It was a matter of principle, she thought, to maintain a certain sense of discipline with regard to looking hot once one was in a long-term, monogamous relationship. Some women started letting themselves go: they gave up on skirts or heels or painted-on pants, they stopped putting on eyeliner or lipstick, shaving and/or waxing became infrequent. They felt they'd achieved the objective of such efforts, so there was no need to continue them once they'd snagged a man. While on a purely intellectual level, Lia understood this logic, it was in direct opposition to everything she did. In fact, on some deep level, it felt contrary to everything she was.
There were times when it wasn't necessary to go all out. Lia was not one of those women, either, who put on foundation to go to yoga class (maybe a little moisturizing lip gloss, if she needed a pick-me-up), nor did she see the sense in putting on a minidress and Louboutins to go to the grocery store, or even the mall, whether she was dating someone or not.
But this was Saturday night, and she felt very strongly that once you conceded Saturday night, it was all over, or close to it. Besides, Lia didn't see looking good as work. She liked dressing up, she liked doing her hair and getting pedicures and using olive oil masks. She liked yoga and swimming and, if she were frank, the attention looking her best won her.
Now, this was not to say that there weren't a good number of Saturday nights she spent in these days. Samuel made a very good case for the merits of his couch or her bed or his shower or her kitchen floor at least one or two Saturday nights a month. And that was truly much more to her liking than she'd expected. However, she still liked going out, and continued to make a habit of it -- for example, tonight, she was on her way back from a promotional event for work, and since the after party was in Newport Beach (thanks, in part, to her own wrangling), she took the opportunity to do an outfit change.
The ensemble she was wearing -- a white, beaded, one-shoulder minidress with one long, draped sleeve, complemented by a pair of strappy Jimmy Choo stiletto sandals -- was nice enough for a dinner-and-drinks situation, but for the club, she might want something a little more fun.
But as she moved with impressive speed toward her apartment, she heard some knocking around in D1. It stopped her in her tracks; she'd been alone on her floor since she'd first moved in last year. Her first thought was that she and Samuel would have to make sure not to use any shared walls for future romps, and just how soundproof the walls were. Her next thought, however, was how nice it might be to have a neighbor.
So with that in mind, she took a detour and knocked on the door of D1.