“Great. I’m not quite sure where we’ll be.”
“Doesn’t matter. Just call or text me the location and I’ll be there.”
“Thanks, Drew. This means a lot.”
“You’re welcome, Jillian. I’ll see you later.”
Taking a sip of my coffee, I looked at Kristen. “Drew will pick us up at five. He said just to text him the location of where we’re at.”
“He seems like a wonderful man.”
“He is.” I looked down at my cup and slowly traced the rim with my finger. “Too wonderful. You know what he did on the plane?”
“What?”
“He offered me his protein bar because I had mentioned that I was hungry. A total stranger. Grant never would have done that. He would have just eaten it in front of me.”
“And that is why Grant is a fuckwad.” She grinned.
“He is. Isn’t he? Oh, by the way, Drew invited me and Kellan to attend a charity event on Friday night, so I’m going to need a new dress.”
“Fun. You can help me pick out a wedding dress and I’ll help you pick out a formal dress for the event.”
“Are you sure you’re up to it today?” I asked.
“Stop asking me. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t go. Now come on; we have dresses to shop for.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jillian
The minute Kristen stepped out of the dressing room at Kleinfeld’s, tears instantly filled my eyes. She looked so beautiful.
“No tears, Jill. Come on; we talked about this.”
Wiping my eye, I spoke, “I’m sorry but you look so beautiful.”
“I don’t want to look beautiful. I want to look sexy as fuck.” She smiled as she checked herself out in the mirror.
“You do.”
“Nah. This dress isn’t for me. Let me try on the others.”
As she began to walk back into the dressing room, she stopped and turned to me.
“Why don’t you try one on?”
“Who me?” I pointed to myself.
“Yes, you. Come on. Don’t make me do this alone.”
“No. I don’t want to try on wedding dresses. I wore one for a couple of hours not too long ago. Remember?”
“Yeah. But I didn’t get to see you in it.”
“Trust me, you missed nothing. Besides, it’ll be a cold day in hell before I ever get back into a wedding dress.”
“Don’t say that, Jill.”
“It’s true.”
She shook her head and headed into the dressing room. After trying on six different dresses and not liking any of them, she stepped out in the last dress she had in the room.
“Wow,” I spoke as I got up from the plush chair and walked over to her as she stared at herself in the three-way mirror.
“This is the one, Jill.” Her eyes filled with tears.
Laying my head on her shoulder, I spoke, “It’s perfect, Kristen.”
“I have the perfect head piece for you.” The saleswoman smiled.
After a few moments, she returned with a lightly beaded white satin head scarf with a veil attached to the back of it. Taking it from her hands, I placed it on Kristen’s head.
“What do you think?”
“Now it’s complete.”
As soon as Kristen went to change out of the dress, I pulled the saleswoman to the side.
“How fast can you get this dress altered?”
“We would order her a brand new one closer to her size.”
“We don’t have time. She’s getting married next Saturday.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s impossible. We send our dresses out to be altered.”
“Not good enough. I need you to listen to me very carefully. My sister only has six to nine months left to live. Her cancer has spread and there’s nothing more the doctors can do to help her. This wedding will be the last thing she ever does and I’m going to make sure it’s perfect.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that. A friend of mine is a seamstress and she owns a shop over on East 48th Street. I can give her a call for you and see what she says.”
“Thank you.” I smiled. “Also, I’ll be paying for the dress and headpiece. I can give you a deposit today and bring in the rest of the cash tomorrow. Please let me know what your friend says. Here’s my phone number.”
Kristen walked out and handed the dress to the saleswoman. “I’ll be putting this on my credit card,” she spoke.
“No need. I’m buying you the dress.”
“No, Jill. No you’re not.”
“Actually, I am, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” I grabbed both her hands and held them tight. “The mother of the bride is supposed to buy the wedding dress, but since your mom can’t be here, your sister is the next best thing.”
“Jill.” Tears formed in her eyes.
“I want to do this for you. So let me.”
She let go of my hands and wrapped her arms around me.
“Thank you. I don’t know what to say.”
“You’re welcome and you don’t need to say anything.”
“Excuse me,” the saleswoman interrupted our sisterly moment. “My friend, Gina, said she’d be more than happy to alter the dress for you. She said you can come now if you would like and she’d get started on it right away.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem. By the way, the dress rang up on clearance.” She winked at me. “Your deposit was enough to cover it.”