“Show me,” I said.
“I like this,” she said as she opened the door. “But I feel like I can’t pull it off.”
It was a linen spaghetti strap dress in a light blue. At firstglance, it complemented her figure beautifully and the color was perfect for her skin tone.
But she picked at the fabric and shuffled it around, eyes on the mirror I kept outside of the dressing room.
“I think it’s beautiful, but what do you think?”
“Sometimes people say I can be a little hard on myself. It’s just that things change over the years and ...” Her eyes were stuck on her arms, and she poked the loose skin there. “Well, I don’t always like it. I should just get over it and buy the dress, right?”
“No,” I said. “You don’t have to do that.”
“B-but I like the dress. And I want to feel beautiful.”
“Then let’s find one similar that you actually feel beautiful in,” I offered. “I have a few ideas.” I went to the back and got dresses in a similar shape with sleeves. “Here, try these.”
Virginia looked at them and then me. “I’m sorry to make you run around like this.”
“Hey, remember rule two. You’re supposed to have fun. I sure am.”
“Okay, sorry.” She finally took the dresses. A minute later, she came out in another one.
And her smile was blinding.
“It has pockets!” she said with joy. “Oh, and it’s so comfortable and cute.”
That one was made with a softer material that I was planning on putting out in the spring.
Virginia could get it early.
“I think that’s the one.”
“You’re so right.” She twirled around. “I haven’t felt like this since before I had my son.”
“You deserve to feel like this every day.”
“Do you have this in any other colors? Would pink look okay?”
“I have something very similar in pink.”
“Perfect. I wanna try that one.”
“It’s the fifth in the pile,” I said with a wink. She laughed and went back in. When she came back out, her smile was just as bright.
“These colors look so good on you. I think you’ll have to even get T-shirts too.”
“I bet I could wear them at work.” When she mentioned her work, her smile faltered. “But on second thought, I think I should just focus on the dresses.”
“What do you do for work?” I asked.
“I’m a house cleaner,” she said. “It’s not glamorous or anything, but it pays the bills. Or it used to.”
“Not everything has to be glamorous,” I said with a shake of my head. “But you said it used to pay the bills. Did something happen?”
“No, not entirely. But a lot of my clients left recently, so I’m not sure what’s gonna happen.” She sighed. “I live in what used to be a small town. But Nashville’s growth swallowed it up and it’s more of a suburb now. A new company extended their services and they’re far cheaper.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.