Page 23 of First Impressions (Passion and Perseverance #1)
As if he sensed her distrust, he quickly continued, “I’m sure he fully intends to give me the position. We were like brothers, even in our disagreements, and knowing that this is what I went to school for, I have no doubt he would have offered me the job regardless.”
“Even though I’m certainly not his number one fan, he has a good head for business and if you were the right person for the job, especially being like family, I think he would have given it to you too.
” Beth smiled back at him and noticed her mother and Lydia heading towards them.
Determined not to be caught in a conversation about Darcy, she quickly turned and scanned the closest dresses, grabbing the prettiest color that she saw - a sky-blue ombré chiffon dress.
“So definitely no black. I think I’ll try this one on, blue has always worked out well for me. What do you think?” she asked George just as Lydia reached them.
“George, there you are! I seriously thought you had left us. What have you guys been doing?” Lydia sent an accusatory stare at Beth, thinking that she had stolen George away while Lydia was trying on her options.
“Ahh… I’ve just been browsing and this dress is the only one I’ve seen that I like, so I’m going to go try it on now.
” Not waiting for a response, Beth bee-lined for the fitting rooms only feeling marginally bad for abandoning George to Lydia and her mother.
Locking herself in the first dressing room, she hung the dress up and sat down on the little bench.
Looking at herself in the mirror, she saw the toll that this emotional rollercoaster had taken on her and put her head back down in her hands.
Who was this person she was becoming? Now she was angry at Darcy all over again for George’s sake; how could he have refused his dying father’s wish that George, basically a second son, be included in his legacy?
She looked up again and found herself staring at the dress she had haphazardly chosen.
The material wrapped around to form a fitted bodice to waist and extended to the one sleeve that was off the left shoulder.
The chiffon flowed freely, in layers, down from the waist. From the bodice down to mid-thigh, the chiffon was a sky blue and then began to fade into white at the hem.
Realizing that she actually had picked something she liked, Beth stripped down and stepped into the dress.
Finally managing to get the zipper up, she looked in the mirror and loved what she saw.
The fitted chiffon to the waist made her look tall and slender.
The one, off-the-shoulder sleeve exposed her shoulders and neck.
With the dress on, she realized there was a thigh-high slit in the skirt that wasn’t visible when she was standing still, but when she walked, elongated and showed off her legs.
The blue also complemented her eyes and hair, making the brown appear not so dull.
After a few twirls, she decided that this was the dress; maybe she was delusional, but she loved it.
Changing back into her running clothes, she took the dress out to the counter to pay. She hadn’t planned on buying a new dress but hell, after the past few days, or weeks, she could splurge. She had just finishing checking out when her sisters and mother, with George in tow, caught up to her.
“Did you find something, dear?” Mrs. Bennet said as she walked over and peeked inside the bag. “Oh, that color will look very nice on you. That’s what I would have suggested.”
“Thanks, mom,” the tiniest bit of sarcasm escaping into her response.
“Beth, you will never believe what happened!” exclaimed Lydia as she quickly glanced at George with a huge smile on her face.
Beth could guess what had happened but she didn’t get the chance.
“Mom said I could invite George to the Ball and he said he would go! Isn’t that great! ” Her guess was correct.
“Well, after your enthusiastic comments about the dress I picked earlier, I needed a party to wear it to,” George joked and gave Beth a wink as Lydia looked confusedly between the two of them.
“What do you mean, George?” Lydia asked harshly.
Then, remembering the other part of her excitement, she continued, “And, because he said that a date should always bring a present, he bought me the Kate Spade necklace that I was showing you earlier! Isn’t he wonderful?
” Returning to her smitten self, Lydia didn’t bother to wait for anyone to answer her before she began pulling George toward the escalator.
Beth didn’t hear his response as Jane finally saw her chance to check on her sister.
“You ok?”
“I will be. Is everyone done finding a dress? Did you find something?”
“I think I’m just going to wear one that I have, but everyone else got something. There’s that black mermaid one that I haven’t worn in a while, so I was just thinking of wearing that instead of spending money on a new one.”
“Well, I think you should have bought a new one for Charles’ sake. You don’t want him to think that you aren’t stylish by wearing old dresses,” their mother huffed.
“Mom, I just don’t see the need to spend money on a dress that I will only wear a handful of times. I think Charles would agree with me,” Jane said placatingly.
It wasn’t that Jane couldn’t afford it because she made a good salary, but she was nothing if not practical when it came to spending money.
Beth had no doubt that her sister’s lack of materialistic tendencies was definitely something that had stood out to Charles; Jane wasn’t pretentious or fake, a rare thing in the world.