Late City Summer by Jeanette Bears

Author:Jeanette Bears [Bears, Jeanette]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781635559675
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2021-09-01T21:01:05+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Four years earlier, 1942

Emily loved shopping, and the boutique dress shop they had chosen was, like all spaces in New York City, a snug little narrow strip of a building that provided very little room to move. Despite this limitation, Allie, Emily, and Kate, plus Aunt Jane and the two enthusiastic little old ladies who owned the shop, frolicked about looking for the perfect wedding gown for the bride-to-be. Dresses lined the walls and mannequins displayed the most colorful and stylish designs as everyone looked through the selections for one matching the criteria Allie had in mind.

Emily was having a wonderful time seeing Allie so content, but the least enthusiastic dress shopper in the room was Kate. She was, as usual, photographing the entire process instead, even though she had never mentioned an interest in fashion photography to Emily. She could admit, though, that the place was very photogenic. Every dress that Allie tried on earned its own photograph, and Kate promised to not let Art see a single one before the wedding.

The shop owners made suggestions, her Aunt Jane doted on her daughter, and Allie contemplated her choices in the mirrors surrounding her. Kate photographed it all, but Emily noticed she was not so strategically avoiding her. Not this again, although Emily agreed she didn’t want to draw attention to herself with the other woman. Frazzled, she felt as though everyone knew what they had done.

Emily held the train of the current dress Allie was wearing, but her right hand flinched in pain, catching everyone’s glance.

“Emily, dear, are you okay?” one of the shop owners asked. Emily nodded slightly, not wanting attention brought to her, but it was too late.

“This young lady decided to catch a fly ball at a baseball game bare-handed!” The story began, Aunt Jane filling everyone in on what she thought was the greatest story she’d heard in quite a while. Emily blushed and smiled innocently as the story progressed.

She hated that Kate was having to hear all about her date night, although it shouldn’t be an issue, and she shouldn’t have had any shame. She thought she had played it well throughout the day, greeting Kate cordially that morning, and had been kind and responsive to everyone, including Kate. Kate had established a clear distance that no one else could see through. Unlike Emily, Kate seemed to be trying desperately to avoid her, registering any interaction as inappropriate or flirtatious.

“I would have tumbled right down the stairs and onto the field if it hadn’t been for Tommy!” Emily finished the story. “He snatched me right up, just as I caught it!” Her eyes flicked to Kate. “It was quite romantic.”

The women in the shop all laughed and gossiped about how dashing Tommy was, and what a perfect couple the two of them seemed to be. Emily questioned why she felt the need to twist what she knew was a knife into Kate at the end of the story and felt guilty about it immediately.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.