Free Awakening by Olivia Hayes

Mimi beamed.
    "My friend here is going out on her first date in several years, and I want to help her look her best."
    Mimi looked me up and down as I rolled my eyes in Eva's direction.
    "Just one minute," she said. "I think have the perfect thing. It just came in this morning." As Mimi disappeared into the back room, I squinted my eyes at Eva, throwing silent daggers.
    A moment later, Mimi re-emerged with a dress in hand. It was a surplice, empire waist, sapphire blue sun dress.  She also carried a pair of black, peep toe, sling back wedges with a cork heel.
    "Try these on for size!" Mimi smiled, as she handed them to me.
    Once I had the dress and shoes on, I came out of the dressing room to see Eva and Anne Marie staring at me with the same open mouthed look that Eva and I had given Anne Marie before.
    "That bad, huh?" I asked, feeling dejected.
    "That good!" Anne Marie exclaimed, grabbing me by the shoulders and turning me around to face the three way mirror. "Look!"
    A smile crept over my face as I examined my reflection. The dress, although not too revealing, fit incredibly well over my full chest, showing just the right amount of cleavage that I felt sexy but not uncomfortable. The empire seaming accented my tiny waist, which further enhanced my bosom. The length was shorter than I was used to, but my legs were toned and tan from all my runs, and I had always felt they were my best feature. I turned around, pulled my hair up and noticed the back of the dress, which was a deeper V than the front, and showed off my upper back.
    "You definitely should wear your hair up," commented Mimi. "I think a loose bun would look incredible. And here, try this too." She handed me a silver necklace with a faux diamond pendant. I thanked her and fastened it around my neck. It hung perfectly between my upper cleavage, drawing my eyes there. "Perfect!" Mimi said.
    "Perfect!" Anne Marie echoed.
    "And if Luke doesn't want to rip it off and have his way with you the moment he sees you, then he doesn't deserve you anyway!" Eva added.
    I laughed nervously at the prospect. He was Mark's brother, and although I did find him very, very sexy, I didn't think it would look good for me to be pursuing him overly much.
    "Now, call your mom and make sure the boys aren't still at the house. We wouldn't want them to see us coming back with all these packages. They'd think we liked them or something!" Anne Marie joked.
    I looked over at her, noticing that she had changed into a green peplum top that was the same color as the first shirt and some dark, form fitting jeans with rhinestone detail on the back pockets. She had on a pair of tan leather knee high western boots and had let her midnight hair down to cascade around her shoulders.
    "Better?" She asked, noticing my gaze.
    "Absolutely!" I told her and she smiled.
    ~~~~
    My mother told me that Nick had left and Luke was just finishing up a few things. I remembered that I had asked him to hang around and talk to me before he left, so I asked my mother to let him know I was on my way.
    Anne Marie and Eva raced up the stairs with our packages, calling dibs on the shower, as I walked into the kitchen looking for Luke.
    I found him leaning against the island, drinking a bottle of water. For the briefest moment I wished I was that bottle, and then he spoke and my sanity returned.
    "You wanted to talk?"
    "Luke, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry I wasn't there for you either after Mark's death. I am just as much to blame for us not keeping in contact."
    He looked at me for a moment, green eyes searching my face.
    "Why didn't you come to the funeral?" Luke wanted to know.
    "I just couldn't. I didn't want to remember him like that. I wanted to remember him alive and smiling," I replied, wringing my hands.
    Luke picked up one of my hands sending tingles up my arm and nodded as if he understood.
    "How did you end up back here, in this town?" I asked.
    "I grew up here , you know that. My dad got a new job in