Madelynn and The Mafia

Lots of Money(6)

I walk into the dressing room and try on the dress as I hear Elyzabeth come upstairs. 

   "Our lovely sister is downstairs, looking at dresses. I confronted her. Turns out that Adelynn invited her to the gala," Elyzabeth tells Austin in a loud hush. I pause and my breathing starting going ragged. Was she changing her mind on how long I had to make my decision? Maybe she changed her mind and the deal was off. I finish zipping up the dress and look at myself in the mirror. The dress is beautiful. I step out to see Austin enraged until he sees me. A smile goes across his face. 

   "I think I like this one," I say and look in the mirror across from me as I flatten the dress out over my thighs. 

   "Austin likes it too," Elyzabeth says and pokes her starring grin wearing brother. He clears his throat and looks away. 

   "I think I'm getting this one." Elyzabeth nods and looks over me. 

   "I don't think you could have done better if it was made for you. And it's your perfect size. She reads the tag and raises her eyebrows. "Did you look at the size before putting it on?" she asks me with slight confusion in her tone. 

   "No. I usually wear an 8 but I figured if it didn't zip I'd ask for a size up. Why?" I ask her before looking back at her. 

   "It's a size six." I raise my eyebrows in surprise. 

   "I guess I lost weight at camp and never realized." I shrug and Austin looks concerned. 

   "It's not normal to loose to drop two sizes in two weeks, Maddie," Austin says before crossing his arms over his chest. 

   "We have got to get you a girlfriend so you'll stop worrying about me so much," I say with a sigh and turn towards Elyzabeth. "So what do you think? I think I should get it extended since I'm so tall...," I turn around and look at the back of the dress. Elyzabeth looks it over and makes a few notes on a piece of paper. 

   "Actually I think it is perfect. I'm writing down the size, price, and color so I can make sure the napkins match and your suitors can wear a pocket square or dress the same color. That way you know when you're talking to them if they're trying for your hand. That was my idea," I smile my thanks at Elyzabeth. It's nice to know that someone thought about taking the anxiety out of the night a little for me. 

   "Okay, then lets go get pizza," I grumble as my stomach roars in agreement. "The food at camp completely sucked. Oooooo or burritos." I sigh as I think about the greasy foods. 

   "Should I order the dress a size bigger then?" Elyzabeth says nonchalantly as she has her head down in her tiny notebook she continues to write in. 

   "Nah. I'll work it off on the treadmill I'm sure. Anxiety makes me run more." Elyzabeth nods and writes more. 

   "I'll go pay for this," Austin says before snipping the tag off with his pocket knife." 

   "Adelynn's card is in my phone case..." I begin to say while turning around to get it. 

   "She added over three thousand dollars to my account in case you forgot to grab it or something. I will pay for the dress and dinner," Austin says and quickly leaves before I can protest. I roll my eyes. 

   "Such a gentleman," I mockingly say and turn to Elyzabeth who is giving me a funny look with her pen half raised. 

   "You don't know, do you?" she asks while continuing to scrutinize me. I raise a questioning eyebrow at her. 

   "Know what?" I ask with a slight smile of confusion. 

   "Austin is totally in love with you," Elyzabeth says and shrugs before writing more in her notebook and shutting it. "You should get changed back into your street clothes so we can get that cleaned properly before the party." I nod and go back to change as I let what Elyzabeth sink in. 

After paying for the dress and dropping it off at the dry cleaners with direct orders from Adelynn on the phone as to scare the cleaners to not mess up the eight-hundred dollar dress. I couldn't breath when I saw the price on the recite. Apparently Austin also got me some silver heels that he noticed where my size and himself a tie that he wouldn't let me see. The total came out to over one-thousand dollars. I sighed as we pulled up to a small Mexican restaurant that I hadn't tried yet. 

   "Food!" I groan in excitement. Austin smirks. 

   "You know you could tell them you're related to Adelynn and get whatever you want to try from someone else's order and they'd give it to you," Austin says teasingly. I scrunch my nose in displeasure. 

   "I might be starving but I am not going to use my title to get whatever I want. I will wait like everyone else, but we will be leaving a large tip since this looks like a tiny family ran place," I say to Austin as he pulls the door open for me. 

   The other body guard went home with Elyzabeth and my new body guard decided she wasn't hungry but wanted to make sure I was safe so she stayed by the door in one of those intimidating bodyguard stances. I roll my eyes at her and sigh before looking at Austin in displeasure. 

   "So much for keeping a low profile. She basically screams bodyguard," I whine to Austin. Austin chuckles at my antics before looking back at her. 

   "She doesn't mean to. She is literally paid to intimidate people into leaving you alone. We're well aware that you can take care of yourself. We're just told to keep it to a minimum." Austin shrugs and we sit ourselves in a booth and open our menus up. I roll my eyes and sigh before a waiter no older than me comes by with chips and salsa and a notepad. 

   "What can I get you guys to drink this evening?" she says sweetly while obviously flirting with Austin. I smirk at Austin as he seems to ignore her and look over his options. I roll my eyes at him.