* The Wedding dress indecision *
Studying abroad was proving to be quite an amazing experience for Beth, except in moments when some major event happened in her family. Like this one, for example. Her baby sister was on the edge of marriage, and she wished with all her heart to be home doing something other than just playing music. She missed helping with the food, the decorations, going dress shopping. She wasn't a particular girly girl, but she did enjoy everything wedding related. She remembered she had really enjoyed doing her part in Meg and John's wedding 3 years ago. She enjoyed the thrill, the gorgeous places they went to, the dresses... She sighed, nostalgically, as she looked at the latest picture of her and her sisters that she had in her cell phone. It was taken at the airport the day she and Frank left for England. She sighed again. Today was one of the days she wished she could have magic powers and apparate back home, because today Amy was going to pick out her wedding dress. And her sisters were going to be there. And also their cousin Flo. But not Beth. She was looking at the clock and thinking about the time difference when her phone went off and Jo's name appeared in the caller ID. She pressed the screen and Jo's smiley face appeared on her screen. Beth smiled.
"Hi, Bethie!" Jo said cheerfully.
"Hi, Jo! How are you?" Beth asked.
"Good. Pretty good. You?" Jo asked. Beth sighed.
"Ok, I guess. Missing home a bit. How's Robbie?" Beth asked.
"At home with Fritz. I provided him with plenty of breastmilk in baby bottles, so they'll be fine for a couple of hours." Jo said as Beth could notice someone else standing behind her sister.
"Hi, Beth! How's Oxford going?" her eldest sister asked. Beth's smiled got wider.
"Good. How are John and the kids?" she asked.
"Rosie and Daisy are here with me, and John is having a boys' day with Demi." Meg said as she turned her head around to look at her children running around. She quickly disappeared as she told Daisy to get out from under the mannequin.
"Girls! Amy's ready!" Beth heard her cousin say.
"You're at the dress place?" Beth asked.
"Yeah." Jo said, rolling her eyes. "You didn't think we were going to leave you out of this, did you?" she said, smiling, as she turned her phone to her cousin and her other sisters. Flo was trying on a long veil while Meg was trying to convince Daisy to sit down on the couch with her sister and wait for Auntie Amy. "Amy! Say hello to Bethie!" she shouted. Amy's face emerged from a fitting room, smiling.
"Bethie! Send your measures later to have your dress ready." the youngest March said. Beth smiled. Meg, Jo and Flo sat down and waited for Amy to come out of the fitting room. A few minutes later, Amy emerged from behind white curtains wearing a long, strapless ivory dress with a long, white veil on her head. Flo gushed while Meg and Jo didn't seem convinced.
"Your boobs look huge in that dress." Jo exclaimed. Amy looked at herself in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors and sighed.
"I know. They seemed squeezed.," the youngest of the Marches said.
"I think you look marvelous, Ames." Flo said, clearly delighted by her cousin's outfit. Amy went back behind the curtains and went back out wearing a sexy up-to-the-knee white dress.
"No... way! Not in a million years!" Jo exclaimed.
"Why not? It's sexy!" Amy retorted.
"It's a bit... revealing for a wedding." Beth said. Amy looked at her.
"It's slutty!" Jo said matter-of-factly as Flo and Amy gaped at her in shock.
"It's her wedding, for Heaven's sake! She should wear whatever she wants!" Meg exclaimed.
"Don't tell me you approve of that!" Jo said, shocked, pointing at Amy's dress.
"Well, it's not my first choice, but if it's what Amy really wants, then who am I to judge her, Jo?" the eldest sister said. Jo huffed, obviously annoyed by her eldest sister's comment.
"It looks tight, though." Beth observed. Amy looked at herself in the mirror again, now thinking about what her sister said.
"Well... I won't be able to fully dance with a dress as tight as this one." Amy reckoned. Jo and Meg nodded her heads, and Amy went back to the fitting room. Daisy complained that she was bored and Rosie tickled her and tried to distract her.
After coming in and out of the fitting room in what seemed to be a thousand dresses in different shades of white, Amy hand two dresses in front of her audience: one was a long, white meringue style, ball gown with puffy sleeves and a long veil; the other one was a long, ivory, mermaid style.
"So... these are the ones in the semi finals." Flo announced.
"They're both quite pretty." Meg said as she picked Daisy up and sat her on her lap. Little Daisy rubbed her eyes with her little hands and snuggled into her mother's embrace.
"But I don't know which one to take." Amy said, feeling overwhelmed by having to make such a tough decision.
"The puffy one is pretty, Auntie Amy. You look like a princess." Rose said. Everyone awwed.
"So... one vote for the puffy one. Jo?" Flo asked her cousin. Jo looked at both dresses for a while, then sighed.
"I'm not really into wedding dresses, but... the mermaid one suits you." she said. Flo then looked at the person next to Jo.
"What do you think, sweetheart? Which one is pretty for Auntie Amy?" Meg asked Daisy. The little girl pointed her chubby little finger at the meringue style one, smiling shyly at her mother. Meg smiled and kissed her cheek.
"Meg?" Flo asked.
"Well... I have to agree with Jo. The mermaid one does suit you better." Meg said.
"Ok... two votes for the meringue style, two for the mermaid one. I love the meringue style one. It's very princess-like." Flo said, smiling as she looked at the dress in front of her. "Bethie? What do you think?" she asked later looking at Jo's screen phone.
"Well... both dresses are pretty." Beth started. Amy looked at her sister, expectant. "You always had a thing for 'The Little Mermaid'. With the meringue style, you would totally look like her in the last scene of the movie. But... the mermaid one makes you look slender and taller." she concluded. Amy smiled and looked at both dresses.
"Bethie, you're a genius!" Amy exclaimed, walking to the front. She took one of the dressed and showed it to her sisters and cousin. They all smiled. Beth was happy to, in a way, be there for her sister in one of the most important and most special moments of her life.