Page 78 of The Prime-Time Experiment

Something shifted in Dee’s expression. The smile remained, but there was something gentler beneath it now. “Good,” she said. “Because you’re not doing that alone.”

The certainty of it settled quietly inside Riley. There had never been a version of events where Dee wouldn’t show up. The thought felt steady enough that she let it remain where it was rather than pulling it apart.

By the time she looked up again, Dee already retrieved her phone and was scrolling with alarming concentration. Riley watched her for several moments. “What are you doing?”

“Planning outfits.”

Riley blinked. “For who?”

Dee looked up. “For you, obviously.”

“Why?”

The look Dee gave her suggested the answer should have been painfully obvious. “Because if you’re going on a date with a famous Montgomery brother, we’re not leaving wardrobe decisions to chance.”

Riley immediately frowned. “It is not a date.”

Dee simply returned to her phone. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, babe.”

Chapter 18

Variables in Motion

Riley

The car engine cut out, and for a moment neither of them moved.

Outside, the low hum of conversation drifted across the car park, punctuated by occasional bursts of laughter as guests made their way towards the entrance. Through the windscreen, Riley could see people already filtering inside in small groups, their movements carrying the easy confidence of people who understood exactly where they belonged and what was expected of them once they arrived.

Beside her, Dee turned in her seat with an expression that suggested she had been waiting all day for this exact moment.

“I’m actually excited,” she announced. “I finally get to meet Tyler. From everything you’ve told me, he’s either going to be my favourite person or completely unbearable.”

Riley glanced across at her while reaching for her seatbelt. “Those outcomes are not mutually exclusive.”

Dee laughed. “See? That’s exactly what I’m talking about.”

The seatbelt released with a soft click, and Riley found herself thinking, not for the first time, that dress shopping with Dee was an extraordinarily inefficient use of time. Entire afternoons disappeared into fitting rooms, discarded options, conflicting opinions, and what Riley still considered an unreasonable number of sequins.

“A new form of torture,” she said.

“You loved it.”

“I did not.”

“You absolutely did.”

Riley considered correcting her before deciding it would be a poor use of energy. The process itself had been exhausting, but the outcome had proved unexpectedly successful.

Her fingers moved absently across the fabric at her waist as she registered it again. The skirt sat comfortably without constantly drawing her attention, the material light enough to move with her rather than against her. The sleeves didn’t cling, the neckline didn’t create the persistent awareness she usually associated with formal clothing, and, perhaps most importantly, she had not felt compelled to adjust a single part of it since putting it on.

Dee had also been unreasonably determined about the colour.

“It makes your eyes look ridiculous,” she declared with absolute confidence, as though that were a measurable criterion Riley should have considered from the beginning.

Riley still wasn’t entirely certain what that meant, but Dee seemed satisfied with the result, and Riley found herself unexpectedly satisfied as well.

That had become an increasingly common occurrence lately. Things she would once have dismissed as inefficient, unnecessary, or difficult to justify had become harder to categorise quite so neatly. The shopping trip was one example. The same could probably be said for training.