in gorgeous, feminine wallpaper that begins as a warm taupe at the ceiling and slowly transitions into a pale nude shade at the floor. It shimmers in the inviting, gold toned light that radiates from the ornate chandelier hanging in the center of the room. The floor is a dark walnut wood with a high gloss finish, softly reflecting the light from the above. A long, chocolate colored suede sofa sits against the wall opposite the door, each end adorned with an off-white floral pillow.
On the left side of the room hangs a breathtakingly beautiful curtain that stretches from ceiling to floor, effectively dividing the space. It looks as if it is made of thousands of tiny white flowers strung together on clear wires. I shut the door behind me and a small, young blonde woman steps out from behind the curtain.
“Hello, Miss Owens. I am Sophia.”
“Please, call me Emma.”
She blushes and nods her head. “Emma. Your gown is ready for you. Right this way.”
She motions to the other side of the curtain. I follow her. Another woman stands behind the curtain with her back to us. She is hard at work on something positioned out of my view. Sophia clears her throat, startling the other woman. “This is Brigitte. She is putting the final details on your gown.”
“Hello. It’s nice to meet you bo—”
When Brigitte turns around to greet me, she clears my eye line to my gown. It is the most strikingly elegant article of clothing I have ever seen.
A mannequin in my size wears the dress as Brigitte sews the last of hundreds of small, diamond-like jewels onto an opaque fabric that is almost the exact same color as my skin tone. The jewels run in undulating lines from the tops of the shoulder straps to the bottom of the sheath as the fabric gracefully flows into a small train. The wide shoulder straps fall into a modest plunging neckline.
Brigitte delicately grabs hold of the train, lifting it off the ground. She spins the mannequin around on its stand, showing me the entire dress. The jewels on the flowing fabric of the train sparkle and shimmer in the light of the chandelier. I have never wanted to wear a dress so badly in my entire life.
“We will leave you to change your undergarments and then we will return to help you into the gown,” the stocky Brigitte says in a heavy Russian accent, snapping me out of my schoolgirl fantasy.
“Oh. Um, okay.”
They abruptly leave the room. It takes me a moment to notice the nude colored bra and panties resting on a small black bench near the floral curtain. I change out of my clothing and into them as quickly as possible, not wanting to be exposed when they come back in.
I pull the key to our room out of the scrub pants pocket and tuck it into one of the cups of my bra. It’s uncomfortable and awkward, but I don’t have time to think about it. Sophia and Brigitte re-enter the room and Brigitte calls out to me. “Miss Owens, you are ready for us, no?”
“Um, yeah. I guess.”
I hold my hands together in front of my chest, not hiding anything. They waste no time walking back to my side of the room and removing the dress from the mannequin, while speaking to each other in Russian. Brigitte sounds as if she is giving orders to Sophia, who sounds annoyed as she responds. Together they carry the dress over to me and raise it in the air over my head.
“Put the arms up,” Brigitte orders me.
I do as she says and lift my arms over my head and through the dress. The straps fall heavily on my shoulders as they lower the dress to the ground and spread the small train out behind me. Sophia grabs my braid and pulls it over my shoulder, resting it carefully on my chest. Brigitte reaches under my right arm and zips the gown closed. I look down at the dress. Each individual jewel shimmers as the light reflects off it. I very carefully run my hands over them, feeling each exquisite bump under my fingertips.
Sophia grabs a pink box off a shelf. She sets it on the black bench, her back to me. She turns around holding a magnificent pair of strappy nude colored shoes up for me to view. The heel is fairly short, which diminishes my initial anxiety. As a girl who spends her life in