By 7:00 I was ready for him, as ready as I could possibly be to go on a date and pretend that I was okay with it. I was in a knee-length sleeveless fitted short-sleeved gold dress with a high lace neck. I had stammered to the dress shop lady about wanting something with a turtleneck and she laughed asking how I could think of wearing such a thing in the desert in June but then I pulled my hair back and showed her my throat and she didn’t even flinch, just strolled over to the rack that had this beautiful dress. I kept on my new diamond earrings and wore a pair of gold strappy heels that had been paired with the dress. Thanks to the spa, I had freshly done fingernails and toenails already with perfectly shaped brows, and I was ready to go. I’d foregone the bikini wax today. My girli

