Page 104 of New Day at the Beach House

Willie dabbed at her eyes before turning to face Lisa. “I don’t want to try anything else on. This is my dress.”

Roxie clapped, her smile so big her face hurt. “She said yes to the dress!”

Willie grinned and held up her finger so that Lisa didn’t go running off. “We’re not done yet, though.”

Lisa stayed put. “I’ll be happy to help with anything else you need.”

“Thank you,” Willie said.

“What else do you need, Mimi?” Trina asked.

“Two more dresses,” Willie said. She’d been planning for this moment, hoping she’d have enough energy to keep going and she did, in part because she’d found her dress so quickly and in part because of the mocha latte Trina had gotten her.

Roxie looked confused. “Ma, I thought this was going to be a simple wedding. What are you going to do with two more dresses? That’s crazy. If anything, you might want to look for shoes.”

“For one thing, I’m going to wear those silver sandals I have. They’ll do just fine,” Willie said. “For another, I wasn’t talking about two more dresses for me. I was talking about dresses for you girls.”

Roxie got up and came over. “Ma, do you have any idea how much this dress is that you’ve got on?”

“Yes, and I don’t care. I don’t care how much any of this costs. I want you both to have new dresses for the wedding. Now go shop while I get out of this thing and put my clothes back on.”

Lisa stepped up. “Would you mind keeping it on until the seamstress gets here? She’s only a few minutes away. I can take the clips off, though. She’ll do her own pining when she does the fitting.”

“Sure,” Willie said. “What do you need me to do?”

“Just turn around, I’ll take the clips off and unzip you, then you should be fine.”

Willie turned. She looked at her girls through the mirror. “Off with you. Go shop. Or I’ll pick your dresses out and you might not like that.”

Both of them did as she commanded, smiling.

Willie exhaled. “Thank you for your help, Lisa. I thought I might get a bad reaction coming in here. That whoever was working today might not think I was classy enough to shop in here, but you’ve been very nice. Above and beyond, really. I appreciate that.”

Lisa removed the clips then unzipped the dress. “Making customers happy is all that matters to me. When you spend this kind of money on clothes, you should be treated with the utmost respect. Actually, it shouldn’t matter how much or how little you spend. Everyone deserves respect until proven otherwise.”

“Do you work on commission, Lisa?”

“No, ma’am. But I’m well compensated, I assure you.”

“I hope so.” Holding the dress in place with her hands, Willie turned. “You’re a smart woman, Lisa. I bet you had a good mother.”

“The very best.” Lisa smiled. “And she still owns this shop.”

Willie grinned. That explained why she was well compensated. “A family business. I like that a lot. We’re starting something like that ourselves. My granddaughter, Trina, is opening her own hair salon.”

“That’s wonderful. If she’d like, she can leave some business cards with us. We do have women in here looking for hairdressers.”

“I’ll tell her, thank you. Now, I’d better get out of this.” Willie went off to the dressing room and pulled the curtain shut.

Lisa called out, “I’ll take the dress up to the counter for you. I’ll put everything else away, too.”

“Thank you.” Willie got the dress off then handed it out through the curtain. “I want all the accessories, too, but I’ll bring those out when I’m dressed.”

“No problem.”

It took Willie a minute or two to get herself put back together. She came out, accessories in hand, but Lisa wasn’t there. Willie put them on the little table where her drink was, then sat down to rest and have some more of that mocha latte.

Trina was the first one back. She had a couple of dresses over her arm. “I found some things.”

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