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𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠,
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐀𝐔𝐋 and ivy's bedrooms hung open sometime during the third day of paul's house arrest as ivy held a patterned brown and tan dress to her body. paul glanced up at her from his seat on his windowsill, absentmindedly folding one of the pages in a book she'd lent him a few minutes earlier (he had no intention of reading it). he let his eyes wander over her while she smoothed the fabric down for the millionth time, staring herself down in the mirror's reflection. he couldn't help but smile at the somewhat fierce look she was giving herself and returned his gaze to the front cover of his book. "is this what you do in your spare time?" paul asked, amused. "glare at yourself in the mirror?"
a woosh sounded as she smoothed the fabric down yet again, answering, "you don't want to know what i do in my spare time. speaking of pete, i'm worried about this dress! i was planning to wear it next time he takes me out but now i don't even think he'll like it!" paul rolled his eyes, causing her to sigh. "i knew it. you think it's too boring."
before he could manage to answer, she disappeared from his line of sight, apparently discouraged. "no, i think you should be staying home," he explained. "you have a concussion -"
"and i appreciate your concern, it's very sweet." her voice came to him dismissively, a little muffled, and from somewhere in the distance. "but i'm not seeing him tonight, i already have plans!" she reappeared once her statement was concluded, still clutching the illusive dress.
paul shrugged, quickly convincing himself that he didn't care all that much, and definitely not as much as she seemed to think he did. "i just thought since he's your guy, and since he bought you all of those.." he gestured to the utterly massive pile of clothes laid in a mounting pile on her bed- blouses and skirts, a jacket, a dress. there was even a bra or three, which paul refused to believe pete had bought for her until ivy explained in way too much detail that she'd 'modeled them' for him at the stores.
"you're making an awful lot of assumptions today, james. i can't help how he spends his paycheck, you know." ivy pushed the overwhelming pile of clothes to the edge of her bed, making space for her brown and tan dress, and then giggled softly. "but i really like when he spends it on me."
paul shook his head hopelessly, clueless as to how she'd even discovered that james was his first name. he opened ivy's book in the way a person does when they're actually thinking about reading it, and stared uninterestedly at the table of contents.
meanwhile ivy wandered toward the room's closet, and to the two portions of the cramped space that belonged to gwen and beth. she figured they were all about the same size (give or take) and that one of them was bound to have a pair of shoes fit to match her brown dress.
and it didn't take long for her to select a pair she liked- beth's goldish heels, which, despite being sort of small, would be look perfect.
ivy returned to her bed and her window beside it, beside paul, and placed the heels next to the dress. her focus returned to paul soon after, as he curled up in his windowsill- for a moment, she hovered by her own window, just looking at him. and she felt incredibly strange about him right then, felt strange about the faint freckles popping on his face in the fading evening light, and strange about his creased, concentrated expression, and his flopping brown hair.
he was inimitably beautiful. it made her stomach flip, made her nervous. and she couldn't remember the last time she'd been nervous.
his eyes raised and in turn, she served him with that squinted, thoughtful look of hers, quickly veiling her feelings. "enough of this," ivy proclaimed, letting her arms fly up dramatically. "i'm going to break you out of here."
