Chương 20: Preparing For The Date.

The first thing Laura did after returning to the hotel room was to dive into the internet to go through different forums. She had overestimated herself because of the previous encounters she has had with men. They had always taken the initiative to approach her and were very eager to please her. She knew if she showed the slightest interest, they would not hold back as James did. So, she wanted to know how to poke holes into his defence.

She read everything, from how to make their relationship develop to the next step, to all the tricks she can employ to seduce him. She studied so seriously that she hadn't even heard Rachel when she returned home.

"What are you reading?" Rachel asked as she made a beeline for the kitchen. She had gone out to buy a few things she needed for what she wanted to cook later.

Laura didn't bother answering her and continued to mentally take notes about what she was reading. This made Rachel even more curious, so she snuck up behind her and checked to see what she was reading.

"If you wanted to know this, you should have just asked us," Rachel said from behind her, finally drawing Laura's attention.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Laura asked. Since Rachel was able to pull in Brian in just a single day, she figured that she may have better and more realistic suggestions.

"Mmmh, don't try too hard," Rachel told her as she read the suggestions on the laptop screen with interest.

"What kind of advice is that?" Laura asked with a frown. If she said nothing, then she would have only dreamt about James kissing her like he did today.

"You need to play hard to get. You can't always be the initiator," Rachel said as she sat next to her.

"And how am I going to do that?" Laura asked, deciding to at least listen to her friend, thinking that there may be some truth to what she was saying.

"You can work on your appearance," Rachel said, and Laura raised an eyebrow as she looked at the clothes that Rachel was wearing.

The two were the complete opposite of each other. Rachel was wearing an ankle-length dress that covered her arms up to her elbows. The only difference was the fact that she had some cleavage exposed today.

"Don't look at me like that," Rachel said to her and raised the collar of her dress, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

"Ah, so that's how you did it," Laura teased when she saw her friend's shy expression. Rachel cleared her throat and got up from the chair, and Laura followed her with her eyes.

Rachel was extremely voluptuous, with generous breasts and wide hips, and there was no amount of clothing that could hide her figure. Maybe the mystery is sexy? She thought to herself.

"But I can't dress like you," Laura said to Rachel as she redirected her attention to her computer.

"You don't have to. You just need to feel sexy to make it effortless," Rachel said from the kitchen. Laura thought about her words and already knew what she wanted to wear tonight. She wanted to know just how restrained James was going to be once he saw her.

"I still don't know how you can feel sexy in that," Laura said to her, making Rachel laugh.

"Sexiness should be in your head, not in your clothes. They should just be a medium to help you channel it," Rachel said as she turned to look at her friend.

"I'll keep that in mind," Laura said as she stood up from her chair.

"Are you going to have dinner?" Rachel asked Laura.

"Nope, I have to get ready," Laura said and disappeared into her room.

Laura stripped out of her clothes the moment she got in her room and went straight to the bathroom. She took her time in the shower as she digested Rachel's words and what she had read online and smiled to herself as she thought about how tonight was going to go.

She did her makeup more elaborately, accentuating her foxy green eyes and plump lips, and looked at her reflection in satisfaction. Now that she was done with her makeup, she went to pick out a dress.

She pulled out an ivory coloured low back silk dress and stared at it for a few minutes as she thought about whether or not she should really wear it. She grit her teeth and decided to try it on first before deciding.

She wore the dress and stood in front of the mirror with a gradually widening smile. She had received the dress from a fashion brand that was trying to rope her into promoting their clothes on her social media. Unfortunately, she never got around to doing it.

She was going to have to ask Rachel if she still had their contacts so she could order more clothes from them. The dress reached mid-thigh and even had a slit on the side to boot! With how the dress looked, she felt it would only be fitting to style her hair in an updo.

After she was done with her hair, she chose a pair of heels and a small purse, where she shoved the things she was going to need and sprayed some perfume on herself.

When she stepped out of her room, Rachel, who had been busy in the kitchen, stopped what she was doing to look at her. The way she currently dressed resulted from her previous trauma, but even before that, she wouldn't have been as daring as her friend.

"How do I look?" Laura asked Rachel and twirled in place to show off her outfit.

"Stunning," Rachel answered honestly.

"Haha, thanks," Laura said and went ahead to pose in front of Rachel. Rachel noticed the gold chain that wrapped around her neck and dangled on her back and wrapped around her waist, disappearing to the front of her dress where it was covered.

She remembered that batch of jewellery she had designed. It went through her belly ring and up her breasts to hook itself to the front of the necklace. Too bad it was not visible. Laura had pleaded with her to customise one for her after buying the one she had on.

"When is he going to come?" Rachel asked her friend, finally pulling her eyes away from Laura.

"Ah, it's almost time," Laura said and pulled out her phone from her purse to check on James, only to see that she had already received a text message telling her that he was already waiting for her downstairs.

"He is here already. I'll be seeing you later," Laura said and darted out of the hotel room. Rachel silently prayed for James as she smiled. She was a woman and found it hard not to stare, much less James.