I didn’t have a response to that.

Aurora appeared between us with her arms full. "Okay. I’m trying these on." She looked between me and Addison. "Jace, stay here."

"Wasn’t planning on going anywhere."

"I’m coming," Addison announced.

"You don’t need to—"

"The backless dress needs a proper eye from behind, not just the front." Addison followed Aurora toward the fitting rooms without breaking stride. "Also I want to steal your opinion on the purple one."

"I told you, that purple one is wrong for you."

"And I told you I disagree."

Their voices faded as they disappeared behind the fitting room corridor. I stood in the middle of Rosalina’s Secret between a silk nightgown display and a rack of robes, the only man in my immediate vicinity, looking like I’d accidentally wandered in from a different dimension.

A saleswoman materialized at my elbow. Young, professional, wearing the look of someone who’d watched a thousand uncomfortable boyfriends stand in exactly this spot.

"Can I help you with anything?"

"I’m just waiting."

"Of course." She smiled with practiced neutrality. "Would you like to sit down? We have seating near the front."

"I’m good."

"Water? We have sparkling and still."

"I’m genuinely fine, thank you."

She retreated. I exhaled.

From behind the fitting room corridor came the unmistakable sound of Aurora and Addison talking at full volume without apparent concern for the acoustic properties of thin curtains.

"—the strap is too high—"

"—it’s supposed to sit there—"

"—not on me it isn’t, I have a longer torso—"

"—God, you’re dramatic—"

"—look at where it’s sitting, Aurora—"

"—okay yes but the cup shape is perfect—"

"—the cup shape means nothing if the back is cutting into me—"

A pause. Then Addison, louder: "Jace."

Every head in the store turned.

I pressed my eyes closed for a moment. Opened them. "Yeah?"

"Come tell Aurora she’s wrong about the strap placement."

"I’m not qualified to have opinions about strap placement."

"You have eyes, don’t you?"

Aurora’s voice: "Addy, don’t—"

"He’s right there, what’s the problem?"

"The problem is he doesn’t need to—"

"If you’re comfortable enough to do whatever you two do, you’re comfortable enough to have an opinion about a bra strap. Jace. Come here."

I looked at the saleswoman, who had developed a sudden intense interest in a display near the door. The couple by the front were both staring at me.

I walked to the fitting room corridor.

The fitting rooms had full-length curtains in deep pink. Aurora’s was the third one, curtain half-open. She stood with her back to me, her orange hair bright against the pale pink light. She’d pulled it to one side and was examining herself over her shoulder, and she was wearing the black strapless set against bare skin and nothing else, and I stood there for a solid two seconds just cataloguing that as information before my brain resumed normal function.

The set fit her exactly the way something designed by people who understood what they were doing fit the right person. Clean lines. Smooth fabric. The backless consideration clearly solved since there was nothing that would show through a backless dress.

Addison leaned out from the curtain of the room next to Aurora’s. She was in the black and purple set she’d been considering, straps sitting exactly where she’d said they were sitting wrong, one hand pressed to the edge where the back met her ribs.

"See?" She pointed at the strap. "Too high."

"That’s the right placement for your measurements," Aurora said.

"My measurements and my comfort are two separate things."

I looked at the strap. I looked at where it was meeting Addison’s back. I had opinions about this, surprisingly, given the last few weeks of watching Misato correct everyone’s gear fit constantly.

"She’s not wrong," I said. "That’s sitting right at the joint. It’s going to shift when she moves."

Addison pointed at me. "Thank you."

Aurora turned around to face me, remembered she was wearing approximately nothing, and made a decision to maintain eye contact at championship level. "You just told her she’s right."

"Because she is."

"You’re supposed to back me up."

"I’m supposed to have opinions. You said so."

Her mouth curved. "I hate you a little right now."

"You don’t."

"No," she agreed. Her eyes moved down and back up, slow. "I really don’t."

Addison looked between us, made a face that said she’d witnessed this exact dynamic many times before, and pulled her curtain closed. "I’m trying the next one. You two sort yourselves out."

Aurora stepped back toward her mirror, pulling her hair up to check the back of the set she was wearing. Clean line against her spine. No strap to interrupt the backless situation.

"Well?" She looked at me in the mirror.

"It works."

"Just works?"

I met her eyes in the reflection. "You’d look good in anything you tried on in this store. You know that. You’re asking me to tell you again."

A beat. "Maybe."

"It works, Aurora. Get it."

"What about the orange one I saw on the way in?"

"Does the dress have orange in it?"

"No."

"Then probably not for tonight."

She turned fully and looked at me with her head tilted, considering. Behind her curtain, Addison made a sound that might have been approval.

"Go wait outside," Aurora said. "We’ll be five minutes."

"Ten," Addison called through the curtain. "I need to try the seamless collection."

"I thought seamless was boring."

"I’m capable of containing multitudes."

I retreated to the main floor, found the seating area the saleswoman had mentioned, sat down, and pulled out my phone to avoid looking like I was staring at the fitting room corridor.

A text from Belle.

Belle: How’s the mainland?

Me: Currently sitting in a lingerie store waiting for two women to finish trying on things I wasn’t allowed to have opinions about but then had opinions about anyway.

Belle: That’s the most you thing I’ve ever read.

Me: I didn’t ask to be here.

Belle: You could have stayed on the ferry.

Me: Aurora had my wrist.

Belle: Yeah. She seems like that type.

A pause. Then:

Belle: Did she look good?

I looked up at the fitting room corridor, then back at my phone.

Me: You know the answer to that.

Belle: I hate how consistent you are about this.

Me: Consistency is a virtue.

Belle: It’s annoying. Stop being hot and reliable. It’s exhausting to resent you.

I was smiling at my phone when Aurora and Addison emerged from the corridor, Aurora with two items draped over her arm and Addison carrying four. Addison had added the seamless option and two other things that she was apparently getting for reasons she didn’t feel the need to explain.

"Done," Aurora announced.

"That was eleven minutes," I said.

"Addy took forever."

"I found three things I didn’t know I needed," Addison said, unrepentant. She dumped everything on the counter and gestured for me to come look. "Okay, the black lace or the deep red for tonight?"

She held up both options side by side. One was the black strapless from the fitting room. The other was deep red silk, thin straps, a lot of nothing in the middle held together by what appeared to be hope and geometric intention.

"The black," I said immediately.

Addison nodded. "Correct." She set the red one aside with zero hesitation. "Aurora, your boy has taste."

"I know." Aurora handed everything to the saleswoman at the counter. "That’s why I kept him."