Page 142 of Next to Everything We Wanted

“No, my mom struggled with getting pregnant. I’m their miracle baby.” Her voice was soft and enduring, and tears burned in the back of my eyes.

I gave her a short hug. “I’m here for you.”

She gave me a sad smile. “Thank you. Really.”

I nodded, thinking about Mom. Maybe I’d underestimated how much her parents dying had hurt. She’d spent most of her time in her room, listening to music to drown out her thoughts. Had that made her sick of being at home? Had that made her realize what she really wanted—to be surrounded by music and not have any reminders of that time of her life?

“Anyway, enough sadness,” Celia said, waving a manicured hand. “I need to find the perfect outfit for Saturday night.”

“Me too.” I looked through the racks of tops in front of us, searching for anything that caught my eye. “I haven’t been to Moonlight Lounge for a while, so I need something that screams the vibe.”

“Are your friends coming? Maybe you can wear something that matches their vibe.”

“Raina and Arielle are wearing plain tank tops with sequin skirts.” I sifted through the tops in front of me before I found a shimmery black tank top with thin straps. I put it into mybasket. “I have a few good things to work with, but the outfit isn’t coming together.”

“Hmm.” Celia helped me look for a few more shirts before she pulled out a shimmery gold sequin wrap top. “I think this would look good on you.”

I examined the top before I smiled and added it to my basket. “It’s great.”

After looking for a few more tops, we went to the bottoms section before going to the dressing room.

The first outfit Celeste came out in was perfect. She wore a sheer long-sleeved black shirt with pearls embellished over it and black pants with a gold belt. It highlighted her tan skin and neutral makeup perfectly, making her look like a supermodel.

“It’s perfect,” I told her with a grin. “You look stunning.”

She flipped her hair. “Thank you.”

I tried on a few outfits, mixing and matching my tops and bottoms. I’d even picked out a little black dress, but I knew after putting it on that it’d rip the moment I bent down.

When I put on the gold top Celia had picked out and matched it with black pants, I smiled at my reflection in the mirror. Man, I lookedfine. The shirt was a little low-cut and matched my skin tone well, and the pants hugged me in all the right places. I loved it.

Gavin would, too.

Celia beamed as I came out of the dressing room. “Now, that’s the outfit,” she said, taking in my new look. “All you need is shoes to match the shirt, and you’ll be as good as gold.”

“Thank you.” I smiled before changing back into my usual clothes.

Celia and I went to the shoe department and found the perfect shoes for our outfits—gold wedged heels for me and black heels with gold embellishments for her.

We were going to look perfect.

“This was so much fun,” Celia said with a grin as we walked out of the store with our bags. “We should do this again sometime.”

“We definitely should.” I waved at her. “See you at What Do You Bean tonight.”

She waved back, and I unlocked my trunk to put my bags of clothes inside.

“Also, Sienna?”

I looked up to see Celia still standing there with her shopping bags. “Yeah?”

“You can call me Celeste.”

“You seem nervous.”

I looked up from my pancakes to face Dad. “I have a good reason to be.”

“You haven’t even touched your coffee. That’s the least Sienna thing I’ve ever seen.”