by Annora Green
“Nah, I bought the clothes for myself.” Rachel said.
“Exactly,” Sophia said. “Clothes aren’t necessarily to impress other people. They shouldn’t be, at least. They’re for how they make you feel. The experience you have wearing them. Your own personal enjoyment. If other people happen to notice and like them, too... well, then that’s just a perk.”
“I guess I can see where you’re coming from,” Ari said, as Rachel steered them toward the next store.
“But to finish answering your question,” Sophia continued, “that’s not really the reason I started Forbidden. I actually liked clothes, and I liked the science behind them. Especially lingerie. I liked the challenge of designing and selling a product that is both necessary and exciting for women. They are essential items that we all wear every day, but they can also be a fun and frivolous and a bit naughty. What else in a woman’s wardrobe can do all of that?”
“I like the name ‘Forbidden,’” Rachel said. “But how did you come up with it?”
“When I was trying to come up with names for a lingerie line, I was thinking about mythology. Paradise.”
“Forbidden fruit,” Ari said.
Sophia smiled, nodding.
“Nice,” Rachel said.
“Seems like your whole career was pretty meticulously planned out,” Ari said. “Your education, work experience, your interests in textiles and business.”
“My goal was always to have my own business. I never wanted to work for someone else. And I loved every step in the process, really. I liked building it, perfecting it, growing it. I like having a little empire of my own,” Sophia said.
Ari nodded understandingly. “I never liked working for other people, either.”
“Oooh, look at these dresses!” Rachel said, directing them towards a display in another store window. “Gorgeous. Let’s go in.”
Sophia and Rachel went into the shop, and Ari dragged behind, shoving her hands in her pockets and looking around her, once again feeling a bit like a fish out of water.
Sophia studied the leather dresses that Rachel had seen in the window. They were nice. She picked up a black one, a simple shape, short, sleeveless, slender-fitting, with blue-colored color blocked accents.
Rachel looked at a similar red one with leather accents and held it up to herself in the mirror.
“Everything about this is so me,” Rachel said wistfully.
Sophia held up the dress she was looking at.
“That would really look good on you,” Rachel said to her.
Sophia shook her head. “I have no place to wear it. Definitely not workplace friendly.”
“You make lingerie, what exactly is the protocol for workplace-friendly attire in your world?” Ari asked, an eyebrow raised.
“It’s not short leather dresses, I can tell you that.”
“Come on, let’s try them on,” Rachel said.
“That looks damn good on you,” Rachel commented a few minutes later as they both emerged from their dressing rooms, Sophia in the black dress with the blue.
Ari was sitting in a group of soft chairs outside the fitting rooms, waiting patiently. She looked up at both Rachel and Sophia.
“I have the wrong kind of shoes on,” Sophia said, looking down at her plain heels.
“Here,” Rachel said, sliding off her mile-high sparkly silver heels.
Sophia looked at the shoes disdainfully. She did not exactly make a habit of trying on other peoples’ shoes; the thought was slightly off putting. But Ari and Rachel were looking at her expectantly, and she supposed she was in the middle of some sort of bonding moment that was going shockingly well. She could not remember the last time she bonded with someone outside of work (or a fling). Not wanting to ruin the moment, she didn’t say anything, took the shoes, slid them on, and...
“Much better,” Rachel said approvingly as Sophia studied her reflection in the mirror. “You’ve got to get that dress.
Sophia turned in front of the mirror, inspecting it from different angles. The dress was really good.
She glanced over at Ari, and the places where Ari’s eyes were lingering said everything she needed to know.
She decided to get the dress.
The three of them emerged from the store thirty minutes later, Rachel asking Ari if she was sure she did not want to buy anything before they had to go back.
“I’m good with my jeans,” Ari promised her.
Rachel had also decided to leave the store with a new, slim-fitting, short dress, although she ended up going with one that was red and trimmed in lace.
“Now to find the right occasion for this dress,” Sophia said.
“Tonight,” Rachel answered. “It’ll be the perfect night for wearing sinful dresses. And speaking of sin, it’s time to go back to the hotel so we can meet up with the bachelorette group when they return. Their spa break is almost over so they’ll no doubt be all refreshed and ready to dive headfirst into some more debauchery.”
“Couldn’t they just have spent the rest of the day at the spa?” asked Sophia, scrunching up her nose.
“Sophia had a little too much to drink last night,” Ari explained to Rachel.
“Well, what did you expect, we’re in Vegas,” Rachel teased as they got into the car.
“Vegas is clearly for people who don’t have a 8am meeting on Monday with suppliers in Japan, followed by a 10am meeting about social media marketing with an agency in New York,” muttered Sophia.
“That’s two whole days away. Can’t you just let work go this weekend?” asked Ari, pulling out of the parking garage.
“At least your workaholicism is paying off. Your stuff is really good, Sophia. I’ve stopped in your store a few times after work,” Rachel said.
“Thank you,” Sophia said, genuinely pleased by Rachel’s compliment.
“You know... my cousin is a professional stylist in New York and has a good social media following. He does tv shows, photoshoots, styling for magazines, that sort of thing. He gets lots of clothes sent to him all of the time by designers who want to have him feature their stuff. If you wanted to send him a few of your things, I’d let him know to look out for them. He’d be more likely to take a look if I give him a heads up,” Rachel offered.
Sophia tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “That would be fantastic. Sure. I’ll arrange to send him a few pieces next week.”
“I’ll text you his mailing info,” Rachel said, “And I’ll let him know to watch for something from Forbidden.”
“All right, enough shop talk. We’ve got to go back to the hotel and get this Saturday night party under way,” Ari said, interrupting them.
“Wonderful,” muttered Sophia, the high of the shopping trip and the slightly unnerving, but pleasant, experience of shopping with friends (were they her friends?) starting to wear off at the prospect of rejoining her sister for more bachelorette shenanigans.
“My goal tonight is to give your sister the Saturday night party of her dreams,” Rachel said. “Maybe it’ll be so good her marriage will stick this time.”
“My goal tonight is to not need Nate’s hangover cure,” Sophia grumbled.
Ari glanced at her and smiled. “He texted me to say there’s plenty in the fridge back home if you need it.”
“Back home?” Rachel asked. “So that’s where you two were last night. At Ari’s.”
Sophia and Ari didn’t reply. Sophia glanced at Rachel in the backseat and noticed she was grinning.
“Back to the grind,” Rachel announced a few minutes later as they pulled into the valet parking for Panache. “Shopping and partying. I love this job.”
¨°¨
Sophia woke up. She kept her eyes closed for a few minutes. The bright sun was shining through a nearby window and she did not quite feel like opening her eyes to face the day yet.
She tucked the soft sheet closer under her chin, and rolled onto her back, sighing to herself.
And then, she felt something she
had not felt in a while.
Someone moved next to her in the bed.
She paused, immobile, afraid to wiggle an inch, but popped her eyes open.
Where was she?
The light filtered through her eyelashes as she blinked, and the first thing she noticed was a vividly colored painting on the wall of the room she was in.
She was back in Ari’s room.
There were more small movements next to her. She barely breathed, as though any motion on her part would cause whatever reality awaited her to crash in. In her half-awake state, she struggled to recall the events of last night.
She slowly turned her head to look over at the other half of the bed, and noticed a long sweep of wavy blonde hair splayed out across the pillow. Somewhere underneath the covers, her companion was stirring.
And then memories of the night before came flooding back to her.
8 …Stays in Vegas
11:00 pm, the previous night
“You aren’t drunk, Sophia, are you?” Ari asked, her eyes glimmering and her mouth half-curled into an amused smile, clutching her phone in one hand.
Sophia held up her half-empty glass and raised her voice so she could be heard over the music. “Not tonight. Not from half a glass of a gin and tonic that I’ve been pretending to sip for the past three hours.”
“Now you’re getting the hang of it.”
“It would appear I am,” Sophia said, raising her voice again as the music crescendoed, the beat reverberating through the penthouse. All around them, Sabrina’s friends were dancing, drinking, and laughing.
“Having fun, sis?” her sister asked, gliding past her, a full glass of red wine in hand. “At least you don’t look boring, for once.”
Sophia decided she would accept that as one of the few compliments her sister had ever given her.
She watched as her sister was shuffled towards two men, dancers hired to add some liveliness (and gender diversity) to the party, giving Sabrina’s mishmash group of friends something to focus on other than the continuous flow of booze.
Earlier that night, Sophia had to admit that while watching her sister get lots of attention from two greased-up male strippers dressed as policemen might have been a scene that was straight out of a million really horrible, D-list movies, it was still entertaining... and best of all, a delightful source of blackmail material. She took several pictures, just in case they might ever come in handy.
Although having said pictures would be contingent on ever getting her phone back. Sabrina had caught Sophia out on the rooftop terrace checking emails on it. Her sister reacted by grabbing it out of her hands and throwing it into a large container with a palm tree.
“No more of this,” Sabrina had called out over the music, slurring her words slightly. “You’re never going to get a bachelorette party of your own unless you give up this damn phone. Come with me.”
Sabrina and one of her friends - Sophia seemed to recall her name was Cassandra - pulled her into the dizzying fray of music, giddy friends and the hired dancers. Sophia reluctantly found herself amongst a lot of bodies, hands, and swaying hips.
Sophia humored her sister for a while by dancing, only cringing once or twice when someone smelling too strongly of booze brushed up against her (or worse, when it was one of the hired dancers, who all smelled way too strongly of cologne), but when Sabrina inevitably became distracted by one of the dancers - a tall, dark, handsome man with teeth that were almost too white and perfect - Sophia found the opportunity to edge out of the fray of people. As she did, she spotted Ari off to the side, scrolling through her phone.
Sophia hadn’t seen Ari do anything all night other than sip a drink or two and chat on the sidelines.
Sophia paused and studied her for a moment from a distance. Ari’s blonde hair tumbled in soft waves over her shoulders. She stood tall in her high leather boots, which had a bit of a heel to them, and her eyes seemed soft as she looked down at the screen of her phone. She looked pretty like that.
Shame that such a beautiful, charming woman would spend the whole evening as a wallflower, Sophia thought to herself.
Sophia took a breath then waltzed up to Ari, delicately took the phone out of her hands, her eyes shining gleefully, and gently tossed it into a nearby pot of flowers.
“Not tonight, Ms. Little,” she said firmly, speaking loud enough to be heard over the music, and, taking her hand, pulled Ari with her into the mix of people dancing.
At first, they danced carefree and friendly, Ari laughing as soon as she got over the shock of being whisked away from the sidelines, shaking her head in pretend annoyance, but ultimately playing along and swaying with the rest of the group. After a while, in one of those moments that felt like it should have happened in slow motion, one of Sabrina’s shirtless dancers accidentally bumped Sophia from behind and Sophia was nudged closer to Ari. Out of instinct, Ari reached out and caught her as she was pushed close.
There was a moment, then, when both of their eyes met, Ari gripping Sophia’s forearms. As soon as Sophia found her balance again, Ari let her go.
Then, in a split second decision, Sophia reached out and pulled Ari back towards her, so they could continue to dance. This time in much closer proximity.
Ari seemed caught off guard for a moment by the gesture. She looked nervously at Sophia, but the determination in Sophia’s eyes told her all she needed to know. For a moment, Sophia rested a hand on each of Ari’s shoulders. One of her hands dropped, finding Ari’s hand and squeezing it reassuringly.
Ari relaxed.
They stayed that way until the music shifted again a minute or two later. The all-too brief spell was broken. Ari excused herself, and before Sophia could follow, the blonde disappeared somewhere into the crowd.
Sophia went back outside for a breath of fresh air.
¨°¨
Midnight
Eventually, the party entered that state where everyone had lost track of time and all sense of decorum had long since flown out the window. The music, the laughter, the booze, their dizzying view over the Strip, the antics of the hired dancers who would occasionally put on a bit of a performance of their own - a solo dance in the middle of the floor, a not-so-serious but delightfully over-the-top declaration of love to one of the guests - just to keep things interesting, everything providing nonstop distractions and endless entertainment. Some of the dancers had paired up with the guests to dance during slower songs. At one point, Sophia even thought she saw Rachel dancing with one of Sabrina’s friends, Cassandra.
Who knew?She mused to herself, watching the two of them for a few seconds as one song that the DJ was playing transitioned to the next.
Everyone around her had became a little bleary-eyed from the hours of drinking, dancing and operating in a low-light atmosphere, punctuated only by the flashes from colorful dance lights that had been strategically placed around the space.
She thought she spotted her sister sitting out on the rooftop garden at one point, her head resting against one hand, her fiery mane of auburn hair tumbling out of the elegant updo that it had been in earlier that evening. She seemed quiet for once.
Sophia still had not had much to drink. She saw Ari once again after Ari had wandered off after their dance, but she felt too tongue-tied to approach her. She noticed when Ari spoke with Rachel at one point, then Cassandra, then laughed at some joke that the three shared. Ari then grabbed a few tortilla chips from the array of snacks set up in the kitchen before wandering into another room, disappearing again before Sophia could make her way over.
Sophia nervously brushed her hand through her hair. She cursed her eyes for constantly being drawn to the woman. It was irritating. Yet, she found those lingering glances somewhat impossible to control.
It was not a feeling she was accustomed to. At least not in recent years. It reminded her of a time when she was younger, back in her school days, when her draw towards certain people had been more natural. Back when her romances were less about the i
nstant gratification of a conquer, but rather, more about chemistry and gentle attraction to another human being. Discovering them as a person.
In recent years, she had enjoyed the cat and mouse game so much that she almost forgot what it was like not to be in hot pursuit of whomever she found herself attracted to. She relished the chase. The challenge of cornering her prey. The exquisite satisfaction when she finally did. The act of forgetting about it entirely afterwards.
But with Ari, once again, it seemed different. Sure, some primal part of Sophia still instinctually wanted to play cat and mouse with her. Ari herself seemed to realize that about Sophia. She was game for it, even, judging from her knowing attitude around Sophia.
Ari was not sitting prey. She was the kind of prey who bit back.
Sophia appreciated that Ari was her own person and was not, by any means, weak or naïve.
In fact, bottom line, Sophia was not sure if Ari was interested at all. Perhaps she was amused byher, even. Flattered by the attention, perhaps, but notinto it.
Either way, Sophia felt Ari had made it very clear to her that she would be just fine one way or another, with or without Sophia’s attention.
Ari could take her or leave her.
And so for Sophia, this time, the game was different.
Because of that, as much as she was drawn to Ari, Sophia was also quite uneasy around her.
Sophia took a sip of water.
There was also the way that Ari did so much for her, despite everything. Took a genuine interest in her as a friend. Sophia was not used to having friends outside of work, and was not sure how to manage it. She was not even sure why she deserved Ari’s time. She was not used to that kind of attention - attention that did not seem to come with any strings attached - and she did not think she liked the unknown aspect of it. This was foreign ground to Sophia.
Trying to forget about Ari for a moment, Sophia turned her focus elsewhere and noticed Sabrina had moved back inside, and having clearly found her second wind, was starting to get a little too flirty with the bartender. Sophia rolled her eyes and decided she simply did not want to find out wherethat was going, and so she walked around the pool, further away from anyone.
