14
Heart of Glass
The next morning, I messaged Simon to ask about Jess. He texted back saying she’d been okay apart from getting into a shouting match with a photographer who’d been waiting outside the restaurant and had snapped her unawares. But he’d found a taxi and had got her home safe and sound. My fingers itched to text again and ask what timehe’dgot home, but I stopped myself; he would have surely seen it for the pretext it was – to double-check he hadn’t stayed the night at her flat. Not that he’d given me any reason to suspect anything, but my antennae when it came to Simon had a habit of tuning into phantom signals.
With heroic self-restraint I instead texted him to ask if he fancied coming to a fancy-dress party. His enthusiastic reply carried me smiling all the way to my tube stop at Bond Street:
YESSSS!!
I wasn’t going straight to the office today, I was meeting Alice at her dress fitting to choose a dress of my own for the wedding. She’d chosen turquoise for the bridal party, but each of us was free to pick our own style to match our taste and body shape. She was democratic like that.
I found the right shop in a warren of streets north of Bond Street and pushed open the door. But before I could charge through to where Alice was waiting, a surprisingly strong female arm stopped me in my tracks.
‘Shoesoff!’ came the accompanying voice.
Had I somehow walked through a magic portal that had transported me back to morning assemblies at Hazelwood Primary?
‘Excuse me?’
‘We have a shoes-off policy,’ came the curt reply. The sales assistant slash Head of Shoe Policy added a smile, but it did little to mask the irritation in her voice.
I toed off my Converse and padded over to Alice in my blue-and-white-striped socks. She kissed me hello and told me to take my time choosing a style.
‘I want you to feel like a princess,’ she said, before floating into a changing room where an alarming amount of white fabric was waiting for her.
I’d never been a princess-y kind of girl. Unless you counted Princess Leia, who could kick arse with a blaster and ended up a general.
I listlessly ran my hand along the rail where a rainbow of shiny bridesmaids’ dresses hung. Several pairs of eyes were following me nervously, although I’m not sure what the sales assistants feared I would do – zip out a can of spray paint and graffiti the damn things? I wasn’t in the mood for this, so I picked a blue dress at random and trooped into an adjacent changing room. I shed my clothes and put on the dress, then turned to assess myself in the mirror.
It looked bloody awful – it flattened my chest and the skirt was far too poufy – but I felt a duty to show Alice in case she loved it.
I stepped out, trying not to grimace, but when I saw Alice I stopped dead in my tracks.
Her gown was something else. Ivory satin sheathed in a layer of fine lace from head to toe. Tiny crystals and pearls sparkled on the bodice and matching full-length gloves completed the ensemble.
‘Pete’s going to burst into tears when he sees you,’ I said.
‘Is it that bad?’
‘I mean in a good way.’
Alice smiled. ‘I know, I was joking.’ She checked her reflection from the side. ‘It’s not too revealing, is it? The back’s lower than I imagined.’
‘It’s the most elegant dress I’ve ever seen.’ I suddenly had a lump in my throat. ‘You look beautiful.’
She smiled, and came to stand by me. ‘You look beautiful too.’ She tilted her head to one side. ‘Maybe with the right shoes?’
I was still wearing my stripy socks, but that wasn’t the main issue. On Alice the full skirt would have transformed her into Audrey Hepburn, but the only movie star I resembled was Shirley Temple. All that was missing was the lollipop and hair bow. I looked bloody ridiculous.
I must have been scowling, because Alice suddenly asked: ‘Do you not like it, Zoë?’
I tried to relax my furrowed brow. ‘Sorry, Alice, I’m a bit tired this morning. I’m more than happy to wear this if you like it.’
‘I want you to be comfortable, Zoë, and I’m not sure you are.’ She reached over to the rail and pulled out a full-length dress. ‘Why don’t you try this one? You’re tall and it will look amazing on you.’
She was holding an amorphous mass of pink shiny satin. ‘Ignore the colour, obviously,’ she said. ‘Just try it on for the style.’
I wasn’t sure that style and this particular dress had ever been introduced, but I didn’t want to disappoint Alice. ‘No problem,’ I said, taking the dress from her.
