Who We Could Be - Chelsea M. Cameron Page 0,44
go and try them on, your mom is going to kill us for not inviting her. And your aunts would want to be there too.”
“But if we just go to look and not try on? Just to see what I might like. It would be a shame if I did an appointment and wasted a bunch of time trying on dresses and never picked one. So this is more of a research trip.”
That did make sense.
“Okay.”
Tessa jumped off the couch. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Wait, now?”
“Why not? Come on.” She pulled me up from the couch. I should be used to Tessa’s spontaneous plans, but I wasn’t.
“Don’t we have to have an appointment?” I protested, as she dragged me through the door and out to her car.
“Not to look. I just want to see. It’ll be fun!”
Over an hour later, Tessa was parking her car in the lot at the closest mall and I was staring up at a chain bridal store.
“Come on, you know it’ll be a good time.” She nudged me. Not that long ago she’d been so down on getting a dress and now she seemed totally pumped, so I had no idea what was going on.
“You owe me dinner,” I said.
“Deal.”
We walked into the store and were greeted by a smiling consultant asking if we had an appointment.
“We’re just here to look, if that’s okay? But I do want to make an appointment,” Tessa said.
“That’s fine, just let me know if you need anything!” The consultant dashed off to help a group that was looking at bridesmaid dresses.
“You know, we could have looked at stuff online,” I said. The racks and racks of dresses on the right side of the store were completely overwhelming. Where did you even start?
I’d picked my dress out online and then tried it on at a tiny boutique a few hours away from home and it had been perfect.
“Come on,” Tessa said, threading her arm through mine. “Just go with it.”
“I hate it when you say that.”
“I know,” Tessa sang. “What do you think of this one?” She yanked out the first dress on the front of the rack. This was going to be a long afternoon.
Twelve
Tessa
Honestly, I wasn’t excited about trying dresses on, but looking through them was fun as hell. I liked finding a dress that I would rather drop dead than wear, and that turned out to be a lot of them.
“I think I want more simple,” I said. “Like, no glitter or sequins or lace. That stuff makes my skin itchy.”
“What about this?” Monty said, pulling out a dress that was long and white and sleek. It almost looked like more of an evening gown than a wedding dress.
“Look at the back,” she said, turning it around. The back dipped low and had a few strands of what looked like crystals crossing the gap.
“See, that’s more like it. Okay, hold on.” I took a picture of the dress and the tag so I would know for later when I came back with my mom and aunts and Monty to do the official try on. I was going to put that shit off as long as possible.
“You might want to get it soon, or else it might go out of season, or might get sold,” Monty said. She had a point, but whatever. I didn’t want to put on a wedding dress yet. We still hadn’t decided anything else, not even a date, so why did I need a dress?
“You could always go casual and wear pants.” The store did have a few unconventional wedding looks.
“If only my jumpsuit was white, I could walk down the aisle in that.” If only. Then I wouldn’t have to try anything on.
“I think that would scandalize a lot of your guests.”
“Good. People should be regularly scandalized. It’s good for them. Builds character.”
She laughed.
Somehow we made it through all the racks and my eyes were starting to burn from staring at so much white.
“Come on, I’m hungry,” I said.
“Thank god.” She sagged against the rack. “I’m starving.”
We left the shop and ended up going to a semi-fancy chain restaurant with a massive menu and enormous desserts.
“See, wasn’t this worth the trip?” I said as we stuck our forks into a piece of cheesecake that was the size of a small child.
“For this, yes.”
“Wait, was being around the dresses hard for you? Shit, I didn’t think about that, I’m sorry.”
She shook her head and waved her fork in the air as she spoke. “No, it’s