Page 40 of My Fake Fiancé

“Oh no,” I say with a grimace on my face.

“Oh yes.” Tatyana pulls the hanger off the rack. “Oh, but we must. We have to.” Tatyana smiles at the dress and brings it over to the slowly growing wall of dresses everyone wants me to try on. I groan but keep looking through the sales rack.

“Should we find nonwhite dresses? Or is that too much?” I trail my fingers over a mermaid-style dress that happens to be gray. I don’t think I’d look good in a mermaid-style dress and both of our families are pretty traditional so gray might be a deal-breaker for everyone.

“Oooh, yes! That is horrible! And you hate mermaid style.” Tatyana comes over to admire my pick and nods her head in approval.

“I think my mom does too so hopefully she’ll express her opinions on this. She’s been rather quiet about this whole thing recently which is definitely not like her.” I add the gray dress to the rack.

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. Maybe she’s growing up.” Tatyana comments and I chuckle a little. We go back to searching the sales rack and the racks nearby. We only find one more dress before Gram comes back to join us.

“Hey, Gram,” I say as we shift through the racks.

“Hi, girls,” Gram smiles at us then focuses her attention on me. “Are you ready to start trying on dresses? I think we may have picked out way too many so we should probably get started.”

“Oh, okay yeah.” I look over at Tatyana but let Gram lead me back to the part of the shop that has a changing room and big mirrors. The rest of the group has already taken their seats in the little half-circle in front of the changing room. Tatyana takes a seat next to Merrin and gives me a thumbs-up. The shop worker, or stylist, comes over to me with the first dress and leads me into the dressing room so she can help me put it on.

The first dress is not one of the ones Tatyana or I picked out but it’s also not my style so I’m not worried about it. The stylist helps me get into it and she ties up the corset-like back then she waits for my nod before pulling open the curtain of the dressing room. I step out of the dressing room and take the stylist’s hand to step up onto the little platform in front of the mirrors. I look at myself in the mirror and wait for reactions. It doesn’t look horrible but not great either.

“Well,” Mrs. Michaels starts, “you look beautiful, of course, but I don’t think that’s the one.” A few people across the couch agree and I see Tatyana in the mirror smirking. I shoot her a glance and she bites her lip.

“I think we can all agree this one is a miss. Should we move on to the next dress?” Gram looks among the group and everyone nods. The stylist ushers me back into the dressing room and helps me get out of this one and holds out the gray dress Tatyana and I picked out.

Once we’ve got the gray dress situated, the stylist once again leads me out to the platform in front of everyone, I step up and look at myself in the mirror. Oh goodness, this is horrendous.

“Oh my,” Mrs. Michaels comments.

“Oh, well… uhm..” Merrin stutters, trying to find something nice to say. I was right about mermaid style not working with my body and the gray makes it even worse. Gray does not go well with my skin tone.

“I don’t mind it,” Tatyana says and I can see her stifling a laugh. Even the stylist is trying her best not to make a disapproving face.

“Are you wanting a dress that isn’t white?” Merrin finally finishes her sentence. “I’m not a huge fan of the gray but maybe an off-white or a light pink or light purple? Pastel colors maybe? I don’t know.”

“Pastel colors? I think that is a great idea,” my mom comments and I can see her barely holding back further comments. She knows I like pastels but I think she can also tell something is going on with me.

“Yeah, just a lighter color. I mean I guess the gray is pastel, ish. But I think pink or purple or even blue would be better than gray.” Merrin explains and her mom nods.

“Normally I would like to see you in a white dress but whatever you prefer, sweetie.” Mrs. Michaels smiles at me sweetly, encouragingly.

“Well, you should at least try on some of the white dresses too, don’t you think?” Gram asks, hopeful that one of the white dresses will sway me.

Truthfully, I would prefer to wear a white dress for my wedding but seeing as how I won’t actually be wearing any of these dresses because this isn’t a real wedding, I am having fun weighing the pros and cons of wearing a nonwhite dress for this fake wedding.

“We only have one more dress that isn’t white, if you’d like to try that one on next?” The stylist makes the suggestion and then she adds, “To get it out of the way before we move onto the more traditional bridal dresses.”

“Maybe we should,” my mom says and gives me a look that I can tell means she is onto me. I see her glance at Tatyana who quickly puts her hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

“It’s not any other color,” I defend the dress. “It’s just an off-white.” Mrs. Michaels nods and Gram waves her hand, smiling. The stylist helps me off the platform and back into the dressing room. She grabs the off-white sparkly number that Tatyana found on the rack.

“You sure you want to try this on? I know I work here but even the lady who bought this dress and returned it said she had made a huge mistake.” The stylist smiles and I laugh a little. I run my fingers down the puffy dress where it hangs inside the dressing room. My fingers come away covered in sparkles. Pink sparkles to be particular. I may have forgotten to mention that even though the dress itself is only slightly off-white, the sparkles are pink. They are pastel pink sparkles but still, pink. Which is perfect for Merrin and my mom’s pastel idea.

“Oh yeah, we need to show them this.” The stylist chuckles then she helps me step into the dress. The dress is a typical ball gown style but it looks more fairy princess rather than a bride. I let out a breath. “Alright, bring me to the village people. I feel like I need a wand to go with this outfit.”

The stylist laughs but quiets herself as she leads me out to the platform once again. I avoid looking at everyone’s faces but I can hear a few murmurs and gasps. I sneak a peek at the corner of the mirror where I can see Tatyana and I see her biting her lip to keep from grinning and probably laughing. I turn to face everyone with a smile on my face.

“So? What does everyone think?” I smile politely at everyone and take a look at their reactions.

“I love it,” Tatyana says and lets the grin take over her face. I shoot her a look then roll my eyes and focus on everyone else.

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