“What is going on?” Juliet muttered.
Shaken, she walked down to the harbor, taking long strides, cutting through other walkers as if she was on roller skates. The walk helped her catch her breath. The sight of the blue water, so clear even where motorboats were docked, calmed her even more.
She sat on a bench and watched the fishermen prepare their Boston Whalers. Real life was hard work, she decided. Her apartment and office in Cambridge suddenly seemed like a refuge to her. A hiding place.
But with much of her heart and all of her body, she didn’t want to hide.
So, she wouldn’t hide! She’d flirt like a male peacock, using all the colors of the rainbow. Okay, that might be too much, but she knew exactly where to find the perfect outfit to wear to dinner with Ryder.
She walked past the post office, the Catholic church, and the Hub, where people were buying magazines, newspapers, and coffee. She crossed the cobblestone street and stopped in front of Sail, her mother’s store. A darling turquoise dress with a sexy halter-top was in the window, and Juliet’s reflection in her all-black Athleta tee and yoga pants wavered over the dress like a crow floating on a flower.
She pushed the door open and went inside. The air was cool and dry and fragrant, and upbeat music drifted through the air from a local radio station. Lisa was bending over her jewelry counter. No one else was in the shop.
“Hi, Mom!”
“Darling!” Lisa came from behind the counter and hugged Juliet. “Not that I’m complaining, but what brings you here?”
“I want to buy a dress to wear out to dinner with Ryder Hastings,” Juliet said.
“Really? Oh, what fun!”
Seeing her mother’s face brighten sent rockets of emotions through Juliet’s heart. Guilt, because she’d always been critical of Lisa’s store and in fact, in her teenage years, she’d been really snotty and insulting about it. Pleasure, because this simple act was making her mother so happy. How hard it must be to be a mother, whose happiness was so tightly bound up in her children.
And finally, an emotion she hadn’t experienced often—anticipation.
“Can I try on that turquoise dress in the window?” Juliet asked.
Lisa laughed. “Of course. You must be a size six.” She walked over to the rack, lifted the dress down, and told her daughter, “Let’s go into a dressing room. While you’re trying this on, I’ll see if I’ve got anything else you might like.”
Juliet stepped into the small room with its gold hooks and little flouncy stool and large mirror. She peeled off her pants and tee, unzipped the turquoise dress, and slid into it. It took a few seconds for her to understand what she saw in the mirror. She looked very, very feminine, and the dress was cut to make her breasts seem enormous. This was not who she was. Was this who she should try to be?
Her mother’s voice floated through the curtain. “Juliet, I’m hanging some dresses on the rod. You don’t have to try them on, but I think they’d look great on you.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Already, Juliet was discouraged. She couldn’t wear this dress.
She lifted another dress off the curtain rod and held it up to her. It was navy blue, short sleeved, with a square, slightly low neckline trimmed with white piping. Summery, nautical, undeniably classy. It fit perfectly, showing off her trim figure, and the hem was slightly flippy, which Juliet loved.
Stepping outside the cubicle, Juliet held up her arms. “Ta-da!”
Before her mother could speak, two women in Lilly Pulitzer dresses and straw hats trimmed with ribbon entered the store. They wandered over to the Ralph Lauren rack and flipped through the hanging clothes, exchanging comments—“Oh, this is darling!” “Oh, you’d look stunning in this!”
Juliet ducked back into her pretty stall. Lifting the dresses her mother had brought over for her to try, she concentrated on trying them on. She couldn’t help but overhear the others.
Her mother said, “May I carry some things to a dressing room for you?”
“Yes, please. Your clothes are darling!” one of the women said.
“Thank you,” Lisa told them.
The two women—Juliet figured out that their names were Zoe and Cynthia—called to each other as they tried on the dresses.
“Oooh, sexy!”
“Maybe too plunging?”
“Excuse me, miss? Could I try this in a size four?” Zoe flung a dress over the curtain rod.
“Of course,” Lisa said. “I’ll see if we have it in that size.”
Juliet tried on an ivory tank dress that would look fabulous if she ever got a tan, but with her winter working-girl pale skin didn’t work.
“Hey,” said Zoe, “have you seen Ryder Hastings? The Boston guy who’s heading up Save the Water? He’s gorgeous, rich, and single!”
“Yes,” Cynthia said lazily, “he’s on-island. He called me about his environmental group. He is handsome…”
Juliet froze, all her senses focused on that conversation.
“I don’t think it’s called Save the Water. That’s hilarious. I think it’s Ocean Affairs.”
Juliet almost had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from correcting the women.
“Whatever. I think they’re going to have a big fundraising gala in August.”
“I hope they have it somewhere inside. I hate when my heels get stuck in the grass.”
“Want to offer your house for the gala? You might get to know him better then…”
Juliet sat down on the stool, taking deep breaths.
“So these are adorable!” Zoe cooed. “I’ll take them all. Wrap them in tissue, will you?”
“I’m taking these,” Cynthia said.
“Oh, no,” Zoe said, “you’re not getting the same dress I am, are you?”
“Just the one. The others are all different. I’ll check with you every time to be sure I don’t wear it to the same event. Besides, we text each other every day.”
Feeling like a total idiot, Juliet watched through a sliver of space between the curtains as her mother wrapped the dresses in tissue, slipped them into bags, and rang up the sales. Zoe and Cynthia checked their phones and then dropped their platinum credit cards on the counter and signed the receipts.
“Thank you,” Lisa called, as the women left her shop.
Juliet stepped out of her cubicle wearing the navy dress. “What do you think?”