Chapter 65

Amelia got to the house a little after noon. I had showered and pulled my hair up and slipped on a short sleeve yellow cotton dress with white flowers all over it. I wanted something I could slip in and out of easily. I put on a strapless pushup bra so that I would have the right bra for almost any dress I chose. I slid on some white sandals and I was ready to go. I answered the door and Amelia was dressed in a cute little ensemble of light blue and white that made her look like she just walked out of a Dillard's catalog.
She was smiling, "You look adorable. You ready to go?"
"Thanks, you look cute too. I am, but can we grab lunch before we get started?"
"Absolutely, all I had this morning was tea and toast."
We went to Chili's, I had the Southwestern Cobb Salad with avocado ranch dressing with iced tea and Amelia had the Quesadilla Explosion Salad and diet coke. We were both stuffed. "Look at it this way, at least we know as we are trying on our dresses that they won't be too tight on the big day." Amelia made a good point. While we were having lunch I told her about the talk Pam and I had about colors. "That Pam, she has a great fashion since." Amelia was serious. She and Pam actually had similar tastes so she was completely serious in her comment. We went to one of the big chain dress shops, I would pick a dress and then we would pick a dress to match it for Amelia. Nothing seemed to really be what I wanted. I didn't know what I really wanted but I knew I would know it when I found it. We checked another big chain and still nothing. It was about 5:30pm when we walked into this little shop that closed at 6pm. We were greeted by one of the friendliest smiles I had ever encountered. This slight gray haired woman who was probably 65 years old came out from the back welcoming us with a heavy Cajun accent. "Hello sugar, my name is Hazel what can I do for you?"
"My name is Sookie and I am getting married August 2nd and this is Amelia, my maid of honor. We both need a dress. My problem is I don't' know what I want but I know out of all the dresses I have looked at I haven't found it yet. The only thing I know is that Amelia's dress will be a shade of pink."
"It's ok honey, why don't you tell me about where you are getting married, a little about you and a little about your groom." I told her about where I was getting married. "OK, so we know you don't need a train on your dress, she was taking notes." I wasn't sure what to tell her about me so I went on to Eric, "My groom is a very influential vampire in the Shreveport area." I stopped right there staring at her to see if she had a reaction. "Continue," she said. I let my guard down then I realized she was more than human. "Ma'am, if you don't mind can I ask you a very personal question?"
"My mother, god rest her soul," she started without me even asking the question, "was a witch, my father was a very tormented soul, he was half Furfur demon and half weredragon."
"Weredragon? I have never heard such a thing."
"Oh honey there are many were types that have been long extinct. I am 327 years old. Weredragons were extinct before I was born."
"Furfur demon?" Amelia put in her question.
"Some know them as Furtur, they are from Hell and are liars. This is how he mated with my grandmother, a full blood weredragon. If you can compel a furfur to a magic triangle then he will give true answers to every question. They can cause storms, thunder, lightning, blasts and teach on the secret and divine things. I'm sorry honey, I don't mean to scare you and it may have been more then you wanted to know. How did you know to ask me?"
"Miss Hazel, I am a telepath and humans and nonhumans give off different types of brain waves."
"Fair enough. So should we continue? You want to tell me about your groom and yourself?"
"My fiancé is Sheriff."
"I heard tell that Sheriff Northman was getting married. I am very pleased to meet you."
"You know Eric?"
"Honey all supes know of the vampire Sheriff. I have seen him speak before, he is very striking, he and you look to both descend from Norwegian peoples."
"He is Viking. I am sorry, I don't know much of my heritage before Louisiana."
"What about your other heritage?"
"Excuse me?"
"The heritage that gives you your special gift. You know of it?"
"Yes ma'am. I am aware of it."
"Very good. I think I have a dress for you. I make my dresses knowing that some day the right person will come in for the dress. I just finished this dress last week. I think my dreams told me to specifically make it for you. I don't think we will even have to make any alterations." She went to the back and brought out the most beautiful dress I had seen today. It was perfect.
"Miss Hazel, it's perfect. May I try it on?"
"Of course, it is your dress." She smiled and I followed her to the dressing room.
"Miss Amelia, I have a dress in Azalea Pink that I think matches this dress style nicely. Let me get it. Amelia went into the other dressing room and Hazel helped me finish getting into my dress and I stepped out looking at myself in the three-way mirror. It was perfect. Amelia walked out. Again, perfect the dress fit her perfectly. "Miss Amelia, how long have you been practicing?"
Amelia looked a little shocked, "About seven years."
"You are very strong for one so young."
"Thank you." Amelia smiled a little unsure it was the right thing to say.
"We'll take them. They are perfect." I was smiling uncontrollably I was so happy to have found her.
"Would you like me to store them here for you until the wedding?"
"Oh, yes, that would be great. I would like to pay for them now."
"You could just put a deposit. My works are original and a bit expensive."
"I will pay for them now." My dress cost $5700 and Amelia was $250. I didn't care it was worth every bit of it to me.
"Miss Sookie if you and Miss Amelia don't mind would you come in around the 25th of July to do a final fitting. We don't want to leave anything to chance. I know I made this dress for you and it is perfect, but it is better to be safe then sorry, we want you to look perfect as you walk down the isle."
"Certainly. We will see you on the 25th. " I smiled and we walked out door.
"Sookie, you look beautiful in that dress, how did you hear about this place?"
"I don't know. I think I must have just seen it while out and about one day and I remembered it. Of course I had no idea it was run by a supe. Seems like my whole world just revolves around the supe world even when I don't mean for it to."
"Yeah, but look where it has gotten you. You are marrying a beautiful man that loves you with ever fiber of his being."
"I know, I wouldn't trade any of my experiences they all led me to this moment and my life with Eric."
"Is Bill invited to the wedding? Will he be a problem?"
"Bill won't be at the wedding. Eric nearly killed him the other night and he told him if he ever came in the bar or near me again he would kill him."
"OMG, Sookie, you have to fill me in… what happened." I told her about the plan for what we were working on with Bill for the King and how it got out of hand.
"Oh my, has anyone heard from him since? Are you sure he isn't really going to try and cause problems for Eric after that?"
"I hope not for everyone's sake. I think it may be too soon to hear from him, his first night in Arkansas would have just been last night." We pulled into the frozen yogurt shop to indulge ourselves in a treat, ice cream really is my food weakness. "Then I found out that Bill had been dating the main girl that works in our gift shop."
"Our gift shop?"
"Yeah, our gift shop. I work there I am a manager. Besides, Eric has already given me access to everything he has."
"Really, is it a lot?"
"Well that was rude."
"I know, now answer the question." She glared at me then smiled.
"Let's just say Eric makes your dad look impoverished."
"Wow, who knew?"
"Not me, I almost had a heart attack. You know you can't tell anyone any of this, not about Bill not about our finances, nothing."
"I know." I knew she did and I knew I really didn't need to say it but it made me feel better doing so. "Can I ask you something else?"
"OK, what is it?"
"What's going on with you? Everyone has noticed, but no one asks. You look five years younger, you are more fit then I have ever seen you, you have this healthy glow about you, even your hair looks shinier."
"Well I do work out and I take care of myself."
"Bullshit Sookie, there is something else. If you don't want to tell me I can respect that, but just tell me you don't want to tell me."
I knew I could tell Amelia anything and she would never tell anyone but I wasn't sure I was ready to share something so intimate with anyone, although I had told Niall. "OK, just don't get angry or have your feelings hurt because I don't want to discuss it."
"Ok, it's your choice. I understand, it's not like I am sharing all my deep secrets about Sam with you."
"You have deep secrets about Sam that I don't know?"
"I know you know Sam really well. You may know more about him in some ways then me, but I know him now in a way you don't. But I do want to tell you something."
My eyes widened and I leaned onto the table, "What?" I wasn't sure what it was going to be but I was all ears.
"Sookie, I think I am falling in love with Sam. I have never really been in love before and I feel something different for Sam then I have ever felt before. I am falling in love with him."
I looked at her cocked my head to one side and gave her the biggest smile, "Oh, Amelia, I am so happy for you. I think you two are great for each other." I reached across the table and touched her arm.
"Yeah, but what if his feelings aren't the same for me? I don't want to get hurt."
"Amelia, I understand not wanting to get hurt, believe me I have had my heart ripped out and handed to me too many times, but you can't think about that. Don't hold back, give it everything you've got. I let my fear of getting hurt again keep me from Eric too long, I could have lost him and I don't want to imagine my life without him."
"Thanks Sook. I am glad you are so supportive of my relationship with Sam. I wish we would have hooked up sooner, I should have known you would have been supportive of us all along."
I smiled at her, patted her arm and went back to my froyo, "speaking of love, what's up with Natasha and Calvin?"
"They are spending a lot of time together. She has spent several nights with him. I really don't see her or talk to her that much. She spends a lot of her day hours helping Justine with the remodel and then her evening with Calvin. With my work schedule and spending as much time with Sam that I can, we really don't see each other."
"Who knew that she and Justine would come to Louisiana and both fall immediately into relationships. I lived here all my life and look what I went through to find someone to be with."
"I guess love is just in the air in Bon Temps right now."
"I guess. I hope it works out for everyone. We all deserve the happiness in our lives. I guess I should get home and get ready for work. Eric will be up before long. You wanna come hang out at the house while I get ready or if you don't have other plans you could come hang out with me at work."
"Let me call Sam. We didn't have any set plans, I wish he would hire another bartender, and would play the boss role a little more so he wasn't tied to the bar so much. He and all the customers and other staff really liked that girl, Samantha, you sent over so we could come to your engagement party. She's been in a few more times with Trey."
"I knew she and Trey were dating. I really like Samantha too. But she works at Fangtasia for the money. She goes to school during the day and then she can work just a few nights a week and make what she can other places and still spend time with her little boy."
"Then I guess Sam won't be able to steal her away, bummer." We pulled up in front of my house. You wanna come in and call Sam?
"If you don't mind I will call him from out here. I will come in and let you know what is going on in a few."
"That's cool."
Amelia came in just a few minutes later. "Sook I'm going to have to take a rain check. The new girl Sam hired to replace Arlene didn't show up tonight. I need to rush back and go in and help."
"Sure, I understand all too well. I will talk to you soon. Thanks for today. I miss you."
"I miss you too. Thanks for lunch and the ice cream. I don't feel bad for letting you pay now that I know you are loaded." She gave me a quick evil smile followed by a hug and ran out to her car.