Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
L orelai…
The next few hours as the sun set were a type of whirlwind of activity. I don’t know how many outfits I tried on, but it felt like an overwhelming number. The ladies who had done the shopping had thought of everything . From underwear to a light jacket, and just about all of it was something I found favorable.
“I don’t understand how you knew my style when even I don’t know what I like,” I said at one point, and Valory had given me a sad little smile.
“You’re all over the news, honey. Lots of family pictures… we had a few things to go on,” she said.
I’d lowered myself into Hangman’s seat and perched on the edge of the recliner’s cushion.
“Oh.”
My eyes wandered to the television and wondered if he got any of the local news stations.
Lainey must have picked up what I was thinking because she shook her head.
“Hangman avoids mainstream media and the news,” she said to me. “He doesn’t trust it.”
I almost asked “why not?” but I spared them the question, opting instead to save it for Hangman. He would be the one to ask, after all.
“We couldn’t decide on which color you would like best,” Madisyn said when I lifted a white sundress up and realized there were four identical ones each with a different color of tiny flowers on it. One in pink, blue, yellow, and purple.
“Guarantee those are going to look fabulous on you,” Valory said. “The cut is guaranteed to do it for you.”
I laughed and took the pink one with me to the bathroom to try it on.
It fit like a dream, the bodice hugging me in all the right places, the skirt flaring just that little bit, and boy, was it surprisingly sexy for how much it covered with a slit to one side in the skirt that went from the bottom all the way up to mid-thigh, and yet it was… tasteful. It wasn’t at all revealing in an unflattering way, even with the size of my chest. It showed a little cleavage, sure, but all it would take to go from moderately risqué to completely tame was a cardigan sweater and a tasteful necklace.
Out of everything, I honestly think the dresses were my favorite thing and I said as much when I came out to model the pink one.
“Which one should I keep?” I asked and without missing a beat, the three women chimed together – “All of them.”
I blushed and we all sputtered with laughter, and I think that was the point the ice was officially broken between the lot of us.
“I’m starving,” Madisyn declared. “What do we feel like?”
“Italian,” Valory said immediately and we all traded looks.
“I could go for some fettucine Alfredo,” Lainey said.
“Ooo, that sounds really good, actually,” I said.
“Italian it is, I know just the place,” Madisyn declared, opening up her phone.
“Thank you,” I said to them after a moment of everyone deciding what they wanted. “This is the most normal I think I’ve felt since… well… since whatever happened, happened and turned everything upside-down and inside-out.”
“That was the best thing you could have said,” Madisyn said kindly and she and Valory high-fived.
“I’d say mission accomplished,” Valory declared.
“Don’t look at me, I didn’t do anything,” Lainey joked and we all laughed.
It felt good.
Some of the heavy mantle of distress that’d been pressing on me since I’d woken up in that cold, sterile, alien place lifted from my shoulders.
“I don’t know about you bitches, but I have to get their tiramisu,” Madisyn said, returning her focus to her phone.
“Isn’t that coffee?” I asked. “Like a coffee dessert?”
“Yes, it is,” she said.
I frowned. “Coffee this late for me sounds like a bad idea.”
“Chocolate torte for Lorelai,” Madisyn said.
“Ooo, make that two!” Lainey declared.
“You? Taking a pass on coffee?” Madisyn bantered looking at the dark-haired woman like she was an alien baby or something.
“It’s been known to happen!” Lainey protested and Madisyn sniffed.
“Totally sus,” she declared, tucking some of her blonde hair behind her ear. “Forty-to forty-five minutes,” she said as she tapped a button and her phone made a noise as though it had sent her order by jet propulsion.
“What should we try next?” Valory stood looking at me, her hands on her ample hips, fingertip tapping her wide belt over her pencil skirt.
“Let’s go through the jeans,” Madisyn said. “I want to finish tonight so we can take back all the rejects tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” Valory went over to a different set of bags and started rooting through them.
I just kind of stood there and blinked, hands smoothing over the bodice of the dress that I was falling in love with by the minute.
“Buckle up with these two,” Lainey declared. “We’re going to be at this all night.”
I laughed; half-afraid she might be right.