She's No Beauty Queen

Mark could tell how hard Lily was trying to hold herself back as the stylist picked her current style apart. She was so angry her clenched fists were shaking. He barely repressed a smile thinking that she hadn't changed at all.

She was a natural beauty—she was identical to the current titleholder of Miss California after all—but she didn't do anything to enhance it the way Angel did. Considering he could see how blonde her eyelashes were, it didn't look like she was wearing makeup at all.

She wore a blue t-shirt with a lighter blue drawing of a sea turtle on it with a long buttonless gray cardigan, light wash jeans, and a pair of knockoff green Converse All Stars. Her hair was tied back in a messy ponytail so her stud earrings shaped like sea turtles were visible as well.

How fitting for a marine biology student. Come to think of it, when Mark saw her yesterday Lily was wearing a long-sleeved gray t-shirt with a cartoon picture of the earth with a face on it and the caption "*screams internally*".

She was probably a conservationist, which made sense given her chosen career path. Marine biologists were heavily involved in ocean conservation efforts.

It was obvious how uncomfortable Lily was after changing into the outfit the stylist tossed at her. She was wearing a knee-length white dress with little blue and purple flowers on it and a pair of royal blue heels to match.

She took off her glasses and put her contacts in as she stood in front of a mirror in the hallway, wincing as she poked her eye. Then she took her ponytail out and ran a hand through her hair.

Mark's breath momentarily caught in his throat at the sight of her hair spilling over her shoulders. She was halfway to looking like a beauty queen already.

The stylist got to work shaping her eyebrows, contouring her face, and making her green eyes pop. He nearly laughed as a thought hit him. She looked like she was internally screaming like the cartoon earth on her shirt yesterday.

Poor Lily. She might look exactly like Angel right now but the two women couldn't be more different in terms of personality and preferences. She would be earning every penny of what Mr. Todd was paying her.

At the end of the stylist's transformation she looked down at her hands horrified. He had put acrylic nails with a simple French manicure on her as well.

"Claws. I have actual claws! I'm going to stab some poor kid by accident," she said with a grimace.

Mark imagined she had never let her nails grow over the edge of her fingertip in her life. They would get in the way of doing all sorts of things. He had always wondered how some women could keep their nails so long too but these ones weren't that bad in his eyes.

"My work here is done," the stylist said with satisfaction.

"I'll get my boss to wire you the money right away," he said before seeing him out and looking at the clock. They had to get going. "Lily, you need to put on your sash and crown."

Lily sighed heavily but did as he said, carefully situating the crown on top of her freshly curled hair and walking out the front door as confidently as she could muster in the heels. Considering she had never worn a pair until yesterday she was doing great.

"I feel ridiculous," she said stiffly.

"Well you look beautiful," Mark reassured her. "No one will suspect a thing as long as you remember what I taught you."

"Yeah, yeah."

When they got in the car the skirt of her dress rode up and he quickly looked away as she pulled the hem down as far as it would go. She seemed incredibly uncomfortable with everything about herself right now.

"Is this your first time wearing a dress too?" he couldn't help but ask.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid. I wore them all the time back when my mom dressed me as a little kid. But since then…I literally only wear them on adoption days. And my brother's wedding. Nearly forgot about that."

"Adoption days?"

"You know, the days my younger siblings' adoptions are finalized in court. The whole family goes and dresses up for the pictures. Adam really loves cowboys so on his adoption day we all dressed up like we were in the Old West. He wouldn't stop smiling the whole time."

Adam was the kid that she had a finger gun showdown with in order to leave the house yesterday. Mark could totally see that happening.

A stab of jealousy went through him. Her family was close. What he saw for himself hinted at it but the happy, relaxed way she talked about them now confirmed it.

His only family was his alcoholic father who had died of cirrhosis of the liver while he was in college. The trailer had been left to him but he always hated living there so he sold it immediately. The money went toward buying himself a used car so he didn't have to take the bus everywhere.

There was no point in being jealous though. His wish for a happy family were long buried since he had no intentions of attaching himself to anyone. People always let you down eventually.

"That sounds nice," Mark said honestly, trying to keep the bitterness out of his tone. "But you're telling me you've only worn a dress three times in the past ten-ish years?"

Lily shrugged. "Yep. They're inconvenient. Pants are better for basically every activity I do so why bother? I own two dresses: the one I wore for Emma's adoption day and the one I wore to Donovan's wedding. Doubt I'll be wearing either of them again any time soon."

The two times he saw her in her own clothes since high school indicated she was a rather casual person but it was still hard to imagine a woman only owning two dresses. What about job interviews or other special occasions?

He spent most of his time in a suit because it fit his image as Edward Todd's right hand man. When he wasn't working he was usually in athletic wear or his pajamas because of the unpredictability of his hours. This was more of an 'on call' position than anything.

But in college he had worn jeans and t-shirts like anyone else. The suits were a somewhat recent style development.