Not Another Summer Love Story

Chapter 5 - Valerie's on the Market

"I am," I agreed.

"Make sure you wear something... feminine," he suggested. "We're going to need to remind him you're an attractive young lady."

I scoffed, "I thought you weren't meant to make romantic gestures towards me anymore."

"That wasn't romantic. But I can make it romantic if you want me too." He winked, to further his threat.

"No, thankyou," I declined. "I'm having to put up with the idea of romance too much already."

After my shift, I headed to Maisie's on the way home. I wasn't sure whether she was working at the florist today, but my doubts were eliminated when her mother greeted me and informed me that Maisie was in her room as usual. Taking in the usual flurry of pink as I entered, I picked up a cushion from her armchair and placed it on my lap as I sat down. Maisie looked at me in confusion.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. She was situated in the center of her bed, an assortment of images around her as well as a large pin-board. Leave it to her to be working on something creative. The images consisted of old polaroids of movie scenes which she must have made and small Christmas themed cardboard cut-outs.

"I came to ask." I took a breath, aware she would probably flip if she found out my intentions. "If I could borrow something to wear tonight."

Her eyes flickered to her phone; no doubt recalling the message, then to my face, trying to read my mind no doubt. "To the pub?"

"Yeah."

"You never admit that you need my fashion help," She pointed out. But like the good friend she was, she placed her scissors down on the bedspread and waltzed over to her closet. "What are you thinking?"

"Uh..." I looked for inspiration from her colourful over-spilling wardrobe. Damn Alastair. "Something... feminine?"

She openly scoffed and turned to look at me. Her blonde hair was piled in a messy bun on the crown of her head, and she as wearing her arty clothes, smeared with paint and other materials. "Why on Earth would Valerie O'Conner want to wear something feminine?"

"Because," I said defensively. "I want to try something new."

Giving a half smile, she looked torn. I could tell she was deciding whether to prompt more of an explanation, or to do what she's always wanted to do and doll me up. But, the latter won out.

After trying on three outfits, she'd perfected my look with a maroon cropped top, which showed more boob than anything I owned, with black high waisted jeans and strappy black sandals. To make the outfit more 'casual' she had laced my wrists with a collection of bracelets. And the whole time she'd tried to make me spill the beans on why I wanted to dress up.

Somehow, I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth about the deal right away. The idea of caving to what she had been pressuring me to do for years would give her way too much satisfaction. And, there was a good chance she'd be pissed that she'd been trying so long to persuade me to date to no avail, and then Alastair, who had known me for a total of three days, had managed to succeed in convincing me.

"You know," she said, looking me up and down once she'd assembled the finishing touches, oblivious to my change in heart. "If I didn't know better, I'd say Valerie's on the market."

Maisie and I walked to the pub from her house at twenty past six, which meant that according to the message I'd sent out, we were already late. As I had suspected I'd received positive responses about tonight from nearly everyone, including Logan.