"No." Mira shook her head.
"Ew Ro." Calisto spoke quick and sharp.
"Why do you even own that? It makes you look like a cream puff." Kurt grimaced at the choice hands twitching to fix what was in front of him.
"I think you look delicious," Erica said, straight faced, Rose laughed and spun around once more in a fluffy tan number, she wasn't entertaining any thoughts of actually wearing it out today but a girl only gets so many chances to have an outfit montage and a diva uses every single chance she gets.
"Ok, I can't take this I'm commandeering this fashion montage" Kurt stood up from sitting on Rose' midnight blue bed. "Alexander McQueen once said 'I want people to be afraid of the women I dress' so Rose?" Kurt grabbed onto her shoulders and stares into her eyes, blue clashing with brown, "let's terrify him."
"Amazing." Erica whispered in reverence.
"Uh Kurt, not that I don't appreciate the mildly threatening encouragement but John said to dress comfortably, so maybe we should save the McQueen and Chanel for another time? How about something that says less is more" Kurt pouted for a moment, but perked up immediately and turned towards Rose' closet.
"I don't know about that. After all Iris Apfel said 'more is more and less is a bore' besides what is more comfortable than a silk and chiffon drape dress? Light pink of course." Rose rolled her eyes at that and started to strip out of the tan taffeta, to the hoots and cheers of Erica and Calisto. "Well I doubt Madame Apfel was saying that about a date with John Hayes." Mira drew her knee up to her chest and rested her chin on it, smiling slowly, watching her best friend putter about her room in her underwear. Rose was playing like this was all a big joke but in reality, Mira could see her nervousness in how she was standing and glancing at the clock every five minutes.
"Rose, how long have I known you?" Mira asked, inspecting her nails while Kurt murmured to himself about the apparently "tragic shortage of epaulets in a post Elie Tahari world". Rose turned towards Mira with a confused look on her face, but answered nonetheless.
"About five years Mira. But you knew that." Mira stood while Rose spoke and walked towards her closet, gracefully spinning Kurt out of her way. "And you knew from the minute you invited us here that I was going to pick this outfit for you. Which is why" She plucked two items on the closet and put them in Rose' hands, "You'll be wearing this today."
Smiling guiltily at Mira, Rose immediately changed into the simple white button up and flared a-line floral print skirt. Erica and Calisto began to applaud when Rose paraded around in her bare feet, twirling the skirt for dramatic effect, when Mira interrupted.
"Not yet." She un-did the two top buttons and slid Rose' gold 'foxy' necklace into her hand to put on. "Now we're done." Staring at each other in the full-length mirror, Mira and Rose grinned big and bright.
"Okay! Now all of you get out, John will be here any minute and I don't need y'all all over him." With grumpy concessions, the group filed out and into Mira's car so she could drop them all off.
"Good luck Rose, make sure you wrap your legs around his blond he tongiht!" Calisto yelled out of the passenger window of Mira's BMW as they drove away.
"I'll keep that in mind Cali." Rose said to herself after going back inside. She checked the clock again. Twelve o'clock exactly, but it'd be unrealistic to expect John to be exactly on time, he isn't Superman.
Even with that reasoning in the back of her mind, Rose paced in front of her couch, slowly ruining her carpet with her heels. She glared at the time, 12:03 and just as she opened her mouth to curse at it she heard rhythmic knocking against her door. Not even sparing a look at the mirror by her doorway, Rose grabbed her keys and swung the door opening, revealing a surprised looking John with his hand raised in a fist, probably to knock again. He recovered quickly and flashed his signature grin at her. "Did you get what song that was?"
She kept staring at him and murmured quietly, "Human Nature." Without waiting for his confirmation Rose stepped back from the door frame and shamelessly checked John out. Her eyes snagged on the way he filled out his own white button up shirt and jeans that were folded up just enough to expose-
"John Sebastian Hayes, are you wearing cowboy boots?" John crossed her threshold and pressed himself
to her front to stoop down and whisper hotly in her ear, "Why yes, Rosie, I think I am." She sneered at them.
Now. They are in. My. House.
"If this is your way of telling me I'm getting on a horse today, I will bite your lips off." John shook his head and chuckled framing Rose' face with his hands, "Of course I'm not taking you horseback riding, if I was I would've worn my bolo tie."
"The one from junior prom." She didn't even phrase it as a question, she knew exactly which one he was talking about.
"Exactly."
"Well you better keep that damn thing under lock and key, because if I ever find it I'm going to toss it in the trash." In reality, there was absolutely no way she could do that even if she could get her hands on it. She loved that stupid thing, but there was no way John would let her live it down if he knew.
"I'm sure you would, come on, we can talk about why bolo ties are the pinnacle of fashion in the car." He grabbed her hand and led her out and into the driveway.
-o-o-
"And so what we're gonna do is add a few drops into the vanilla and our batter will be done. Once we pop them into the oven, we'll ice the ones we've already got ok?" The peppy blond woman at the front of the kitchen full of people doing their best to make halfway decent baked goods.
"Ugh I love cupcakes, John, this is cheating." Rose held up the red velvet cupcakes she'd been icing to her face, with longing in her eyes. John put down the chocolate cupcake he'd been studying and dropped his voice, faking an accent.
"Oh, you think sweetness is your ally. But you merely adopted the sugar; I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn't see the icing until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but FROSTING! The cupcakes betray you, because they belong to me!" John finished his impression with a bite of Rose' cupcake.
Rose snickered "Bane, John? The Dark Knight still your favorite?"
"It's a classic, darlin'." John swiped a finger through the bowl of icing in front of them before dolloping it onto Rose' nose. They traded swipes of icing over and over until the baking instructor told them to stop wasting ingredients. Struggling to muffle cackles and snorts they move towards the sinks at the back of the professional kitchen to wash off the mess. While John washed up Rose turned to face the class, full of couples young and old, baking various flavours of cupcakes. She couldn't help but look at a certain elderly couple, the short brown skinned lady openly chiding her husband. She and John had met them earlier, Ramona and Charles, who'd apparently been married "49, no 50, no 51 years". Rose found herself imagining her and John that old and that...happy.
"You're staring." John broke her out of her reverie, flicking water onto the back of her neck. "Think you'll ever get married? Because I know this guy who's really good at impressions and totally into you." Rose turned to face John, face pensive but didn't answer. "Charles reminds me of you."
"Debonair and Handsome?"
