Beauty and the Bridesmaid

Chapter Sixteen

After hearing from the Anna Lane Master Class in Second Dates, I’m dressed smartly in a black pleather pencil skirt (sometimes I’m glad that Anna is a bargain-hunter like me, Lela would have insisted on real leather) and a chiffon blouse the colour of milky tea. Apparently the second date is the make-or-break time and is totally different from the first date.

Anna says that Damien has already established that we get along and, by asking me out again, he’s now looking to see where a relationship between us might go. I don’t know how she knows these things, considering most of her first dates are the kind that end up in the bedroom and never progress to a second date.

“You need to wear these shoes.” Anna shoves a pair of nude-coloured peep-toes into my hands.

“Because the right impression to make for a second date is to fall flat on my face?” I question, inspecting the ridiculously high platform heel.

“You’ll be fine,” she encourages. “You have walked in heels before.”

I think of my current shoe collection. It’s mostly made up of trainers or comfy ballet pumps over towering stilettoes. “Can’t I just wear my ankle boots?”

“You mean the ones with the non-existent heel? If you’re showing off your legs, you need a bit of height to elongate them.”

I suddenly look down at my legs self-consciously, checking for any patches of hair missed by my razor (because I  don’t want to turn up to the date smelling of hair removal cream, and there’s no way I can bring myself to face the pain of waxing).

“Try them on,” Anna urges, taking the shoes from me and placing them on the floor by my feet.

I slip one foot in like Cinderella, though Anna is far from my Fairy Godmother. They certainly look nice as I swing my ankle from side to side, admiring them. But standing and walking in them is a different matter. I put on the other shoe and push myself up against the sofa. After taking a few wobbly steps, I kick them off again and tell Anna that I won’t even make it to the restaurant we’re going to alive if I wear them.

“You just need some practice,” she assures me, picking the discarded heels up again. “Here, watch.” She bends down and quickly puts the shoes on herself before taking a few confident steps around our living room. “The key is to balance.”

“I don’t think I’ve got any balance.”

“Jade, you are wearing these shoes.”

I curse her silently for being the same shoe size as me; it had always seemed such a desirable quality in a flatmate before my current situation. Taking them from her again, I practise walking the way that she did. My steps aren’t nearly as confident as hers but they get a little steadier as I get used to wearing them.

“See! And you only have to get in and out of the car and to the restaurant, don’t you?”

This reminds me that Damien is picking me up and I feel a wave of nervousness. It’s not like I haven’t been on dates before but I don’t know what he expects of me. I don’t know if I’m wearing the right thing or if I’m going to say the rights things and act the right way.

And, of course, there is still the matter of Lela’s infidelity. Just because she said it wasn’t him doesn’t mean that she was telling the truth. Especially since she’s found out that I went out with him. If it is him she cheated with, would she really tell me about it? Surely not after she knows how hurt I still am over her not telling me about Ash.

But if I can’t drag it out of her, maybe a few subtle questions thrown in Damien’s direction might work. After all if it’s not him, he might have an idea of who it could be.