The Sidewalk Incident

16. The BDE Incident

"Get undressed." He turns on the shower.

"Excuse me?"

"Charlotte, you are hungover as fuck. I've had a gym workout, a haircut and a shower and we need to be at a work function in less than two hours. I'm trying to help."

"We are not all as accomplished as you are, Doctor Li." I sneer. "I can shower myself."

___________

After a full body scrub, washing my hair several times to ensure there are no surprise particles of vom, a can of hair spray for my messy bun, and watching a TikTok video of how to wing my eyeliner (took me thirteen attempts, to be exact), I finally unzip the cover of the dress hanging on the hook of the shower door.

"Holy crap!"

"Everything ok? You're taking awfully long."

"Uh huh. I'm fine." I lie as I inspect the scene in front of me.

It's a cherry red, satin dress. With a dramatic slit and a low cut back. Fuck, I should not have left this to last minute. There's a note in an envelope with my name jotted in Grace's neat handwriting. My panic continues as I open the note: It's too sexy. And my tattoos will be on show. And fuck I'll need—

Don't panic, there are silicone breast covers in the bag I've sent with the dress. It's so your nips don't poke anyone's eye out. Also, don't even think about wearing knickers. I will kill you if I see panty lines in the pictures.

Yes, it's sexy as fuck, but you're a badass boss babe so I thought it would be fitting.

As your fairy godmother, I hereby grant you your Hermione Granger moment.

I love you

Gracie

P.S. There are condoms in the bag, and my favourite lipstick. Failure to plan is planning to fail.

xoXo
___________

"For the love of God, Charlotte! We need to be at the venue in ten minutes!" James knocks on the bathroom door for the umpteenth time.

"I know, I know. I'll meet you in the lobby. I just need to pee. Again."

Fucking hell, is the last thing I hear before he slams the door behind him.

I do a once over in the long mirror once I'm back in the bedroom.

I'll never admit it, but Grace was right. This is serving all the right looks. It's a plain and pretty simple halter-neck dress which enhances my neckline and fairly decent rack. But the cherry red compliments my skin pretty decently. The dramatic slit is really only evident when I walk and the open back isn't too skimpy, showing off the sanscript tattoo along my spine.

"It'll do." I sigh as I put on a simple faux fur baby doll coat. Grace really thought about everything, I thought, as I puckered my lips at the simple nude lip shade she placed in the bag, thankful it wasn't too over the top and grateful for it complimenting the simplicity of my look. Red lips would have been a tad too much.

I find James pacing back and forth in the hotel lobby, looking at his watch, fidgeting with his cufflinks. He's wearing a double breasted black suit, tailored to absolute perfection, paired with a black shirt sans tie. I low-key love the fact that he decided to go tie-less to a black tie event. Perhaps I'm over-reading it, but it seems like a bit of a cheeky protest to me.