Sienna and I both laughed. I couldn’t help but let a little bit of my voice escape through my laughter. A little breaking of the rules couldn’t hurt. “Syd is your Barbie today. She needs something sexy for a big night out.”

The excited salesman could hardly contain his excitement as he began running around the store collecting a pile of dresses as he went. Sienna and I also found a few we liked, and by the time we made our way back to the fitting room we had collected more than a dozen dresses for me to try on.

The first dress I tried on was pretty, but definitely not exciting. I walked out to find Sienna and the salesman had set up chairs in front of the dressing room as if they were waiting for a modeling session to begin.

“Pretty, but … I’m not sure,” Sienna debated aloud.

The salesman’s opinion was more certain. “Pretty but boring. Next.”

I tried on four more and had similar reactions. At least I agreed with their opinion. Pretty, nice, but not the statement I was looking for. Then I tried on a flaming red dress that startled even me as I looked at my reflection in the mirror. It was not anything that I would have picked out, way sexier than my usual taste, but it fit me like a glove and showed off my best assets.

I walked out of the fitting room and looked to my audience, who had been announcing their opinions freely, and waited. Both had wide eyes and mouths hanging open.

“Woman, I want to touch you all over looking at you with that dress on, and I like men!” the salesman exclaimed, jumping up from his chair.

“Holy shit, Syd, sexy can’t begin to describe it. That is the dress! I want to f**k you and I like men too!”

The two of them jumped around and giggled like they had known each other for years. Looking back at the mirror, even I had to agree that I looked good, but the dress was definitely more revealing than I was used to. The top was cut down almost to my belly button and strained in just the right places to fit over my cle**age. The waist of the dress was high and the slit started at an almost unseemly place and went straight down to the floor. It made my legs look a mile long and my br**sts look larger than they really were.

“No, Syd,” Sienna said, and I looked to her, confused.

“You’re getting the dress. Don’t start talking yourself out of it. You look hot and you know it. Jack is going to be torn with covering you up so no one else can see you and wanting to show you off to the world.”

I thought for a moment and smiled. Sienna was absolutely right about Jack, which made the decision easy to get the dress.

By the time I got to the register I had the perfect pair of stilettos to go with the new dress. I was grateful that the prices were in Euro because I wasn’t exactly sure what the full purchase was going to cost me; otherwise, I probably would have given it a second thought.

“I traded two backstage passes for an employee discount,” said Sienna, smiling proudly as I handed over my credit card to pay the bill, which was, gratefully, less than I had expected, thanks to Sienna.

The salesman handed over the garment bag and smiled. “See you ladies tonight!”

After a quick stop at the lingerie store to pick up something pink and sexy for when I met Jack in Italy, we headed back to the tour busses.

***

The concert in Milan was incredible. We played at San Siro Stadium, which doubled as the premiere football stadium in all of Italy. The weather was warm and the night was beautiful and the acoustics in the outdoor stadium were amazing. Even though she was my best friend, I took a bit of a sadistic pleasure when my voice held all evening, but Sienna’s began to crack on the last song.

Chapter 10

Although I was enjoying the tour, I couldn’t wait until our break in Rome. I was meeting up with Jack and we were going to have three and a half days of very needed time together. The days seemed to drag on the closer we got to the day I would finally see Jack.

Sienna made plans to go on a two day sightseeing tour of Rome, then we intended to meet up and see some sights together with Jack. Jack was keeping it a well guarded secret what we were doing for the first two days. I tortured him daily in an attempt to find out. But, in reality, I didn’t care what we did, as long as I was with Jack.

I had also secretly convinced Jack to invite Tyler to Rome, explaining about Sienna and her dry spell. Although he wasn’t convinced we should be playing matchmaker, he acquiesced and invited him for me. Sienna had no idea Tyler was coming, but I knew from how well they’d got along in Hawaii that she wouldn’t be upset.

Tyler and Sienna had gotten cozy during the week I’d met Jack in Hawaii. Neither one of them had been looking for anything serious and both seemed to have been content to just spend the week together having fun. Jack mentioned that Tyler had started to date someone when he went back home to California, but they had recently broken up, so the timing worked out perfectly.

We’d planned to meet at a Heston property in Rome and I was fidgeting in my seat as we pulled up to the hotel. A huge smile spread across my face as I saw Jack walk out and motion to the bellman that he would get the car door. He seemed to be as impatient waiting for us to arrive as I was to get to him.

The minute the door opened, I was out of the car and in Jack’s arms. He smiled at my reaction, and although he may not have sprang out of a car into my arms, he also didn’t let me out of his arms for a very long time. After a long and tight hug, I pulled my head back to look at my utterly delicious man and smiled as I watched his eyes go from my eyes to my mouth. Then he kissed me until my knees went weak.

Sienna finally broke in. “Nice to see you too, Jack.” Although my back was to her, I could hear the smile in her voice.

Jack nodded his head and smiled back at my best friend. “Sienna.”

Then I remembered about Tyler. I whispered to Jack. “Where is he?”

“Hotel lobby bar.”

I turned to Sienna and smiled devilishly. “I have a surprise for you.”

Sienna narrowed her eyes. “Loverboy’s spa has an Italian stallion who is going to give me a massage with a happy ending?”

Jack chuckled and shook his head.

“Better,” I retorted.

“Better than a happy ending? Don’t toy with me, Syd. You know it’s been a while.”

I looked to Jack. “Lead the way.”

Jack took my hand and told the bellman to bring our stuff into the lobby as he walked inside and led us to the bar.

I spied Tyler the minute we turned the corner and the lobby bar came into view. It took Sienna a minute longer because she didn’t know what she was looking for. Then she smiled as we approached Tyler, who was taking in Sienna as she walked toward him. “You are so right, this is better than a happy ending. I think I remember Tyler can give me multiple happy endings.”