Almost Like Being in Love by Beth K. Vogt Read Free Book Online Page A

a purse to clear a path through the crush of women. “Those three girls just walked out!”
    Caron averted her eyes from some of the bridal expo attendees who, in their search for the ultimate bargain, had abandoned all hope of securing the privacy of a dressing room. Instead, they chose to try on garments in between the racks of sample dresses. Or while friends formed a human barrier around them. Or wherever they found some open space in the convention center.
    â€œGrab that room before someone else does.” Caron tightened her arms around the shifting load of bridesmaid dresses. “I am not changing clothes in public—not even for you, Margo. There was a TV news team interviewing people in here earlier.”
    Leslie and Brooke, who carried their own loads of purple-hued bridesmaid dresses, nodded in agreement and murmured an endless litany of “excuse me, excuse me” as they tried to keep up with Margo. Emma, in true I’ve-got-this-under-control maid-of-honor fashion, succeeded first, and positioned herself in front of the prized location of the dressing room with her sister.
    â€œOkay, get in there and start trying dresses on.” Margo pulled back the white curtain.
    Caron blew a wisp of hair out of her eyes, but didn’t budge. “All of four us? At the same time?”
    Margo waved the curtain like a flag flapping in a strong coastal breeze. “The sooner you try these dresses on, the sooner we find out if anything works, and if we need to go looking again—”
    â€œBe reasonable. Four women and who knows how many dresses in that makeshift space would be a disaster waiting to happen.” Caron shifted the armful of dresses again as the one on top started to slip. “Why not let Emma and Brooke go first? Then Leslie and I’ll go.”
    Emma, who balanced her stack of dresses like a professional juggler, nodded. “Caron has a point. No sense in having your bridal party suffocate under a mountain of purple dresses.”
    â€œFine. But I want to see everything you try on. Everything.”
    â€œYes, ma’am. You’re the bride-to-be.” Emma motioned Brooke into the room as Margo held the curtain open. “You’re in charge today.”
    â€œThree months to plan a wedding. Three months.” Margo settled onto the expo’s concrete floor, which, for today’s festivities, was covered in a bold blue carpet. “I must be crazy. Tell me all this will be worth it so Ronny and I can have the wedding we want.”
    â€œIt will be worth it.”Caron joined Leslie and Margo on the floor, setting her selection of dresses to the side, creating a semicircle in front of the dressing room.
    â€œWhat about you?” Margo ran her fingers through her short-cropped brown hair and then leaned back on her hands, her gaze focused on Caron.
    Caron pointed to herself. “What about me what ?”
    â€œWhat about you and Alex? You’ve been dating for almost two years now. You go to the beach. Have dinner every weekend with your parents. When are you going to make life easy on yourselves and get married?”
    The clamor of women’s voices seemed to intensify as if someone had found a universal volume control and twisted it all the way up. The air was thick with an overwhelming blend of competing perfumes.
    Make life easy. Get married. When were she and Alex going to get married? Good question. One both sets of parents asked with increasing frequency.
    â€œOh, I don’t know. We’re both so busy with work—”
    â€œNow you sound like some sort of jet-setting celebrity couple who won’t ever set a wedding date. We’re both so busy. ” Margo stopped when the dressing room curtain swished open and Emma stepped into view.
    â€œWhat do you think?” Emma stood with one hand on her hip, the other holding up the too-long skirt of her plum-colored halter dress.
    â€œI like yours better than this