Broken

Chapter 31

"What about this one?" Claire asked as she stepped out of the dressing room in a long black dress.

"Yes." I said as I nodded.

She rolled her eyes as she looked at me through the mirror. "You can't say yes to every dress, Stephen. I have to pick one."

"I can say yes to every dress. YOU have to pick one." I said as I stood up and walked over to her.

"I knew I should have brought Diane..." She said as she adjusted the dress and turned to look at it from another angle. "I don't like this one." She said as she huffed and shook her head.

"How about I go pick out dresses that I like, and you try those on?" I asked.

"Fine. You'll probably do better than I did." she said as she walked back into the dressing room.

I asked the attendant to pull one of the dresses from the front of the store that caught my eye when we walked in. She found Claire's size, and took it into the dressing room for her.

"Red? Really?" I heard Claire say when she saw it.

I just smiled as I sat back in the leather chair and waited for her to come out. When I heard the door unlock, I sat forward and smiled as soon as she stepped out in the strapless flowing dress. She stepped up on the platform in front of the mirror, and started to look over the dress. Walking over to her again, I watched her through the mirror.

"Well?" She asked as she turned around to me.

"Yes." I said with a nod.

"You are so frustrating." she said with another huff as she turned back to the mirror.

I stepped up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. Placing soft kisses over her shoulder, I made my way up her neck to her ear.

"This one," I whispered, "please."

She ran her hands over my arms and she turned her head into me, "Ok. This one."

The attendant helped her out of the dress, and took it to the front of the store while we looked for a suit for me. I wanted to keep it simple, so I tried on a few black suits and Claire picked her favorite. I got a white shirt to go with it, and a new pair of shoes. As the attendant was totaling everything up, I ran back over to where the suits were, and picked up a black tie. Taking it back to the front, I dropped it on the counter.

"Stephen..." Claire said as she turned to me.

"What?" I asked as I handed my card to the attendant to pay for everything.

"No, use the company card." Claire said putting her hand on my arm.

"Not this time." I said with a small smile.

She gave me a questioning look, "Why did you go get a tie? You hate ties?"

I shrugged, "I'll wear one sometimes."

Her jaw dropped as she swatted my arm. "You lied!"

I laughed as I pulled her into me. "Not really. I don't like ties. But there are a few exceptions that I'll wear one."

She gave me a confused look, "You didn't wear one to the last appreciation dinner..."

"This one is a black tie event." I said with a smile.

I laid the dress and my new suit flat in the trunk of Claire's car before we headed home. We stopped and got dinner to go on the way home.

...

The next few days passed quickly at work as we continued to prepare for the appreciation dinner and Claire started to officially take over Medical Corp. Our days were long, and we were very ready to be able to sleep in on Saturday morning.