𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗮, 𝗧𝗶 𝗔𝗺𝗼

①

"Quanto per questo?," a distinguished woman asked.

Her tan skin glowing under the boutique's bright lights. With a forced smile, Jacqueline Fajardo answered, "Cinquanta Euro."

"50 Euros?! You must think every customer would be ricco sfondato!," the woman complained, "50 Euros for a simple dress?!"

"It is a reasonable price signora, it was personally sketched and stitched by the designer, she even made the embroidery on the dress herself, it is a way to mimic a flower known as the bougainvillea," she explained to the woman and slowly a smile grew on the distinguished woman's face.

Quickly she handed 50 Euros to Jacqueline and said, "Lo Adoro! Please send my regards to the designer, I always love a dress with a good story to tell." Quickly, she cashed in the money in the register then soon the woman was off with her receipt and new dress.

Jacqueline slumped into the cash desk's seat and sighed as she buried her face in her palms. A bright voice rung in her ears, the voice spoke with extra cadence that natural English speakers lacked, "Jackie, it's not really welcoming to visibly deject behind your cash register, customers will pick up on the sad atmosphere."

Jackie looked up to see her sales associate slash model slash store manager slash cashier when she's busy slash dear friend Jolande Lindström. But she prefers to be called, "Jules, I'm sorry, the day's just been tough so far, that's the first customer we've gotten and it's already....ugh! I don't know, I can't seem to keep track of time nowadays."

"Oh Jackie, that doesn't mean your designs aren't good, they're beautiful," Jules said to reassure her but she merely shook her head and dejectedly said, "No Jules, everything seems to just go downhill ever since Frankie-."

"No! No! No! We are not doing this again!," Jules scolded as she squeezed Jackie's cheeks together and said, "You are not going on that ex-husband depression train again, do you hear me?"

"How can I not be on that train, everywhere I go there's a reminder him! I moved from New York to f*cking Italy for him!," she said in frustration, "I quit NYU School of Law and built this boutique with him and he left me with scraps after that divorce, I can barely keep the lights on while he's drowning in money!"

"That's because he's a f*cking jerk, you hear me? There's nothing wrong with you Jackie, you quit law school because you followed your dreams and you moved here because he loved you and you loved him," Jules said as she dragged a spare chair to sit next to Jackie, wrapping her arms around her seeing that she was close to tears.

"And I still do Jules, I still do," Jackie said as she wiped away the tears that begun to flow down her eyes, "It's already been a year and I still can't get over him, it doesn't help either that he's practically a famous designer and anyone who's anyone in fashion talks about him."

"Hey! Hey! Chin up Jackie! He's only there because of you, I've worked long enough for you to know that you were the design in this boutique, you were the genius behind the clothes not him!," she reassured her but Jackie was far too sad to even hear Jules.

The world around her seemed to fade and all she could hear were the sad memories in her head.

"I rifiuti! You're going to throw away our marriage just for that?! You're throwing away all of this for your designs!," he yelled at Jackie but the look on her eyes showed that she was just as angry.

"You know how much those designs meant to me and you didn't even think for a second to ask me permission!," Jackie yelled as she pushed him by the chest making him take a step back.