I loved watching them together. No matter what happened over the years or how much of a struggle we had, they were always so in love. It’s what I wanted and what I thought I could possibly have with Chase one day.
One day.
“She’s not going to wear the dress, so just give up,” my dad said to my mom before making his way to the kitchen table.
“Dress?” I asked. Now that piqued my interest. It’s almost all I wore, from high school till even now. Pants were a thing of my past, even during winter. Leggings worked just fine.
“For your holiday party tomorrow at work.” My mom added before going over to a tray of cookies and taking them off the baking sheet.
“What kind of dress?” I picked up a cookie and pretended to be interested in it while waiting for my mother to answer. She didn’t need any more boost to her ego, especially with knowing I wanted whatever dress she had for me because I hadn’t managed to find one I loved for tomorrow night.
“See! I told you she would want it!” She squealed and jumped up and down, pointing to my dad like she had just won a bet.
“She hasn’t even seen it yet, hon.”
“Pft.” She waved a hand in the air, like his words were just semantics, and went to the closet in the hallway. She came back in with a long dress bag and hung it on a hook on the wall. I pulled on the zipper to reveal a stunning rose gold sequin dress. The material bellowed out of the bag as it pooled on the floor. “Shoes are in the bottom.”
I reached in to pull out the five-inch stilettos that matched the dress perfectly. I wasn’t a short girl, but this dress was definitely one I would have to wear the shoes with. In these heels, I would probably be almost as tall as Chase, if not as tall.
“It’s gorgeous.” I pulled the dress toward me and placed it against my chest. I didn’t even need to try it on to know it was going to fit me like a glove.
“It just seemed like you when I went to McAdam’s today.”
McAdam’s was Mom’s secret addiction that wasn’t really a secret. It was the vintage shop in Little Five Points that she had come to love over the years. It changed its theme every few months, and Mom always had to go in and see what was new. I had a closet full of different decade dresses to prove it.
“I bet it did, Mom.” I smiled at her, knowing just how much she loved shopping.
“And a young boy helped me pick it out. He said if he ever saw the woman he loved in this dress, that would be it for him. He would get down on one knee right in that moment.”
“Then why didn’t he buy it?” I laughed at her for falling for something so silly. It was clearly just a sales clerk who wanted to sell the dress.
“Hmm.” She ran a finger over her lips and shrugged. “Not sure, but his loss.”
“I’ll take it home and then come back over for dinner.”
“No need, love.” Mom went back to the oven and took out another tray of cookies just as the timer went off. “We’re about to go out for a date night.”
“Takeout it is then,” I stated as I put the dress back into the bag.
My mom turned around in that moment and gave me a sad look.
“Why don’t you go out, find someone to hang out with? What about that girl you work with?”
I tried to think about who she was talking about. There were a few girls at the office now, but the only one I worked close to was Lilly. Everyone else was just in passing.
“Lilly?” I questioned and my mom nodded. “We’re really just work friends and sometimes have lunch together, but we’ve never hung out outside of work.”
“Change that. You deserve to be happy.” She popped a warm cookie in her mouth and took the other off the tray she had in front of her.
“I am happy, Mom.”
Sadness grew on her face, but I was happy, just not the kind of happy she wanted to see from me. To her I was content, and in reality, I was. I was living a lie around the man I loved and because of it, I had grown into this hermit. Not like I wasn’t already one before, but I didn’t have real friends, nor did I seek them out.
“Just give it a try. See if she wants to hang out. A movie night, pizza, something.”
“Fine, I’ll talk to her tomorrow at the party.”
“Now that sounds like a plan.”
