Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie

freezer.
    "About the time I let you redesign the business cards and repaint the window."
    Searching through file boxes didn't do much to occupy Nell's mind, so she worried about the night to come; by five, she'd found at least two dozen files with Trevor's or Jack's name on them, and she was sick to her stomach with pre-performance stage fright. So on her way home, she stopped at Suze's and said, "I need a makeover," and when she opened the door to Riley four hours later, he was appropriately speechless at the sight of her.
    "I had some work done," she said as she waved him into her apartment.
    "It shows." Riley tilted his head and surveyed her. "Redhead, huh? It suits you."
    "You don't think it's too bright?" Nell went back to the mirror. She couldn't get over it herself. With vivid color in her hair and some makeup, she looked semi-alive again. "I thought it was too much, but Steven said this would look natural."
    "Who's Steven?"
    "Suze's hairdresser. By the park. He's a genius."
    "He certainly is," Riley said. "Everything looks natural."
    Nell turned back to see him looking at her dress, an electric blue bandage that wrapped around her like a second skin. "It's Suze's," she said, and when he said, "What's Suze's?" she realized he was looking at her body, not the outfit. "The dress. My best friend, Suze, gave it to me."
    "Suze has good taste," Riley said. "Jesus."
    "So all I have to do is be nice, right?"
    "In that dress, you don't even have to be nice," Riley said. "And now we have a problem."
    "What?" Nell tugged at the dress. "Too tight?"
    "For me, no. For the bug, yes." He held up a tiny tape recorder. "You need to put this somewhere where it can't be seen." He shook his head at her. "I can see everything."
    "No, you can't." Nell held out her hand. "This is Suze's push-up bra that's at least a cup size too big for me. There's room in here for an entire stereo system."
    "Imagine my disappointment," Riley said and handed over the recorder mike.
    She managed to wedge the recorder into Suze's bra, but that was the only thing she was relieved about as she went into the elegant hotel bar half an hour later and crossed the room to the man Riley had pointed out to her from the doorway.
    "Scotch and soda," she told the bartender, and then she looked around the mirrored bar before glancing at the man next to her.
    He was an ordinary-looking guy in a nice-looking suit, and he was watching her. Or, at least, he was watching Suze's bra and Steven's hair.
    "Hi." She smiled and turned back to her scotch and startled herself with her redheaded reflection in the mirror. It had been a long time since she'd looked this good. She wet her lips and smiled again into the mirror, into her own eyes instead of somebody else's, flirting with herself as she drank her scotch. Actually, she'd never looked this good. If she put back on some of that weight
    The guy caught her eye in the mirror. "Hi," he said and held out his hand. "I'm Ben."
    "Hi, Ben," she said, taking it. "I'm Nell." And I'm hot. Sort of.
    "What's a nice lady like you doing in a place like this?"
    "Getting a drink." Her pulse was pounding. It was a miracle he couldn't feel the throb through her palm. "You?"
    "Getting drunk," he said. "I'm in town on business, and it's boring as hell. You here on business?"
    "Yes," Nell said, taking back her hand as the bartender put a second drink on the bar for her. "My job is definitely responsible for this."
    "Well, here's to your job," Ben said, raising his glass. "It's certainly making my night better."
    He was nice, Nell discovered as he bought her drinks and listened to her. Tim hadn't listened to her since she'd said, "I do."
    "I like you," she told Ben over her third drink, and then she remembered that he was married.
    He smiled back at her. "I like you, too." He looked around the bar and added, "But this place is noisy, and I want to talk some more." He looked deep into her eyes. "How about coming up to my room where it's quieter?"
    Was the