I couldn’t resist whispering to the camera, “They are gorgeous shoes, but Abi’s resting her feet before we go out tonight. That’s what we call smart.”
Rachel’s petite feet looked good in everything, but she settled on a pair of pearly Jimmy Choos.
Then Deborah turned to me. “Vivian? It’s your turn.”
I hesitated. Previous pedicure notwithstanding, I did not have pretty feet. They rather resembled a duck’s feet: wide at the toes but narrow at the heel. I chose the most sensible pair I saw: low-heeled Mary Janes.
“No, ma’am,” Abi said.
“But—”
Rachel backed her up with a “Nope.”
I tried again, a pair of sparkly clogs.
“Try again,” Abi said.
“But—”
“Nope,” Rachel again said.
“Let me help,” Deborah said. “I think I know just the shoes.”
She held up a pair of black Louboutins that had a rhinestone on each shoe. I had never salivated at the sight of a pair of shoes before, but that day I did. I wanted those shoes to fit my feet with a passion that was destined to be dashed.
I took a deep breath and slid my feet into the shoes, wobbling a bit with the height.
“Heel first,” Abi coached.
Rather than trying to walk on my tiptoes, I walked around as she suggested, trusting those little heels to hold me steady.
They did! And they didn’t hurt!
Laura Lee whooped, and Deborah clapped her hands together. “High fives all around?”
And that was just what we did. We high-fived. Laura Lee took a video, one of those boomerang things where our hands came together, then went out and back in over and over again. We laughed and laughed until I cried, at which point Deborah scolded me for smearing my mascara.
“I can’t help it,” I said. “When I blink, I smudge!”
For some reason, Rachel thought that was funny. The champagne had to be going to her head, because it had most certainly found mine.
Deborah fussed over the smudges, then we all posed together and separately, models for Busy Mom Cosmetics. When I looked over Laura Lee’s shoulder at some of the shots, I had to admit we cleaned up rather nicely. Now it was just a matter of getting all of us to the theater.
“Anything else you want to record before I send you off toHamilton?” Deborah asked once we stood next to the valet stand in the downstairs garage.
“Thank you, Busy Mom Cosmetics, for helping us earn our Cinderella Badges, and thank you, Deborah, for being our fairy godmother!”
Abi and Rachel both spoke to the camera, too, but I wasn’t paying attention to what they said. I wanted to soak in this moment, the happiness of it, how pretty I felt and how great it was to share it with my friends.
While we waited for the limo to pull up, Laura Lee said, “I’ll put everything in Dropbox and send you the link so you can edit later.”
“Define later.”
“Oh, I was hoping you’d have the video up tomorrow,” Deborah said with a smile.
I didn’t want to think about editing later, but if I wanted to make a go of being a YouTube personality, then these were the sacrifices I’d have to make.
Seemed rather reasonable, all things considered.
