’t blink, only said, “It’s that bad?”
Nicole kept smiling at him and Gia kept waiting.
Mac flicked his eyes between the two women, then said to Gia, “Hello?”
“This…is my friend from New York. Nicole. Bissette.”
“Oh.” Mac stood, adjusting his suit jacket and holding out his hand. “Sorry, I thought you were another consultant.”
Nicole took his outstretched, fluttering her eyelashes and showing her perfect white teeth, and Gia’s nostrils flared.
She said through her teeth, “This is Mac. Sullivan.”
Mac flicked his eyes to Gia, surprise clear on his face, and she said, “It’s just Mac, right?”
He dropped Nicole’s hand, a slight smile lighting his face as he looked at Gia.
Nicole looked between them, her full smile smoothing into something a little less rage-inducing, and she said, “I wanted to see the tie.”
Mac’s smiled dropped and Gia grinned.
“I’ve told Nicole a lot about it. She is going to help me with some ideas for you. She’s just my friend first.”
Mac sat down, then realized there was only one other chair in the office and stood back up.
“It was nice of you to come visit. I know Gia misses New York.”
Nicole said, “I think she’s getting used to it here. Maybe she’ll end up liking it.”
Gia said quickly, “We won’t keep you, Mac. I just wanted Nicole to meet you before we discuss all the outfits you’ve already tried. And of course, she wanted to see the tie.”
“Of course,” he said dryly.
Nicole turned to leave and Gia watched him for a long moment. He smiled at her, not even watching Nicole Bissette walk away when plenty of men had enjoyed that experience before.
Gia smiled back at Mac and he said softly, “How long is your friend going to be in town?”
“A couple of days.”
He nodded, then said, “Will that be enough time?”
Gia laughed.
“That’s what I said.”
Gia and Nicole had pulled themselves back into the Escalade before Gia’s happy Mac feelings faded enough for her to remember how her friend had practically crawled into his lap.
Okay, well, as much lap-crawling as Nicole Bissette would ever do.
Gia said, “Just what the hell was that?”
Nicole smoothed her skirt and cleared her throat.
“That was me doing my best friend duty.”
“You know, I was all for Flynn right from the start. I didn’t try and tempt him. I encouraged him.”
“And that was you doing your best friend duty… Just how did you encourage him?”
“I told him to go for it.” Gia thought for a minute. “And I told him to watch Hitch.”
Nicole said, “I wonder what movie I would tell Mac to watch about you. Bringing Up Baby?”
Gia sniffed, turning on the car and heading for home. “No. And you shouldn’t have tempted him right in front of me, either.”
“You’re probably right. I should have waited to…to…”
“Be all over him so that I wanted to slap you?”
Nicole looked pleased. “Yes. Did you want to slap me?”
Gia had wanted to rip Nicole’s face off but she said, “I just wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.”
Nicole said softly, “I’m sorry. Victoria is usually here to scare the living daylights out of your love interests. I’m new at this.” She looked out the window, then quickly back. “He didn’t seem interested, though.”
“He didn’t, did he?” Gia tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “At first I thought he was color-blind. And then I thought maybe he was visually hypersensitive but now? I don’t know what he is.”
She looked at Nicole, perfect and put together, with a smile that made grown men turn into babbling idiots and said, “You should be right up his alley. You’re right up every man’s alley.”
“So maybe I didn’t test him at all. Maybe I should call Victoria.”
“Let’s not get carried away. He’s not my love interest… Maybe a love mistake.”
“Uh-huh. You like him. I think you should go for it.”
“What are you doing, encouraging me? I don’t like him. He’s uptight. And he drives an old hot rod.” Gia let out a long breath. “And I already went for it, remember? That’s why I’m in this awkward situation where I’m trying to avoid him and dress him at the same time.”
“Well, we can get started on dressing him at least. Let’s go back to the hotel so I can change and then we’ll go do some retail therapy. Put some outfits together for him to try tomorrow morning.”
Gia shook her head.
“First we have to go say hello to the family. I told my mother I’d be bringing you by this morning.”
Nicole’s face blanched.
“Your grandmother?”
“Yep.”
Nicole flipped up the mirror on the sun visor.
“I can’t go like this!”
Gia just smiled serenely at her.
“Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it?”
They sat in the driveway, Nicole fussing with the skimpy straps of her blouse and trying to flatten her hair, and Gia eventually took pity on her.
“You look beautiful. Stop it.”
“I look sexy. This is not grandmother-meeting attire.”
“You’re the daughter of Nikita. You look exactly like what she’s expecting.”
Nicole closed her eyes and said, “Oh, that’s just great.”
Gia laughed.
“I’ll go get a cardigan for you to cover up that man-eater blouse. Will that make you feel better?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And I just want to say that it’s not going to be as bad as you think it will. Don’t worry about it.”
Nicole opened her eyes to glare at Gia.
“You’re right. That is terribly unhelpful advice.”
“I know. Be right back.”
Gia quickly grabbed a light sweater and ran back outside before her mother even knew she was there, and Nicole buttoned it up to her neck. She decided to put her hair into a neat bun and wipe off most of her lipstick, and then looked expectantly at Gia, who said, “Sorry. You still look gorgeous.”
“It’s the best I can do. I wasn’t expecting to go out in public like this.”
“Mac’s not public?”
“It was my duty. How else would we know whether he’s worthy of you or not?”
“We don’t need to know if he’s worthy because we know he was a mistake.” Gia pulled Nicole out of the SUV. “Now come meet my grandmother so you can stop freaking out.”
Both Gia’s mother and grandmother were waiting at the open door and Loretta said, “I thought I heard you. It’s so good to see you, Nicole.”
Nonnie held her hands out in greeting.
“Oh, beautiful Nicole, we finally meet in person. But I thought you didn’t smile?”
Gia looked at her friend who was indeed smiling, even through her discomfort, and said, “She’s been smiling the whole trip, not caring who saw her.”
Nicole said, “I guess I’m just happy to be here.”
Gia said, “I guess you’re just happy. And not caring who thinks you’re Nikita when you have Flynn, who thinks you’re you.”
Nonnie said, “He must be very special to you.”
Gia raised her eyebrows at Nicole.
“And you still think it’s maybe love. Even Nonnie can see, and she’s never met you before.”
Nicole said softly, truthfully, “It’s not that I don’t think that Flynn loves me because I think he does. I just think he shouldn’t. Not yet.”
Nonnie pulled her inside the house.
“And why shouldn’t he love you? Is this boy blinded by your beauty so he cannot see the woman underneath?”
Nicole looked over her shoulder at Gia—who only shrugged. Maybe Gia would have saved h
er if Nicole hadn’t tried to tempt Mac.
Gia was offended that Nicole had even thought she was supposed to.
Nicole said haltingly, “No. I… I think he would do anything for me. For me. Not this.” Nicole waved at her face. “And not to have me, either. Just so I’m happy.”
Gia quickly blinked her eyes and said through a rough throat, “Can you imagine what would happen to the world if Victoria found someone who would do anything just to make her happy?”
Nicole said, “Apocalypse Now?”
“At least the end of western civilization as we know it.”
Nicole laughed. “What about you? What if you found someone who would do anything so you were happy?”
“I’m ninety percent sure I’d use my powers for good. Seventy percent. I’d give it a solid fifty-fifty. But I don’t know, the thought doesn’t make me all tingly.”
“It doesn’t?” Nicole said, looking absolutely aghast.
“Meh. I only want someone who thinks I’m the…”
…the best.
Not second runner-up in the brunette mafia.
She looked at her gorgeous best friend and said, “Like I’m everything he could ever imagine wanting.”
“Yeah, that’s not always great,” Nicole said, and Gia snorted.
“I guess it’s true what they say. No one wants what they have.” She lightly tugged at Nicole’s sleek hair. “Like straight hair when curly would have so much more body. Or curly hair when straight would look so much neater.”
Nonnie had kept her hand on Nicole’s arm, slowly pulling her toward the dining room table, and when Gia realized where they were heading, said quickly, “We’ve already eaten.”
Her mother headed to the kitchen, saying over her shoulder, “Okay. I’ll just get you girls a snack.”
Gia said to Nicole, “That’s for you. She doesn’t feed me anymore now that I live here.”
“Oh, but I’m not hungry.”
“Good luck with that.”
Gia sat without fuss, Nicole sat with a little help from Nonnie, and Nonnie sat with a sigh.
Nonnie said, “I remember when I was young and every decision was so important. I had to worry over it. I had to be cautious. When really, if someone loves you, you should jump. You should collect all the memories you can while you have the chance.”
Nicole said softly, “But how do you know?”
Nonnie sniffed. “It’s love. You just know.”
Nicole shook her head. “How do you know that it won’t end terribly?”
“Ah. Well, it will end terribly.”
Nicole pulled back. “That’s not what you’re supposed to say.”
Nonnie patted her hand.
“It’s the truth, though. The end will be terrible, even if the end is you crying over his grave fifty years from now.”
Gia leaned over, sliding her arm around her grandmother and sighing, “Oh, Nonnie…”
“But isn’t that the best outcome, too? Fifty years with your best friend, fifty years with your partner. Fifty years of memories, fifty years of firsts. Fifty years of two, together.”
Nonnie sighed and smiled.
“Life is for living, beautiful girls. Live it.”
Megan BryceThe Tie’s The Limit
Nineteen
If Mac had thought he’d hated Gia trying to dress him, it was nothing to having Gia and her friend trying to dress him.
He’d grown comfortable with Gia, at ease. And bringing in someone else threw everything off.
He was off.
Gia was off.
And they were already off because of that thing that wasn’t going to happen again.
He liked to think that Gia wasn’t completely set against it.
She’d kissed him again, after all.
She’d dragged him across the desk and kissed him again.
You couldn’t fault a guy for hoping the thing that wasn’t going to happen again would somehow happen again.
But with Nicole there, there was a lot less laughter, a lot less comfortable, and by the end of the week Mac was back to being uncomfortably reserved and Gia was back to being, well, not reserved.
Mac wasn’t sure she knew what reserved was, but she was something.
She kept staring at him when she thought he wasn’t looking, her eyes narrowed. And she was pure business.
No talking about cars, no driving lessons.
No trying to talk him into painting his bathroom a color that would scare away children and small animals.
No unexpected lunches or plans for dinner.
It was fashion, all fashion, nothing but fashion so help him.
Anybody, please help him. If he had to try on one more pair of pants…
How many different kinds of pants could there possibly be? How many different kinds of pants left could there possibly be?
They must be nearing the end soon, right?
“Right,” he said to the women currently staring at his bottom half with hopeless expressions. “We must be nearing the end soon.”
Nicole shook her head.
“I really didn’t think this would take all week,” she said and Gia crossed her arms.
“I did warn you.”
“I know, but I didn’t believe you. And I do have to go back tomorrow whether we crack him or not.”
Gia nodded. “I’m glad you came anyway because now I know it’s not me. It’s him.”
Mac started to say that these pants were just fine and no cracking was necessary but Gia huffed at him and Nicole looked horrified, and he shut his mouth and sighed out his nose.
And truthfully, Mac was kind of glad to know it wasn’t just Gia who thought fine was unacceptable.
Maybe it was the New York in them.
“The thing about Mac,” Gia said like he wasn’t standing there uncomfortably in foreign pants, “is he thinks he’s easy going. He thinks he’s low maintenance. And he’ll tell you to pick anything and then he’ll hate it. Or he’ll have no opinion about it.”
“Mmm. There’s nothing worse than high maintenance thinking they’re low maintenance.”
“Right? Just own it. We can’t all be low maintenance,” Gia said, and Nicole headed out of the office, laughing.
“Right.”
Gia waited until Nicole was out of sight to say, “She’s given up on you.”
“And it only took her a week.”
“You’re lucky I don’t give up. It’s entirely possible I’ll still be trying to dress you fifty years from now.”
He smiled at her then.
“Lucky? Yes, that must be the word I’m searching for.”
“You are lucky. Do you know how many men would kill to have Nicole Bissette try to dress them?”
Mac went to sit behind his desk, tired of the mirror and the pants and women trying to dress him when he’d been doing it for decades.
Not well, apparently. But he’d been doing it.
He said, “Why do you keep calling her that?”
“Because that’s her name. A name you should recognize. Or at least the face,” she said, suddenly looking at his own face for signs of recognition.
He only shook his head and she said with exasperation, “Her mother is Nikita, the supermodel.”
Mac’s expression didn’t change.
“Why would I know anything about supermodels?”
“I don’t know. You’re alive and breathing?”
He shook his head again and Gia scoffed.
“Even if you don’t know who she is, or who her mother is, Nicole is very pretty.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
Gia blinked a few times, and then she laughed.
She plopped down into the other chair, suddenly looking more relaxed than she had all week, and said, “I don’t know why that surprises me. But I believe you.”
“Oh, good,” he said. “I was really worried there for a minute.”
She laughed again and Mac realized he liked this part.
He liked that she laughed at him—so few people did.
He liked when she was storming into and around his office—who did that?
And he realized he’d been smiling at her and she’d been smiling back for quite a long moment.
He cleared his throat.
“An SUV popped up this morning I thought you might like. I don’t know if you want to think about that when your friend is here.”
“I don’t think that’s the kind of shopping she had in mind for today. Do you really think I’d like it?”
“It’s red.”
She sat up a little.
“Go on.”
“It’s small. It’s sleek. It might be considered cute?”
“An SUV? I don’t believe you but why don’t you show me.”
He pulled up the car, twisting the monitor around, and Gia folded her arms to study it.
“It is small. It is cute, actually.”
Mac said, “And it’s red.”
“I’m glad you understand that’s the most important part.”
“I thought the price tag was the most important part.”
He pointed at the asking price and Gia held her breath.
“I can almost afford that.”
“I know. Plus, we won’t pay that.”
“We won’t?”
Mac shook his head.
“We won’t. Should we check it out?”
“Tomorrow? I need to take Nicole to the airport in the morning but I could do it after that.”
Mac thought about saying something like, It’s a date, but then what if it wasn’t a date? And what if it reminded her about that thing they’d done?
Mac didn’t want to go back to uncomfortable, not again.
So he nodded.
And Gia said, “She’s probably waiting for me downstairs. And the pants.”
He stood when she did, saying, “I’ll change,” and for good measure he tried to lie again as she walked toward the door, hoping she’d believe it more when she wasn’t looking at him.
“I do like these pants.”
“Nope. But I’m almost sure we will know it when we see it.”
“Very reassuring, thank you.”
She grinned over her shoulder as she shut the door.
“You’re welcome.”
Gia picked him up the next day at his condo, even though he had offered to drive. He’d had a few hours to come to terms with it and he’d decided he’d face death willingly and with his eyes wide open.