“I’d love to go,” Fran said excitedly into the phone, “sure, sure, uh huh, okay, yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow at school then, and thanks for asking me, bye.” “Yipeeeee,” Fran shouted at the top of her lungs, “guess who just asked yours truly to the Prom?” “Let me guess,” her mother replied thoughtfully, “I’ll bet it was Stuart?.?” “Oh, mother,” Fran replied in exasperation, “you know who it was, it was Jack.” “Jack,” her mother asked playfully, “do I know him?” Fran playfully poked her mother in the arm and replied, “This is gonna be the best night of my life, Jack and a couple of the guys are renting a limo, I can hardly wait, oh my gosh, I’ve gotta get a dress. Her mother patted her on the arm and offered, “Don’t worry about a thing, honey, well start looking at dresses tomorrow, we can start at Marie’s place, she’s a good friend and will probably give us a deal.” Fran merely nodded happily and ran upstairs to call her friends to tell them the good news.
“Hi, Peggy,” Marie called out from the far end of her store, “long time no see.” “Hello, Marie,” Peg replied while making her way through the maze of dresses and gowns hanging in every nook and cranny of the small boutique, “you remember may oldest daughter, Fran, well she needs a dress for the junior-senior prom and we want something special as it will be her last high school dance.” “Of course I remember her,” Marie replied with a wide smile on her face, “but I think it’s been six or seven years, and I must say, my how you’ve grown.” “Thank you, ma’am,” Fran replied softly, “I hope you have something exciting for me to wear.” “Don’t you worry abou that,” Marie said emphatically, “if I don’t have it, then I’ll just have to make it.” Peg gave her daughter a playful poke in the ribs and offered, “See, what’d I tell ya, Marie’ll have exactly what you need.”
“So,” Marie asked, “exactly what type of dress did you have in mind?” Fran looked at her mother for a second, and after getting the go ahead, she replied softly, “Well we were kinda hoping to get something that was strapless, you know, something that shows a lot of shoulder.” “Mmmmmmmm, a good idea,” Marie said while moving over to a rack of dresses in the corner of the store, “how about one of these, they’re all strapless and I’m sure that you’ll find that one of them is just right for you?” Fran worked her way through the fifty or so gowns that were pressed tightly together, until she came to a black and white number that was truly stunning. “How about this one,” she asked excitedly while holding it up to her neck, “what do you think, mom?” “My goodness it certainly is low cut,” she replied to her daughter, “why don’t you try it on and we’ll see how it looks on you.” “Where’s the dressing room,” Fran asked? “Oh, you don’t need a dressing room,” Marie replied softly, “I’ll go and lock the front door while you get started changing.”
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