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Emma glanced at Jo, then looked back at the dress. “They’re all beautiful.”

“C’mon, try it on first.” Victoria ushered Emma over toward the dressing room and hung the hanger of the black dress on a metal hook. “You’re gonna look great. Call for me if you need any help getting into it.”

Victoria closed the door behind her.

Emma breathed. She twisted her hair into a quick bun and used the hair tie on her wrist to secure it.

Okay. So. Dress number one. She first put it on without takingher bra off, but that wasn’t going to work. The bra came off. The dress was way more low cut than she was comfortable with. She looked good, sure, but she was basically dressing for a work event, and this was in no way appropriate.

She reached for the zipper to change back into her regular clothes without even showing Jo and Victoria, but there was a knock on the door before she could.

“Need help, honey?” Victoria asked.

“No,” Emma said. “No, I’m—good.”

She couldn’t get away with not showing them, she guessed. She had to squeeze the bottom of the princess-style gown to fit through the dressing room door. Victoria oohed with obvious delight and directed Emma over to the mirrors. Jo, seated on the sofa, looked up from her phone and immediately looked back down. Emma wanted to put a hand over her chest. She felt way too exposed.

“What do you think?” Victoria asked.

Emma looked at herself in the three mirrors Victoria had put her in front of.

“It’s, um, a little low cut for me?” Emma swallowed. “Not that there’s anything wrong with low-cut dresses. They’re notbador anything. It’s just not my style, you know? I’m just—I’m not—”

Victoria laughed. “Fine, Jo, you were right. Higher necklines only.”

Emma looked at Jo in the mirror. Still looking at her phone, she raised one hand in acknowledgment. “I’m always right, V.”

Victoria rolled her eyes at Emma, still chuckling. “Okay, let’s get you into the next one,” she said, thrusting the red dress at her. “And I just thought of another one you might like—I’ll be right back.”

She disappeared, and Emma headed back into the dressingroom. As Emma tried to unzip herself, she caught sight of the price tag on the dress. She opened the dressing room door without thinking.

“Jo,” she hissed, and normally she didn’t call her boss by her first name, but these were desperate times.

The distress must have been obvious in Emma’s tone; Jo was beside her in half a moment.

“What?”

“This dress isfive thousand dollars,” Emma whispered. She didn’t want Victoria or any other employee to realize Emma wasn’t rich enough to even try on these clothes.

Jo rolled her eyes. “No wonder Victoria pulled it for you. Trying to up her commission, apparently.”

“I cannot afford this,” Emma said.

“Well, you’re not buying it anyway. And it didn’t suit you.”

It didn’t, but Jo’s words made Emma fidget for some reason. She straightened up, had a few inches on Jo regardless of her boss’s ever-present heels. “Right. It didn’t look good on me.”

Jo’s lips pressed into a thin line. “You’re not usually one to fish for compliments, Ms. Kaplan,” Jo said, though Emma hadn’t meant to fish for anything. “And you’re the one who said it was too low cut.”

But Jo did, too, apparently. Told Victoria beforehand it wasn’t right. Emma was grateful that her boss knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t be comfortable at a work thing in a dress like that. Not that she’d be comfortable anywhere in any style of dress that costfive thousand dollars.

“I can’t afford something a quarter of this price,” Emma said. “I know this place is expensive, but surely there’s something cheaper.”

“As I said, you’re not paying for it.” Jo turned and walked back to the sofa, sitting down again and pulling up her phone.

Emma flushed with understanding.

“No, Ms. Jones,” she said. “That’s too much.”