Page 26 of Marrying Off My Husband

I tugged a white blouse with a few frills from inside and wiggled it. “This is nice. With some black pants and a pair of flats–”

She ripped it from my hands, her features unimpressed, before stuffing it back into the closet.

“Oh, I could wear the dress you bought me for lunch yesterday.” I poked my finger at the dress I’d hung on the back of my door so it wouldn’t get wrinkled in my tiny closet.

“Eve, be serious. He’s seen you in that.”

“Okay, the pink one, although, I was seriously considering returning that. It’s too extravagant of a gift,” I answered.

Louise huffed out a breath. “Darlin’, that dress is for the beach date, not this one. Spencer is taking you to the club. Now, you’ve just got to have a nice cocktail dress for that.”

“Oh, I have just the thing,” I said with a smile. I dug into my closet and pulled out a simple black dress. I’d worn it to a funeral once, and since black was now acceptable at weddings, I could wear it there, too.

With a grin, I held the dress up to my body and looked expectantly at Louise.

She arched an eyebrow. “No.”

I winced. “Well, this may have to do. I’m not sure I have anything else fancier. I–”

“Don’t worry,” Louise said, grabbing me by the arm and tugging me toward my living room. “I have it under control.”

“What do you mean?”

Louise let go of me just outside of the bedroom door before she pranced to the front door and yanked it open. She motioned to someone outside to enter.

My forehead creased as a woman paraded in with a rack filled with dresses, shoe boxes on the rack under them, and other accessories on the top.

“What is this?” I asked.

“The selection of dresses for your dinner date, silly.” Louise offered me a teasing grin as she swung the door shut. “I figured you’d want to stay in and shop since you’re not a shopper.”

“Louise, I can’t…accept this.”

“Of course, you can,” she said with a dismissive wave. “And you need it. Now, I’m also thinking that we should plan ahead. Lynette, did you bring any evening gowns? There’s an event coming up mid-summer that we’ll need…”

“Ahh,” I said, interrupting her and pulling her away from the attendant, “Louise, I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.”

“I don’t think so. I just know you two are going to hit it off. Now, let’s get trying. We’ll start with the cocktail dresses first. Lynette, what do you have for us?”

“Well, Mrs. Montgomery-Whitaker, I pulled several in the styles and colors you mentioned.” The woman squeezed together a set of a dozen hangars. “We’ll start here.”

I tried to protest again, but it seemed futile to do so. Instead, I marched into the bedroom with the haul of dresses and Lynette to assist me.

After a few minutes, I had the first one on: a rose-pink number with lace overlays and velvet insets. The price tag made my head spin, and I knew I had to find a way out of this—even though a glance in the mirror had me swooning.

Lynette sent me out the door to Louise, who tapped her lips with a finger. “Well, that’s pretty. And it compliments your skin, too. Okay, next one.”

“This one is pretty expen–” I began.

“Oh, hush, darlin’, the cost isn’t an issue. Now, get in there and try the next one.”

We spent the next forty-five minutes gushing over dress details and comparing and contrasting each one. For me, nothing held a candle to the rose pink outside of a gold one that came in at a close second.

“Well, I think the pink is just the best one, but that gold is really pretty,” Louise said. “We’ll take both.”

“No!” I shouted helplessly as Lynette bobbed her head and returned to my bedroom. “No, Lou, we won’t take both. I don’t even think it’s appropriate for me to take the one, but not two.”

“You need a back-up. What if there’s a second date at the club or a similar venue?”

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