James shook her head and then stretched her arms over her head, her shirt riding up to reveal her belly ring. “I still think it’s weird. But you can do what you want. You said there would be an open bar?”
“Yup.”
“Definitely get your money’s worth there.” Oh I would. I planned on downing as many glasses of Cristal that I could get my hands on.
I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. “Any new interesting names for me?”
The quickest way to distract James was to ask her about her job as a baby name consultant. When she’d first told me about her career, I’d worried that it was a front for something, but it turned out that she was legit, and her work was actually fascinating to me.
“A couple wanted to find good Welsh names, so that was a whole linguistic rabbit hole I got to go down. I’ve done them before, but they really wanted to think outside the box. Oh, and then the couple who wanted founding father or other American revolutionary names. I have no idea why they contacted me; they were perfectly nice, but a little worryingly patriotic.”
I snorted. “Yikes.”
We ate the sandwiches on my couch while we watched a movie we’d both seen a million times.
“Want to walk me to the bookshop?” James asked, fiddling with her septum piercing.
“Sure.” I needed a walk after sitting for a while or else my body tended to get stiff.
The sun was out and the slush from a few days ago had since melted. I only needed a jean jacket to keep warm, but the forecast for next week was warning about potential snow, so I’d have to get out my boots and winter coat again.
We stopped near the shop to grab coffee for Delaney since she was working by herself today.
I said goodbye to James and waved at Delaney, heading further down the street to enjoy the sunshine, no firm destination in mind.
I did some window shopping and browsed and let my thoughts drift. Lately they seemed to be heading in one direction, and that was toward Vail Town. I still had her card and I’d looked her up under her narrator name, Emily Vale. She was quite prolific, apparently.
Vail did have an incredible voice. I wondered if she’d had any kind of special training for that. I listened to a lot of audiobooks, but somehow I’d never had one of hers in my ears. Of course, I bought one but hadn’t started it yet.
I passed a bridal shop that also had formal dresses for weddings, and I found myself pushing through the door. Vail said she would pay for everything, so I might as well look and see what they had. This was a nice shop, but it wasn’t the kind of place that anyone in my family would dare to walk into. I might as well be visiting a disgusting thrift store like a peasant. Lowells didn’t wear common clothes, according to my father. My mother would probably say this place was “cheap trash.”
A salesperson came to ask me if I was looking for something and I mentioned I was attending a nautical-themed black-tie wedding and needed something to wear. I wasn’t going to buy anything today, but it didn’t hurt to try things on.
I ended up in a dark blue halter dress that was fine but wasn’t really my style at all. The salesperson seemed desperate and was trying her hardest to make the sale, so I told her I’d have to ask my friend and come back some other time.
I left feeling guilty that I wasn’t going to be coming back, but there was nothing in the shop for me.
I went home and pulled out the card with Vail’s number on it.
Before I could ask myself if this was a good idea or not, I put in her number and typed out a message.
Do I have a price limit on my dress for the wedding? This is Lea.
Ugh. I sounded goofy, but I went ahead and sent the message anyway. She responded in a few minutes.
Well. Within reason, I suppose. I’m not dropping 15k.
That was absolutely reasonable. I wasn’t going to get a dress for one day for that much, even though it would be satisfying to make Vail spend that kind of money on me. I didn’t know how well audiobook narrators got paid, but she didn’t seem like she was hurting when I saw her. I wondered if she had money from Allegra, or maybe from a relative. I couldn’t recall her extended family situation. They’d never really been around. Allegra and Vail had been a packaged deal, with Dallas drifting in and out occasionally.
I’d been too busy with my own teenage angst to think about things like that.
Understood. I was just wondering.
Now that I’d started talking to her, I didn’t know what else to say, so I set my phone down. Why had I done that? I should have waited. Now she knew I was thinking about her. Cringe.
This is an optionshe sent, along with a picture of a dress that was one of the worst things I’d ever seen. It was blue, but then it was covered all over with ropes, knots, and anchors in a colorful chaos that made it look like something a sugared-up child would design in a program on their tablet. It was hideous.
I’d rather go nakedI responded before considering the implications of that statement.
