Over the Wall: A Collection of Short Stories (NaNoWriMo 2014)

Day 22: The Dress

The dress was not the right color. Kate knew it was not the right color. She did not say she knew it was not the right color. She was hoping Hallie, the bride, would not notice. It was not horribly noticeable. And even if it was, you would only know if you’d seen the original dress. It did not look bad. It actually looked rather good. But Hallie was not in a position to realize that the dress looked rather good. She was in her freak out position.

This was not uncommon for brides. Freaking out was what they did. That’s how things got done. There was so much to do and so much to have an opinion on that it was impossible to tell what was important unless the bride was freaking out about it. That was, until she got to the point where she freaked out about everything. That’s the point Hallie had reached. No matter how good the dress looked and how bad it might have been before was no matter. She probably preferred to have an ugly same color dress than a dress of a slightly different color that looked very good.

Hallie hadn’t said anything yet. As soon as the dress had been revealed Kate had known it was wrong but maybe the stress and need to get this done would alter Hallie’s ability to see. It was a weak hope but it was all Kate had. She prayed for some kind of miracle.

“What do you think?” The salesgirl asked. Hallie was circling the dress, a predator stalking its prey, while Kate stood off to the side with her clipboard.

She was part maid of honor, part wedding planner, part therapist, and part peacemaker between the two families. She hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in months. She needed this done as much as Hallie did. She just didn’t tell anybody that. No one cared if she was sleeping well or stressed out. It was going to be Hallie’s day. Kate just wished that it hadn’t become Hallie’s year as she planned her very large scale wedding. Hallie couldn’t do anything that was not large scale.

“Miss?” The salesgirl asked to get Hallie’s attention.

“Hallie.” Kate said, getting even more anxious. If that was possible.

“Yes?” Hallie said.

“What do you think.” Kate said. Hallie stopped circling and stared at the front of the dress.

“It’s a different color.”

Shit, Kate thought. Now comes the freak out.

“It’s what you ordered miss. I’m so very sorry if you are unhappy with the dress.” The salesgirl said, looking as panicked as Kate felt.

“What do you think Kate?” Hallie asked, not looking away from the dress.

“I think it looks great and you should try it on so we can see how great it looks on you.” Kate said. Hallie nodded slowly.

“Okay I’ll try it on and see how it looks.” Kate was both happy and scared at how calm Hallie was.

The salesgirl carefully took the dress from the mannequin and took it to the dressing room with Hallie to help her try it on. Kate collapsed on the couch in the corner of the room and checked her list. They still had a lot of things to do today. The wedding was in a week. She took out her pen and started crossing off the things they had already done that morning.

Go confirm the flowers, check.

Call the band and make sure they’ve been given their deposit, check.

Call the bridal party and make sure they all have flights, check.

There were still things to do today but luckily the next item was getting some lunch. Kate hadn’t had breakfast this morning. She would be so happy when this whole wedding nonsense was over.