Money For Something

30 - I Gotta Feeling

**Willow**

"Nice of you to join us," Kim smirked. She was perched on a stool at the bar in the corner of the great room sipping a cocktail.

"Thank-you, I thought so." It had taken a full-scale repair job to deal with my sex hair and smudged make-up.

"Dare we ask what was going on upstairs?" Ace's sister Kristy asked with a lopsided smile. She was already halfway through her cocktail. Clearly, she planned to make the most of her childfree night.

"You can ask but I don't guarantee an answer."

"You look gorgeous," Mom said handing me a cocktail before wrapping me in a one-armed hug.

I felt gorgeous. I was wearing a fabulous one-sleeved blue romper that floated around the tops of my thighs. I'd found it shopping with Amelie and Minty, Kim's younger sister. I'd hung it back on the rack when I'd first seen it, it was way out of my price range. It had started life as a vintage, although it wasn't super old so, in my mind it was simply second hand, evening dress.

I'd become the dress's proud owner when Minty told me that if I didn't pick something that I really wanted, using the credit card that Ace had given me, she'd buy up everything I'd touched and leave it in my closet. Apparently, Ace had given her strict instructions to make me buy something for my bachelorette party, or hens do as she insisted on calling it. Minty and Kim's father was a billionaire airline owner, her credit card was limitless and having spent time with her in the desert on our honeymoon, I knew she wasn't making idle threats.

"Willow! Darling!" Mom was gently but firmly shoved away from me as Minty descended in a cloud of Chanel. Fragrance, fashion and jewellery. No one would ever doubt that Minty was born into wealth. "Thank you so much for letting me come with tonight! It's been ages since I've been to a hens. This looks so different!" She squeezed me in a hug then plucked at my sleeve as I asphyxiated in No 5.

"It didn't exactly suit me the way it was originally. I looked like a child playing dress-ups."

I'd been on the verge of abandoning the hunt for something cute when we'd found the original dress, there hadn't been much that had appealed. Minty was an indefatigable shopper who'd dragged me from store to store until the colour and fabric of the original gown had drawn my interest. Her semi-serious threat to shower me in fashion had been the push I'd needed to get over my price shock and bring the dress home. I'd justified it to myself with the knowledge that I had enough fabric left over to make something else. Maybe a skirt. Or a pair of shorts. Or a top. The possibilities were endless.

"Well, it's bloody stunning now. You altered something for Kim, didn't you? Maybe we should go shopping again so you can find something for me." She tapped her bottom lip thoughtfully.

"Really?" That was a surprise, from the little I knew of her, I'd assumed that Minty's idea of fashion was the latest looks from Paris Fashion Week.

"Oh yes. I've been so bored since I ditched Sasha, a new look might be just what I need. It might help me catch a new man. Maybe someone a bit more . . . gritty," Minty twinkled.

I heard Kim groan behind me. Apparently Minty's last attempt at dating a 'gritty' man hadn't gone so well. She'd entangled herself with Van's drug addict brother. He was still in prison. From what I could tell, he wasn't exactly missed.

With a flutter of billowing skirts, she turned and elegantly dropped into a seat beside Amelie, who sat biting her bottom lip in amusement. They were the most unlikely pair of friends I'd ever seen. There was a moment of whispering and back and forth elbowing between the two of them before Amelie cleared her throat and asked, "Minty wants to know-," that got her a hiss of reprimand from her friend, "-what is the tattoo on Ace's bottom."