“India somewhere, I’m not sure. It’s my mom’s.”
“It’s gorgeous. Why do you want to change it?”
“Because it’s weird right now. Trust me.” Ash pushed the sketch and the figurine toward her, ignoring Lyra’s doubtful look. “I want to transform it and wear it to the prom.”
“Wow. That’s a great sketch!” A few moments of silence passed as the enthusiastic girl touched the fabric in various places, examining seams and sleeves and who knew what else. She glanced at the sketches and the figurine.
“This is complicated. Like, really complicated.” She tossed her waist-length curly black hair to one side and frowned. She turned the lehenga inside out and lay it flat. “Yes, this is very complex beadwork. See how each bead is hand-sewn to the fabric? If I cut into it, all the beads will scatter everywhere.”
Ash and Sebastian glanced at each other. This was not a good sign. Ash had been hoping she’d look at it once and say, “Oh, that’s straightforward. No problem. It’ll be done in an hour.”
“I think my mom and I can do it. She’s a costume designer for stage plays and things so she does beadwork a lot. I can do the bodice part. When do you need it by?”
“Two weeks.”
Lyra hesitated. Again, not a good sign.
“My mom’s really busy, but I can make her do it. It’s a good thing you came in today, though. We’re about to go into bridal season and there is no way we could have done it if you’d come in any later.”
Serendipity. It really was true.
Ash practically cried with relief. “Seriously, you have saved my life.” She turned back to grin at Sebastian, who didn’t look half as excited. She wondered why, but before she could ask, he stepped up to the counter.
“So...Lyra, how much is this going to cost? Because we do have a budget,” Sebastian spoke up.
Lyra searched his face, as if gauging how he was going to react.
“Usually we would charge around two hundred dollars for this kind of work—total transformation...”
That wasn’t bad! Ash thought. Surely she could talk Laila into two hundred dollars. That was just a little over the budget.
“...but because the beading is so complex and the fabric so complex, it’s going to be at least five hundred.” Lyra dished out the crushing blow.
Eight
I need to talk to you.
Ash hit Send on the text to Armstrong during English class. There was no point of dragging this on. He would be super-pissed at her if she canceled on him at the last second. Instead, she was going to tell him she got invited on a really great trip to Paris the weekend of the prom and just had to go. It was the only way to save face. There was no way she was going to show up to the prom with the coolest guy she’d ever known in some clearance-rack leftover.
What’s up? Armstrong texted back immediately. Rare for him.
It’s about the prom, Ash texted back after waiting a minute.
It’s going to be great. My buddy is DJing. Which means the music will NOT suck. He’s playing stuff no one’s ever heard of, but wish they had.
Ash practically burst into tears. She was never, ever going to forgive her mother for doing this to her. Laila had tried to console her the previous night by telling her they could go bargain-basement dress-hunting that weekend. Ash had asked to leave the dinner table and go to bed early. She was done fighting for something that was not going to happen.
Her phone buzzed again and she quickly covered it with her hand, glancing up to see if the teacher had noticed. They were supposed to be writing an essay. The teacher, however, was sending a text message of her own. The formerly sporty Ms. Winter had recently gotten one of those Nordstrom makeovers and was sporting cherry-red lipstick and platform heels every day and had been texting nonstop, even during class. Ash was pretty sure she was actively doing the online dating thing. She’d caught Ms. Winter browsing Chemistry.com when she had claimed she was grading mid-terms.
Ash glanced down to see what other fun things Armstrong was planning for the prom where she would not be his date. Instead, a new text had arrived from Sebastian.
Awesome news. You’re getting your dress. Meet me right after school at my car.
Ash almost dropped her phone. What was Sebastian talking about now? He never, ever gave up, but even he had to be aware that there was no way in hell they were going to come up with five hundred dollars overnight.
* * *
“Where are we going?” Ash was being dragged down the hall by Sebastian the second she exited her last class of the day.
“We’re about to make this happen.” Sebastian tucked her hand firmly under his arm while he searched for his car keys in his messenger bag.
“Seb, tell me.” Ash attempted to drag her feet so he would stop.
“Stop doing that or I’ll fireman-carry you to the car.”
Ash smiled. She had no doubt he would do exactly that. “Just tell me and I’ll cooperate.”
“You’ll see. Trust me.”
“I do, but...”
Seb stopped next to his car and opened the passenger-side door for her. “In.”
“I need to tell Armstrong I can’t go with him.”
“You’re going.”
“But we don’t have—” Ash reluctantly got in and pulled her feet to safety before Sebastian slammed the door shut on them “—five hundred dollars.”
“Please fasten your seat belt before you fly out of the car and no longer need a prom dress for anything.”
Sebastian was skidding out of the parking lot before Ash could say anything more. They took the familiar route to Capitol Hill again and parked right in front of Some Like It Haute.
“What are we doing? Negotiating isn’t going to work. Lyra already told us how complicated the whole thing is.”
“I got this.” Sebastian grabbed all the stuff they needed for the dress project and was in the shop before Ash could protest further.
“Hi! Hey, Lyra, us again,” Sebastian was saying by the time Ash made it in the door behind him. “I was thinking...”
“This is cute.” Lyra was watching Sebastian with amusement. He did look cute trying to juggle a miniature toy dress and the giant garment bag at the same time. Ash felt a twinge of annoyance anyway. It was becoming quite clear that Lyra liked Sebastian.
“I was noticing you guys didn’t have a website. I went to it last night to see if there were any other seamstress-type people who we could hire and you don’t have anything resembling an online presence!” Sebastian neatly laid out all the stuff in front of Lyra.
Ash wondered what he was doing. Pointing out the little shop’s shortcomings was not going to work, no matter how much the owner’s daughter liked Sebastian!
Lyra sighed. “We have one, but it’s not a very good site. My dad made it and well, he’s a doctor, not a computer person. We just don’t have the money to hire a professional web designer right now. It costs over...”
“A thousand dollars. Or more,” Sebastian finished. “I know.”
“That’s right.” Lyra started to look suspicious.
Ash was, too. What was Sebastian up to? What did this have to do with anything