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Just as Zoe had thought, the same anxieties that had kicked into overdrive the day that she met Taz's parents fought their way to the surface again when she awoke the day that she was due to meet his castmates. She spent the day doing anything she could to keep her hands busy, knowing that it would keep her brain distracted enough that it wouldn't have the chance to allow her anxieties to rear their head. There was something in the blue of Taz's eyes that told Zoe that he knew what she was doing and why she was doing it, but he said nothing on the matter as Zoe stood next to him in the kitchen, her hair twisted away from her face and her brow furrowed in concentration as she helped him prepare snacks for that night.
It was only when the sun began to sink lower in the sky outside that Taz nudged at Zoe's side with his arm, making her stop what she was doing and look up at him as he said, "If you want to get changed, you might want to go do it now."
After peering outside at how dark it had become, Zoe nodded, placing down the knife she'd been using. Before she left the room, Zoe leaned up to press a kiss to Taz's cheek and then was gone, disappearing down the hallway and into the bedroom. After peeling off her jeans and shirt, Zoe pulled on the dress that she'd left out that morning - a long one made of pale yellow fabric, embroidered all over with little sunflowers. The dress was held up by thin straps that tied behind her head, but when Zoe reached back to tie them, her nerves made her fingers tremble too much for her to tie the straps, so she shouted for Taz.
"Are you okay?" Taz asked, appearing in the doorway behind her.
"Can you tie this for me?" Zoe asked, holding the dress up with one hand pressed to her chest while the other pulled at one of the untied straps. Nodding, Taz crossed the room to stand at Zoe's back and Zoe watched him in the mirror as he tied the straps behind her neck, tight enough that it would hold the dress up but not so tight that the knot he'd made would dig into the back of her neck uncomfortably.
"Good?" Taz asked when he was done, resting his hands on Zoe's shoulders, which the dress left bare and warm under his fingers.
Zoe nodded, smiling at him through the mirror as she began to undo the twin braids that she had twisted her hair into that morning. "Thank you, baby."
Taz's fingers tightened a little on Zoe's shoulders as he leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the back of her head. "You look beautiful, bub."
Zoe was still smiling at him as she finished undoing her braids, making her hair fall around her face in waves. Taking his hands away from Zoe's shoulders, Taz left her to finish getting ready, stepping around her to open the opposite side of the wardrobe. As he selected a shirt and pair of pants, Zoe walked across the room to retrieve her makeup bag from where it sat on top of her bag across the room. Once she had it in her hands, Zoe returned to her spot in front of the mirror, but sat down on the floor this time, arranging the long skirt of her dress around her so that she didn't sit on it when she crossed her legs underneath her body.
