“Of course I’ll be careful.” Brynn groaned. She could play the drama card, too. “It’s not like you paid four hundred for them.”
Holly shrugged. “That’s why they can’t be replaced. A perk of working in the fashion industry is the samples, but they don’t give me replacements if my sister ruins them.”
Brynn crinkled her nose. So what if her baby sister was already pulling in more bank than she was and scoring extras like the boots? Brynn could make more money as a CPA for a larger company, but she liked doing the books for her favorite independent bookstore, Two Stories. The aptly named two-story bookshop might not be a cash cow, but her close friend Annie owned it, and there was no place Brynn enjoyed more.
Holly gave her sister the once-over. “You do look fucking hot. I’ll give you that.”
Brynn smoothed her hands over her dress and shook out her hair. Thanks to the wonderful developments in anti-frizz curl cream, she no longer sported the nest she had trouble taming in high school. Brynn’s hair hung in soft spirals from crown to just below her shoulders, and the natural gold highlights shone especially bright in her soft brown hue. She wondered if hair could reflect her mood, because tonight she felt all sparkly. Not vampire sparkly. More like a firecracker.
On any other Saturday night, Brynn might be on a blind date. Some of her married friends and her mom felt an obligation to the poor, single twenty-seven-year-old doomed to a life surrounded by a litter of cats. Was that the name for a group of cats? She’d have to look it up to be sure. Not that it mattered. Didn’t everyone know she was allergic…to cats and bad dates? It’s not like she had never had a serious boyfriend. She just hadn’t had one in a year. And she couldn’t keep taking her best friend, Jamie, to all her family functions now that he was officially off the market. That had worked extremely well when she needed a plus-one and didn’t want to deal with questions about her love life. But now that she was the single one and Jamie wasn’t, Brynn had no choice but to say yes to the many, many setups foisted upon her by well-meaning individuals who, judging by the men they set her up with, really didn’t know her at all.
Her last date turned out to live with his parents, who funded their date because the guy was in a “job transition” phase that had already lasted two years.
What was wrong with being twenty-seven and single anyway? It’s not like it was nineteenth-century England, and if she didn’t marry her obnoxious cousin, her family would lose the estate upon her father’s death. On the contrary, Brynn and Holly’s parents pushed them out of the nest as soon as each of them graduated college and just as quickly turned each of their rooms into a scrapbooking studio for their mom and a reading room for their dad.
It was the grandkids—or the lack thereof—that prompted her mother’s interest in her love life. Holly was always dating someone, even if it never lasted longer than six months. Plus, she was twenty-five, still far enough from thirty and the approach of “advanced maternal age,” as their mom liked to say. Brynn, on the other hand, was one preschooler’s lifespan away from that next decade. According to those in the know, something had to be done, even if it meant a life with Tom who lived with his parents. He could probably still reproduce, right?
It didn’t matter. Tonight would be different—what it should have been ten years ago.
“I do look pretty good, right?” she asked Holly.
Her sister crossed her arms and nodded. “In a sexy librarian kind of way, yeah.”
She groaned, then took off her glasses. “I’m not a librarian.” She marched out of her room and into the bathroom to retrieve her contact lenses. Holly followed, giggling.
“I meant accountant. You’re a sexy accountant. Come on, Brynn. Look at you. You’re gorgeous. And I bet you’re the only accountant who not only knows that sixty-nine is a number but also how to do it!”
“Not helping,” Brynn said.
She’s just trying to push my buttons. We can’t all be twenty-five and perky, with the straightest hair known to man, and 20/20 vision.
She straightened in front of the mirror, but her contacts weren’t in yet, so she couldn’t really check herself out. Thanks to her extreme farsightedness, the image staring back at her was nothing but a blur. It was true she put a lot of thought and work into how she looked tonight. The past month saw her making extra trips to the path along Lake Michigan for a run, and she cut back on the imbibing, which was always difficult with a best friend who owns a brewery. Four weeks ago, the belted black knit dress fit all her curves just a little too snugly. Tonight, she felt she had room to breathe, and Brynn enjoyed easy access to oxygen.