The Moon Dances and the Tide Changes
Chapter Four
The next day Daphne woke up early to start preparing for the ball that night. Having only found out that she was attending the night before, she didn't have nearly as much time as she would have liked. She got to the store as soon as it opened and went in search of a dress. It took her almost no time at all because as soon as she got off the escalator her eyes fell upon the most beautiful dress she'd ever seen in her life. It was a beautiful shade of red that she knew would look wonderful against her skin, with a back that scooped all the way down to her behind and a slit that came up to her hip. It was the perfect mixture of sexy and elegant and she knew that she had to have it. She looked at the price tag and stopped breathing for a second but then she thought to herself,
"What the hell? When's the next time I'm going to go to a ball?"
The next thing on her list was shoes. Again she lucked out, because as soon as she entered the shoe department, she saw the perfect pair on the display shelf. She couldn't find them on the rack so she asked the employee for help and he informed her that they had sold out of those shoes and the only ones they had left were the display. She walked over and looked and sure enough, they were her size. The employee told her that she could take them and then handed her a sticker that said 'Display' on it. When she gave him a quizzical look he explained that if she showed the sticker to the cashier, they would give her a discount. She began to think that maybe this whole thing was meant to be. First she gets to go to a ball, then she finds the perfect dress, and then the perfect shoes – and they're on sale?
"This must be my lucky day," she thought.
After going to the salon to get her hair done, she returned back home and immediately began to get ready. She put on just the right amount of makeup. It was very subtle and natural looking except for the bold red lip that she made sure to apply precisely before looking in the mirror and smiling. She was right – the color did match her dress perfectly. She took her dress out of the garment bag that was hanging from the back of her closet and stepped into it. She turned to look at herself in the mirror and thought,
"Dr. Crane is going to love this dress. He always pays me a compliment when I wear red." She paused and then thought with a bit of a chuckle, "And blue, and purple, and green…"
She walked over to her jewelry box and pulled out a pair of silver dangly earrings and then paused when she noticed her garnet studs. She hardly ever wore them because they were some of the only real jewelry that she owned and she was always afraid that she would lose them, so she tried to save them for special occasions. In fact, the last time that she had worn them was on Christmas and Dr. Crane had noticed them as soon as she opened the door. He had asked if they were new because he had never seen them before. When she had asked how he knew that he had never seen them, he replied immediately that he would have remembered if she had worn them before because of the way they made her eyes sparkle even more than usual. It was one of the sweetest things that anyone had ever said to her and it had made her heart skip a beat and her stomach flutter a bit. She decided that she was going to wear them again tonight, just for him. It occurred to Daphne then, how much Dr. Crane really did compliment her. Her hair, her eyes, her perfume, her jewelry. He was so kind and she wondered again how he didn't have every woman in Seattle vying for his attention.
She was almost ready and she gave herself one final look in the mirror. She was pleased with how everything had turned out and she sat down on her bed to put her shoes on. She had been so busy all day that she had only had time to sit in the car in between running all over town but now as she sat at the edge of her bed she took a deep breath and realized for the first time that she had butterflies in her stomach. She could admit, at least to herself, that she was nervous about being in a room full people in a much higher social class then she was. She also had to admit that the butterflies weren't just about nerves; she was also excited. This was her first ball and she was so excited to be going with Dr. Crane as her date.
"It's not a real date though. Don't get so worked up over it," she told herself. "You're just two friends going out and having a nice time. You were just doing him a favor because he needed a night out and he was just doing you a favor because he could tell you were excited about the idea of going to a ball. That's all."
She took a deep breath and tried to relax and just then she heard the doorbell ring.