Perception

XXIX

Of course, there had been absolutely no way in the world Sarah would ever have let her say no to Eli's question.
Not that she'd wanted to, if she were honest with herself.
So now she was stood in front of her little wardrobe again, but this time Sarah was on her bed, voicing her opinions about different outfits.
"Look, Anna, you can be all 'he can just take me as I am' about it, and you would be right, he absolutely should. But that doesn't mean it's not great to look extra smashing as you walk over there tonight, does it?"
Anna grinned slightly to herself. Well, if Sarah put it that way... maybe she had a point?
"Smashing, huh, that's what we're going for?" she asked, turning around to her friend and cocking her head to one side.
"You always look smashing. But just that little bit extra won't hurt."
Anna grinned again. "Thanks."
Well. To be honest, she didn't really feel like she always looked smashing at all.

She pulled a light summer dress in powder blue from her wardrobe. She didn't wear dresses very often, but the weather was supposed to stay nice that evening, so why not?
"How about this?"
"I like it! Try it on?"

She tried it on, and two hours later they were in Sarah's studio in the centre of the city, the ride share Volkswagen back in its reserved parking spot on one of the ancient canals.
Anna was in the powder blue dress, and her face had been meticulously made up by Sarah. Her hair was in a casual but elegant bun that didn't look like it had taken twenty minutes to achieve at all. Nah, it looked effortless.
Even her nails had been painted in a soft mother of pearl colour.
"You know I never wear make up." she had complained softly at the beginning of the process.
"Yeah, I know, and you happen to be one of those people who doesn't need it, with your alabaster complexion, but what did I say about smashing?" Sarah had answered, and Anna had let it be.
And she had to admit, as she looked in the mirror on Sarah's door at her face now, not quite so pale as normal because of the copious amounts of blush that Sarah had splashed on her cheeks, her green eyes looking even bigger than usual because of the black mascara and the artfully applied eyeshadow.... yeah, she looked alright.
Meanwhile, Sarah had changed into a little black dress and done her own make up in double time and she looked.... well, she looked fantastic, of course. The smooth black material of the dress worked great with her complexion and the colour of her hair and her make up accentuated her flawless bone structure in just the right way.
"You look great, Sarah!" Anna said enthusiastically. "They'll be blown away."

At that moment something suddenly clicked inside Anna's brain.
"Erm, have I missed something here? Are you trying to impress anyone in particular?" she asked Sarah, cocking her head slightly to the right.
Sarah laughed. "I don't really know, Anna. I mean, I don't mind James, per se. But who knows? He's cute enough in a sort of nerdy way?"
Anna smiled widely. Wow. Sarah liked James? Well, with Sarah's exuberant personality she was sure she would do just fine with him.

"Right, so you've got your Saint Bernard's nose on?" Sarah asked in the most innocent of tones as she picked up her bag and put her phone and little sponge bag in it. "Or do you want me to fire up Google maps as a back up?"
Anna grinned, and she stuck out her tongue at her best friend.
"Funny. Yes to maps, please. Also, I have been to the restaurant before so I should be able to find it anyway."
"Yeah, you should be able to, maybe,"  Sarah said ironically. "But I've been in your presence before when you've tried to find places."
Anna shook her head, amused at Sarah's little jibe. She had a point, of course.
"Yeah, bite me." she said without malice over her left shoulder as she walked off to Sarah's little bathroom.

A/N Hi guys, today is Posting Day, however Wattpad seems to be in trouble: none of you seem to be able to see my posts, and some people suddenly can't star the chapters. I've un-published the next chapter, to my great annoyance, and I'll send an e-mail to Wattpad to see what's going on! Hopefully I'll be able to publish soon, please do come and check in (or leave a comment if you know more about what I could do :))