Page 3 of Little Gray Dress

“It’s Friday, I have an unexpected day off, and if I want to drink at 9:30 in the morning I’m gonna,” she snaps into the phone. “I’ll meet you there in twenty.”

Thirty minutes later and I’m walking into the bridal salon and see Lily already reclined on the couch waiting for me. “Sorry I’m late. I planned on being early but you know me.”

She nods her head in agreement. “What was it this time? A pair of shoes you couldn’t leave behind? A coffee shop you hadn’t been to before?” She waves her hand in the air as if there is a never-ending list of excuses I use when I’m late.

The list isn’t exactly never-ending, because I’m not always lying. But sometimes when I dread doing something I’m intentionally late, because at times it takes me a while to come up with a believable story for why I’m late. That is not the case this time.

“Neither. Lara’s husband just called and she fell on her way to work this morning and shattered her ankle. She’s on her way into surgery now and he wanted to let me know that she can’t be a bridesmaid.” I sigh, trying to hold back the tears. These kinds of things are not supposed to happen two days before your wedding. “How am I gonna find someone to replace her in one day that can fit into her dress?”

I went to college with Lara and she is quite possibly the sweetest girl I’ve ever met. She works as an editor in a small publishing company based here in Portland, and she is one of those girls who refuses to use a red pen on her clients' work because she doesn’t want to seem too harsh. Having to drop out of the wedding via a phone call from her husband is probably killing her.

“Um… I don’t know. Sounds like you’re screwed.”

“Emi!” Glenda (the woman who’s done all my fittings) excitedly pulls me in for a hug. “It’s almost here, are you excited?”

“Sure.” I try to hide the disappointment in finding out I now have one fewer bridesmaid than we have groomsmen, but there is no fooling Glenda.

“Uh-oh… What happened? I’m sure there’s a fix.”

“My other bridesmaid just dropped out at the last minute.” I wipe away an escaped tear rolling down my cheek. I don’t know what it is about planning weddings but they seem to bring out a woman’s emotional side, even when she didn’t know she had one.

“She didn’t drop out,” Lily corrects me. “The girl is injured and in surgery. That’s hardly dropping out.”

“Oh no. The tiny one?” Glenda suddenly side-eyes Lily with a forced smile. Lily glares over at us for basically just calling her the big one, even though she’s still smaller than me.

“Yes! Who could possibly fit in that dress?”

“Hmmm….” Glenda taps her foot on the ground. “What about that young girl that was here for your fitting? The gorgeous blonde?”

“Hannah?” Lily scrunches up her face in disapproval. She’s never loved Hannah even though they are together a lot. Hannah seems to always be trying to pinch Lily out of her BFF title. It’ll never happen, but that doesn’t mean Hannah won’t continue to try.

“You think?” I ask Lily, who’s already shaking her head.

“No way. She’s the most annoying girl on the planet. Nothing is up to her standards. Plus, she’ll probably try to squeeze me out of Maid of Honor spot since now she’ll officially be family.”

Having two best friends never works, and this is exactly why. There are too many opportunities for jealousy, talking about someone behind their back and someone feeling left out. I’ve tried to make it very clear to Hannah that she’s going to be my sister-in-law, and that is just as important as Lily being my best friend, but she’s not buying it. But sisters should be best friends, she whined to me one day while I was planning the bridal party.

“She might be my only option. She was pretty disappointed when I told her I was only having two bridesmaids and she wasn’t one of them.”

Jack had asked a friend from high school and a friend from college to be his groomsmen, and I figured I would do the same. I might look pathetic if I could only get a friend from high school and a future family member to stand at my side during the wedding as if I had no other friends.

“See if she can stop by today and I’ll make any necessary last-minute alterations before you pick the dresses up tonight.” Glenda smiles sweetly at us. “Now come, let’s try on this dress and see just how much you’ve shrunk!”

Five pounds is not as much as I hoped it was. It was only a few pins for Glenda. No wonder she said she could get it done and move up my pick-up time from tomorrow morning to tonight. The total last-minute alteration will probably take her ten minutes tops. I guess a size 8 dress is still pretty good for me, the girl who’s never worn under a size 10 in her entire teen to adult life. It’s like puberty hit and Mother Nature said goodbye to the flat figure.

“You look beautiful,” Lily grins, as I walk out to model, her approval apparent in her face. “Jack is gonna love it.”

“I don’t care if Jack loves it. I love it.”

It’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen. I’m not a flashy girl so there is no beading or gemstones, no glitter, or sequins. It’s just a plain white, ruched dress. It’s form-fitting from the sweetheart neckline to the knees and then it flares out wider to the ground. It shows off that I’ve recently lost twenty pounds, and I look like a bride.

“It’ll be a gorgeous wedding.” Glenda beams at her previous work of fitting me into a dress that was a size too big when I bought it.

“It will. OK, I need to get going. I’m meeting Jack for lunch and we’re picking up the tuxedos and we have to meet with Megan for a quick run-through of everything to be done over the next twenty-four hours.”

“Why does she need your help with that? Aren’t you paying her to plan the wedding? I’d think the decisions would’ve been set in stone by now.”

“Of course they are. She just likes to make sure we know everything that’s happening so problems don’t arise. It’s why she costs so much,” I explain.

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