Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

‘You look like you’re about to serve the ice creams,’ Will said.
‘Aw, mate, but you’d make a great maid,’ Nathan said, approvingly. ‘Feel free
to wear that one in the daytime. Really.’
‘You’ll be asking her to dust the skirting next.’
‘It is a bit dusty, now you mention it.’
‘You,’ I said, ‘are both going to get Mr Muscle in your tea tomorrow.’
I discarded outfit number three – a pair of yellow wide-legged trousers –
already anticipating Will’s Rupert Bear references, and instead put on my fourth
option, a vintage dress in dark-red satin. It was made for a more frugal
generation and I always had to say a secret prayer that the zip would make it up
past my waist, but it gave me the outline of a 1950s starlet, and it was a ‘results’
dress, one of those outfits you couldn’t help but feel good in. I put a silver bolero
over my shoulders, tied a grey silk scarf around my neck, to cover up my
cleavage, applied some matching lipstick, and then stepped into the living room.
‘Ka-pow,’ said Nathan, admiringly.
Will’s eyes travelled up and down my dress. It was only then that I realized he
had changed into a shirt and suit jacket. Clean-shaven, and with his trimmed
hair, he looked surprisingly handsome. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of
him. It wasn’t so much how he looked; it was the fact that he had made the
effort.
‘That’s the one,’ he said. His voice was expressionless and oddly measured.
And as I reached down to adjust my neckline, he said, ‘But lose the jacket.’
He was right. I had known it wasn’t quite right. I took it off, folded it carefully
and laid it on the back of the chair.
‘And the scarf.’
My hand shot to my neck. ‘The scarf? Why?’
‘It doesn’t go. And you look like you’re trying to hide something behind it.’
‘But I’m … well, I’m all cleavage otherwise.’
‘So?’ he shrugged. ‘Look, Clark, if you’re going to wear a dress like that you
need to wear it with confidence. You need to fill it mentally as well as
physically.’
‘Only you, Will Traynor, could tell a woman how to wear a bloody dress.’
But I took the scarf off.