"What about the credit card bill? Nick told me that ever since that time, Jeff pays the credit card bills so he's sure they always get paid off. How are you going to hide that?"
"I'll write a check. Jeff hates to write checks, so I write all of them. I keep the checkbook in my purse. He never looks at it."
Emily was quiet for several moments while she thought about the plan. "That sounds like it just might work. Are you sure you don't mind letting me pay you a little bit each week? I'll probably only be able to come up with forty dollars a week or so. It might take a while."
"Don't worry about it. Maybe we'll luck out and find one on sale, or maybe you'll already have shoes for it and won't have to buy them."
"Maybe, but it's hard to turn down a chance for some new shoes." Both girls giggled. Anita got serious again and gave Emily something to think about. "I know, but I did learn something from that whole ordeal when I got in trouble with credit cards. Has Nick told you how good you'd feel when you give something up and then discover you really didn't need it?"
"Yeah. He's told me a few times. He says the sense of pride and accomplishment should never be downplayed and it's something you can't describe. You have to experience it firsthand, but it's powerful." She chuckled. "But men don't know the importance of a new dress and shoes. It should never be downplayed, either."
Anita chuckled, but sobered again. "I agree, but I have to tell you, Emily, what he says is true. I never thought I'd say that, but there is truth in what he says. If you have shoes that will look nice with whatever dress we buy, you may want to consider wearing them. I mean, face it; even we have to admit not too many people even see the shoes when you're wearing a long gown. And I do think it would make you feel proud of yourself. It's up to you, obviously, but give it some thought."
"Wow. I can't believe you're saying that, but now I'll have to think about it if you feel that strongly about it. Anyway, this is perfect. When can you go shopping?"
"How about Saturday morning? Garrett's going to spend Friday night with his friend from school and they're going to an amusement park all day Saturday. I heard Jeff say he and Nick are golfing Saturday morning."
"Perfect. Maybe we can find one and hurry home and hide it before the men get home. I hope they have a late morning tee time."
"It is. I think it's at like 11:00. They're meeting two others there, so that means they'll probably all four have a late lunch when they're done. That should give us enough time to find one and get home and hide it. What are we going to say we're going to look for, though?"
"How about saying we're going to that new import store I told you about?"
Anita sighed. "Jeff told me I'm not to take you there while you're working with Nick because it'll just be tempting you."
"I wish one of us needed something. That would give us an excuse."
"That's it," Anita exclaimed. "I have to get an anniversary gift for some friends of ours and we don't know what to get. That's the perfect excuse. We should be able to find something there. Do you mind if we stop off there and quickly find something to get for a gift? Then we can tell them we browsed all morning at the new import store."
"Perfect. I'm sure we can find a good gift quickly. When do you want to leave?"
"Umm, good question. We want as much time as we can get, but if we leave too early they'll question it. I'll talk to Jeff tonight and see when they're leaving. I'll call you to let you know."
Luck was with them, as Nick suggested they all four meet for breakfast Saturday morning. Afterwards the ladies could go shopping while the men went golfing. Jeff suggested they get an early start, as he had one of his golf clubs at the repair shop and would like to pick it up first and hit a bucket of balls to practice with it before their tee time.
The ladies made sure their first stop was at the import store, where they quickly found a nice gift. They hurried back out to the car and on to the main event. They found a gown they both liked at the first store, but it was nothing extraordinary, so they decided to keep looking. At the second store, they found another one they liked, and it fit nicely, but once again, it wasn't breathtaking. They had one more shop in mind before they would decide which of the first two they wanted.
They went into the little boutique, to the back section where the gowns were, and they both froze. There on a rack of dresses labeled Limited Sizes Available, was the most gorgeous gown either of them had ever seen. It was a beautiful orange color with a sheer overlay. It had feminine spaghetti straps, and numerous beads scattered across the bodice. They both stood, staring at the gown.
Anita was the first to find her voice. "Emily, you do know that gown would be gorgeous on you, don't you?"
"I've always been told orange is a good color for me."
"Absolutely. With your dark hair, it would be perfect. And it's so pretty."
"It's beautiful," Emily agreed. "But there are limited sizes available."
"Then what are we standing here for? Let's look." They both ran to the rack and started going through the gowns. Emily found the size eight first and squealed. "They have a size eight. Oh, I hope it's a true eight."
They both rushed into the dressing room, where Anita quickly got the gown ready to try on while Emily pulled her shirt off. She soon had the gown on and when Anita zipped it up they turned and looked at the mirror in awe.
"It fits perfectly," Anita whispered.
"I've got to have it," Emily said just as quietly. She turned sideways slowly, carefully, as if any fast turns or loud noises would break it. "I'm afraid to look at the price tag. Will you look for me?"
She turned sideways so Anita could reach the all-important tag hanging on the dress. "Oh, my gosh," was all Anita said as she looked down at the tag.
"What?" Emily demanded. "Anita, you're scaring me. I know this boutique is expensive. Is it out of the question? I should have looked before I tried it on. But I love it. Are you sure there's no way I can afford it?"
"Calm down," Anita said. "It's cheaper than I was guessing. It was $1,400, but it's been marked clear down to $300. I'm not saying that's cheap, but it's cheaper than I thought it would be."
"Me, too. This boutique has unique things that are really nice, but they're not cheap. Is it too much for your checking account, though?"
"No, he always keeps extra in there. He won't even know I wrote it."
"I'll keep packing my lunch and cutting back any way I can so I can give you as much as I can every week."
"That's fine." Looking back at the dress, another thought crossed her mind. "It's getting kind of late. What do you think about shoes?"
Emily looked at the dress in the mirror again and had a wonderful idea. "Anita, I have the perfect thing. I have a really cute pair of off-white strappy sandals that are adorned with just a few well-placed beads. They'll look perfect with this dress. If I went to look for new ones I don't think I could find any that would look better."
"Great. That will save you some money, and we can get this to your house and get it hidden before the men get home."
They quickly paid for their wonderful find and hurried home to Emily's. First they hung the dress in one of her guest closets. Then they went over their story to make sure they had it straight, every detail they might possibly need agreed upon.
Both ladies were home when their men arrived as planned, and everything went on as normal for several days.
On Thursday night, two days before the dinner, Nick and Emily were at Nick's house cooking dinner together. Nick put the dish they'd been preparing in the oven, and turned to her. "A couple of my co-workers are anxious to meet you Saturday night."
She turned to him, eyes wide. "What brought that on?"
"I was just thinking how lucky I am to be escorting such a beautiful young lady to the dinner. A couple of the guys I work with said they were anxious to meet you, and I told them you'd be easy to find. You'll be the prettiest lady there."
She blushed and turned away. He gently pulled her into his a
rms. "I didn't mean to embarrass you. I'm sorry if I did. That's exactly the way I feel, though. I'm getting anxious."
"I am, too."
"You shouldn't have tried the dress on for me, because now that I've seen you in it, I keep picturing how beautiful you are in that pretty blue dress. I can't wait to see you in it again."
"Oh. Uh, well, maybe I need to talk to you about that then."
"About what?"
"I'm not planning on wearing the blue dress now."
"Why not? Did you decide you like the red one better? I liked it, too, but I think I liked the blue one better. It's your choice, though. You looked very nice in either one."
"I was telling Anita about how I was stressing out about not being able to get a new dress, and she offered to let me borrow one of hers."
"Oh, okay. I knew you were the same size and have borrowed sweaters and things from each other, which I thought was nice. So you found one of hers you like better?"
"Maybe just because I haven't worn it before, but I really like this one. It fits me nicely, too."
"Okay. What color is it?"
"Why?"
He chuckled. "I just want to be sure I pick a shirt and tie that will look okay with it. I had a white shirt and blue tie picked out, but I may want to change ties now."
"That makes sense. I never even thought of that. The dress I'm going to wear is orange."
He looked a little shocked. "Orange? That's not a real common color." He looked at her more carefully and nodded his head. "Orange will look good on you, though. Is it solid orange, or orange and another color?"
"No, just solid orange. Is that going to cause a problem for you?"
"I don't have a tie with orange in it that I can think of, but I can fix that. Let's go out for dinner tomorrow night, then we'll stop off and you can help me pick out a tie." She agreed, and they went back to finishing up their dinner.
The next evening Emily was ready to go, when she got a call from Nick. He apologized and informed her something had come up and he'd be late, but assured her he would indeed be there.
As he put his phone in his pocket after telling Emily he'd be late, he knocked on the door at his sister's house. Jeff answered and invited him in, softly saying, "Garrett's at Grandma's house for the night."
Nick nodded and went into the kitchen, where Anita was cooking. "Hi, Nick. Jeff didn't tell me you were coming over. Can you stay for dinner?"
"No, not tonight," he said as he gave his sister a kiss on the cheek.
Jeff turned the stove off and steered his wife toward the living room. "Nick has something he wants to talk to us about."
"Okay. Is anything wrong?"
Nick shrugged. "That's what I need to find out." Once they were all seated he directed his discovery to Anita. "Last night Emily told me she's not planning on wearing her blue gown tomorrow night, like she'd planned. I asked her about it so I'd know what color tie I should wear. Did you know she decided not to wear the blue one?"
Anita calmly replied. "She decided to borrow one of mine."
"That's what she said," Nick said. "I was kind of surprised. She really looks nice in her blue one."
"You can tell you're a man," she said with a snicker. "A woman hates to go to a special event and have to wear a special dress that she's already worn. We're the same size, so she tried mine. She liked one of them, so she was going to wear that. Is that a problem?"
"Well, I asked her what color it is so I'd know what color tie to wear, and she said it was orange."
"It is. It looks really nice on her."
"So you had an orange gown?"
"Yes."
Jeff took over now. "Where did you wear this orange gown? I don't remember seeing it."
"I don't think I ever did wear it," she said a bit hesitantly. "Remember that time I spent too much money and Nick had to help me? I bought a few things during that time that I never did wear."
Jeff studied her carefully. "You're saying you've had this gown she's going to wear for several years then?"
Before she could answer, Nick asked a question of his own. "And you bought an orange gown, even though you said yellow and orange look awful on you with your blonde hair?"
Jeff immediately asked the next question. "And if you've had it that long, then what did you buy at Monique's Boutique last week for over $300?"
Anita looked up at two angry looking men with stern expressions, arms crossed, staring down at her. She was sunk. They knew. They knew everything. "WTF! What were you doing; spying on me?"
Jeff walked over to her calmly, took her upper arm and pulled her up off the couch. He turned her sideways and gave her ten hard swats on her bottom.
"Ow! Jeff!"
"I don't know what in the world makes you think you have any right to have an attitude with us right now, but I will strongly urge you to rethink that. And you're my wife. Looking at our joint checking account on line is not spying. Although, I shouldn't have had to look it up to begin with. I checked after Nick called me with a concern."
She turned her glare onto her brother. Jeff turned her enough to give her ten more good swats.
"Jeff, oww! Not in front of Nick, please."
"You have no right to glare at him, young lady. He suspected you two may have been up to something when Emily told him you had an orange gown. He knows you don't think you look good in orange, and thinking it through, things didn't make sense. He called me, and we talked. You don't like orange, and I've never seen you in orange. Nick said Emily didn't have access to that much money right now that he knew of, so that led us to the possibility of you helping her, maybe lending her the money. I checked our credit cards and checking account, which I will remind you are in both of our names."
She sighed and both men watched as her shoulders slumped, and she looked up at both of them. "I'm sorry."
Jeff shook his head. "Anita, I can't believe you did this to your friend."
"What do you mean? I was trying to help her."
Nick looked at her with unbelieving eyes. "Anita, you went through what she's going through. You know how hard it is to stay on a budget and do without things you're used to having. I hoped you would encourage her to stay on her program, not encourage her to sneak around behind my back."
Jeff was shaking his head again. "How can you say you were trying to help her? Now she's not only gotten herself in trouble for failing to follow her program, but she also lied to Nick. Honey, they have a young, fledgling relationship. Lying to him is certainly not going to help that. Now Nick has to deal with her, try to restore the trust that was developing between them. And she's going to have a sore bottom for their big dinner tomorrow night."
Anita was crying by now. "I'm sorry. Nick, please don't be upset with her. You're both right. I should have been a positive influence on her. Instead, this is all my fault."
Nick looked at his sister closely. "Why do you say that?"
"It was my idea. Please don't take it out on her. I'm the one who came up with the plan."
"She's a big girl, Anita. She didn't have to follow your plan. Thank you for telling me it was your idea, but she is still responsible for her own actions."
"Are you going to make her take the dress back?"
Two sets of angry eyes turned to her. Jeff was the first to speak. "Really? You really have to ask that?"
Nick agreed. "Anita, you've been on the program. You know the answer to that. Yes, she does have to return the dress, for several reasons. She can't afford it right now. And she has to learn."
"But I don't know if we can."
Jeff asked the obvious question. "Why can't you?"
"You have to understand something first, both of you. Please listen to me. That dress is perfect for her. It fits her like it was made for her, and the color and style couldn't be better. She's stunning in it. And for what it's worth, she didn't buy new shoes. But the reason why I'm not sure it's returnable is because it was marked way, way down. They ordered the dress in the whole range
of sizes, but they only got two dresses, one each in two sizes. So they marked them way down. It was $1,400 and she got it for $300. That rack said all sales final, so I don't know if we can take it back."
The two men looked at each other. Nick looked back at Anita. "Do you have the receipt or does she?"
Anita thought a minute. "I think I probably do."
"Go look." She could tell Nick was angry, and jumped at the chance to leave. The men had a quick conversation while she was gone.
She returned and handed him the receipt. "She's going to try to return it. I may go with her. I'm going over to talk to her tonight, and don't you dare call her before I get over there."
"Oh, she won't," Jeff assured his brother-in-law. "She's going to be quite busy this evening. She won't be doing any talking on the phone. Good luck, Nick. Let me know if I can do anything to help."
"Thanks." Nick turned and left without another word. Anita knew he was angry. She started crying again, thinking of the mess she'd made, and hoping Nick and Emily could get past this. She loved Nick, and although she'd only known Emily a matter of months, she really liked her as well, and it was obvious to her that she and her brother were made for each other. She was crying for the damage she may have done to the two of them, when she looked up and saw the look on Jeff's face.
The tears started heavier again, seeing how much she'd disappointed her husband. Jeff knew his wife well enough to know her tears now were from her realization of the trouble she'd gotten her new friend in, as well as how disappointed he was.
He was angry with her, but he still loved her with all his heart. He pulled her into his arms. She immediately wrapped her arms around him, crying into his shirt. "Shh, honey, it'll be okay. We'll work through this."
"I'm really sorry. I was just trying to help. I guess I wasn't thinking." She hugged him. "I love you."
"I love you, too. We'll get through it."
"Thank you. But will they?"
"I can't answer that. I hope so. I think they're a good couple and I can tell they care a great deal for each other, but I can't say if their relationship is strong enough yet for this or not. I hope it is."
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