bridesmaids were also swaddled in pink. Rebecca had met
them only minutes before and had forgotten their names
amid the annoyance of the dress. So she went with her first
impressions and thought of them as Bubbles and Alien Girl.
Bubbles was a dark Mediterranean beauty with an
overabundance of both enthusiasm and breasts. She
definitely looked the best in this dress, although she would
probably look good wearing a garbage bag. Alien Girl was
tall and gangly thin. Her hollow eyes rarely made contact
with anyone and gave off a somewhat catatonic look. She
was either a genius or mentally ill. Or, as Rebecca first
suspected, from another planet.
Everyone froze when Rebecca returned from the
changing room. She had their complete attention,
something she never wanted when she was young. Back
then, her safest strategy was to hide from her older sister to
avoid contempt and ridicule. Things were different now,
and she didn't mind that everyone turned to look. Everyone
except Alien Girl, that is, who continued to stare in the
mirror, clearly more interested in her new, human form.
The shop assistant approached cautiously. "I'm sorry,
dear. We have to do something about your hair." She walked
away with a purposeful stride. Good. Justice would be done.
While they waited for an acceptable solution, Kay
Samson emerged from the changing room in her bridal
dress. Her white satin off-the-shoulder Vera Wang gown cut
a path through the sea of pink. She stared at her red-headed
bridesmaid with an expression that alternated between
horror and laughter. Laughter won in the end, and she let
out a nervous giggle. "Sorry about that, Rebecca. We sure
picked the wrong color for you. I didn't know anything
could be so hard to look at." Rebecca nodded in peaceful
agreement.
The shop assistant bustled back into the room and
proudly showed off her solution: three hats that
complemented the dresses but clashed even worse with
Rebecca's red hair. It didn't matter. She hid her clashing
curls under the hat and turned to the mirror. She'd
definitely need to change into a different dress after the
ceremony.
Now that her hair was hidden, Rebecca could see that
the dress didn't look so bad after all. Her round face and
hazel eyes were more noticeable, too. All in all, she seemed
somewhat cherubic-almost cupid-like. But the god of love
wasn't something she wanted to dwell on right now. Her
own love life was nothing to be proud of.
Rebecca and Quentin had been dating for the past year
and were going nowhere. A former business school
classmate, Quentin was smart, handsome, and well