Page 5 of Love at First Swim
Arielle
Arielle Moore got to her store early. She had to get started on the order she had gotten yesterday.
She knew it would be a long, productive day and she was kinda excited about it.
From when she was a little girl she loved two things. To sew and to swim.
Her parents and her grandparents encouraged both of her loves and when she was in junior high and high school, she made her own clothes and would be asked to make the costumes for the plays.
She adored working with the fabric and turning the piece of plain fabric into a masterpiece.
She wanted to go to design school, but knew so much already that it wasn’t worth it for her to go.
Instead, she had asked her parents, grandparents and her best friend Kadence about opening her own business.
A shop where she could make girls dreams of being a princess come true.
She had sold more than one dress at that point and knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she had faith in it and so did her parents.
Kadence had been right there with her and had agreed to help. She too knew how to sew and the girls loved being their own boss and making such beautiful dresses for the little girls and their dreams.
Kadence also had the idea that they should dress up as princesses or mermaids and with her dad’s help, Arielle had learned to craft a mermaid tail from silicone.
Her dad used to work in Hollywood as a special effects makeup artist and knew just how to help her.
So, she made a tail and spent the next few weeks in her spare time learning how to swim in it.
And oh, the freedom it brought her.
Kadence wanted one too, and Arielle and Mac were more than happy to help her.
Their business boomed, not just with the dresses and tails but because they were wanted for parties all over town.
They often worked late hours, but their business was their life, and it wasn’t like they had found any men that caught their eye, so they didn’t date.
Arielle used to have dreams of a dark and handsome man coming in and sweeping her off her feet, but so far, it was still just a dream.
She hoped that he wouldn’t come by today. She shook her head, there had been a man that had come around for weeks wanting to buy their store, and while he had offered a fortune for their store, it seemed as if it was tainted and ruined the feel of their store. Arielle was happy where they were and knew that rent was higher in other parts of town.
Which would make the prices higher on the dresses and she wanted anyone and everyone to have a dress. Whether they could afford it or not.
Having the check from the real estate developer would help, but money could only stretch for so long and she didn’t want anything affecting her business.
She wasn’t in it for the money, neither was Kadence. All they wanted was to provide dresses to little girls that had dreams of being a princess.
She was a softie for those sweet girls and knew that everyone was a princess and deserved to feel that way.
Often they would get mom’s coming into the store, knowing that they wanted to give their daughters the world, and worried that they couldn’t get the dress their daughters so desperately wanted and Arielle and Kadence would always let them buy one for what they could pay for it.
It was worth all their hard work to see the mom’s faces light up with complete joy and often, they would get letters and pictures of those girls, thanking them for their dresses.
Arielle knew they wouldn’t be rich from this, but they had done alright for themselves and made people happy.
That was all that mattered. Money didn’t. Especially not tainted money from the man who only wanted to hurt the neighborhood by building some eyesore strip mall, and pushing all the people who lived here out by raising the property taxes.
That was one of her biggest reasons for not selling. Knowing that a building like that would only hurt the people who were already struggling as it was.
It kept her answer a firm no, and she didn’t regret it.
