Stuck on You (9 page)

No. It was stupid. And bound to get her laughed at if she asked. And absolutely would be more hassle and nuisance then it was worth. She sighed and rolled over, trying her best to get comfortable.

If only she could be more like Zoe, minus the bitchy part, of course. Then Miles wouldn’t have a choice but to notice her. Then she’d be closer to his league. And maybe …

No. I will not.

She sighed again and rolled onto her other side, toward Zoe’s side of the room.

“Oh, would you just spit it out already?” came Zoe’s voice in the darkness. She didn’t need to see Zoe’s face to know she was completely annoyed. “I’ll never fall asleep with all that tossing and sighing so say what you need to say and get it over with.”

Oh, yes. I’m a complete glutton for punishment.

“I. Well. Maybe you could … ”

“I haven’t got all night.”

“Maybe you could teach me to be more like you. You know, have more confidence, be more irresistible to the opposite sex. That kind of thing.”

“That really was hard for you, wasn’t it?” Zoe giggled. Actually giggled. It sounded … bizarre.

“I’ve seen the way guys look at you and also the way you don’t care unless you’re interested in them too. In which case, you stake your claim and go for it, like you did on the show with Brad.”

She harrumphed. “Immature surfer boy,” she said quietly.

“So I was thinking … ”

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

“If you could make me be a little more you,” Paige continued, ignoring Zoe’s comment, “then maybe I’ll feel confident enough to go after Miles the way I want to.”

“And what’s in this deal for me?” Zoe said after a moment.

Paige rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Zoe would never do anything out of the goodness of her heart. She should have known asking her for something would come with consequences.

“What do you want?” Paige asked cautiously.

“I want to team up with Miles and Ben to work together. Form an alliance.”

Paige breathed a sigh of relief. Was that really all? That was awesome, actually. Teaming up with the boys would give her more chances to get to know Miles. More chances for him to see her as his equal instead of the girl who was sitting on the counter in the kitchen in her tiny pajamas with apple juice running down her chin. Maybe he’d even look at her with more than a fleeting moment of lust in his eyes.

“Okay,” Paige agreed quickly before Zoe could change her mind.

“And I want them to win,” Zoe said with the confidence in her voice that Paige so desperately wanted to have too.

Paige stared at Zoe, stunned into silence for a moment. Had aliens come down from the sky and taken over her body because this girl who wanted another team to win didn’t sound at all like the bitchy girl Paige knew and loved … liked … tolerated.

“But I thought you wanted to win. I thought you said you wanted the money and the prizes.” Paige couldn’t keep the shocked confusion out of her voice. “You really want to give away your chance at half a million dollars? Why?”

“My reasons are my own. Either you take my deal on my terms, or you don’t.”

Paige thought about it for a minute. Could she really give up her portion of the prize to Ben and Miles because Zoe said so? Because she wanted Zoe’s help? Was the chance at winning Miles’s affection worth the sacrifice?

She had come on the show as a way to spend time with Cassidy while she figured out what she wanted to do with her pathetic dating situation back home. Sure, it sounded great to have men come out in droves to court her with flowers and promises after she’d gotten kicked off
The One.
But the reality of it was more along the lines of annoying and confusing. She’d just wanted time away with Cassidy to figure out if it was time to jump back into dating or not.

And now here she was with a very good, very hot dating prospect in front of her. All she had to do was give up some money she hadn’t really expected to win anyway.

That didn’t sound so terrible.

Honestly, the chance of either of their teams winning was pretty slim anyway. Team Firefighters were basically kicking everyone’s asses at this point with over a hundred caches found already and a pocket full of prizes like the pair of motorcycles they’d recently won. So what did she have to lose by saying yes? Nothing.

“Deal,” she said before she could think about it any more. She needed this. Not only to try to win Miles’s attention, but also for herself. She needed to learn to be more confident in every aspect of her life, not only dating. She was tired of people overlooking her and not taking her seriously — like Chip had, signing her up for the show based on a half-hearted “yes” she hadn’t had time to think through, like her friends and parents back home had overlooked her opinion by forcing endless prospective suitors on her.

But no more.

Zoe’s help was exactly what she needed to start the changes she wanted to make to her life. And once she was more confident in herself, she’d finally stop waiting for things to come to her and instead she would go after the things she really wanted. Like Miles.

“And you agree to listen to me and actually take my advice, no questions asked?” Zoe asked.

Oh jeez. She could practically hear Zoe’s head getting bigger by the second.

“Yes.”

“We start tomorrow. Now you better pipe down over there. You’re going to need all the beauty rest you can get.”

As Paige pulled the blankets tighter under her chin, a spike of excitement shot through her. Followed quickly by a spike of dread.

Had she really just made a deal with the she-devil Zoe?

• • •

Paige and Zoe parallel parked around the corner and a few streets down from Macy’s in Herald Square. Yesterday had taken them all over hell’s half acre along the Hudson Valley and nowhere near a shop where they could pop in and get started on Paige’s new Zoe-ish style. But they’d had plenty of hours while driving around to work on her confidence level and her flirting techniques.

According to Zoe, it was all in the delivery and less in what you actually said. Half-lidded eyes, a subtle tilt of her head, a sultry smile, and a bedroom voice could make a man crumble to his knees — or so Zoe said in her lessons. But it was the practice that was even worse. It was hard to flirt while following an arrow on a GPS and even harder when it was Zoe she had to flirt with.

Paige tried to flirt with Evan a few times because at least she found him attractive. But every time she’d tried, all she could imagine was Cassidy watching it on TV and commenting on what she was doing wrong. Not that any of her flirting scenes with Evan would ever make it on air. Not when he laughed so hard he nearly dropped the camera on more than one occasion. He’d made it perfectly clear that he thought their plan was a bad idea, but he didn’t seem to mind the comic relief she provided while practicing on him.

If Evan’s reaction to her flirting was any indication, she still had plenty of work left to do.

That could wait, though, because today, finally, they’d ended up in the city. And according to their GPS arrow, they were heading right into Macy’s. They walked into the building and were instantly greeted by the bright lights of the cosmetic counters.

“We should have a little look around for you,” Zoe said, eyeing the nearest counter.

“No, we need to find the cache first, then see if we have any money to spare. I may have to borrow your makeup for a bit.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, we can’t spend all of our money on needless things, like new eye shadow, when we still have to buy gas and pay parking fees among other things for the next few weeks. You know as well as I do that Chip will never give us more money if we run out. And parking the first day put us way over budget right off the start.”

Zoe shrugged. “There’s always a price to pay for beauty, so either you pay it or you don’t. It’s your call.”

Paige thought about it as they wove their way through the large department store trying to find the cache. After riding what had to be the world’s oldest wooden escalators, the arrow finally narrowed down their target area to the shoe department. They searched as inconspicuously as they could but it was tricky in the busy department. With every shoe they peeked into and every table they looked under, the shoppers around them grew more and more interested in what they were doing.

Of course Evan following them around with his giant camera probably played a part in the spectacle too.

Finally, tucked back into the corner of the department, they found a shoebox marked with the purple logo of the show. They opened it to find the cache card as well as an envelope. They quickly snapped a picture of Zoe with the cache number, then she opened the envelope, smiling as she read the contents.

“I think our money problems have been solved.” Zoe held two plastic cards and a note out to Paige to read. “We’ve each won a five hundred dollar shopping spree.”

“After the show is over we can come back and get everything for my new me,” Paige said, tucking the card into her pocket.

Zoe reached into her pocket and pulled the card right back out. “We’re going to start your transformation right now.”

“While we’re racing? We’re already way behind a few of the other teams with our count, we don’t really have time for this right now. Maybe we can come back in a few days after we have more?”

“Nope. You agreed to listen to me and I say we start now. You’re only putting off the inevitable if you want to snag Miles’s attention.”

Paige thought about it. True, she did want Miles to see her in a different way. But was she ready for that now? It didn’t seem to make much sense to put it off for much longer. The competition only ran for so long and then the show would be done filming. If she wanted her best chance to catch Miles’s attention, then she may as well do it now. Besides, that way they had many more chances to see each other and to practice her new flirting skills once they started their alliance with the boys.

“Where do we start first?” she conceded.

“Right here.” Zoe walked off in the direction of the women’s shoes.

“But I need my boots for hiking.”

“Oh, silly girl. You have so much to learn.” She stopped at a large display of shoes, picking up one that had a three-inch heel with thin black crisscrossing straps. “It’s time to introduce you to some of my best friends.”

Paige blanched at the sight of the tall stiletto heels in Zoe’s hands. No way would she ever be able to walk in those let alone hike on some of the trails they’d already been on. Simply impossible if she wanted to complete the show without a broken ankle.

“Is there a training size for girls like me who like flats?” Paige asked.

“Sure, we could get you a kitten heel if you’d like, but then I’m pretty sure Miles would be more interested in making sure you were cuddled up nicely on the couch with your blankie and mug of warm milk. Is that what you want from Miles, to be tucked in and treated like a child in your little kitten heels?” Zoe put her hands on her hips.

“No, I guess not.”

“Do you want him to look at you as if he can’t get you out of your clothes fast enough so he may just put you back up on the kitchen counter again and have his way with you?” She held one kitten heel and one stiletto heel in her each of her hands. “Do you want to be tucked in at bedtime or have Miles rip your clothes off for sexy time in the kitchen? Your call.”

Zoe made a pretty convincing argument.

Paige grabbed the arm of a passing salesman, stopping him. “I’d like to try a size six please.”

“In which style, miss?”

She motioned toward the table of stilettos in a variety of colors. “All of them.”

• • •

Twelve near death experiences later, Paige swiped her gift card to pay for her new silver sparkling five-inch heels. They were nothing short of spectacular —
if
she could learn to wear them without breaking her ankle.

Even just standing at the check out counter proved to be more than her weak ankles could handle. Her ankle kept rolling to the side every time she shifted her weight even slightly.

After she paid, she gripped the shopping bag with her hiking boots tucked away inside and wobbled after Zoe as she took off toward another department.

“Wait up, Zoe,” she called, trying to catch up.

“We have lots of work to do before we get back to the race so hurry it up back there.”

Paige tried her best to jog on her spindly heels and caught up to Zoe as she walked into the lingerie section, then stopped dead in her tracks. “Um, are we here to spend your gift card now?”

Please say these are for Zoe.

Paige held up a bra with so much padding in it a man could put it on and have perfectly shaped breasts. Not that most men would want them, but the point was, in this bra they could have them. No. No way could she ever see herself wearing one of these … contraptions. Besides, there was nothing wrong with her usual unpadded bras or the supportive sports bras she wore for the competition.

Zoe ignored her question and moved around the racks of bras, sorting through them with the efficiency of someone who worked in the store. Paige wandered quietly behind her, thankful that it was Zoe’s turn to shop so maybe Paige could sit in the waiting area and rest her already sore feet.

When Zoe had an armful of bras of various colors, silhouettes, and materials, they made their way toward the changing rooms. Paige flopped into the black leather chair, which was even more comfortable than it looked. Instantly the needles in her feet eased a bit.

But before she could get really comfortable and slip her shoes off, Zoe pulled her from the chair and shoved her into a changing stall, thrusting the handful of bras after her.

“I don’t need a new bra,” Paige protested, sticking her head back out through the door. “You didn’t even ask my size.”

“Yes, you do need a new bra, Miss Uniboob.” Zoe pointed at Paige’s chest, drawing circles in the air, eyeing her breasts. “That is not going to get you a man. And don’t worry about size, it wasn’t hard to figure out.”