The Perfect Dress

by Brown, Carolyn

  “Remind you of anyone?” Jody asked.

  “Of course it does,” Paula said. “That’s what came to my mind immediately when you told me about Lyle. I wondered if you might be pregnant, too.”

  “We’ll know in a few days. I’m regular as clockwork,” Jody said.

  “Well, we won’t worry about that right now.” Mitzi took control. “What we’re going to plan for now is a new baby, which means we need a bigger place.”

  “I vote that we move into the upstairs of the shop,” Jody said.

  “But we decided that we needed a house so that we’d have a life and not work every day until bedtime,” Paula said.

  “But,” Jody argued, “there are five good-sized bedrooms, a bathroom, and a small room that the previous owners used for an office. One for each of us and one to make a nursery, and we can put a sofa and television in the other and call it a living room.”

  “It might work.” Mitzi stood up and began to pace the floor. “But the only way would be if we vowed to separate work and our personal lives.”

  “The smaller room could be the nursery,” Paula offered.

  “I think we should use a bigger one and give the little one to the girls to do their flower business,” Jody said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Mitzi said.

  “Rent’s up on the fifth, so we’d have to do it in a hurry, like in two days,” Paula said. “Maybe we should think about it for a few weeks and give a notice. We’ll lose your deposit if we don’t.”

  “Yes, but we won’t have to pay the extra rent or utility bills, so we’ll actually be ahead of the game.” Mitzi sat down at the table. “We can move tomorrow evening after work.”

  “I can’t believe we’re even thinking of this,” Paula said. “But we’ll have to promise that we don’t bring work upstairs.”

  “Exactly, and we each have a life to live, so we don’t have to tell each other where we’re going or what time we’ll be home,” Jody said.

  “What are we going to do with that mannequin?” Mitzi moved from the kitchen chair to the middle of Jody’s couch-bed. “Whoa!” She held up a hand. “We’re freaking out about moving and we’re forgetting the big picture here. Paula is going to be a single mother and she needs our support.”

  Paula went to sit on the edge of the bed. “Thank you. I’m okay now that I’ve told y’all.”

  “No, you’re not.” Jody sat on the floor beside the bed. “I won’t even know for a few more days, and I’m still totally freaking out about being a single mother. So fess up, Paula. We’re here for you.”

  “Okay.” Paula held out her trembling hands. “I go to bed wondering if I’ll be a good mother. Look at our moms, Jody. Are we going to be like them? Demanding, judgmental? It scares the crap out of me. Then I wake up worried that my child will feel cheated since she won’t have a father. So, yes, I’m freaking out, but knowing y’all are here for me helps.”

  “Have you told your mama?” Jody asked.

  “Not yet. I tried to tell Selena when I went down to see her the last time, but I just couldn’t do it. You’re the first ones I’ve told,” Paula admitted. “You want to break it to Mama for me?”

  “Hell, no!” Jody shook her head emphatically. “If I happen to be pregnant, I’m going to tell my mama I found the baby in a cabbage patch.”

  Paula glanced over toward Mitzi and raised an eyebrow.

  Mitzi threw a hand over her forehead in a dramatic gesture. “I love you, girl, but not that much. Gladys will breathe fire, and I’m real fond of my eyelashes and hair.”

  Chapter Seven

  Never again,” Jody said as she threw back the covers and sat up on the sofa bed.

  “‘Never again,’ what?” Mitzi yawned.

  “Never again will I fall in love.” She had had a sleepless night, worrying about her own pregnancy possibility. Like Paula, she was terrified of being a bad mother. And if the poor baby only had her, and not a decent father to balance things out, then it would be twice as bad.

  “Don’t say that. You’re a good person. You deserve to be happy.” Paula got bacon and eggs from the refrigerator and began cracking the eggs into a bowl.

  “So do you,” Mitzi said. “So do all of us.”

  “Maybe, but trust is tough after this kind of thing.” Jody kicked herself for not seeing the signs. Paula hadn’t had a beer in months, and she loved beer. She did drink a little sweet tea, but she didn’t go around with a glass in her hands from midmorning until suppertime. If Jody hadn’t been so wrapped up in her own problems with Lyle, she would have recognized all the signs. “Let’s make a decision about moving and then go forward without looking back.”

  “You always say that,” Mitzi said. “Are we ever able to not look back?”

  “I’m going to give it my best shot.” Paula set the eggs aside and started frying bacon.

  “Me, too,” Jody said. “That’s not saying I’ll always get the job done, but when I fall on my face, I have these two amazing friends who’ll help me get back up.”

  “Yes, we will.” Mitzi popped open a tube of biscuits and arranged them in a pan. “So I’m in for the move. It’ll save money and we’ll have more room. Jody can even have a private bedroom for when she gets a boyfriend.”

  Both of Jody’s palms went up defensively. “That’s not happening. Paula, I need one of your stones to carry around in my pocket to ward off all feelings of love.”

  “That would be a jasper stone. It helps control emotions. I’ll give you one before we leave for work this morning. I’ve carried a moonstone with me for weeks. It helps with pregnancy,” Paula said. “And by the way, I checked the signs last night. This week is a good time to move, but next week isn’t. It seems like an omen to me.”

  “I’ve always thought your superstitions and stones were a little wonky,” Mitzi said. “But I might be willing to sleep with a love one under my pillow.”

  “Under your pillow won’t work,” Paula scolded her seriously. “It’s got to be next to your skin. You need a rose quartz. Put it next to your heart.”

  “If y’all are going to try this, then I’m game, too,” Mitzi said. “But it’ll have to show some power to turn me into a believer.”

  “Will your jasper stone keep me from wanting to strangle Lyle?” Jody asked.

  “Maybe I’d better give you a sodalite stone. It’s a little stronger than the jasper. So we’re really going to move into the shop?” Paula asked.

  Jody cocked her head to one side. “I’m all for it, but what about all those stairs? You going to be able to get up and down them?”

  “I’m pregnant, not crippled. Women have lived in two-story houses with babies for centuries,” Paula answered.

  Mitzi shook her finger at Paula. “But you got to promise that you won’t lift anything heavy. I’ll call that moving company from—”

  Paula grabbed her finger. “I will not be treated like an invalid. I’ll concede to not carrying my dresser and mattress up the steps. But I won’t be mollycoddled. Understood?”

  “So we’re in agreement about the move and not babying you?” Jody asked.

  “Looks like it.” Paula nodded. “But right now we’ve got to get to work. Wedding dresses don’t wait, and we’ve got to get Ellie Mae’s bodice done this week for her first fitting.”

  “You’re awfully quiet, Mitzi,” Jody said. “Are you having second thoughts?”

  “I’m sorry. I was thinking about whether it would be wise to get a mover to just come take care of it for us or to use your truck and make a dozen trips,” Mitzi answered.

  From the slight blush on Mitzi’s face, Jody didn’t believe that was the entire truth and nothing but the truth, but she didn’t argue. “We should use my truck and save the money. No more than y’all’ve got, we can do it in probably five trips,” Jody said. “Get it all out tonight, and then put things away a little at a time.”

  Mitzi nodded in agreement. “I’ll call Granny and Daddy. They both have trucks and they’ll
be glad to help. Lord have mercy! Our lives have sure changed since we left work on Friday.”

  “Thank God I’ve got y’all to help me through it,” Jody whispered. “It seems like Saturday was a hundred years ago.”

  “Amen.” Paula laid a hand on Jody’s arm.

  As Jody worked that morning, she really tried to keep her mind off the fact that the trailer where she’d lived for more than a decade was being taken to a ranch near Greenville that day. But it was impossible. One minute she tried to figure out what she could have done different—was this partly her fault for not giving him more attention, more sex, less nagging? The very next thought was that the damn stone in her bra was doing nothing to keep her from wanting to tie him to a chair and use him for target practice.

  Paula nudged her ankle with a toe. “Penny for your thoughts.”

  “You can have them for free,” Jody said. “This is all surreal. I gave Lyle my heart, my soul, and my life for more than fourteen years. How can he just walk away like that without even telling me to my face? And what do I do now? I feel like an empty shell. We’ve got so much on our plates right now that y’all don’t need to be taking care of me. We’re moving. You’re pregnant. The world is spinning too fast.”

  Mitzi tucked a strand of red hair back into her ponytail. “Look at it like this: You’re like an empty gallon-sized pickle jar. You’re cleaned out and you’re ready to be filled up with whatever you want. You can put one thing in it a day or a dozen. It’s your choice because Lyle doesn’t control your choices anymore.”

  “I’ll try to steer my thoughts that way, but today I want revenge, not new beginnings,” Jody answered.

  “Hey, where is everyone? We’re here.” Dixie’s and Tabby’s voices blended together as they entered the back door of the shop.

  “In the sewing room,” Jody called out to them. “I’ll put their names in my jar. Their positive attitude is like sunshine after the storm.”

  “Isn’t it great that the girls are comfortable in their skin?” Paula whispered.

  “I wish I’d had more of that kind of confidence,” Jody said. “Then I’d still be a size sixteen instead of a four.”

  Mitzi stifled a giggle. “Never heard that before. Most of us want to be petite little trophy women.”

  “Look what it got me,” Jody said. “Some trophy.”

  “What do you want us to do—oh, my goodness, that black lace is pretty.” Tabby entered the sewing room ahead of Dixie.

  “Raise your right hand.” Just seeing Tabby’s exuberance over a bolt of black lace erased part of Jody’s horrible mood.

  Both of their hands shot up.

  “Now repeat after me,” she said. “I do hereby swear to never tell anyone about anything that happens or is created at The Perfect Dress.”

  The girls said the words so seriously that Jody almost laughed. “Okay, you are sworn in as legitimate employees. This is Ellie Mae’s wedding dress.”

  “Oh. My. Gosh!” Dixie gasped. “I didn’t know you could get married in black.”

  “That’s the same lace that we used in the bouquet we made,” Tabby said.

  “And I’m going to show that to Ellie Mae,” Mitzi said. “If she likes it, then she might want you to do the rest of the flowers for the wedding party. But right now I want you to work on that pink bouquet we talked about for the mannequin and then help me get it down from the steps to the foyer. There’s a slim possibility that we’ll get to go to the Dallas Bridal Fair and if we do, I’d like to show off some of your work.”

  “For real?” Dixie’s eyes widened out as big as saucers. “Our bouquets might get to be on display?”

  “Yes, but it’s still a long shot, and we may need to build an arch and decorate it, too. Be thinking of what color bouquet you think our bride should carry, and we’ll make the arch flowers match. It can’t hurt to be ready.”

  Jody blinked several times to keep the tears at bay. As a teenager, she’d dreamed of a wedding where she’d stand under a decorated arch with her groom. She’d wear a white dress and flowers in her hair. When she got a little older, she’d envisioned an outdoor wedding with mountains in the background. She’d loved Lyle enough to throw her dreams away, and now they were shattered.

  “We can be ready, but the mannequin looks so good on the stairs,” Tabby said.

  “The three of us are moving into the upstairs part of the shop, starting after work today,” Paula explained. “So we’ve got to clear that off.”

  “Holy crap on a cracker!” Tabby threw a hand over her mouth. “That wasn’t very nice.”

  “Aunt Alice says it all the time,” Dixie giggled. “Can we help? Daddy is real strong and he can lift a lot. Why are y’all moving in here so fast? Are you packed? Why didn’t you live here all the time?”

  “Because Paula and I have been living in a small house and now Jody is moving in with us and we need more room. And we haven’t packed a thing,” Mitzi said. “But there’s a lot of room upstairs, so we’re going to utilize it.”

  “Well, I know how to pack,” Dixie said.

  “Me, too. We’re good at it, and we want to help,” Tabby said.

  “And we’re grateful to you,” Paula said. “But maybe you girls better ask your dad before you volunteer him.”

  Tabby yanked her phone from her hip pocket. “Daddy, we need help moving Mitzi, Paula, and Jody to the shop. They’re goin’ to live upstairs. You and Aunt Alice can meet us here at five thirty, right?”

  She only listened a second before putting it back. “He says he’ll have to go home and change clothes, but he’ll be here soon as he can. Now come on, Dixie. We got a mannequin to move and a bouquet to make. God, I love this job.”

  “Me, too,” Dixie said as she headed toward the kitchen.

  “You going to let them move it all by themselves?” Jody whispered.

  Mitzi pushed back her chair. “Not only that, but I’m going to turn them loose on redoing the foyer.”

  “I’m likin’ this idea of having helpers a lot,” Paula said.

  Jody frowned. “But what if they don’t do it to suit us? Will you let them down easy when we have to redo it ourselves? I couldn’t bear to hurt their feelings.”

  Memories flooded back of all the times when she’d tried to do something nice for her mother only to have it backfire. No wonder it had been so easy to move in with Lyle and to want to please him so much after living with her mother. Jody remembered one time when she thought it would make Wanda happy if she cleaned house for her while she was at the beauty shop.

  Without even realizing it, Jody put her hands over her ears as she replayed the sound of her mother screaming that day: “You’ve washed all the glitter off my precious angel. Now it’s worthless. Why can’t you ever do anything right?”

  Wanda had picked up the tiny angel knickknack, thrown it in the trash can, and for years, if she thought about it, she still got angry.

  So that’s why I tried so hard to please Lyle, Jody thought.

  “Of course,” Mitzi said as she left the room.

  It took Jody a while to remember why Mitzi would even say that, but then she remembered the conversation about the foyer.

  “She’s still crushing on Graham, isn’t she?” Paula whispered.

  “Probably always will.” Jody toyed with one of her long braids. “Is that the reason she wants his daughters around?”

  “I don’t think so. She loves kids and they remind her of us when we were in school.” Paula pulled her dark hair out of her ponytail and shook it loose. “I’m getting a headache, so I’m going to the kitchen for an aspirin.”

  “Are you all right? Do we need to call the doctor?”

  Paula held up a palm. “I’m fine. It’s just a headache.”

  “I’ll go with you. I want a soda and one of those candy bars in the drawer,” Jody answered. She had to push back the guilty feelings about eating candy and drinking soda. First her mother had fat shamed her and then Lyle had, too.

  T
he girls had a notebook and a tape measure out when Jody and Paula passed through the foyer. They were deep in conversation about how to arrange things so folks could get around the furniture to go to the fitting room and the kitchen, and yet to show off the mannequin at the same time.

  “Guess I misjudged them,” Jody admitted when Mitzi handed her a can of root beer in the kitchen. “I swear they could be your kids.”

  “No, mine would never be that beautiful,” Mitzi said.

  “So how’re you feelin’ about Graham coming to help move?” Paula swallowed two aspirin and opened the drawer where they kept the candy bars.

  “It was just a high school crush,” Mitzi answered. “With all this help, we should be out of there before dark.”

  Paula ripped the paper from the candy bar and took a bite. “I’ve been craving chocolate like you wouldn’t believe.”

  “I never met Clinton. What does he look like? Are you hoping the baby doesn’t look like him?” Jody grabbed a candy bar and told the niggling voice in her head to shut up.

  “He’s about six feet tall, blond hair, blue eyes, and just slightly overweight,” Paula answered. “If the baby has blue eyes, I’m going to say that they were inherited from Aunt Mitzi. If the baby has blonde hair, we’ll declare that it came from Aunt Jody.”

  “And if it turns out to be a big person, it’s from all of us,” Mitzi told them.

  Jody bit off a chunk of candy bar and chewed slowly. If by some crazy reason she was pregnant, then what would her baby look like? She was blonde and had brown eyes. Lyle had brown hair and green eyes. Would it be a girl or a boy? Suddenly, having a baby didn’t scare her like it used to do. If Paula could do this alone, then so could she.

  Mitzi was busy tidying up her work space at five o’clock when Dixie and Tabby bounced into the sewing room, both smiling as if they’d just won the lottery.

  “Come and see what we’ve done. If you don’t like it, then we’ll change it but . . .” Tabby paused.

  “But we just know you are going to love it. The bouquet in the mannequin’s hand matches the sofas, and we did a pretty floral arrangement in shades of pink for the coffee table, and we had so much fun.” Dixie finally stopped for a breath.