Chapter Thirty-Seven
Grace
I'd checked with Betty, Mike's secretary, and found out that the reception Mr. Vasquez was throwing was definitely formal, and since I didn't own anything glamorous enough, I headed straight for a small boutique just south of the Loop that sold once-worn formal dresses at reasonable prices. I quickly booked a hair and makeup appointment for the next day and then caught a cab to At Last Boutique on Roosevelt.
The car had dropped me off at the office without stopping at my apartment, so when I walked through the door pulling my suitcase, the woman behind the register raised an eyebrow. The shop was an eclectic mix of tasteful vintage furniture in shades of crimson, eggplant, and gold. The place could have looked like a high-end bordello, but the way the designer had created an intimate space by placing velvet upholstered settees and chairs around the room made the racks of dresses look like icing on a very expensive cake. I felt intimidated.
"We don't buy dresses direct," the woman said. She was tall and thin with long burgundy colored hair that elegantly framed her smooth, dark face. "We only buy dresses that have been returned to retail stores and can't be resold."
"I'm...I'm not selling anything," I said as the heat rose in my cheeks. No matter how long I lived in Chicago or how financially secure I was, shopping in the city still made me feel like a small country bumpkin. I'd prepped myself a hundred times for trips like this, but it didn't take much to send the fortress walls tumbling down. I looked at the tall brown saleswoman and said, "I need a dress. A formal dress for tomorrow night. And shoes."
"Well, why didn't you say so, hon?" the woman smiled as she extended her hand. "I'm Vivica, but everyone calls me Viv. What kind of dress do you need, hon?"
"Something pretty?" I said unsure of what she meant.
"Pretty? You need something pretty?" Viv chuckled. "Darlin', we have all kinds of pretty in this shop. You're going to have to be much more specific than that!"
"It's a formal reception at London House," I said not sure what else she wanted to know, then quickly adding, "It's for a business merger."
"Oooooh, now that's a serious kind of fancy," Viv said as she quickly crossed the small shop and began rifling through a rack of dresses that were set off to one side. She turned back and looked at me, asking, "What's your name, hon?"
"Grace," I said. "Grace Miller."
As she perused the dresses Viv said, “Well, Grace, go ahead and put your suitcase down and come tell me how you want to look tomorrow night."
"I don't know," I admitted. "I just want to look beautiful and elegant."
"See? You do know," Viv gently scolded. "Every girl knows how she wants to look for the ball."
"It's just a business function," I reminded her. "It's not like a wedding or something. I just want to look like I belong."
As soon as the words left my mouth I felt myself tearing up. Everything that had happened over the past month came tumbling into my brain all at once. Mamm and Dat were gone. Faith and Hope had shunned me along with the rest of the community who were now threatening to shun the siblings I'd left behind. The store was deeply in debt with no way of digging out of it now that Uncle Amos had made it off limits to the community and forbade them from shopping there. We had no real income to support the farm. And Adam. Then there was Adam Wallace.
"Hon, what color do you want to wear?" Viv asked as she pulled a bright green dress from the rack and then shook her head and put it back.
"Nothing flashy," I said not wanting to stand out from the crowd. "I want to look elegant. Classy."
"Ahh, how about a beautiful, black gown?" Viv suggested, holding up a lace and taffeta dress that had a plunging neckline that was way more than I was willing to risk.
"No black!" I declared. "None!"
"Okay, well, tell me how you really feel about it," Viv chuckled as she pushed a few more dresses aside before looking me up and down as she murmured, "Six maybe, eight, or a small ten."
Viv pulled a couple of dresses from the rack and held them up to me as she talked to herself. She nodded as she tossed a navy-blue dress in velvet over her arm followed by an ivory gown and a red gown, then she nodded at me and said, "Follow me."
Viv led me across the thick carpet to a room that looked unlike any fitting room I'd ever seen before. On one side of the room was a small area that had been divided by a tall silk screen covered in tiny violets. To the right of it was a small sitting area with purple velvet chairs arranged around a low table that held a tray of intricately decorated cookies and cakes and a pitcher of frosty lemonade that sweat onto the doily underneath it.
"How did you—" I began.
"Any time the doorbell rings once and doesn't quickly ring again, my assistant preps the refreshments and brings them out," Viv smiled as she moved behind the screen and began hanging up the dresses. She called, "Have something to eat and drink, hon!"
I poured myself a glass of lemonade and turned to look at the other side of the room where an enormous, round platform stood in front of a mirror that nearly encircled it. I walked over and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and then quickly backed away, feeling completely out of place. The panic began rising as I realized just how out of place I was. I had set my glass down and headed for the door when Viv emerged from behind the screen and said, "Now, you're not going to go and abandon these pretty dresses without even trying them on, are you?"
"No, I...I...no," I stuttered feeling trapped. Viv crossed the room and put an arm around my shoulder.
"You know, when I built this store, it was because I was sick and tired of going into high end places and having them look at me like I was gum on someone's shoe," she said as she gently squeezed my shoulder. "I told myself that when I had my own shop, I'd make sure that every single woman who walked through the door would feel like the queen of the world, no matter whether she bought a dress from me or not."
"But I—" I choked out.
"You aren't going to be the one who makes me break a promise to myself, are you?" she asked as she led me to the screen and gestured to the dresses she'd hung on the wall behind it. "Those dresses are just waiting for you to try them on, darlin! Don't disappoint them!"
I nodded as I looked down and bit my lip, then took a deep breath and looked up at Viv and gave her a weak smile. She nodded, satisfied that her pep talk had done its job, and then disappeared on the other side of the screen.
I began with the ivory dress. It was a made of satin overlaid with gossamer lace, and it felt as light as a cloud as I pulled it on, but once I had it on, I knew there was no way I'd be able to wear it out in public. I stepped out with my arms covering my chest and shook my head.
"Too revealing," I said as Viv waved at me to drop my arms. I did and blushed when she wolf whistled.
"Wow, you do that dress justice like it's never been done before," she said admiring the fit of the dress. "But I see your point."
I slipped out of it, and pulled on the red dress. It made of a soft, stretchy fabric that had been sewn together in strips that hugged every curve and left little to the imagination. I stepped out from behind the screen and gasped as I looked at myself in the mirror.
"No, Viv, no! I can't!" I cried as I thought about how my family would react if they saw me in this dress. It was one thing to wear a fitted sheath to the office, but quite another to pull on a dress that was little more than skin.
"Jeez, take it easy, hon," Viv said as she shook her head. "What are you, Amish or something?"
My face fell and I was silent as the blush rose from my chest to my cheeks. The mocking tone of her voice told me that her opinion of the Amish was something of a joke, and I felt ashamed to have been singled out as the butt of her joke.
"Oh no," she whispered. "Grace, you're not really Amish, are you?"
Unable to speak, I simply nodded as prayed for the floor to swallow me up. Viv put a hand on my shoulder and spun me around to face her.
"Grace, I am truly sorry for my ignorance and insensitivity," Viv said as she looked me in the eye. "I've been on the receiving end of cruel things people have said, and I swore I'd never do that to someone else and now look what I've done."
"It's okay," I shrugged just wanting to get changed out of the dress and get out of the store.
"No, it's really not, hon," Viv said as she took my hand and squeezed it tightly. "It's not okay at all. Can you forgive me for being so rude?"
"Sure," I said as I looked up at her and was surprised to see tears welling up in her eyes. "Don't cry about it, Viv. It happens. People make mistakes."
Suddenly Viv's eyes grew wide and a smiled bloomed on her lips, as she exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, Grace! I think I have just the dress for you! Promise me you won't leave, please?"
"Okay?" I said uncertain of what would come next, but hopeful that whatever it was that had made Grace's eyes light up would actually end up looking good on me. I walked back behind the screen and peeled off the red dress thinking I'd try on the midnight blue one just in case Viv's hunch was wrong, but before I could get the dress off the hanger, Viv came bursting through the door holding a dress encased in a garment bag in front of her.
"I swear, I think this is the one, Grace," she said with a warm smile. "This one will be perfect for you."
She hung the dress on a hook and unzipped its covering. We both inhaled deeply as she pulled the dress out of the bag and held it up.
"Oh my," I whispered reaching out to touch the gray, shantung silk and running my fingers over the crystal beads that covered the bodice. It was designed to drape over one shoulder leaving the other bare, but it covered more than any of the other three dresses. I'd never seen anything so lovely in my life.
"Try it on," Viv said as she unzipped the side panel and urged me to step into the dress. I did and sighed as she pulled the silky fabric up over my body. I slid my left arm through the opening and then let Viv adjust the bodice. Viv made a few adjustments, tugging on the fabric and fluffing the skirt before she said, "Step up on the platform and look at yourself in the mirror, Grace."
I hesitantly walked to the mirror with my eyes cast downward and stepped up on the platform. Viv made one more adjustment and then breathed, "Oh, will you look at you, hon?"
I looked up and gasped. The beaded bodice of the silver-gray dress fit me like a second skin flowing up over my shoulder and down across my back. The top of the dress was a triangle of fabric that folded down and attached at the shoulder, making the dress both elegant and modest. The skirt wrapped around my hips and was gathered at the waist with a large crystal decoration before flowing down into a short train in back. The dress was perfect in every way.
"You look amazing, Grace," Viv said as she walked around the platform straightening and tugging making the dress look better than I could have ever imagined.
"This is the one, Viv," I said as I looked down at her eyes shining with excitement. "It's the dress that will impress!"
"Oh Lordy, hon, now look at you!" Viv laughed as she stepped up on the platform and hugged me tightly. "You look like a princess."
"And a CPA?" I asked garnering a confused look from Viv. "I'm not only Amish, I'm a CPA. Can't get much more straight edge than that, can you?"
Viv burst into peals of laughter that were still ringing in my ears as I loaded myself, my suitcase, and my dress into the cab outside the store. Viv had given me a deep discount on the dress, and although I'd protested at first, I'd finally agreed to take the discount in exchange for a handful of her business cards which I promised I'd hand to every woman who asked me where I'd gotten my dress.
"Come back and tell me how the party went, Grace," Viv said. "I'll have Ella put out a real spread and we'll gossip about all the people you met!"
"I won't know them from Adam," I laughed as I closed the cab door and waved goodbye. Adam! I had promised to talk to him after he'd gotten the Mustang situation straightened out. I fished my phone out of my purse and dialed his number, but only got his voice mail. I left a brief message, and then tucked the phone back in my purse as my mind wandered to thoughts of dinner and how in the world I was going to sleep tonight.