Free The Turning by Erin R Flynn Page B

know you could run that fast,” Nicole said as she walked into the dressing room partition next to mine. “Well you should be excited, girl. You deserve pampering.”
    I chuckled a little, and carefully put on the dress. I couldn’t reach the zipper by myself, so I stepped out and let Tanya help me, while the other woman helped Nicole. I didn’t catch her name, and I was too excited to worry about normal manners. I’m sure I’d feel guilty later about being rude.
    The dress fit me perfectly! It was like it was designed specifically for me. I put on the silver strappy shoes Tanya handed me before I looked in the mirror.
    Holy shit! Is that me?
    Wow, I looked damn good! I really did look like a princess out of some romance novel, just missing the tiara.
    I stood, amazed the reflection I was staring at was mine, as Nicole came and stood next to me. I gasped. “Nicole, you look so beautiful. I thought you were hot before, but damn girl, you look like a model.” Nicole’s dress was a deep red that hung only on one shoulder and was very form fitting except for the very big slit up the right side that showed off her athletic leg.
    “Right back at you, babe. I’ve known you since undergrad, and I’ve never seen you look more amazing. You’re making me wonder if I should switch teams and start going after girls. But damn you’re taken.” She snickered, giving me kissy faces. I just looked at her and knew she was kidding, and like teens, we busted into a fit of giggles.
    We realized it was already half past four and hurried back into our dressing rooms to carefully remove the dresses with the help of the women who worked there. As I took off the dress I noticed the price tag and almost fainted.
    “Nicole, my dress is fifty-five hundred dollars. Holy shit, I can’t get this!”
    “Shit mine is four grand! Crap, Kelly, I can’t afford that,” she whined. I could almost hear her start to cry; she really loved that dress.
    “Kelly, Nicole, Mr. Grady already told me that everything was taken care of,” Tanya told us gently. “He said you were to pick anything you wanted, and I was to make sure you didn’t see the price tag. Please don’t tell him, I really don’t want him to be upset with me.”
    “Well shit,” I hissed. This really was a pickle. We finished putting on our street clothes and met outside the dressing room. “Nicole, you okay with this?”
    “Hell ya, if I get to keep the dress,” she exclaimed, immediately perking back up.
    “Kevin, what did you think of our choices?” I had almost forgotten he was there. “Did we do good?”
    “You both looked amazing. I would be honored to have either one of you on my arm at any time. Though I am pretty sure my wife would then divorce me. But, your escorts tonight are very lucky men,” he said with that big grin. Wow, he wasn’t lying either! After I signed the slip that I received two dresses, worth almost ten thousand dollars, I had to remind myself to breathe as Kevin took the bags and opened the car door for us.
    “One more stop,” he informed us after we pulled away from the curb.
    “What else is left? Pick out what plastic surgery we want before tonight?” Nicole rolled her eyes. She might have been the only person who was a bigger smart ass than me. After a very short time, the car stopped.
    “This is it? What is this place?” I looked around as we got out of the car, not waiting for him to open the door for us. Kevin shook his head at us and chuckled. I guess we weren’t his typical clients. Nicole and I glanced at each other for a second, turned back to Kevin and shrugged. What was there really to say? Instead we all made our way up the front steps and to the building.
    “This is Mr. Grady’s corporate headquarters. It’s right here in Chicago, since he spends most of his time here,” Kevin explained as he opened the door to the building for us. He had our dresses in hand, which seemed odd to me. Unless maybe we were giving Brian a