I’ve been known to wear the occasional skirt or dress, but truth be told if I can be in jeans or shorts and a tee shirt that’s when I’m most happy.   I seriously woke up the morning of my Shopping Extravaganza with Christian and was full of dread.  The thought of having to try on ball gowns was a little too much like shopping for a bridesmaid dress for me and I’d been a bridesmaid enough times to know just how much I hated it.   Much to my surprise though, shopping for my ball gown turned out to be much more fun than bridesmaid shopping had ever been, at least for a little while.

First of all it helped that instead of shopping with a bunch of chicks, a bride, and her mother, I was shopping with my Happy Gay Boy and surprise guest, AJ.  Christian somehow managed to keep it a secret that AJ was going to meet us at the mall which was a feat in itself because Christian was the single worst secret keeper in the world.  With AJ and Christian at my side and great big mocha frapp from Starbucks in my hand, we actually had a really great time shopping.  I got to get to know AJ better, get his heterosexual input into the sexiness of each dress, dirty-minded comments about my boobs in each dress that had me laughing my head off, and I got inside tips on Kevin from one of his best friends. 

I will admit that by the sixth store when we’d only found “maybe” dresses I was getting cranky and really wanted to throw a dressing room shit fit.  Not even pretending that I was doing a fashion show for AJ and Christian was working anymore and I felt the inner child in me creeping up to the surface getting ready to kick and scream on the floor of the store.  It didn’t help that the dressing room I was in was one of those that didn’t have a mirror in it so that you had to walk out of the dressing room to the big three way mirrors to even see if what you had on looked good or not.  Supposedly it was supposed to add to the drama of The Moment when you see yourself in The Perfect Dress.  Whatever, to me, it was just a pain in the ass.  I’d tried on three dresses all which were complete and utter train wrecks and sent my guys into giggle fits as soon as I stepped out of the dressing room.  That didn’t’ help my crankiness either.  I knew they weren’t laughing at me, but my inner child didn’t know it and she was not a happy camper.  I was also extremely hungry and ready for lunch but Christian kept pointing out that if I pigged out on lunch I wouldn’t want to try on dresses when I was bloated.  Good point, but my hunger was in cohorts with my inner child and they were coming close to overruling absolutely everything.

When I pulled the fourth dress on it felt good enough but I couldn’t do it up on my own so I bellowed for Christian to help me.  I purposely had my back to him so that he couldn’t critique the dress until I was fully dressed.  He tried to get me to give him a sneak peek but when I practically growled at him he giggled and backed away with his hands up in surrender.  I shut the door on him and adjusted my boobs in the dress so that they weren’t all cockeyed (something I’d done previously and caused AJ a great fit of laughter) and then I took a breath and stepped out of the small room. 

AJ and Christian were in a heated conversation about what cheesecake they were going to get when we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and pretty much ignored me.  I stood there with my hands on my hips not even bothering to go to the mirrors since I figured that every other dress in the shop had sucked ass so this one would too. 

AJ who was talking about the red velvet cheesecake saw me first and stumbled over his words.  It was something like, “Dude, it was the best cheesecake I’ve haaa…holy shit.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at him and then Christian turned to look at me and had to put his hand over his mouth so not to spit out the drink of his soda that he’d just sucked up through his straw.  Once he’d swallowed he looked at me wide-eyed and put his hand over his heart, “Oh honey…”

I rolled my eyes, “That bad?  Jesus, guys… this place sucks I’m not trying on the rest, we’re going to lunch.  I don’t care if I get bloated.”

I started to turn and go back toward the dressing room but Christian was suddenly at my back pulling on me, “We’re going to lunch but not because you’re giving up on the store…”

“Christiaaaaaannnn…” I whined as he pulled me to the mirrors. 

“Honey, look…” he said and literally shoved me at the mirrors.

I nearly tripped over my own feet and had a momentary flash of me going head-first into them, which was not exactly something I wanted to experience.  “Jerk…” I said and glared at Christian but then turned with a sigh to look in the mirror. It was then that I suddenly understood just what AJ’s “holy shit” and Christian’s pushing was all about.  “Oh wow…” I said quietly.

“If you don’t buy that dress, I’m buying it for you…” AJ said as he stood up and walked over to the mirrors with me and Christian. 

“Oh she’s getting it… trust me…” Christian said with a huge grin.

I turned to Christian, “Yeah?”

He nodded excitedly, “Oh yeah…”

I looked at AJ and made an unsure face, “Really?  Be honest…”

AJ grabbed my hands in his and looked down at me, “You are so smokin’ hot in this dress that if you weren’t dating my best friend I would totally be hitting on you now and definitely on the night of the ball. You’re beautiful…”

Maybe it was my extreme hunger and an allergic reaction to the crap-ass music being piped through the store’s sound system but AJ’s words made my eyes well up with tears and have a total girl reaction to the whole thing.  I tried to say thank you to AJ, to say anything, but I seriously had a lump in my throat the size of Manhattan and I knew if I tried to speak I’d just end up crying. Instead I squeezed AJ’s hands before letting them go and I nodded at him with a weak smile.

I looked at myself in the mirror again and had to admit, the dress was perfect. Frankly I couldn’t keep my eyes off of myself and that’s saying a lot because generally I try not to look in the mirror too much… like I said before, I’m a jeans and tee shirt girl.  But this dress was stunning.  It looked black at first glance but when the light hit it the right way you could see that it was actually a beautiful deep green color that reminded me of the dark rim on Kevin’s eyes.  The cut was like it had been made especially for me, it fit so perfectly.  The v in the front showcased my girls perfectly without being slutty and the scoop in the back was perfect.  There was a slit up one thigh that I figured might give me trouble if I had to sit in it, but I actually thought, “If I have to stand in it the whole night, it’ll be worth it.”  This was the dress and the thought of Kevin seeing me in it made me giddy like my inner child in anticipation of Christmas morning.

“Oh my god!” Christian squeeled scaring us all. “The jewelry you have from your mom from her wedding…”

“Oh my god…” I said and looked at Christian then into the mirrors and back at Christian. 

“What about it?” AJ asked with a chuckle.

“It’s perfect…” I sighed.  “A long time ago my mom gave me the earrings, necklace, and bracelet from her wedding.  But I’ve never worn it because it never really looked right with anything.  But with this, it’ll be like the jewelry was made for the dress.”     

“Well sweet…” AJ said with a grin.  “Now all we have to do is find shoes and you’re all set.”

I giggled and hugged him and then Christian, I couldn’t help it.  I turned my back on AJ, “Undo me…”

“Ooh, baby…” he laughed as he unhooked and unzipped the dress. 

I held it up in the front and looked over my shoulder before heading back to the dressing room, “That’s all you get… the rest is for Kev.”

“I know, I know…” he laughed.  “But you’re still my date!!”

“True…” I said and smiled.  “And you know what else?”

“What?”

“As soon as I get dressed, I can stuff my face with lunch and cheesecake because my feet aren’t going to get bloated and stop me from shoe shopping!”