Chapter 27
Twenty-seven
Mabel
New problem discovered.
I don’t have a single thing to wear on Saturday now. I planned on just wearing some denim shorts, a flannel and my Cowboy boots for the festival, however, now someone has decided to ask me and my daughter on a date.
Fuck my life.
Ellie hasn’t stopped going on and on about it, and I won’t lie when I say I wasn’t sad when she went to bed.
I mean I get it; Maverick is completely new and exciting to her. I know she isn’t silly, I know she can sense there is something between me and him.
Him asking us on this date has definitely confirmed that to her.
She hasn’t really ever asked about her father, but I know she doesn’t want me to be sad and alone.
She’s mentioned on numerous occasions to me over the years that she wants me to fall in love, what I failed to tell her, was that I was very much in love, he just wasn’t there.
But now he is, because he came back.
Admitting defeat and taking the plunge on the one person, I knew could help in this situation, I reach for my phone in my pocket.
Springfield Angels <3
Me; Need some help ladies! x
I wait patiently for a reply. It isn’t late, I know they’ll still be both awake.
Seconds go by as I hear my phone vibrate in front of me, screen lighting up.
Iris; What’s up girl?
Me; I need a new outfit...
Hope; Since when do you care about what you wear?
And here we go.
I bite my lip and start to type, awaiting the Calvary to either be on their way, or on the phone.
Me; Since Maverick asked me and Ellie to the fair on Saturday...
As soon as I press send on the message, my phone starts to ring for a group facetime. I brace myself before answering, knowing what’s about to come; screaming, and lots of it.
I press the answer button and am met with unbelievably loud screaming, placing my phone up against a vase I have sitting on my island and squint at the noise.
“Have you two finished?” I shout over the pair of them, whose faces are now turning a deep shade of red.
“Pretty sure y’all have burst my ear drums.” I try my best to shake my head to return some of the hearing loss that I am bound to experience.
“Oh my god! Mabel!” Iris finally stops screaming.
“We want details!” Hope says, lifting up her mug of what I will presume is coffee.
I recount the details of what had happened since I left the fire, leaving out the bits that they did not need to hear, although they’ll want to hear them.
How Maverick’s being so kind to Ellie, asking us both to the fair and how he kissed me holding me up in the barn; just like he always would all those years ago.
“What are y’all doing tomorrow?” Iris asks as I finish reliving the last two days.
“Got a few bits to do in the office in the morning, but nothing,” I reply back.
“Oh, I can certainly move some things around!” Hope squeals yet again with excitement.
“Right ladies, come to the store at say, one? I’ll get a lunch delivery and then we can play dress up.” Iris clasps her hands together through the screen.
I groan at Iris’s plan. I love these girls, but being a doll in Iris’s clothes shop is my personal idea of hell.
“I only need one outfit,” I start, before Iris is waving me off. “Absolutely not, we all need options my girl!”
“She’s right, Honey,” Hope agrees with her, and I roll my eyes.
“Fine, tomorrow.” I smile back at both of them through the screen.
I may live to regret this, but at the same time I know how much I love and appreciate the pair of them for dropping everything and doing this for me.
****
I regret this.
No, scratch that, I really regret this.
Standing in front of the big ass mirror that Iris has in her clothing store, dressed in a frilly yellow dress, the disgust written on my face was the only way I could begin to describe how I was feeling.
I really, really regret this.
We’ve been playing 'dress up' for close to two hours, luckily, she made good on her promise and fed me first. I would be a lot angrier by now if she didn’t.
“Yeah, I don’t think this one is going to work either,” Iris huffs out.
“No, I don’t think so, Honey,” Hope agrees before taking a sip of her iced coffee that she went and picked up for us all after the first hour and a half.
“This is hopeless.” I slump down on the chair, still wearing the god-awful dress.
“No, we aren’t giving up,” Iris says, moving towards the racks of clothes spread out on the shop floor.
We watch Iris sift through an abundance of clothes on one rack before muttering to herself and then moving onto a different rack.
“We giving up yet?” I huff out, feeling defeated and extremely deflated.
“Nope!” she shouts from across the store floor.
We watch her for what feels like hours but could only have been five minutes before she lets out a squeal.
“I’ve found it!” she shouts, pulling a white piece of cloth and sprinting back towards us.
“Put this on!” She demands, shoving the hanger into my face.
I look down to the piece of clothing. A beautiful white lace playsuit in my hands, black patterned dye over the frills of the shoulders and at the bottom of the shorts.
“I can’t wear white, surely?” I say giving both the girls a side eye. “Why not?” Hope asks, smile wide as she looks at the outfit.
“Be like I’m hinting I want to marry him? No?” I reply, still giving them both a questionable look.
“Stop stalling and go and try it on.” Iris demands as she pushes me towards the dressing room.
Walking back out in the playsuit, I look at my girls faces as they look at me with awe. “Now that...” Hope starts. “Is a date outfit.”
I reach the mirror and pull my face up from staring at my feet and look at myself in the mirror.
“I did it again...” Iris chuffs to herself. “I am a genius.” This time she takes a bow.
“I don’t know,” I say, turning in the mirror to get a better view.
“What do you mean you don’t know!? You look hot!” Hope says as she now stands from the chair she was sitting on.
“I know what will make this better...” Iris walks over to her belt selection and pulls out a black belt with a bulls head buckle. “There,” she says as she places the belt around my waist.
I turn myself back to facing the mirror and I let out a breath; I look eighteen again.
No cares or worries in the world.
No responsibilities.
No heartbreak.
“Now, you get out there and show him what he’s been missing for thirteen years,” Hope says, as she leans her head into my shoulder.
“And wear your black cowboy boots as you do it,” Iris winks at me and I just smirk back at her.
These girls.
Where would I be without them?