This isn't weird.

The Fanciest

Despite her date with Genevieve being a full eight hours away, it struck Millie as a good idea to just get dressed for it now, and save herself the trouble of worrying about it later. It was purely pragmatic, of course. If that happened to mean that she was a bit gussied up for her hangout with Ben, well—that was just an insignificant coincidence.

Once she had dried her hair and dabbed on a bit of makeup (glad this time that Tess wasn't around to catch her), she found herself wholly perplexed by the decision of which dress to wear. She had narrowed it down to two options when a thought occurred to her: Who better to ask than her new gay best friend?

That was the one and only reason that, when Ben arrived, she answered the door wearing only a towel.

"Hi! Sorry I'm running late!" she said as she stepped aside to let him in. "Gen's taking me to this dumb, fancy place later and I got sidetracked trying to figure out what I should wear. Do you wanna help me pick?"

For a split second, Ben's face was blank. He had to remind himself how to breathe before resuming his usual boyish grin. "Of course!"

"Oh my god, thank you," Millie sighed with relief as she led him down the hall to her room. Her room. She was already inviting him back into it! "I would normally ask Tess, but she's been AWOL since last night. I'm pretty sure she's fucking her boss. Or one of her clients. Or both."

"I'm starting to wonder if this Tess person actually exists." He sat on the edge of her bed with his hands folded in his lap, adopting a thoroughly placid demeanor.

"So, I think I've narrowed it down to these two," she said, and held up both dresses. One was a deep red with subtle floral embroidery, the other a soft, plain yellow. "What do you think?"

Ben scrutinized the options with a thoughtful expression. "I think... I need to see you try them on before I can form an opinion."

"Oh, right. Of course." Millie put the yellow dress down on the bed and stepped just out of sight behind her closet door. He could see the towel hit the ground as she tossed it aside. When she reappeared a moment later, she looked a bit shy. The dress was short, falling just past her fingertips, with thin straps that tied together behind her neck. The unapologetic way the tight fabric traced the contours of her figure left Ben with a substantially more vivid mental image of what was underneath.

Somehow, he maintained his poise. "That's a nice color on you," he said, his voice even despite his rising body temperature. "Turn around?" She did so, revealing the dress to be mostly backless, save for a series of thin criss-crossed straps that kept it cinched tightly around her waist. Dear god. This was the best and worst thing that had ever happened to him.

Ben gave a small nod of approval. "Mm-hmm. Very flattering. Definitely a good choice for a date night. Let's see the other one?"

Millie picked up the yellow dress and disappeared behind the door once more. "Hey, can you help me with the zipper?" she asked after a moment. "I can't quite reach it by myself." She stepped out, holding the front of the dress over herself with a sheepish smile.

"Sure," Ben replied casually, standing up as she walked over to him. She turned around and lifted her hair up off of her shoulders. Concentrating hard on keeping his hands steady, Ben found the zipper. The world seemed to move in slow motion as he pulled it upward along the small of her back, torturously aware of how close his fingertips were to her bare skin without actually touching it. Her exposed shoulders looked delicate and smooth, and so very, very kissable. Before his temptation could be fully realized, she dropped her hair back over neck, pulled up the straps, and turned around to show him the dress.