8 The Red Dress

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Maddy enquired with wide eyes and her mouth agape.

"He invited me to a dinner," I repeated my words.

"With Jordan Parker? A dinner... with Jordan Par-- Oh, my God." she closed her open mouth by covering it with her palms as she tried her best to control a shriek.

"Should I frame it again for you? Perhaps in a language that you'd understand? I wonder what that might be," I paced back and forth around the living room of our apartment.

"I'm just trying to comprehend. What changed in the past week? Wasn't he insufferable?" her nose wrinkled in confusion.

I stopped pacing and looked at her. "He still is!"

"Then--"

"A DINNER Madison!" I yelled. "Jordan Parker wants to eat dinner with me after being an impertinent ass to me all this while he just casually said, 'Dinner at 8. I'll pick you up.' 'I'll pick you up'???? What does that even-- Why?"

"Okay, you should sit down." Maddy looked at me carefully as if I was a grenade ready to burst any moment.

To be honest, I felt like it. I felt the constant ticking in my head, Jordan's word's bouncing off the walls, causing me discomfort each time they rattled in my head.

"I am fine," I inhaled.

"Well, you look it," Maddy said derisively

I let out a heavy sigh and came to a halt in the center of the room. "I don't want to go."

"Well, then don't," Maddy shrugged. She sat with her legs outstretched reaching the coffee table and a bowl of chips rested on her lap.

I could hear the crunchy sound that her mouth made each time she put a chip in it.

"I can't do that either." I finally sat down in front of her.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't know how he'll react to it. What if he decides to pull the plug on this project?"

"What if he's only asking you to dinner because he likes you?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, sure. That must be it," I gave her my best sarcastic look.

"Tell me you're not attracted to him," she looked me in the eye.

I blinked a couple of times and rolled my tongue in my mouth as I struggled to say 'no'.

"He has done nothing but torment me this entire week!"

"But you're not denying being attracted towards him?" Maddy sat up straight and her eyes twinkled mischievously.

I averted her stare.

"I am not saying he's ugly."

"What you're not saying is that you're afraid to go out with him because of the way he makes you feel," Maddy said.

"I— That's not—" I was failing at finding words to nullify her statement.

I agree that Jordan Parker looked like an angel gone bad who traded his halo for the horns of the devil. His eyes were a shade of deep soothing green and his lips curved like the arch of a bow. The long nose worked wonders for him and complimented his chiseled jaw.

"So, maybe he just asked you to dinner because he felt the same."

"Just because he's physically attractive does not mean I'd want to go out with him, Maddy. The man has a sour personality. I would rather stab myself repeatedly than share a meal with him," I said.

Jordan's looks might get my motor running but that's just not enough to overlook his personality. He's a playboy and I have no intentions of getting involved in any of that.

"But do you know f—"

"I don't know why he does what he does, Madison. His looks can only get him so far. He was rude to me the very first day we met and he goes from hot to cold in a new york minute! What am I to make of this?" I stood up abruptly.

Silence enveloped the air in the room.

"Call him up and tell him you can't make it," Maddy stood behind me.

"If it's bothering you so much then—"

Her words were stopped by the shrilling noise of my phone. I walked up to the coffee table where it lay and read Jordan's name flash on the screen.

My heartbeat quickened.

I showed it to Maddy.

"Well, pick it up!" she urged. "Put it on speaker."

Feeling skeptical, I answered the call.

"Did you get it?" he asked before I could even say 'hello'. "I think Red will suit you."

I frowned and looked at Maddy who had the same expression as mine. "What are you talking about?"

"The dress," he said.

"What dress?" I stared at my screen in confusion.

"The one I had delivered to your house earlier today, did you not get it, Rose?"

I looked at Maddy who was looking at me apologetically. She ran inside my bedroom.

"Are you there, Rose?" Jordan enquired when I didn't answer back.

"Yes. I'm here." Maddy emerged out of my room holding a parcel in her hands.

I gestured for her to unwrap it.

"Did you get it, then?"

"I got it, Mr. Parker," I said.

My eyes were glued onto Maddy while she opened the package.

"Do you find it to your liking then?" he asked and I struggled to find words. I did not even know what he was talking about. "Do you like it?"

"Do I like it?" I repeated his question and stared at Maddy as she produced a red fabric from the package.

Her head bobbed up and down and her lips spread wide apart as she expressed her liking to the piece of clothing in her hand.

She held it in front of me and beamed.

"Oh," I gasped as I set my eyes upon the dress.

It was a bright shade of red with an intricate lace design running through the entire length of the fabric. It had two thin straps to hold the dress together which would rest one on each shoulder, and the hem stopped just above Maddy's knees which would mean that it would sit right above my thighs.

"It's beautiful, Mr. Parker," I stared at the red fabric hanging loosely from Maddy's arms.

"Jordan," he replied. "Just call me Jordan." My eyes widened. I looked at Maddy who had a hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh.

What had gotten into him?

"Only if you stop calling me Rose."

"No can do, it is your name after all."

"Then would you prefer I call you Parker instead of Jordan?"

"I'd prefer if you wore that dress tonight. I'll be picking you up around 7. And, oh, Rose, I don't like to wait. So, make haste."

He disconnected the call.

"What was that?" Maddy asked. "I don't know if I should think him to be sweet for sending you this gorgeous dress or rude for sounding so arrogant."

"Now you know what I go through each day," I walked towards her and picked the dress. "Although, he hasn't been this way at all. Not after he dropped me home the other day."

"I don't know what to say."

"And I don't know what to do!" I fell onto the couch. "This has to be the weirdest moment of my life. I mean, I don't understand what he wants."

"Maybe going out with him is the only thing that'll help you figure that out," Maddy reasoned.

I looked at her and sighed.

Maybe I was overthinking this.

I didn't know what this dinner meant for Jordan but it definitely didn't mean anything to me. I took this job to write a piece so good that it would be remembered long after I was gone and that is all that I was going to do.

I was going to focus on my work, on the assignment that I was given. If possible, I'd negotiate an easier arrangement with him. One that will benefit us both.

Jordan doesn't want to waste time on this magazine and I don't want to waste my time on him (although this dress is making me question a lot of things).

I will propose to him that he gives me a full week of his time and I shall be done with the magazine without any interruptions. Within a week I'll be out of his hair and we'll both get what we want.

The sooner I get done with this, the better.

I stood up from the couch and grabbed the red dress.

"Okay. You're right. I'll go," I said to Maddy and she squealed in excitement.