Linda sighed and ran her fingers through the hair at her forehead. This was... hard. There were so many choices!
"So many too expensive choices," she grumbled. The wedding was five months away, and it was the beginning of July. Her birthday was in a week- she'd be twenty two (the perfect age to get married, if someone asked her).
She heard smallish feet approaching the table, and looked up and smiled at Jamie. All the Reagans were busy that day, and although fully capable of staying at the house alone, Jamie had wanted to go to the city to get Danny "the perfect wedding present". Linda had volunteered to accompany him on that trip.
Jamie had gone off into Target, searching for what he had in mind. He had told Linda that she wasn't allowed to see what he got because she'd tell Danny.
"I am an excellent secret keeper!" She had playfully argued back, "I'm still holding a secret from Sally, when we were seven!"
"You still can't see! Danny can be very persuasive."
She couldn't argue with that; her fiancé just had to show her puppy dog eyes and that pout, and she started to break. "Fine, I won't look."
Linda had resisted the urge to get things from Target- she needed to save, save, save! So she stood in the video aisle, looking at all the movies ready to be bought. (She almost bought Grease- at fifty cents it was a steal, but that fifty cents had to be saved towards her wedding dress).
"What're you doing?" Jamie sat down at the table next to her. He looked at the scraps of paper, the big paper with math on it, a plate of fries, and the iced coffee slowly melting.
"I'm trying to budget."
"We learned about that in school. It seems simple enough."
"If you don't have a wedding coming up, maybe."
"What? You can't pay for the wedding?"
She sighed, "no, I can't. Neither can Danny. Not at these prices. Look at this," she pointed to a wedding dress she had cut out of the magazine and set aside. "Twelve hundred bucks, and for what? A glorified version of my nightgown!" She took three fries and ate them, shaking her head and sighing.
Jamie frowned, "that thing is ugly. Why'd you save it?"
"I like the color. And the fabric." She put her pencil and the picture down and groaned again. "Jamie, when you get married, hire a wedding planner. She knows what she's doing."
"And you don't?"
"Not a clue."
"There's something you need to know about Linda," Brie told Danny when he came to pick up his fiancée later that evening.
Danny felt his heart stop, "what? Is she okay? What's wrong?"
"She, um..."
"Just tell me!"
"She cuts her hair when she's stressed."
"What?"
"She cuts her hair when she's stressed."
"Where is she now?"
"In the bathroom, probably thinking 'what have I done'."
Danny walks past Brie into the bathroom to find Linda standing in front of the mirror, no longer with her long, blonde hair. It was still blonde, just to her chin instead of past her shoulders. She turned to see him, and offered a small smile.
"What did you do to your hair?"
Linda held up two braided sections of hair. She cringed, "I cut it."
"Why?"
"I don't know!" She really did sound stressed. "Please tell me you like it."
He walked around her, inspecting the hair. It looked really, really fluffy. It looked really, really cute. He was going to tell her he did, in fact, like it when she started to get tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"I just..." she sighed, ran her fingers through her short hair. "This is my wedding! It's supposed to be magical, and it can't be magical, if I can't have that magical dress! Or magical food, or music, or-"
"Linda, Linda," Danny shushed her, pulling her into a hug. "Baby, you'll find a wedding dress that you love... how much does it cost to get something altered?"
"What? It depends on where you go. And how much needs to be altered. Why?"
He could just understand her through her tears. "Because... maybe you could have Mom's dress."
Linda pulled away, "what? No, no. That would never work. That would... did she offer it to me?"
"I'm sure she would."
"No, I'll figure something out." Linda sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "Come.. come on. Let's go.. where are we going?"
"Wherever you want."
As they headed out the door, Danny told Linda, "your hair looks nice."
"You wouldn't have noticed if Brie hadn't told you. When it comes to hair, you're not very observant, Officer."
"Rude." Danny smiled when Linda giggled.
At least one family member was excited to see her get married, and that was her Grandma Rosita. Linda loved Grandma Rosita- who she was named after (Linda Rose)- and her grandmother loved Danny.
"Why so sad, sweetie? You should be happy- you're wedding is coming!" Rosita looked to Linda the next day.
She sighed, "I can't afford a wedding dress. All the ones I like are way too expensive, and the budgeted ones... they look nice in the pictures, but super cheap in real life. It's... frustrating."
"Well, honey, I can sew. I made my own wedding dress."
"What?"
"I made my own. I'll make you the wedding dress of your dreams."
"Nonna, I couldn't ask you to do that. You're already paying for the catering and reception." Linda's grandma had swooped in when she and Danny were stressing over cost. The couple was still stressing, and Linda would say less, except the wedding was five months away!
"Think nothing of it, dear. Now... what are you thinking?"
"Nonna," Linda tried to protest as Rosita coaxed her out of the chair and practically pushed her into the sewing room.
Rosita grabbed her sewing basket, "hush hush! You're going to be the most beautiful bride!"
Danny was sitting at the kitchen island in his parents' kitchen, eating fries, and looking at the now-five China options. This was hard; they had three freaking years to decide what would be what, and the were just now narrowing seven options to five? Linda was supposed to be the efficient one!
"Danny, guess what?" Linda came walking in through the back door, plopping her purse on the counter. She walked up to the island with a big smile on her face.
"What?"
"Okay, so you know how I've been stressing over the whole I-can't-afford-a-decent-dress thing?"
"Yeah."
"Well now I don't have to pay for a wedding dress!"
"What?"
"You remember my Grandma Rosita?" She took some fries as he nodded. "She offered to make my wedding dress! And being the stubborn Italian woman she is, she refused to listen when I said no! So we can save that money towards our first home."
"We're saving more money-"
"How?"
"So you know how the food was through the roof? Each plate was, like, fifteen dollars?"
"Yeah, so?" She sat down, grabbed more fries.
"Apparently, the caterer or chef or whoever the hell he is... he owed Pops a favor-"
"And the food is now free?"
"11.50."
"Three and a half dollars off. Wow, what a difference," her voice was sarcastic.
"Linda, practical minded Linda... you can't see how that little amount will help?"
"You'd think the commissioner would get food for free!"
"Maybe if he gets what's-his-face drunk enough, we'll get free food."
Linda shook her head, "I love you."
"I love you more." He fed her a fry.
"I love you most," she fed him a fry in return.
"Is there such a thing as eating a lot when you're stressed?"
"Yes, it's called stress-eating, and we're doing it."
"I am glad, though, that you've got a dress... almost a dress. I bet you'll look beautiful in it."
She smiled, "what're you gonna wear?"
"I have no idea."
"Danny!"
"I'll figure it out."
"And not twenty four hours before hand."
He fakes offense, putting a hand over his heart. "Would I do that?"
"Absolutely!"