Maybe this was how first love died.
With the loss of innocence.
Part II
10
Savannah
Present
“Amelia, are we out of those green dresses?” Sasha raced across the shop to where I was currently working the second cash register.
“The ones with the puff sleeves and square neck?”
“That’s the one,” Sasha said.
The customer tapped their credit card, and I passed her the black-and-gold Ballentine bag. “Thanks!” she said excitedly. “I’m going to wear this tonight.”
“Have a nice day!” I called back. I turned back to Sasha. “I think we only have it in pink still. The green went so fast, even before St. Patrick’s Day.”
St. Patrick’s Day was an entire event in Savannah. It had the one of the largest parades in the entire country, only second to New York City, and the parade went right past my shop on Broughton. Upward of four hundred thousand people came into our small town for the entire week surrounding the event. It was single-handedly our busiest week of the year. I’d ordered more stock than ever, and still, the store was nearly bare bones already with one more day left of the madness.
“Next year, twice as many green dresses,” Sasha said with a laugh.
“I ordered twice as many as the last St. Patrick’s Day. It’s been nuts.” I shrugged. “Hold down the register, and I can look in the back.”
Sasha took over, taking the next customer’s apparel.
I rummaged through our back stock, looking for anything else green. The puff sleeves were all the rage this season. I’d seen girls all over town, wearing my brightly colored attire with lace and big sleeves and sheer fabric and all the things New York had scoffed at me for. They all worked here in the South, and even better, my name was on the building.
I overturned another box and gasped when I found a whole box of the green dresses secreted away. Well, well, well, these were going to go like televisions on Black Friday.
“We’re in luck,” I told Sasha as I came back, hefting the box in my arms.
My stepmom Kathy rushed over when she saw me under the box. “Sweetheart, let me get that.”
Kathy usually sat on boards and ran charities and that sort of work. But when the store was busy, she always dropped in and took an all-day shift to help out. When I told her that she didn’t have to, she always reminded me that she was too proud of me not to put in some work herself.
“These need to get on hangers. Also, Sasha, what size did the girl need?”
“I think a small. It was in the room for Calli.”
I snagged a small from the box and walked over to the dressing rooms. There was a line seven people back. I hung the dress on the hanger outside of Calli’s dressing room.
“Here’s that small in green, Calli.”
“Oh my God, thank you so much.” She came out, wearing a pink-and-purple strapless dress with tie-up ruched sides.
“That looks amazing on you.”
“I love all your clothes,” she gushed.
“Me too,” a voice said behind her.
I whipped around and gasped. “Josie!”
Whispers started all around us. Josephine Reynolds was a local celebrity. She’d done seven seasons of the hit show Academy and recently a full-length movie for it. Not to mention, the film she’d just directed and starred in, Montgomery House, which was winning all the awards. She was also a close friend. We’d gotten to know each other when I was working at Elizabeth Cunningham. I designed dresses for her Emmy events, and we’d hit it off.
Sometimes, it was still weird to me that my sister-in-law, Marley, and one of my closest friends, Josie, were also Lila’s best friends since childhood. It shouldn’t be possible that we loved all the same people when I still thought of her as the girl who had broken Ash’s heart.
“Come to the back before you get mobbed,” I said with a laugh.
“I won’t get mobbed. I can handle my fame.”
But she followed me out of the store and into the back room.
“I forgot how crazy it gets for St. Patrick’s,” Josie said. “I was coming by to see if you’d made progress on the dress, but I’m going to guess no.”
Josie was getting married in a few months to Maddox Nelson, Marley’s twin brother. She’d asked me to design the wedding dress even though I’d never done that sort of work before. I was up for the challenge though. How different was it really from a pageant dress?
“I haven’t touched it since you last saw it. Don’t worry though, it’ll be ready in time.”
“I have no fear. We should get lunch sometime.”
“Absolutely. Once the tourists leave, I am there.”
“How have you been holding up since you and Mark broke up?” Josie asked.
I shrugged. “I had to go and get a box from his house, and it was a nightmare.”