The Game Changer (5 page)

Olivia straightened up, clasping Melody’s hand between both of hers. “You’re right,” she said slowly, some of the spark returning to her eyes.

“Of course I am.” Melody grinned. “You don’t have to decide right now, or tomorrow, or even next week. But if you’re completely honest with yourself, you know these things are just hobbies. They might even turn out to be lucrative hobbies, but they’re not what you really want to do.”

“I know,” Olivia said, biting her lip. “I’m just…it’s so…”

“I know. I know, Liv.” Melody squeezed Olivia’s hands. “Sometimes it’s scary to follow your dreams. But you can’t let a talent like yours go to waste.”

Olivia shook her head, her eyes shifting out of focus as she stared at nothing. Melody remained silent, wondering what Olivia was thinking, but giving her time to work it out. When her eyes refocused, she looked at Melody with a small smile. “Are you hungry? I made appetizers.”

Melody sighed. Olivia was a master at changing the subject. She was about to speak when Olivia gave her a pleading look and squeezed her hands again.
There’ll be time enough to talk about this some other day
, Melody thought.

“I’m famished. My lunch just didn’t appeal to me today,” Melody said.

Olivia grinned broadly, back to her old self as she turned to fix them each a plate of the savoury pastries on the counter. She was the only person Melody knew who could switch gears so quickly—bubbly to unsure and back to bubbly in a span of less than five minutes. But that was part of why Melody loved her so much. Life would never be boring with Olivia around.

*****

“Melody, there’s someone in the lunchroom waiting for you.”

Melody looked up to see one of her co-workers, Angelica, leaning against the side of her cubicle. It was just after noon on Friday, and Melody hadn’t taken a break since her arrival four hours before.

“Thanks, Ang.” Melody stretched her arms over her head and cringed as her spine popped. “Who is it?”

“I’m not supposed to tell you,” Angelica said with a conspiratorial grin, her dark eyes dancing. “But I’m invited, too.”

“Invited?” Melody saved the documents she’d been working on and took her purse from the locked drawer in her desk. When Angelica wasn’t forthcoming with more information, Melody simply shrugged and said, “Lead on.”

She fell into step beside Angelica, and they walked in silence toward the lunchroom. The two were friendly acquaintances, but had never spent any time together outside of work. Melody usually ate lunch at her desk so she could keep working, but on the rare occasion she ate in the lunchroom or went downstairs to the café, Angelica joined her. She was a sweet girl, a few years younger than Melody, and loved her job as a marketing consultant.

“There you are,” Olivia said when Angelica pushed open the door to the lunchroom.

“Hey, this is a nice surprise.” Melody stepped into the room and hugged Olivia. “What are you doing here?”

“Well you left without packing a lunch this morning, and I know sometimes you get so busy you forget to eat, so I thought I’d bring lunch and make sure you eat.” Olivia gestured to one of the small round tables in the corner. There was a creamy sweet potato and carrot soup that Olivia made the day before during her cooking marathon, along with homemade bread, garden salad, and a variety of cookies and squares.

“I can’t remember the last time I had homemade soup,” Angelica said, biting her lip as though she were afraid Olivia would revoke her invitation to join them for lunch.

“You’re in for a real treat then, because Olivia is a fantastic cook.” Melody put her hand on Angelica’s back and guided her to the table. She winked at Olivia over the younger girl’s shoulder. “This is amazing, Liv.”

Olivia waved her hand in dismissal, but Melody could tell she was pleased. “I just want to make sure you’re well fed,” she said as she slid into a chair next to Angelica. “And in case I do decide to go into cooking professionally, it’ll be nice to have an opinion that’s not biased. I know it’s just soup, but still.”

Angelica smiled shyly as Olivia handed her a bowl of thick, orange soup. “Melody mentioned that you’re in the fashion business?”

“Kind of,” Olivia said slowly. “I took design at school, and I worked in a boutique for awhile doing different things from buying stock, to dressing, to the occasional alteration.”

“Dressing?” Angelica asked, taking a spoonful of soup and moaning when the thick concoction hit her tongue.

Olivia smiled broadly at Angelica’s reaction and pushed the plate of bread toward her before glancing at Melody to make sure she was eating. “So, yeah, dressing. Like when a woman would come in looking for an outfit for a certain event or function, I would pick different pieces for her, match them up, make sure they fit properly, that sort of thing. I also had girls come in who were looking to purge their closets and replace all their old clothes, and I’d help them pick pieces that were pretty but functional. Things that were interchangeable, you know, like a top that you could wear with a skirt or pants, dress it up or dress it down, depending on the occasion.”

“Oh wow,” Angelica said between bites of soup. “That sounds like what I need. I lost about a hundred pounds last year and I only have a few outfits. I’m still sort of in fat girl mentality, I think. I’m not used to being able to shop wherever I want instead of just specialty stores.”

Olivia nodded. “I dealt with that a lot in the boutique. I’d be happy to help you out anytime. Losing that much weight is a huge accomplishment, and what better way to celebrate than with new clothes?”

Melody held in a laugh. Olivia would use
any
excuse to buy new clothes.
Oh, it’s Tuesday again, time for a new dress.
To Angelica, she said, “Good for you. And Olivia’s exactly the person to go to for help with new clothes. She’ll be brutally honest and tell you what looks amazing and what looks like crap.”

“Speaking of which, it’s time you and I went shopping, Miss Melody,” Olivia said with a glint in her eye before turning to address Angelica. “We just did the closet purge with her. Got rid of a whole bunch of clothes from the Rick the dick era. Blah, boring, bland.”

Angelica slid her gaze to Melody with her head bowed, as if trying to gage her reaction to Olivia’s statement.

“Yes, yes, we all know I’ve become very boring over the last three years,” Melody said, sighing dramatically. “But now that Rick the…” She stopped and cleared her throat, shaking her head over the fact that Olivia’s nickname for her ex was starting to rub off. “Now that Rick and I have broken up, I just want a fresh start. A new look, a different attitude, just…”

“A new you,” Angelica said quietly, meeting Melody’s eyes with a knowing look. “I get it. That’s exactly how I felt after my ex and I broke up. I had become so…comfortable, I guess. I hated myself for it when I realized how much I had changed. So I made changes for the better.”

“Wise beyond her years, this one,” Olivia said to Melody, inclining her head toward Angelica.

Angelica laughed softly. “There’s nothing wrong with comfortable, but there’s a good comfortable and a bad comfortable, you know? I was in the latter category. I’m still working on it.”

“It’s an on-going thing,” Olivia said.

Angelica smiled her sweet, shy smile, her café au lait skin glowing.

“You should come out with us after work,” Olivia suggested after a pause. “Melody doesn’t know it yet, but we’re going out tonight, and she needs a few things. You can come shopping, then join us at Atlantis if you want.”

Melody stared at Olivia, who spared her a glance with dancing eyes before turning back to Angelica.

“I’d love to,” Angelica said. “I’ve been wanting to go to Atlantis, but I can’t tonight. My mom is coming in early tomorrow for the weekend, but I
can
go shopping.”

“Wonderful!” Olivia clapped her hands excitedly. “I get to do what I do best, and dress two beautiful ladies.”

Melody bit back a sarcastic remark for Angelica’s sake. Maybe she could eventually recruit the younger girl to help her convince Olivia to pursue a career in fashion, where she belonged.

For now she would enjoy Olivia’s new cooking hobby because it meant she got to eat properly for the first time in ages. She would also overlook the whole surprise Atlantis thing, and look forward to shopping on a Friday afternoon like she and Olivia used to do in high school.

CHAPTER 4

“I’d say that was a success.” Olivia stepped into their apartment, followed by a slightly weary Melody, and dropped her shopping bags on the couch.

It was early evening that same Friday, and Melody, Olivia, and Angelica had just spent three hours at the Bellevue Mall shopping for new clothes. They had stopped for dinner in the mall restaurant before taking Angelica home and telling her if she needed a break from her mother over the weekend to give them a call and they’d rescue her.

“Angelica’s a doll, isn’t she?” Olivia said, upending the bags on the couch and rooting through her purchases with a satisfied smile plastered to her face.

“She really is,” Melody agreed. “I feel sort of bad that I never made more of an effort to be friends with her. I guess I always mistook her shyness for snobbishness, so I never really bothered.”

Olivia nodded, pulling a short crimson dress from the pile and holding it up against herself. “Understandable,” she said, tossing the dress aside and pulling another from the pile. “When I first saw her today I thought the same thing, but then she gave me that sweet little smile and won me over. You didn’t mind that I invited her, did you? I know I sort of just took over.”

Melody laughed softly as she joined Olivia in the centre of the living room and dumped out her own bag. “That, my dear, is something I’ve grown accustomed to after twenty years of friendship.” She bumped Olivia’s hip with her own, and Olivia stuck out her tongue. “I didn’t mind at all. I’m glad you did what I’ve failed to do over the past year.”

Olivia waved a hand dismissively. “Stop feeling bad; we’ll make up for it now.” She picked up the crimson dress again and studied it. “I think I’ll wear this one tonight. Our outfits will compliment each other if you wear what I have planned for you.”

Melody was almost afraid to ask. She hadn’t bought much that afternoon, but some of the things were way sexier than what she was used to. Olivia had talked her into them, though, and told her it was time to show some skin. “What do you have planned for me?”

“Well…and don’t say no until you’ve heard me out…”

That was never a good way to start a discussion, Melody thought.

“I think you should wear that little black dress I altered for you a few days ago,” Olivia said.

“No.” Melody was not wearing that thing. If she hadn’t spent so much on it, she would have burned it.

“I knew you’d say that, but just hear me out. I know you probably think the dress is unlucky because of what happened the first time you wore it, but it’s a beautiful dress, and I made it super hot, so it’s almost like a
new
dress. You could wear it tonight, in celebration of having your best friend in the
whole world
as your new roommate…” She paused and smiled brightly, flashing her dimples and batting her eyelashes in a way that made Melody laugh despite herself. “
And
to celebrate being single again. We’ll make some good memories for you in that dress.”

Melody sighed. Why did Olivia always have to be right? And why did Melody always let her talk her into things? “I dunno…” she said, just to make Olivia squirm.

Olivia stuck her hand on her hip and surveyed Melody. “We both know you’ll wear the dress.”

Melody groaned. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll wear the damn dress.”

*****

At ten o’clock that night, Melody stood in front of the full-length mirror in the hallway, turning back and forth to observe herself from every angle. She couldn’t believe her own eyes. She looked
hot
.

The alterations Olivia made on her little black dress had transformed it completely. Now instead of falling mid-calf, it hit several inches above the knee, showcasing legs that Melody often kept hidden, but that Olivia told her were too shapely to hide. She understood what Olivia meant when she said their outfits would compliment each other, because Olivia had given her a crimson belt to cinch the waist of the dress, along with red FMPs. Melody still giggled at that.