to go dress shopping with her on Saturday morning. Emmie was running the shop, Kelly’s kids were at a sleepover party for a cousin, leaving the two free to enjoy a rare couple of hours in the mall. Well, enjoying wasn’t exactly the word, considering Melanie was in a dressing room standing in a front of a three-way mirror that made painfully clear the effects of one too many mocha lattes.
“That’s a great dress,” Kelly said, standing behind Melanie. “It’s got a lot of va-va-voom.” For emphasis, she gave her hips a little shimmy.
“I don’t need va-va-voom for a class reunion.” Melanie pivoted to go back into the dressing room, take the dress off and go for something more in her usual style—meaning something totally un-voomed.
Before she could, Kelly caught her by the shoulders and turned her back to the mirror, waiting while Melanie took in the image of the dress. “Look at yourself,” she said softly.
Melanie did, shaking off the doubts of a nearly forty-year-old woman, and gave herself a second, less jaded look. The deep maroon fabric hugged along her curves, slipping down her hips before flaring out in a flirty skirt that begged for twirling. The halter top had a deep V neckline and a nice amount of side support, giving Melanie the illusion of far more cleavage than she really had. It was sexy, glamorous, the kind of dress worn by women ten years younger, a hundred times more sophisticated.
Women other than her.
“You look positively gorgeous,” Kelly said. “If I had a figure like that after having my two, I’d be celebrating it, not hiding it.” She stepped back and indicated Melanie’s reflection again. “And whether you do it for Cade or just to make jaws drop, you should buy this dress.”
“I’m a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl. I should wear one of the dresses I wore to Cade’s lawyer functions.” Melanie stepped back, smoothed a hand down the slippery fabric. “Except those are…well, dowdy. Mom and wife stuff. You don’t do va-va-voom at a client dinner.”
“Yeah, and that hardworking mom and business owner look is all the rage at reunions this year.” Kelly slipped around Melanie to come between her and her reflection. “If you want different results for your life, you have to stop doing—and wearing—the same old thing.”
“But—”
“Don’t you but me. You know you’ve done that with everything else—your marriage, your business—everything but yourself.” Kelly gave her an understanding smile. “We’re in the same club, you and I. We sign up for it in that first Lamaze class. It’s the Put Yourself Last club, after the guy, after the kid, heck, I’m even after the dog. It’s time for you to let Melanie shine. And that dress,” Kelly said, “is going to shine so much, you’re going to blind everyone.” She grinned, then moved away and waved a hand toward the mirror.
This time, Melanie looked with objective eyes, seeing herself as Kelly did, pushing away the thoughts that she was too old, too conservative…too everything for this dress.
A smile curved across her face. “It does look good, doesn’t it?” She spun to one side, then the other, watching the skirt twirl against her legs.
“I’d lose the white ankle socks, though.”
Melanie laughed at her footwear staple. “I promise.”
She stayed there a moment longer, slipping into the habit of envisioning Cade’s reaction to her appearance. How he’d smile at the way the dress flattered the parts of her body he most admired.
Like her legs, her breasts. Heck, he’d been happy with about anything, back in those early years, before the sizzle in their marriage had gone from full boil to simmer before finally dissolving.
A memory of him, coming into the bedroom while she was getting ready for a rare evening out—their fifteenth anniversary—sprang to mind. Melanie, in high heels and a little black dress, busy fastening the diamond earrings he’d given her onto her ears, hadn’t heard him come in. He’d snuck up from behind, stealing his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss to her neck, then turning her slowly, oh so slowly, in his arms, until her lips were beneath his—
And they ended up twenty minutes late for their dinner reservations.
If she wore this on Friday night, would Cade do that again? Would he kiss her like he used to, erasing the past year, closing the ever-widening gap between them?
Would he once again make her feel like the only woman in the world? She closed her eyes, bittersweet longing washing over her.
“I’ll get the dress,” Melanie said, still wrapped up in the luxurious feel of the silky fabric against her legs, the memories of Cade.
“Good. Now let’s go pick out my favorite part.” Kelly’s eyes glistened with excitement. “The shoes.”
A few minutes later, Melanie and Kelly left the mall, a little lighter in their wallets. Melanie swung her new dress over her shoulder, matching heels dangling from a bag attached to the hanger.
Kelly held up the bag containing two new pairs of sexy summer sandals. “When it comes to shoes, I might as well just hand over my credit card the second I walk into the department. I never leave empty-handed.”
Melanie laughed. “I’m that way with coffee cups. I have a whole collection of them on the back wall of the shop. Some of them are antiques, some just caught my eye in a store.”
Her friend shook her head. “You are so not normal.”
Melanie laughed again. “Thanks for dragging me out of Cuppa Life to go shopping. I needed this.”
“As long as you promise to run interference when Roger sees the Visa bill.”
“All you have to do is wear a sexy little dress and he’ll forget all about it.” As the words left Melanie’s mouth, however, she realized she’d never really done that with Cade.
Except for those rare special occasions, she’d never donned a sexy dress just to see him smile, or distract him from his day. From the start, their marriage had been wrapped around Emmie, and struggling to survive on the minimal income they’d made while Cade worked his way through law school and then up the firm’s ladder. Melanie had worn the uniform of a mom—sweats, no makeup and hair in a ponytail.
Then, as Emmie grew up and Cade grew busier at work, the number of hours in a day seemed to shorten and the distance between her and her husband had seemed to lengthen, regardless of whether she remembered to put on a little mascara and lip gloss. The problems that they had went unresolved, pushed to the side. After too many years of ignoring the issues, those problems had become too big, too complicated to solve with a little black dress.
What had she been thinking? That a dress would somehow magically erase the illusions she’d had about their marriage? That wouldn’t happen, no matter how much she might wish it. Melanie had to be realistic, not get wrapped up in a silky fabric and a handful of memories that stubbornly lingered.
In the parking lot, Melanie hugged Kelly and said goodbye, then slipped into her own car and headed back to Cuppa Life, resolved to put Cade from her mind for the rest of the day.
“Hey, Mom! What’d you get?” Emmie handed Cooter his regular blend, stamped his frequent visitor card, then turned to face Melanie as she came around the counter.
“A
