Delilah gave it to her carefully, and she listened with a smile as the girl clicked on the keyboard again.
“All sent. Anything else I can help you with?”
“No, that’s it.” Delilah felt her phone vibrate with the incoming notification of the email. “Thank you so much.”
She said goodbye and hung up and then clicked on the email link eagerly. “Oh my,” she breathed as soon as she saw Noelle’s wedding dress. She’d seen pictures of it before, when the Owens women had shown them to her eagerly after Noelle had first picked it out, but she’d forgotten just how lovely it was.
It suits Noelle perfectly,she thought.That shape is perfect for her figure, and the personality of the dress matches that storybook princess energy she has. She should have this dress at her wedding—I don’t want her to have to compromise and wear something else.
Delilah smiled impishly as she dialed another number into her phone. It rang only twice before a sleepy voice answered, “Oui?”
“Hi, Mimi, it’s Delilah.”
The woman on the other end gasped. “Delilah! What happened to you? I haven’t seen you in ages. People are gossiping that you moved to Australia.”
Delilah tipped her head back, laughing. “Not quite. I’m living in a little town on the east coast most of the time now. It’s like a semi-retirement for me.”
Delilah could just see Mimi, with her shimmering green eye makeup and perfectly-painted dark lips, make a face of distaste. “And you decided to semi-retire with a bunch of smelly fishermen? Do they even have parties out there?”
“Yes, the best kind,” Delilah said, thinking with a broad smile of all the board game nights she’d been to, as well as the carolingparties at Christmastime and the barn dances that kept everyone moving until the early hours of the dawn.
“Mm. Well, can you explain to me why you’re calling me in the morning? You just about woke me up. I think you owe me a favor for this.”
Delilah chuckled. “It’s early afternoon here, and I wouldn’t classify it as morning for you. It’s almost noon there.”
“Which is when I usually get up,” Mimi countered.
“Well, I can owe you a little favor, but favors are actually why I’m calling. Do you remember the premiere forGirl with Fire?”
“A terrible film.”
“Sure, but I got nominated for an Oscar for it. And I had to wear that dress?” Delilah’s voice slowed down as she hinted at what she was getting at. “The dress that you designed when you were first starting out in your career as a fashion designer?”
Mimi was silent for a moment, and then she coughed delicately.
“It was a mistake. You’re right. I haven’t forgotten that I owe you.”
Delilah held back a peal of laughter. She was teasing her old friend, who had once promised her a favor after she’d created a truly hideous dress for Delilah to wear at a movie premiere. The magazines had buzzed nastily about it for days, and Delilah had experienced one of her first tastes of how cruel Hollywood could be. It had turned into a good experience for her, since it had taught her to let go of caring what other people thought of her, but Mimi had often brought up the situation during their many long years of their friendship, often assuring Delilah that she owed her one.
Now’s the perfect time for me to cash in on that favor,Delilah thought, tickled by the concept of things working out that way.
“I have a friend here in my new town,” Delilah explained. “She’s just lost her wedding dress in a flood—there was flooding all over town, actually. Lots of places got damaged.”
“Delilah, that’s awful. I didn’t realize they got flooding like that in Australia.”
“I’m not in Australia.”
“Oh, right. Well, you should still come back here to L.A. You don’t want to live in a place like that.”
Delilah shook her head, amused by Mimi casually bantering about her suddenly changing her entire life. “I love living here. And L.A. doesn’t exactly have the most perfect track record weather-wise either.”
“Shh, she can hear you. But that’s true. But what’s going to happen to our friendship if you’re out there with fishermen all the time? I miss you.”
“You do not, we see each other twice a year at best.” Delilah laughed. “Call me if you miss me, and I promise to get together with you next time I’m in L.A. Deal?”
Mimi sighed dramatically. “Deal. So tell me more about this friend and her wedding dress. I think I’m starting to be able to glimpse the outline of this favor you have in mind.”
Eagerly Delilah explained her idea to Mimi. As soon as she was done, she heard her friend clapping on the other line.
