The Perfect Stranger

Chapter 1: Lizzie

I can’t believe tonight is the night, Kassie! Eric and I are going to finally announce our engagement after hiding it from my parents and my sister for so long. Can you believe it?” I say enthusiastically as I look over at Kassie. We’re at the mall shopping for dresses for tonight. She looks a little sad. “What’s wrong Kassie, you okay? You should be excited, we’re finally gonna be able to start planning the wedding and I know you love to plan a great party.”

I can see a slight smile forming on the corner of her mouth. “Nothing is wrong, just have a lot on my mind that’s all. You’re right, I am so excited for you and we are going to plan one hell of a party. But lets focus on tonight. First, we gotta find a dress that’s gonna blow Eric away.”

With a giant smile we both head over to our favorite dress shop. They just got in their new line of spring dresses, I’ve had my eye on this beautiful, white floor length, strapless dress with a thigh high slit on the side. It’s simple yet elegant and exactly what I want for tonight. Thankfully, I called ahead and had them check to make sure they had the dress in my size and in stock. They did. Today is turning out to be my luckiest day ever. I go straight to the counter and ask for Judy like the lady instructed me to on the phone and let her know that my name was Lizzie Franklin and I was here for the white gown. The lady behind the counter, with the frizzy black ringlet curls pulled into a bun on the top of her head, looks up from the computer with a smile on her face.

“Hello Miss Franklin, welcome to Daisy’s Boutique. I am Daisy, I have your dress in the back. Follow me,” she says getting up and turning down the hall in one fluid and graceful motion. I follow her down the hall while tossing a quick smile back at Kassie. She looks sad again, but this time she’s looking at her phone. Hmm, I wonder what’s wrong as I make it to the back, into the dressing room. Daisy has the gown hanging on a rack waiting for me. She says she will give me a few minutes to try it on and leaves.

The dressing room is nice here and the customer service is by far up to par. Taking in a deep breath, I unzip the bag the gown is in. Its even more beautiful in per- son. I quickly slip out of my simple shopping outfit, made up of a cute T-shirt I found thrifting with Kassie a couple summers ago and a pair of really cute cropped black yoga pants. You know the ones that have a peek-a-boo mesh down the sides starting at mid thigh. Anyway, I grab the dress and gently step into it and slide it up. Closing the discreet zipper on the side, I turn to face the floor to ceiling mirror in the dressing room. The dress is gorgeous. Right before I turn to open the door, there’s a knock and I hear Daisy’s voice on the other side.

“Excuse me, Miss Franklin. I know that you are getting dressed but I have a message from your friend. A Miss Kassie Thomas. She says that she is so sorry, but something came up and she will meet you later for lunch and that she’ll shoot you a text.” I can’t believe the words that are coming out of her mouth. Kassie left me here. We were supposed to have a girls bonding day. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to my friendship with her as we both would like. Then again, she did say that something came up. What if it was an emergency? Is her mom okay? I know that she’s been in and out of the hospital lately. According to Kassie, she’s been getting sick easier and easier these days and apparently she’s developed a nasty cough. I’ll shoot Kassie a quick text and make sure.

Its as if she read my mind, we have this telepathy thing as if we’re sisters and not just best friends sometimes. As soon as I picked up my phone, Kassie’s text came through. “Sorry I had to leave, something came up with mom. I’ll call you tonight before the party. See you there. xoxo” She’s still coming tonight? Even though something is up with Mrs. Thomas. Must not be that serious. I’ll have to call her and check up on her. Its been too long since we’ve spoken and she’d been like a second mom to me growing up.

You see, I’ve known Kassie since we were practically in diapers. My mom and her mom used to be best friends. So naturally, Kassie and me were automatically best friends. We were born only days apart, with her being just exactly a week older than me. We were inseparable growing up, all through elementary school, into high school, and then college. We were each other’s confidant when it came to our first kisses, to our first heartbreaks, through all our ups and downs. And trust me we had quite a few downs.

In middle school, Kassie and I had the shock of our lives. It tested our friend- ship down to the very core. We experienced so much hurt together that we had no choice but to lean on each other. We made a pact to always tell each other the truth. In the end, we came out stronger as friends, but our families were separately rocked forever. Unfortunately, Kassie’s family fell apart and I know that there are still some raw feelings there. But, that’s Kassie. She’s the strong silent type and when she’s ready she’ll come to you to talk. So, until the time is right, we take everything one at a time. We are always open and honest with each other about everything.

Returning my attention to the present, I grab the handle on the dressing room door to face Daisy still standing there waiting for my response to Kassie’s message. She looks pleasantly surprised by the reveal of me in her spring collection. She looks at me and runs to a nearby stack of boxes. Calling back to me, she ask what size shoe I am and I tell her seven. She returns to rummaging through some boxes and pulls out the most beautiful pair of gold heels. She hands them to me to put on and instructs me to stand on the elevated stage-like portion of the communal dressing area, which is directly centered and in front of another floor to ceiling mirror. After putting on the shoes and standing on the podium, I look into the mirror at my reflection. I look like a completely different person. This mirror must have magical powers because I swear I’ve never looked like this before a day in my life. My normally short and stumpy legs look long and sexy thanks to the slit in the side of the dress and these gorgeous gold heels. The beautiful strapless body of the gown accentuates my handful of breasts perfectly and shapes my curves to perfection. It’s as if this gown was made for me. The color of the dress is only a compliment to the bronze, caramel tone of my skin and the dark shiny ringlets of my hair. There’s no way Eric can ignore me tonight. He won’t be able to keep his eyes off me, let alone his hands. This dress is everything I ever wanted in an engagement party dress. Is that crazy? Do people dream about their engagement party

dress? Well, I don’t care, I did and I do. I’m happy with this dress and I’m gonna buy it.

“I’ll take it Daisy. This is the dress of my dreams. My fiancee, Eric, is going to eat me alive in this dress.” I excitedly look over at her and her face is a little twisted. Surprisingly so, since I just told her that I was going to buy this new dress out of her spring collection. I know thats a nice little commission for her, so why does her face look like that. “Is something wrong? Am I able to purchase this dress?”

“Oh no, nothing at all is wrong. This dress is still available for purchase. It’s just that, I don’t know, maybe this is none of my business, but before your friend left, I heard her take a call and mention the name Eric in what seemed like a secretive tone. It was like she was trying to whisper his name. But I’m sure it was probably nothing,” she hurriedly spits out. A look of concern spreads across her face, like maybe she should have bitten her tongue. My face contorts. That’s a little weird. Why would Kassie be talking about Eric? That makes no sense. Unless, they were discussing the party tonight. That’s probably it.

“Okay, well thank you for letting me know. It’s more than likely that they were discussing the party tonight,” I say to her. Kassie is helping me plan our engagement party tonight and she was probably going over last minute details or something and didn’t want to stress me out. I’ll go take this dress off so you can get it boxed or bagged for me to purchase,” I say stepping down carefully off the podium. “Yes ma’am,” is all Daisy says reaching a hand out to help me down. I nod in thankfulness for her help.

As I am changing back into my clothes, I hear a quick rapping of a knock on the dressing room door. “Miss Franklin, it’s Daisy. I am here to get the dress and get it ready to go for you.” Quickly reaching for the dress, I grab it and hand it to her through a crack in the door. She grabs the dress from my hand and takes it up to the front. I soon follow after getting redressed in my clothes. Daisy is at the register with my dress boxed and bagged waiting for me. Handing her my card, she swipes it. My bank account has successfully been used enough for this month. As I am gathering up my new purchase, she quickly hands me another smaller bag. “Sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just that the situation brought up some familiar feelings and memories. My ex had been sleeping with my boss at my old job before I opened this place. But, I didn’t mean to interject in your friend’s call or your business. So, please take these as an apology. Have a great party to- night and congrats on your engagement,” Daisy says apologetically.

I let her know it’s okay and thanked her for the gift before turning and heading out the store towards the car. That’s when I realized that Kassie had drove us here.

Crap! I set my bags down and grab my phone to give Kassie a quick call. I want to see if she can pick me up for lunch. I know Eric has to work nonstop today in order to be off in time for the party. I hit Kassie’s name and wait for her to pick up. The call is ringing and ringing before it goes to voicemail:

“Hey it’s Kassie! I can’t come to the phone right now. Leave a message at the beep!”

“Hey Kassie girl. Its Lizzie, just wanted to see if you were okay and to see if you could give me a lift to your place or if you wanted to meet up for lunch. But, I see you’re still busy, so I’ll call an Uber or something and meet you tonight at my place so we can get ready together. Love you!” The line beeps signaling the end of the voicemail. I hang up and pull up my Uber app and wait for my ride home. It takes a little under ten minutes before my Uber arrives and another twenty minutes till I’m dropped off in front of my apartment building. It’s officially three o’clock once I reach the inside of my building. The party starts at 7 o’clock tonight so I have a total of four hours to get ready. That’s not a long time at all. I go straight to my room and lay my dress and shoes out on the bed and walk over into my en suite bathroom and start the water for a nice hot shower.