"Sleek and tall it is," Steph said and then, she acted as my consultant, selecting dresses for me to consider.
After four hours of going through dresses and through three different bridal shops, Steph found one that I immediately loved. It was vintage ivory lace embroidered on tulle, with a satin underdress. The bodice had a plunging V-neck, spaghetti straps, a form-fitting skirt, with a low v-back and tiny satin-covered buttons. The lace-tulle train extended about five feet.
It was a dream come true.
Steph snapped several pics of me in the dress standing on the platform and I had to admit I liked the way I looked in the dress.
"It's perfect," Steph said. "It's totally you, Ella."
"Am I too short for it?" I asked, biting my bottom lip.
"Not at all," Steph replied. "It elongates you because it's form fitting. You look stunning."
She actually had tears in her eyes as she stood there, taking pics and so I knew she really loved it.
There were several in stock, so I decided to show the pics we'd taken to Josh for his approval before I committed to it.
"Do you think Josh will like it?" I asked, although I knew he'd love anything that I did.
"He'll love it. You look like a model in it. Seriously. If you could grow a foot, you'd be perfect to model that dress."
I hugged her and we left, going to one more store before we were both exhausted. I found another dress that was about third best, in a similar silhouette but not quite as delicately embroidered as the one that I really loved. When we were finished, we went to a coffee shop and pored over the photos on Steph's cell and ate a donut while we considered.
"I really think this is the one," Steph said. "It's the best on you, and it's also the highest quality. The lace is beautiful and the buttons down the back? So nice."
"I'll show it to my mom and to Josh and see what they say. We still have time and could go out again. The seamstress said it would take six weeks to get the alternations done so we have time to decide and even go shopping for more choices if needed."
"Don't put it off too long. It's already late January. That leaves less than eleven weeks until your wedding, right?"
"That's lots of time. It's a low-key wedding, Steph. Just a ceremony at David's mansion, and then a honeymoon somewhere warm. Nothing big. Just family and closest friends. After the huge to-do about both Josh and my previous engagements, neither of us want to make this into anything ridiculous."
"I get that, but this is hopefully your one and only wedding. Try to make it exactly the way you want it to be. You both deserve it."
"We do," I said and took a long sip of my coffee. "Both of us were burned. We were both down on marriage and look what happened?"
"You found each other," Steph said. "And luckily, I encouraged you to go out for meatballs, or none of this would be happening."
I smiled and gave her a hug. "You're absolutely right. And if I had taken your advice and come home on the bus that day when I lost my briefcase?"
She nodded and shoved me playfully. "None of this would have happened. Okay, okay. You got me. I'm glad you stayed, and I'm glad I encouraged you to eat meatballs. In fact, that should be your motto -- the meatballs did it."
We laughed together and then decided to go back to the hotel and rest up before we met Josh for dinner.
Once we arrived back at the hotel, we both flopped down on the beds and watched some television for a while to decompress. I lay on the bed and scrolled through the images of me in various dresses, always returning to the one dress -- the vintage lace with the spaghetti straps and lace-embossed tulle overdress. It seemed appropriate for a small wedding and since the weather would be warm in April in LA, it would be possible to wear it without freezing.
"Which dress, Steph? Was there one you liked so much, it would be worth not going out another day in search of just the right dress?"
"The last one," she said. "With the lace. I really liked it."
I remembered my last plan to get married with Jerkface and felt a little sick. We'd gotten far enough to have picked a venue, and even looked at wedding invitations. We were going to do the whole shebang -- big wedding with three hundred guests, married in a church, reception at a hotel in Concord, dance with live band. I'd spent weeks looking at dresses and trying to decide where to go for our honeymoon.
Then I saw Jerkface boinking Bunni on the desk and that was that.
"Am I making a mistake, agreeing to marry Josh so quickly?" I asked in a small voice.
"Yes," Steph said and I rolled over onto my stomach, my mouth open in shock.
"You really think so?" I said, my throat choking with emotion. "But I love him!"