Sparks Fly

Chapter 9

I woke up to Dakota brushing my hair from my face, "Lydia, it's time to get up." I grumbled and buried my face in his chest. Last night I had taken him up on his offer to crawl into bed with him. Like he promised, he was wearing pajama bottoms. He chuckled, "Lydia, if you don't wake up Chelsea is gonna eat your breakfast." "Did she threaten too," I grumbled. "Yes," He said. I got up then, "A note you should make, is she follows through on her threats." I threw my robe on and went downstairs and saw her taking a piece of bacon out of my plate.

"Unhand the bacon," I told her. She dropped it back onto the plate with a smile, "So I see you slept great." I rolled my eyes at her as I went to my chair. Dakota came in wearing a shirt with his pajama bottoms. I liked that around other women he covered himself, but around me he was fine being shirtless.

"When do you leave for your book tour," Dakota asked her curiously. He was such the morning person while on the other hand couldn't function as a decent human without caffeine. "Shortly before Halloween," she told us. "My publisher thinks it's best to throw a party to celebrate and will be inviting other authors. She told me to invite friends and family as well, which obviously means the two of you. In the spirit of Halloween, it'll be a masquerade theme." Chelsea always did love dramatic parties. "Meaning another dress you and I get to shop for," Chelsea teased while nudging me with her foot under the table. I rolled my eyes and bit into my jelly coated biscuit.
Dakota chuckled before he took a drink of his coffee.

I looked through some dresses, scrunching my nose at them. "So after you got back to Perkins's place what happened," I asked Chelsea curiously, noticing she hasn't mentioned him in a few days. She sighed, "He is giving me space to decide if I want to leave him. He was on his knees apologizing last night, begging me not too." She shook her head, "I can't get over what he said though. How he threw all that out there." I shrugged, "In his shoes, I would've done the same."

She looked at me shocked. "Probably would've been more of an asshole about it too," I added in. "You're telling me, you understand why he was such a dick," She asked me. I nodded, "He loves you Chelsea. He just wants what's best for you. He doesn't see me as best for you, and too be honest I don't see myself as best for you either. I don't even see myself best for Dakota to be honest. Of course, I wont give his wretched mother the joy of hearing that." She made me turn to look at her, "Why would you say something like that?"

I sighed, "Because, although I'm getting better, I'm not stable, nor do I think I'll ever be stable." She took my hand and shoved my sleeve up, "This is proof you're stable. You haven't done it in years." She let my wrist go to cup my cheeks, "You're stable and I can't wait for you to see that."

She then let my face go, and smiled brightly, "Now let's find you the perfect dress."

I thought she was going to make me try on the entire store. One dress made me look like a rejected male peacock while another made me look like a banana. Eventually I found the perfect red dress. It had a deep V neck line that stopped a little above my belly button. The long sleeves were sheer and the dress was backless. There was a split on the left side that went a little higher than mid thigh. It was more out there than I would've picked for myself in the past, but I felt so beautiful in the dress.

After finding my dress she dragged me to my hair appointment, then to get our nails done. After that we went to go find the perfect shoes. I had decided to go with a pair of silver rhinestone gladiator heels that stopped just above my knees with a matching rhinestone clutch.

"I need a very large burger after all that," I told her. She laughed and shook her head, "Careful or these women that have to diet to stay thin will attack you." I laughed and rolled my eyes, "Like that will happen."