After I paid the lady up front, it was official, my bucket list was done. At that point, I kind of wished I would've put some crazier things on the list, but the clock said three, so I needed to hurry to get a dress before I had to start the dreaded process of getting ready.
We returned Nate's ride to Rick's place, because we needed a place to put whatever dress I ended up buying. I didn't mind crumpling it and letting bugs fly into it while carrying it on my bike, but I was sure to be the only one who didn't mind.
Not far from Central Park there was a shop called Intermix. I'd walked by it a few times and noticed some dresses I liked in the window, so I suggested we stop there. Nate, knowing nothing about dress shopping in New York, or probably any city, was forced to agree with my choice.
I immediately started looking around when we arrived. A lot of the evening dresses were shorter, but I really wanted something full length to better hide my knives. There was no way I was going in unarmed.
Grabbing the three dresses I thought might be suitable, I made my way to the fitting room. I tried on a white one first and immediately decided it didn't work well with my fair skin. As much as I liked the cut and how it draped, it made me look like a ghost.
Going from one extreme to another, I tried a red gown next. Not only would it draw way too much attention to me, but knowing me, I was going to be blushing at some point and it would take my joke of looking like a tomato too far. Needless to say, I also decided red was out.
The last dress was a beautiful black number , with ruching at the waist. The back had a rounded plunge that didn't show too much skin. I put it on and it fit like a glove, curving around all the right places.
There was no question it was the one. There was a slight drawback in the fact that it was semi-sheer and I'd need a slip of some kind. I figured between looking like a ghost or a tomato, having to find a slip wasn't a huge issue.
I walked out of the dressing room with the dress in hand to find Nate waiting. I expected him to be bored, even though it had only taken me a few minutes, but he had an eager look on his face. I rolled my eyes, knowing what he'd hoped to see when I came out.
"What, I don't get to see it?" he asked in a teasing tone.
"No, you'll see it later. I want to look at shoes real quick and then head over to Victoria's Secret to buy a slip. Before you ask, you're not stepping foot in that store with me."
It was bad enough it sometimes felt like he could see through my clothes. Actually being aware of what I was wearing underneath was a bad idea. I made quick work of looking at the shoes and didn't find anything that appealed to me, so I went to the checkout and paid for the dress.
Victoria's Secret happened to be about a mile away in either direction, so I headed north, leaving Nate to follow along. Inside I found the perfect slip that should cover all the places I wanted hidden, and not show any straps, which I thought might be important.
I checked out their shoe collection and instantly discovered a purple strappy sandal I loved. It had some dangerous-looking almost five-inch, heels, but good balance was something I had in mass quantities, so I wasn't too worried about toppling over. Just because I didn't like to wear heels, didn't mean I wasn't capable. With my purchases set, I paid the woman at the register and met Nate outside.
"Let's see, it's now four," I said, looking at the receipt I'd most recently been handed, "can we run to my apartment real quick so I can get some supplies and then go wherever it is you're calling home so I can get ready?"
"I wouldn't call it home, but I can take you to my hotel. I'll need to take a quick shower and get changed into my suit. After that, it's all yours."
At our vehicles, I put my latest shopping bags in Nate's car and secured my helmet. When we arrived at my apartment, I parked Winnie in her cozy home, and then hurriedly ran upstairs to find some hair and makeup necessities. I figured his hotel had shampoo I could use, so I left mine behind.
Nate hadn't walked upstairs with me, which was a little disturbing. I would've thought he'd like to make sure no one was waiting for me with a baseball bat. I liked the freedom, but he had proven to be a bit crazy when it came to me.
"Do you have a blow dryer in your room? I don't usually use one, but I probably should tonight, to make my hair all prettified." I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with my hair, but it was the first question that came to mind when I rejoined him in the car.
"Nowadays those come pretty standard in rooms," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Well, sorry. I don't think I've stayed in a hotel in at least ten years. How am I supposed to know what crazy gadgets come in rooms these days?"
We let the radio do the rest of the talking, or singing rather, as we made our way to his hotel. We weren't big talkers while we traveled, and it showed as neither one of us made a noise as we walked up the stairs to his room. Since we weren't talking, I didn't question Nate's choice of stairs over elevator as he opened his door to let me see where he'd been staying.
It was very tastefully decorated and clean. I'd expected the cleanliness from the fact he hadn't been spending any time there. A king-sized bed was the main feature of the room. A couple of dressers, a couch, a desk and chair, a mini fridge and a TV situated on a stand were cast as minor players. Even with all that, the room managed to feel bigger than my whole apartment.
Nate walked over to where some clothes were hanging behind the door and grabbed a garment bag. Then he rifled through a dresser, getting what I assumed were things to wear under whatever he had hidden in the large white bag he was carrying around.
"I'll only be a few minutes in the shower. Make yourself at home. The TV remote is next to the TV," he said as he disappeared out of view.
I moved to sit on the couch after grabbing the remote. Turning the TV on, I started flipping through the channels, looking for anything interesting to watch. I stopped on one of the food channels. I loved watching other people cook about as much as I loved doing it.
I was so into watching what was being made on TV that I didn't hear the shower turn off or Nate come out of the bathroom until I heard his voice closer than I expected.
"It's all yours."
If there was ever any wonder why I made a horrible spy, I'd just proven the point. Flash someone frosting a cake in front of me and I was hypnotized.
I looked up and found that he had on a pair of black pants, a white dress shirt with the top button not yet in its proper place and a black vest that's buttons were also waiting to find their homes.
"I'd say you sure clean up nice, but I've seen you pretty dressy for days now." I didn't add that at least in my dreams he looked just fine with nothing on.
"I'm pretty sure that was in no way a compliment. Now hurry up and get ready," he said taking a seat on the couch.
"Wait a second, you were supposed to vacate the hotel room while I was getting ready."
"I decided that since you showered this morning with me around, it wouldn't be an issue. This isn't any different than that. You can just lock the door to make sure I don't see you in all your glory," he replied, and I wasn't sure what to make of the wink that followed.
"You do know that this is putting you back up on the top of my list, right?" I collected my stuff and stomped into the bathroom, closing the door loudly and locking it.
The bathroom looked like an ordinary bathroom to me. Nothing really fancy, just a sink, toilet and a shower. The walls were painted a light tan that seemed to match the ceramic tiled floor, but that really was the most exciting things about it.
After getting out of my clothes, and removing my hidden weapons, I took the bandage off my tattoo to inspect the skin around it. I didn't see any signs of infection, so I turned the shower on and stepped in, while trying to keep the spray from directly hitting the tattoo. I quickly washed my hair and body, even faster than my normal five-minute shower.
I dried off and wrapped my hair up as usual. The first piece of clothing to go on was the slip and it wa
s a challenge to work it around the towel on my head, but I got it done. With the dress and slip combo, I really didn't want underwear lines, so for once in my life I wasn't wearing anything under my clothes. My mother would probably have stories to state differently, but they were all lies.
I positioned my knife sheaths and made sure they aren't noticeable. They were custom built to be invisible under anything I wore and they hadn't failed me. If Nate wasn't able to blurt out how many there were, I figured I was in good shape.
I looked at my tattoo in the mirror, and saw that the initial redness had disappeared. I'd been told not to put anything over it, and to wait a little while before I started smothering it in lotion. The slip I planned on putting on was bound to get some close contact, so the fact that it wasn't still oozing seemed like a good thing to me.
I put on some mascara and eyeliner to darken my eyes. When I added some charcoal eye shadow, I thought I looked dangerous. At least that's the word that popped into my head, and it was a good word for where my mind needed to be.
Fixing up my eyes was about the extent of what I planned for makeup, so I took the towel off my head and brushed out any tangles in my hair. I opened the bottle of hair gel Frannie was nice enough to get me for Christmas and dabbed a little on my hand before I worked it through my hair.
It took fifteen minutes to blow out my medium-length hair. I couldn't imagine how long I would've been stuck in the bathroom if my hair was longer. Even after I thought I was done, I found a few damp pockets that needed a little extra hot air.
When I determined it was all done, I worked it up into a French twist and secured it with bobby pins. I finished it off by spraying hairspray on it to make it look sleek and shiny.
I picked up my dress and very carefully worked myself into it. I'd thought about putting it on before the hair and makeup, but I was afraid to spill something on it. The slip worked as perfectly as expected, keeping my lady bits covered. I had a feeling with how nervous I already was, a vat of deodorant wouldn't be enough, but I stuck with rolling on some black-dress-friendly antiperspirant, hoping it'd be adequate.
Before I vacated the bathroom, I applied a very light red tinted lip gloss and called it good. I could've stood in front of the mirror and nitpicked all night, but it wouldn't have done me any good.
I walked out of the bathroom to meet Nate's eyes scanning my body. He was in full-suit glory, with a long skinny tie tucked under his vest and his black single breasted jacket. I didn't have words that adequately described how scrumptious he looked.
"The see-through parts are covered in all the right places, so you won't be catching any glimpses of stuff you shouldn't be seeing," I taunted as I grabbed my shoes and made my way to the couch to put them on.
"I've already seen more of you today than I ever expected, so I'll be satisfied with that. You ready to go over your cover story?" he asked.
"We're running out of time. You're going to have to make it quick and simple. I'm guessing you have some ideas?"
I finished strapping my shoes on and tucked my last knife in place. I didn't usually wear one in that exact location, so Nate seeing where it was didn't bother me too much. If it came to a point where I needed to use it on him, I'd deal with him expecting it.
"You're right. Let's make it as simple and easy as possible. Leave your family life as it is currently. Tell him you're a student at NYU studying computer science. You know enough about the subject you should be comfortable with any questions he might ask. If he asks about the school itself, just go on about how you're a loner and only pay attention to where your classes are located.
"Since you're going for a student, say you're twenty-one. Technically, you could be your age, but I think younger and innocent will work best for us to get him talking. Everything else you can keep as close to the truth as you want. Just don't get caught up in any lies," he instructed.
"Sticking to the truth is definitely the way to go for me. Are you sure I can't get out of this? I can feel the butterflies in my stomach and they're not happy with me at all."
"You'll be fine. Just get him talking and I'll do the rest. Now, come here so I can put on the microphone I had delivered earlier while you were in buying frilly stuff," he said, grabbing a box off the dresser.
I walked over to him and he pulled out a beautiful butterfly brooch from the box. It looked extremely delicate with its blue and purple stones.
"I have an earpiece that the microphone is tied to, so I'll be able to hear everything that you two say. If I think anything suspicious is happening or he's on to you, I'll be there within seconds. Try not to let him take you away from the crowds, if possible. I don't expect him to blab with all the people around, but try not to get too far, please."
He finished pinning the brooch and slightly backed away. I got stuck looking into his eyes and the sparks of fire I saw dancing in his irises kept my gaze. It wasn't real fire, but I felt the heat as we stood close together.
"I'm really glad I didn't go with the red dress. It would've totally clashed," I said, trying to think light and happy thoughts.
"We couldn't have that," he smiled and grabbed ahold of my hand. The usual sparks were present, but in that moment I found them comforting. "We better get you downstairs. We don't want your date to have to come looking for you."
"I can just envision what a nightmare that'd be." I picked up the little clutch purse I'd brought with me, another gift from Frannie, and threw my credit cards and identification in it. "Let's get this show on the road."
CHAPTER 20
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!