Down Under With Dad’s Best Friend by Flora Ferrari

Chapter Six

Candace

I finish off what must be my fourth glass when I realize what that means. We must have been here for hours – and Sean’s still sitting here like there’s nowhere in the world he’d rather be.

“Oh, God,” I say. “I’ve kept you here for so long. Are you sure you haven’t got somewhere to be?”

“Not at all,” Sean laughs – but then he glances at his watch, and his expression clouds over. “Ah. I didn’t realize just how late it got. Actually, I hate to say it, but I do have to head out soon.”

“Right,” I say, trying to sound light – but in truth, the idea puts a knot in my throat. I don’t want him to go. I realize that the second it becomes a reality, not just a possibility.

Sean finishes his drink, then checks his phone. “It’s a shame,” he says. “I’ve been having a really good time.”

“Me, too,” I say. I’m trying so hard to sound cheerful like it’s all fine, but it isn’t. I don’t manage it very well, because he hesitates instead of getting up to go.

“Are you going to be alright?” he asks.

“Oh,” I say. “Um, yeah. I mean, I should be, right? It’s just Melbourne. I’ll head back to my hotel.”

“Don’t let that one asshole this morning put you off from having a good vacation,” he says. “You deserve to enjoy yourself.”

“Yeah,” I agree. I look down at myself, at my white dress with this obvious brown coffee stain. Oh, God. I have to walk down the street like this. It didn’t seem so bad when I was sitting here with Sean, but now that I have to go out there alone… I can just imagine how everyone is going to be staring at me. It’s so embarrassing.

“You know,” he says, still not getting up. “I’m just going to a boring business dinner. I… I don’t know. Maybe we could go together? You can have dinner on your own, and after I’m finished with the guys I have to meet, we could get a drink.”

I bite my lip. “I don’t mean to be an inconvenience,” I say. “I’m sorry. You should enjoy your trip, too. You don’t want to have to play babysitter.”

He grins at me. “Believe me, I’m not playing babysitter. I mean it when I say I’ve had a good time this afternoon. I just want that to continue.”

I look down at myself again. I want so badly to accept his offer, even if it is a little weird to eat separately in the same place. But… “I can’t really go to dinner like this,” I say. “Sorry. I didn’t bring many nice things with me, either. I just thought I would be walking around all day, looking at tourist things, not going to nice restaurants.”

“That’s alright,” he says, standing up. He stretches out his hand towards me with a smile. “I think I can take care of that.”

“You can?” I ask, staring at him. “How?”

He shakes his hand towards me, emphasizing that I should take it. “Come with me, and find out.”

I want to stay with him because when I’m with him, I don’t feel quite so embarrassed about all of this. So, in the end, it’s not much of a choice. I take his hand, and he helps me get to my feet, then leads me out as I slip my purse onto my shoulder.

We start walking along the street, and it’s only after a few minutes that I realize we’re still holding hands. It feels so natural, like the most obvious thing in the world, that it didn’t even occur to me. But we’re really doing it – and that thought actually startles me into pulling my hand away, by accident more than anything else.

Then I curse myself in my head when he doesn’t reach out for me again.

We walk side by side, and I realize as we laugh and talk together that I don’t even feel self-conscious. I do catch someone staring at me and that’s the first time I remember I was scared about going out wearing my coffee-stained dress. With Sean by my side, it seems easier to deal with everything somehow.

It doesn’t hurt that I notice most of the stares go his way. He’s so tall, and so handsome too – it’s no wonder people are staring. If I saw him and didn’t know who he was, I think I would assume he was some kind of movie star. Or at least a model. He doesn’t look like the average man on the street.

We’re almost back to the station when he stops and pulls me to the side. “How about here?” he asks, gesturing to a nearby doorway. I look up and see that we’re outside a vintage clothing store.

“Here for what?” I ask, feeling kind of stupid.

“For your new dress,” he says, with a funny kind of smile as if it should be obvious. “I said I would take care of it, didn’t I?”

I look up, and then back at him. “You want to buy me a new dress right now? I figured we would just divert past my hotel.”

“You said you don’t have enough nice things with you,” Sean shrugged. “We can get you something new. Or, almost new. It’s the best option on such short notice, at least without having to get on the train in what you’re wearing. But we are going to the business district, so if you want something brand new…”

“No,” I say quickly. “No, this is good enough. I don’t want to get on the train in this.”

He smiles. “I thought not.” He steps inside, and I follow him into a store filled with racks of clothing, and several customers determinedly browsing in search of a bargain.

“How are we going to look through all this stuff?” I ask, staring around. There doesn’t seem to be much of a rhyme or reason to the racks – but when I look up again, I realize that Sean is no longer next to me. He’s moved over towards a counter at the far side of the room, which must be the checkout – and he’s talking to the man standing behind it.

I hurry over, just in time to hear the man nod and tell Sean to follow him – and then we’re both going down a set of stairs and through a door he has to unlock with keys from his belt.

“What is this?” I whisper as we step into another, smaller room, set with just a couple of racks.

“The designer section,” Sean replies. “The most expensive donations. This should be a good place to start, I think.”

I gape at the clothes on the racks. Walking right up to them, I find a tag attached to the dress right on the front with a handwritten price on it.

A price which is far higher than I could ever afford.

“Um,” I say. “Maybe we should just start out there, with the normal clothes.”

“Don’t worry about the price,” Sean says, obviously seeing where my eyes are going. “It’s my treat.”

“You can’t do that,” I exclaim. “It wasn’t you who spilled the drink.”

“But it’s me that’s going to make it right,” Sean says, in a tone that says he won’t hear any more arguments. “Pick out whatever you like. Looks like you can try it on over there.”

The man from behind the desk nods rapidly. “That’s right,” he says. “I’ve got to go back upstairs, but try on whatever you want. When you’re ready, just close the door behind you and I’ll lock up later.”

“Thank you,” Sean says, nodding to him as he leaves the room. He casts his eyes around for a moment and finds a battered vintage armchair to sit down on. “I’ll wait for as long as you need. Go ahead and try something on.”

I want to protest, but I don’t think he’s going to let me. And it would be nice to get a new dress. And it’s not like I can afford these clothes at vintage prices, let alone new.

I take a deep breath and head over to the racks to start browsing.

It’s not long before a sapphire blue velvet dress, that looks like it was first made in the 90s, catches my eye. It’s long and slinky, and not too low cut in the front – like something a movie actress would wear. Which is pretty fitting, given that Sean already looks like a movie star in his suit. I take it into the one stall and pull the curtain across, slipping out of my dress – and using it to scrub at my chest, where the coffee splashed me. There’s still a little residue there, but once it’s taken care of, I put the blue dress on and turn to look in the mirror.

Except there’s no mirror in here – it’s out there.

I take a deep breath. I have no idea how I look in this dress, but I have to go out there to find out – which means maybe looking terrible in front of Sean. But the quicker I get this over with, the better because he has a dinner to get to and I don’t want to delay him any more than necessary.

I step out, smoothing the dress over my sides, searching for the mirror.

“Wow.”

I look up and see that Sean is watching me. His phone is in his hand as if he was scrolling through it, but he’s ignoring it completely. I blush, then finally find the mirror right next to him. And I see myself.

And actually, he’s not wrong. This is an amazing dress. It makes me look better than anything I’ve ever worn before.

Not bad for a girl who smells of coffee and managed to get lost in the train station.

“We’re buying that one,” Sean says, his eyes running over me again and again. I try to imagine what he sees. Does he notice the curve of my breasts, my hips, under the snug fabric? Or does he only see that I look more like an adult than he expected from his best friend’s daughter? “I don’t care if you want others. That one is a must.”

I smile, in spite of my nerves and my questions. “I want this one,” I say, shaking my head. “I don’t need to try on any others. Besides, we have to get going, don’t we?”

Sean checks his watch. “Right,” he says. “Don’t bother changing out of it. I’ll go pay – and get you a bag to hold your dress in. Then we can head out to the restaurant.”

The prospect of eating dinner with him, even if not really ‘with’ him, sends a little thrill through me. Just spending more time in his orbit, just being able to see him, will make this night better than I could have imagined.

And in this dress, I’m going to feel a million bucks doing it.