Surviving His Memory

Chapter 7

I made a deal with Cheryl while we were shopping. She could pick my outfit for tonight, but only if I could pick hers. It was fun for the first three shops. I have already tried on at least ten or fifteen different dresses and we are on our way to yet another shop.

I found the perfect little cocktail dress for Cheryl at our second stop. Her dress is form fitting but not too short, about three inches above her knee. It's silver with one loose-fitting sleeve. It has beautiful blue crystals covering a one inch strip all the way down the seam of its sleeve and then wraps beautifully around her wrist. As soon as she stepped out of the dressing room, my jaw hit the floor. I knew it was the perfect dress for tonight. I paired the dress with shoes that are the same shade of blue as the crystals.

As soon as we enter the fourth shop, Cheryl squeals. Of course, she did that at the first three shops too, so I'm not getting my hopes up. "This is it! It is exactly what I was thinking!" She says excitedly. This dress is beautiful. I'll give her that. It's dark purple, almost black.

Cheryl takes it off the rack and practically shoves me into yet another dressing room. Now that I can take a closer look, I can see that it is double layered. The bottom layer is black silk and over it is a beautiful dark purple lace. The lace is slightly longer than the underlayer. This dress is strapless but as I pull it on, I realize it has plenty of support in the bust area. It's much shorter than what I had expected, falling to about mid thigh. "Come help me zip it?" I hollered out to Cheryl.

Moments later, she plows through the curtain and zips me up. It fits me like a glove. The word perfect is not enough to describe it. "I grabbed a pair of shoes I thought would look great with that dress... What do you think?" She opens the box and I agree. In the box, lay a pair of silver high heels. I slipped them on and we stepped out of the dressing room. I take the step up to the platform and my heart races as I see my reflection in the giant mirrors. I feel beautiful. No, I feel even more than that. I feel brand new.

I have tears in my eyes as I look at myself. Cheryl steps up next to me. "You look absolutely out of this world. Ethan will choke on his own tongue. I guarantee it." I laughed at her. I don't know how she always knows what to say to get me out of my head, but she is a God send. Actually, she's an Evan send, and that is even better right now. I, by no means, mean any offense, God! I thought to myself.

I return to the dressing room, change back into my other clothes, gather my new dress and shoes, and head to the register to checkout. Turns out the shoes were on sale. Who doesn't love a good sale? Anyhow, I pay and we begin making our way back to the hotel.

"Unfortunately, we don't have much time for the beach now. We'll have to do that tomorrow! Tonight, we're going to get sexy and go on dates, because we are two beautiful women who deserve our happiness. It's about time we began chasing it again!" Cheryl says. She is practically glowing. I love this woman. "I love you! I dont think I would have been able to do any of this without you!" I tell her and she stops us in the middle of the sidewalk to hug me. "I love you too, El! I think we give each other strength to face tomorrow and that's a wonderful thing!" "It really is!" I told her as we continued our walk. We didn't go far from the hotel, so thankfully, our walk is relatively short.

We continue to chat about how we're going to style our hair and where we think they'll take each of us. We wondered if it might be the same place. They both said semi-formal, after all. This island isn't that big..

I'm excited, nervous, terrified, and anxious about going on my first, first date in years. I wish Evan was still here, but he's not and he wouldn't want me to be alone. He sent Cheryl to me, to make sure I was okay. He always wanted me to be happy. For him, I would do anything, even step out of my comfort zone.

Cheryl and I part ways in the hallway and each go to our own rooms. With the plan of her coming to my room to get ready after we both shower. For the rest of my walk to my room, I thought about how I would tell Ethan about Evan. Ethan may not be "the one," but he is quickly becoming special to me. I have to tell him sometime and I would rather get it over with. The sooner the better!

With my mind made up, I pushed open the door to my room. Which is harder than I thought while carrying my dress, shoes, and wallet. I managed to push it open and slide through the opening, but not without tripping myself and almost falling on my face again. For a moment I am still. I can't believe I managed to stay on my feet! Ha! Improvement!

It's already six o'clock and I promised Cheryl to get in the shower "immediately!" So I get myself in gear, dropping my wallet, phone, and room key on the table by the door. After removing the dress from its bag, I hung it on the hook, on the bathroom door. Stripping out of my clothes, I turn on the shower and hop in.

The new number is three. I have made it through three showers without bawling my eyes out. I'm proud of myself for a moment as I rub my lotion in. I continue my post-shower routine in my robe. The dress is strapless so I can get ready, then slip it on last.

A knock on the door interrupts me while I'm blow drying my hair. I figured it was Cheryl, so I was surprised when it was Diane and she was holding a huge bouquet of tropical flowers in a crystal vase. She strides right in, placing the vase on the counter of my kitchenette. She turns around to look at me with a grin from ear to ear and hands me a card.

On one side the card says, "Warrior Princess" and on the other, "I will be impatiently waiting for 8pm! Your very own, God-Man"

I laugh and cover my mouth at the same time. Someone told him his nickname in my head. "Cheryl is in so much trouble!" I told Diane. She bursts into laughter, doubling herself over, holding her stomach. "I did it! He actually asked for me to sign it, from E. I thought this would be so much funnier, and I wasn't wrong!" Diane said as her laughter died down and I laughed a little more with her. "You got me!" I told her as I swat her with the card. "I'm sorry, but it was worth the look on your face. That's for not telling me you were going out with Mr. Lick-able, tonight!" She half yells at me. "I know! I was going to text you. My nerves are all over the place. Cheryl should be here soon. She has a date too!" I try to defend myself, even though she isn't actually mad at me. "Yea I know. I just left there with the flowers he, too, sent her. I gave her a hard time too. I wish I could stay and help, but I had to head back to the front desk. I'll see you at the luau in a couple of days, right?" Diane asks on her way back toward the door. "I wouldn't miss it!" I tell her. We say goodbye and she leaves, Cheryl shows up.

"I don't know what to do with my hair. He sent me the prettiest flowers with the sweetest card. I swooned and now I'm nervous!" Cheryl announces as she pushes through the door. "I'm barely holding it together, myself." I tell her with wide eyes. "Okay deep breaths. We've got this! At least we already know that they're nice guys. We spent the afternoon with them. I'm sure we can both manage dinner." She tries to reassure me. It might help a little. After all, she's right. They are nice guys. We should both have a great time. "You're right. We can do this!" I told her with more courage than I am feeling right now.

Returning to the bathroom, I finished blowing out my hair. Cheryl begins curling hers. We decided, with the cut of her dress, she should pull hers up. She leaves a few strands around her face. I curl my hair as well, but we choose a loose Mohawk and drag the length of my hair around my left shoulder. It looks great. I apply a smokey eye and lightly contour my cheekbones. Cheryl applies a sharp cat eye with her eyeliner and uses light eyeshadow to add a little sparkle. She looks amazing and I feel pretty amazing as well.

Checking the time, we only have ten minutes to get our dresses and shoes on and be in the lobby. "Looks like they'll be waiting for us." Cheryl laughs. "Oops!" I tell her as I stumble into the opening of my dress. Pulling it on, I feel like a different person.

Finally, fully dressed, we stand next to each other as we stare at ourselves in the mirror. "I think we need a selfie! I don't think I have ever felt this pretty, in my entire life." I told Cheryl. "Definitely selfie worthy! I know exactly what you mean. I feel so beautiful." She almost whispers.

We snap several pictures of ourselves before we decide to head to the lobby. We're ten minutes late but I'm hoping they'll decide that we were worth the wait. My stomach was once again, in my throat, as we walked down the familiar hallways to the lobby.

Just as we closed in on the final turn, I slowed Cheryl to a stop. "I just need a second." I told her, taking deep breaths to settle down my racing heart. She nods and I see her chest rise and fall in time with mine. "Okay! We can do this!" I tell her and she winks at me. "You know it! Text me when you get in tonight and I'll text you. If you need me, call me!" She tells me and I agree to her terms. "I will. I promise and you know you can call me anytime!" She smiles at me, links her elbow with mine and we walk into the lobby.

As soon as we walked in, I spotted them. I'm sure Cal looks great, but looking at Ethan, my breath catches in my chest. There he stands in all of his godlike glory. He's wearing dark gray dress slacks and a black button-up dress shirt. He had his top two buttons undone and his sleeves rolled halfway up his delicious forearms. Don't ask me why I find strong forearms so sexy on a man, I just do.

I watch his face, the moment he notices me. If I felt pretty before, I feel like nothing short of a princess now. His eyes almost twinkle as he looks at me like I'm the only person in the room. My skin tingles as I feel his eyes trailing my body. He begins walking in my direction and my mouth goes dry.

This is it. I am going on a date with God-Man! Honestly, now that he's standing in front of me, I am even more nervous. Especially when he's looking at me like he wants to devour me.