|12|. The Art of Friendship

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"If you keep glaring at that poor coat much longer, there won't be much left of it," Mary's voice informed me dryly from behind me.

I sighed, the slight breeze ruffling the fine furs of the mink coat I had been holding in my hands for the past five minutes, but didn't turn around. I wish I could say that it was because of the softness of the fur coat that I was distracted but then I would be lying.

"Scarlett... is anything the matter?" She sounded concerned. The teasing light vanished from her tone.

I frowned. Was anything even wrong? An engaged man asked me to go out on a dinner date but don't worry his fiancée is fake and in love with my best friend, whom might I add, kissed me in a drunken fit, so yeah no harm done and I've kissed the aforementioned affianced man not once, not twice but three times! So yeah everything's just peachy.

Everything's wrong!

But of course, I couldn't tell that to Mary. I and Mary didn't have that whole employee-employer ideal relationship but we sure as hell weren't that close either. I was too standoffish for that and I guess Mary just went along with it. We had never discussed deep, personal matters with the other-until today.

I think I must have jumped ten feet into the air when a hand came to rest tentatively on my shoulder.

"Scarlett?"

I closed my eyes, relieved. It was just Mary. I was so deep in my musings I hadn't registered when she left her previous position to stand beside me.

"Don't ever scare me like that again, Mary," I snapped, my words sharper than intended.

Her hand hastily drew back from me as if burned and her brown eyes dropped to her shoes, but not before I saw a gleaming sheen to them. I wanted to apologise for snapping at her but the words were caught and held hostage in my throat.

"I'm sorry for intruding, Ms. Jones. I can promise you it won't happen again," My assistant said stiffly and left for her post.

"Mary," I almost called out but refrained at the last second. Maybe it was better this way. We should just continue to be business colleagues and not venture into the threshold of friendship. I laden with my dilemma and she with her own problems.

Yes, this was for the best. I didn't need any friends. The only friend I had was Tom and I was okay with that.

You mean the same Tom who kissed you?

I threw my hands up in frustration, wanting to rip my hair out. I saved that for later. I was in my place of business after all.

Contrary to popular opinion, I was not overly enthused about my dinner date with Marco. My emotions were too much of a mess for that. Although, I can't deny that a little part of me was looking forward to it. But it was a small part. Uh huh, very small indeed.

From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a young blonde girl possibly eighteen or so, standing by the racks of fit and flare dresses. On one hand, she had a navy white striped dress with flounce sleeves and on the other, a red scalloped neckline skater dress. Judging by the small frown wreaking havoc on her delicate features, she was trying to decipher which to get. This was the first time I was seeing her face in my store. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered such a face if she had.

Now, that was a problem I could solve. I made my way over to the woman, making sure to smooth my fingers over my pleated midi skirt, trying to muster an air of confidence and calm.

"Excuse me? Sorry if I'm prying but I noticed you're indecisive about which dress to get," I told the woman when she looked up at me, my mouth upturned in a smile.

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