In For a Pound

by Joselyn Vaughn

  She moved away from the mirror and crashed into Missy. As if her lunch needed anything else to promote indigestion. Not that she could have indigestion since she hadn’t taken more than a bite of her turkey on wheat.

  “Is this the dress?” gushed Missy, bringing her hands to her mouth as if she was awed. More likely it was to cover a snicker or an all-out guffaw. “It will certainly make memories.”

  Sidney crunched the skirt up, so she could walk unimpeded. “No just trying a few things on… for ideas. What are you doing here?”

  “Evening gown fitting for a work thing. The Spring Arbor store sent the dress over here for my convenience.” Missy adjusted the navy satin number draped over her arm. “I don’t see how you could pass that gown up.”

  If Sidney possessed super powers, Missy would be swaddled in the mummy dress and entombed in her own pyramid, but she said, “You think so? Then this one is definitely not for me.”

  “Well, your fashion sense was never on par with mine.”

  “I prefer to wear flattering gowns rather than whatever the latest B-list starlet has exposed herself in.”

  Missy’s face blotched a bruisy sort of red. “It’s better than thrift store garbage. I’m surprised you aren’t slogging through their racks.”

  The comment shouldn’t have stung. Everyone knew Sidney did most of her shopping at the local second-hand stores. Some things she refashioned, and occasionally she unearthed a vintage couture design that would have sold for four times the price at an upscale store in Spring Arbor. At one of those places, Missy would be salivating over it. Sidney found things she liked for great prices, but Missy always had to make Sidney feel inferior.

  “I just dropped off some old stuff. I’m sure you’ll like my leavings. You usually do.” She sent a scathing look at the mummy dress.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Colin was mine before he was yours.”

  Sidney dropped the skirt of the dress. Colin hadn’t talked much about his previous girlfriends, and Sidney hadn’t been curious enough to ask. But surely, Pine Bottom was small enough that Sidney should have noticed—and avoided—a connection between Colin and Missy. Rather than give Missy any satisfaction that her comment had been alarming, Sidney stiffened her back and headed toward the dressing room. “I guess he wanted to trade up.”

  Thankfully the long line of pearl buttons down the back hid a zipper, so she didn’t need assistance escaping from the mummy wrappings. She kicked the tulle skirt away from her feet and reached for the hanger, but her hands shook. Missy’s comment had rattled her. What else didn’t she know about Colin?

  After returning the gown to the hook, she decided the sales attendant could have the task of stuffing it back into the garment bag. Sidney contemplated donning her T-shirt and shorts and ending this fiasco.

  Her mother tapped on the door, and Sidney invited her in. Her mom inched through the narrow opening with a garment bag slung over her shoulder. “I found a different style. I don’t think this is the dress, but you might like the silhouette.” She stopped, her hand halfway to the hook. “What’s wrong?”

  Sidney tried to shake away the jitters. “I ran into Missy.”

  “Don’t let her ruin your fun. Take a look at this gown.”

  “It’s worth a shot.” Trying to scrub Missy’s taunts away with mental steel wool, Sidney unzipped the bag and unearthed an empire waist with a two-tiered flounced skirt. Elaborate crystal beading glinted on the bodice and around the cap sleeves. No, it definitely wasn’t the dress. The beading reminded her of a chandelier in a bordello, but she hadn’t tried an empire waist yet.

  Her mother extracted the gown from the bag, and the beads clinked. Sidney undid the back and stepped into the dress, wishing she could be seduced by the glittery fabric. Unfortunately, it reminded her that a set of rhinestone encrusted bridesmaid dresses awaited her at work.

  She jerked the dress into place, and her mother zipped it up. It was three sizes too big, so Sidney pinched the sides until it fit her frame, forcing the bodice to gape open like a serving platter. Then she faced the mirror and gasped, “I look like a pregnant Bo-peep.” The fabric puffed out under her breasts and would easily hide the growing belly she most definitely did not have.

  “It’s not so bad. If this fabric wasn’t so stiff, it wouldn’t stick out.” Her mother yanked the skirt backward, so it hung flat across Sidney’s stomach.

  Sidney eyed the alteration. “It’s better. With a different fabric, it might have possibilities.” She grimaced. “Why is this so hard?” She met her mother’s eyes in the mirror.

  “Missy’s just one of those people.”

  “I’ll never figure her out. I mean choosing a dress.”

  “Honey, you barely started looking.” Her mother bent to examine the lace on the flounces. “This is cheap. No wonder it’s so stiff. It’s held together with starch. Get too close to a candle, and you’ll spontaneously combust.”

  “But shouldn’t this be the first and most fun thing I do in planning my wedding instead of squeezing it in on my lunch?”

  Her mother stood and touched Sidney’s shoulder. “You do what you have to do. I ordered my dress from a catalog. Maybe this feels too much like work for you. Your mind is going through all the alterations the dress will need and how many hours you’ll be hunched over your sewing machine doing that.”

  Sidney twitched the skirt and wondered if she could pull off a shepherd’s hook and an over-sized bonnet. It’d look as ridiculous as the spats and top hat Colin had mentioned last time they talked. Was she worried about what she’d have to take in or let out? She arched to view the back over her shoulder. Nothing about how the dress could fit her better or what fabric would be more appropriate crossed her mind. All she could think was that she didn’t want to do this and she didn’t want to be here. She reached over her shoulder and tried to tug at the zipper. Her chipped fingernails snagged the lace. “I don’t want to do this.”

  She scrambled to shove the dress off her shoulders. The fragile seams protesting in snaps and pops as the threads gave way.

  “Hold on.” Her mother spun her around and opened the zipper. The dress fell away, crackling like a dried cocoon from a butterfly. Sidney stepped out and fiercely kicked the dress away. She couldn’t bear to have the tulle touch her toes.

  Her mother bent to pick up the gown, placing a calming hand on Sidney’s arm. “Do this? As in, unzip this or try on dresses now? Or—”

  Sidney didn’t want to contemplate what followed the ‘or.’ She loved Colin. They were committed to each other, made for each other. She tried to picture herself walking down the aisle toward her groom, picture him in his tuxedo by the minister, picture the guests filling the church, but… nothing. Her pathetic arbor with its drooping flowers. Bailey in her bridesmaid dress. She couldn’t see anything.

  She’d been imagining it all since she was a little girl. Why couldn’t she see it now?

  “I’ve got dresses for three weddings to do and training for the final canoe race. Missy’s been taunting me. And I’ve hardly seen Colin this week. Maybe I’m exhausted.” Tears pricked her eyes. A sure sign everything hanging over her head was more than she could handle.

  Her mother wrestled the gown into the garment bag and handed Sidney her T-shirt. “You’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself, Sidney. You need to think about what you want. Your shop is taking off. Colin’s got this business opportunity. With the wedding, too. It’s a lot to have on your plate.”

  Colin. He wasn’t helping anything. He was off to seminars every night, and he wouldn’t give her any details about them. Until she had more information, she’d be concerned about what he was tying their future up in. She’d only seen him long enough to scarf down one of those junky pizzas he claimed to like, then he was back off to work. Whether the call center or the new stuff, she didn’t know.

  It would help if he was available to make some of the arrangements for the wedding or even discuss them wi
th her. He only talked about how much money they’d be raking in when he got going and what kind of wedding they should be planning. The wedding was only a couple months away. They couldn’t afford to deviate much from their original plan in such a short time.

  “Let’s do a girls’ day. Bailey’s coming home next Saturday. We can go to a fancy shop in Spring Arbor and relax at a spa afterward. Doing something to feel pretty will help you get in the mood.”

  Sidney latched onto the new plan. A spa. A day to relax. She eyed the mountain of tulle and satin on the chair as if spiders were going to crawl out of it. A day to enjoy her upcoming wedding. A festive occasion would get her out of this funk. “I think that would be good.”

  Chapter Seven

  Colin led Sidney through the restaurant. It was the first night they had been alone together in weeks. Usually he suggested a fast food place or the greasy diner on Main Street, but tonight he took her to an actual sit-down dining room with menus that didn’t capture fingerprints in their oily surface.

  She released a slow breath and reached for his hand as they wove through the tables. A quiet meal together was what they needed to reconnect. Neither of them would be running off to meetings or work. They had the whole night to talk and catch up on everything, especially all that needed to be done for the wedding.

  The hostess led them to the perfect table in a rear corner of the dining room. After they were seated and the waitress brought their drinks, Colin said, “I’m sorry I’ve been so busy lately.” He mumbled it matter-of-factly from behind his menu. Something he should say, but didn’t mean. His fake apology should have bothered her and his distraction certainly did, but she was relieved to get the awkwardness out of the way as well. She’d rather focus on the positive things and not ruin their evening debating the importance of this or that. They were together, the first step to getting everything back on track. Why dwell on past problems instead of working on solutions?

  Sidney took a drink, then set her glass back on the coaster. “Are things at work starting to settle down?”

  Colin waved his hand. “The call center is. Not as many vacations scheduled for the next few weeks. The management training is almost done, but I’m not worried about the call center as much anymore.”

  “You’ve been working toward a management position for two years.” Concern edged her voice. The business opportunity he kept talking about changed everything about Colin: his dreams, his goals, his priorities, and his relationship with her. Was financial security worth it if the pursuit kept them apart?

  “I want to make some changes. This program, Rough Diamond, is going to get us on the road to our dreams.”

  “I thought that was where we were.” Why did the name sound familiar? She’d heard it recently. She couldn’t remember who said it, but it made her queasy.

  Colin reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “We are, sweetheart, but this will get us there so much faster. That three-bedroom fixer-upper on Cedar Street? We’ll be able to afford a twenty percent down payment by February if I can make the second level associate goals by then. Two years after that, we’ll be shopping for digs in the Willow Hill development.”

  While being neighbors with Missy in Willow Hill didn’t excite her, the bungalow on Cedar Street did. Sidney pictured the house. It had held a special spot in her heart for years. The craftsman-style bungalow had been on the market so long the real estate sign had bleached in the sun. Every time she drove by she imaged two rockers and a swing on the wrap-around porch. The landscaping needed refreshing and the exterior a coat of paint, but it seduced her with its simple charm. She’d read the listing over and over. With a description like handyman’s special, the interior needed as much work as the exterior. They’d need more than a twenty percent down payment to entertain the purchase. She’d never dared to ask to see the interior, knowing she’d want to deviate from the goals they had set and put their financial security at risk.

  “That would be exciting, but what do you mean by second level associate?”

  “The program has thresholds. At each level, you gain a bigger increase and a larger percentage of commissions.”

  “Commissions? What are you selling?” He fed her bits and pieces of the program, but Colin couldn’t sit down and explain the whole process to her. He claimed he hadn’t had time.

  He hesitated. “I’ve been trying to get a good handle on it, but soon the money will drop into our accounts like clockwork.”

  “It sounds too easy to be true.” From her experience, projects that appeared simple to start bit her in the butt before she was done. She’d had evening gowns only needing to be let out a half inch on either side, but once she got into the alterations, she found the seams had been triple-stitched and the beading pattern would be all messed up. She’d have to take out the beading and restitch the entire thing by hand to cover the extra fabric now at the seams. The project originally appeared to be easy money, but she ended up earning every penny.

  The waitress arrived to take their orders, and Colin gave Sidney a scowl when she ordered the meatloaf entree. He stuck with his usual chicken tenders basket. He groused whenever a meal cost more than seven ninety-nine, but she wasn’t going to pretend she could survive on the minuscule meals he liked.

  After the server left, Colin said, “I’ve studied it from every angle, and I don’t see how we could lose. We may even be able to get a deal on your wedding dress.” He held up his glass of water as if to toast their upcoming nuptials.

  Provided she could find a gown she liked, but they’d discuss that later. “You’re selling bridal wear?”

  He raised an eyebrow as if he had fed her the hook in his sales pitch and anticipated her swallowing. “Not just wedding gowns, but anything you want to buy. High-end stuff too. You build relationships with people. As they join the Rough Diamond community, they get access to all these great benefits.” His eyes glittered like gold, but Sidney saw pyrite.

  In her business, high-end didn’t always mean quality. Expensive brands often were brought in with unraveling hems and dangling buttons after only a couple wears. She’d hoped in this case high-end and quality were synonymous.

  “Do you think this is good for us?” Colin’s reticence still worried her, but he was good at figuring this stuff out. He created spreadsheets and graphs to compare everything they discussed—from their wedding budget to their plan to save for a house. She appreciated the visual representation because the numbers blended together.

  “This is the perfect opportunity for me. I’m doing well in the training, and my mentor thinks I’ll move up quickly. In a year or two we might be able to rent a house on the San Juan Islands for a month.”

  Sidney thought of all the trails she’d dreamed about hiking. And sea kayaking… they could rent kayaks and paddle around the islands. Maybe they’d even see orcas swimming around the Sound. If not, they could go on the whale-watching tours. They’d be able to do more than in the four-day trip she planned to win from the canoe races. It encouraged her to hear Colin remember her dreams. Over the last week she’d been sure he’d forgotten everything they’d talked about.

  “It sounds too good to be true. There’s got to be a down side.” She untwisted the paper wrap from her napkin and silverware and stuck the sticky ends together.

  Colin’s face tightened for a fraction of a second, then he smiled. “Not one I can see. A few months of hard work, but we can do it.”

  Sidney folded her napkin over in her lap. “We’re definitely not strangers to hard work.” While the plan still made her nervous—leaping into the unknown—Colin seemed confident even without walking her through a stack of spreadsheets. She had to trust his instincts. They were going to be married in a couple months and putting their lives in each other’s hands. She wished she felt as comfortable as she had a month ago.

  “I’ve been thinking about the wedding plans,” Colin said after the waitress brought their food.

  Sidney paused with her mashed potatoes
halfway to her mouth. She would have bet Colin hadn’t given the ceremony and reception a minute’s consideration since he’d gotten involved in Rough Diamond other than to say their plans weren’t good enough. “What about?”

  Colin shoved some French fries in his mouth, then said, “The reception is going to be outside, right?” He paused as if waiting for her to confirm, so she nodded in case he couldn’t remember. “October could be cold. Maybe we should move the reception indoors.”

  Sidney filled her mouth with buttery potatoes. “Where did you have in mind?” Even though autumn was a slow time for banquets, it would be impossible to reserve a place without busting their budget.

  “We’ve had meetings for Rough Diamond at the Spencer Hotel. The ball room is amazing. Very elegant.”

  Sidney choked on her potatoes. She grabbed her water and poured it down her throat. “The Spencer?” It’d blow their budget faster than Missy could disengage a motor from a canoe.

  “They offer discounts to Rough Diamond consultants and many promotional opportunities as well.” Colin swished a chicken tender in a swirl of catsup and mayo and shoved it in his mouth.

  “But even with all that, the ballroom rental is three times our planned budget. We don’t have that kind of money. We agreed not to go into debt over this.”

  Colin reached for her hand. “We won’t. It won’t be long before the commissions are rolling in.”

  “But we’ve always talked about how important it is not to spend money we don’t have. Our wedding is one day. Our marriage is forever.”

  “I know, but these commissions are almost guaranteed.” He waved a mayo-dripping tender at her.

  Depending on “almost” frightened her.

  “I’ll get the numbers from the Spencer tomorrow with all the discounts, and you’ll see. It won’t strain our budget.”

  Since their previous budget for a hall had been zero, anything would upset their numbers. She put her fork on her plate and pushed the half-eaten meal away. “To move the reception somewhere else, we’d have to add decorations, more flowers, a seating chart.” The work of preparation would double even if the price tag didn’t. “Our guest list wouldn’t even fill a corner of the ballroom.”