ready for it? • t. zegras

fourty

"Oh my god," I mutter, looking in the mirror for a split second before slipping the dress right back off.

Trevor locks eyes with me in the mirror with the smallest of smiles on his face. "That one not it either?"

"Nope." I'm already searching through my clothes. It's shocking how many options I managed to pack into my suitcase. Well, two suitcases. I like to have choices. Even for what was meant to be a like week-long vacation.

"Alright."

I pause for a moment. But my phone lights up and I see the time and it's back to my search. We have a reservation to make. With his parents. This isn't the time to pause. Why do clothes have to be so difficult? Why couldn't this sweetheart of a boyfriend have given me a heads up to pack at least one thing that could be "meeting the parents" and not "lake house with a bunch of 20-somethings"?

Next up is some summery dress I never even wore in Michigan. Turning around, I expect Trevor to be on his phone or something. Anything to kill the time I'm taking so much of. He's not though. He's looking right at me. In fact, his phone is on the charger on the nightstand. All the way back there.

"What?" I ask. He shrugs. There are so many pieces of clothing everywhere after their rejection. "Sorry, I'm taking so long."

Another shrug. That stupid little smile gracing his perfect little face. God. I'm going to my first dinner ever with his parents. Nothing will ever be good enough for that, will it? I've never done this part before. This is new territory in the girlfriend role.

"I just—" I huff.

"What's wrong with that one? You look gorgeous," Trevor says.

I look in the mirror. Adjusting the dress doesn't help. Pulling it up or down or even considering a jacket. Nothing. "The neckline."

"Then let's find a dress with a different neckline."

"Let's?" I question. "You're just sitting there watching!"

"Love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life," he says.

Rolling my eyes, I grab the first dress I see in either of my suitcases. Which also seems to be the last of my dresses. Maybe I should go back to trying skirts. Maybe shorts? No. This isn't an occasion for shorts.

Stupid dress won't let me zip it up myself. Lucky for me, I have a Trevor with me. He gets up and makes a show of helping me without being asked. He moves my hair over one of my shoulders. Straightens out the clasp of the T necklace to be what I'm assuming is the center of my neck. Then there's a kiss on the shoulder without the task of keeping my hair out of the way.

A soft sigh falls out of my lips but I straighten right back up. "Hon, as much as I love you and you touching me, we have a time crunch."

"I'm not in a rush," he mumbles. Even goes as far as fiddling with the zipper without actually moving it any further up.

"We're in a rush," I correct.

There's a dramatic groan and he leans forward, essentially resting his head on the back of mine. It's like he'd rather watch me try on every single piece of clothing I own than go have a nice dinner with his family. Not even his whole family. Just the parents tonight. Ice cream with the siblings tomorrow. He has a great itinerary and he's acting like we're going to watch hours of the most boring safety training videos ever.

He grumbles out, "This is so much fun, though!"

"Me hating everything I try on? That's fun to you?"

"Yeah."

"It's not a once-in-a-lifetime chance," I say.

Trevor perks up. A big ol' grin on his face. As if he forgot he got to do this over and over and over again. A long while. Forever, hopefully.

There's the zipping of the zipper. Trevor clears his throat. "This one good?"

I nod, despite not even really looking at the dress. This one is good. A second later, I hiss in a gasp. "Do you know where my purse is?"

* * * * *

"God, I hate you," Trevor says as he collapses onto the bed.

I laugh, navigating through the aftermath of the hurricane I put the room through earlier. "Why's that?"

"You didn't stutter or anything the whole night, Teags," he laughs. "I was a wreck at the Neal Family Party."

"You weren't a wreck."

He sits up and stares at me. Okay, yeah. He was a bit of a wreck anytime a real adult was around but he was great with the cousins and what else really matters? Grandma liked him! That's the second thing that matters.

"You still went through with it," I say while joining him on the bed. "Could've run off. Could've said no in the first place. You stayed."

Trevor maneuvers his way to have his head in my lap, grinning at me in a way that sends me back to my kitchen with an hour until work with a boy I met the night before. My mind flashes back to seeing the story on Jamie's phone of him and that gorgeous girl and taking my imagination down a notch because there wasn't going to be some whirlwind romance. If that Teagan could see this Teagan, she'd be so happy. I'm so happy.

"I'd do anything you say, Tennessee," he says.

I shake my head. My hands run through his hair and make him shake his head too. "That's not true, hon."

"It's completely true."

"Really?" I ask. He nods. "So if I told you to quit your job and move with me to Florida and not allow you to wear sunscreen while we're on the beach all the time, you would?"

"Absolutely. I'd get so sunburnt for you," he says. Zero hesitation.

"You wouldn't quit hockey."

There's a bit of a shrug. "You would never make me."

"Yeah, that's fair," I mumble. Not because I don't want to speak properly. Because I'm so enamored by the view on my lap.

"Too much of a sweetheart," he says. It would be a teasing moment from anyone else. Not him. Never him. Trevor sighs. "Can we go to sleep? I'm wiped."

"We can go to sleep."