I press the answer button and am met with unbelievably loud screaming, placing my phone up against a vase I havesitting on my island and squint at the noise.
“Have you two finished?” I shout over the pair of them, whose faces are now turning a deep shade of red.
“Pretty sure y’all have burst my ear drums.” I try my best to shake my head to return some of the hearing loss that I am bound to experience.
“Oh my god! Mabel!” Iris finally stops screaming.
“We want details!” Hope says, lifting up her mug of what I will presume is coffee.
I recount the details of what had happened since I left the fire, leaving out the bits that they did not need to hear, although they’ll want to hear them.
How Maverick’s being so kind to Ellie, asking us both to the fair and how he kissed me holding me up in the barn; just like he always would all those years ago.
“What are y’all doing tomorrow?” Iris asks as I finish reliving the last two days.
“Got a few bits to do in the office in the morning, but nothing,” I reply back.
“Oh, I can certainly move some things around!” Hope squeals yet again with excitement.
“Right ladies, come to the store at say, one? I’ll get a lunch delivery and then we can play dress up.” Iris clasps her hands together through the screen.
I groan at Iris’s plan. I love these girls, but being a doll in Iris’s clothes shop is my personal idea of hell.
“I only need one outfit,” I start, before Iris is waving me off. “Absolutely not, we all need options my girl!”
“She’s right, Honey,” Hope agrees with her, and I roll my eyes.
“Fine, tomorrow.” I smile back at both of them through the screen.
I may live to regret this, but at the same time I know how much I love and appreciate the pair of them for dropping everything and doing this for me.
****
I regret this.
No, scratch that, I really regret this.
Standing in front of the big ass mirror that Iris has in her clothing store, dressed in a frilly yellow dress, the disgust written on my face was the only way I could begin to describe how I was feeling.
I really, really regret this.
We’ve been playing 'dress up' for close to two hours, luckily, she made good on her promise and fed me first.I would be a lot angrier by now if she didn’t.
“Yeah, I don’t think this one is going to work either,” Iris huffs out.
“No, I don’t think so, Honey,” Hope agrees before taking a sip of her iced coffee that she went and picked up for us all after the first hour and a half.
“This is hopeless.” I slump down on the chair, still wearing the god-awful dress.
“No, we aren’t giving up,” Iris says, moving towards the racks of clothes spread out on the shop floor.
We watch Iris sift through an abundance of clothes on one rack before muttering to herself and then moving onto a different rack.
“We giving up yet?” I huff out, feeling defeated and extremely deflated.
“Nope!” she shouts from across the store floor.
We watch her for what feels like hours but could only have been five minutes before she lets out a squeal.
