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She could call me a dirty fucking whore and I’d say “thank you.”

“You can still call me princess,” I said, trying not to smile too much. “Am I allowed to call you something?”

Lacey snorted. “You can call me whatever you want, princess.”

“I’ll have to think about it,” I said. “Come up with something that fits you.”

“You do that,” Lacey said, and I went back to painting trim with a grin on my face.

Chapter Thirteen

Sterling and Kai were far too excited that Lacey had invited me over for dinner on Friday. They’d decided it was a date and were being insufferable about it.

“You should touch Gillian Anderson for good luck,” Sterling said and for a moment I forgot that was the name she’d given the ridiculous leopard statue and thought she was speaking of the actress.

“I’m not touching your leopard for luck,” I told her. “And it’s not like I’m going to need luck because I’m just going over to her house for dinner. That’s it.”

“What are you going to wear?” Kai asked, thankfully changing the subject.

“I’m not sure yet,” I said. I had a load of laundry in right now with a few possibilities. I wish I had room in my budget for something new, but I couldn’t justify it when I had all these new expenses for my business and plenty of clothes already.

“You should wear a dress that shows off your legs,” Sterling said. “If you weren’t allergic to anything in my closet, I’d let you borrow something.” Pajamas were one thing, but a whole outfit was something else.

Still… It would be fun to see the look on Lacey’s face if I wore something different.

“Did you have something in mind?” I asked Sterling and her eyes lit up.

“Hold on,” she said, scrambling up from the couch and running to her bedroom.

“Oh, I’m ready to see this,” Kai said, taking Sterling’s spot on the couch next to me.

Instead of bringing out a bunch of options, my sister chose to model each option for us, which I had to admit was more fun. Not everyone had an identical model of their body to show them how something would look.

“Are we allowed to score these looks?” I asked when she came out in the first outfit.

“I mean, what score could you give me but 100 because I look good in everything,” she said, putting her hand on her hip. The first look was a faded black shirt that she’d cut into a crop and black sweatpants.

“That’s going to be a no from me,” I said, and Sterling grinned as if she’d anticipated that response.

Kai was silent next to me and I glanced over to find her staring at my sister in a very seductive way. Sterling winked at her before skipping off to put on the next option.

It wasn’t until the fourth option that she actually took things seriously and came out in something I might be caught dead in.

“Oh, I like that one,” Kai said, which was the same thing she’d said about every single outfit.

“What do you think?” Sterling asked as she posed in the black cropped boatneck T-shirt and matching high-waisted maxi skirt with a slit up the side. The fabric had a bit of a silver shimmer to it, so it wasn’t just flat black, and it did hug Sterling’s body really well, so it would look good on me too.

“I’m still going to wear my pink glasses and have my pink bag, but I think I could pull that off,” I said, tilting my head to look at the outfit from every angle.

“Black and pink do go well together,” Sterling said, doing a little shimmy.

“Okay, take it off before you get it all sweaty and full of your pheromones,” I said and both Sterling and Kai stared at me.

“It’s not a date, yet you’re concerned about pheromones?” Sterling asked.

“I just… I meant…” I said, sputtering as Sterling cackled at me.

“Go take it off,” I said, pointing toward the bedroom.