Silver Clouds [COMPLETE]

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When I opened the door and took a tentative step in, I had to stop and stare. Because this wasn't just a dress shop. It was a dress palace.

"Woah," Bec breathed. I couldn't help but feel the same way. Beautiful dresses and gowns lined the walls on racks and platforms with mirrors displaying several more extravagantly made dresses placed throughout the vast room. On the back wall, floor to ceiling windows displayed a view of other buildings around us and the streets below and to my left and right were dozens of dressing rooms and lounge areas.

Of course Preston could afford this, but I felt like I couldn't breathe or I might rip a dress's seam and have to pay thousands of dollars in damage.

"Ellie Bean!" someone screamed from my left. I spun and barely realized it was my mother before I was pulled into a hug. I froze for a second, wondering if she was really hugging me, before I wrapped my arms around her back.

"Uh, hey, Mom."

The hug was over as quick as it had started, which made it a little easier to believe. "I'm so glad you're finally here, honey!"

I couldn't hold back a small smile. "Me, too."

"How was the flight? Did you try their champagne in first class? It's so good!"

I cocked my head and blinked a few times. Champagne... Could that be why she was so... bubbly? Had she been drinking today?

"Oh! Are these your friends?" She turned and faced the three girls behind me.

"Yeah. Mom, this is Harper, Bec, and Braylin." I gestured to each one as I said their names, but my mother had never been good with names unless they were famous so I doubted she would easily remember them.

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Holdgrafer," Braylin said with a sweet smile.

"Oh, please, call me Lara. Or Soon-To-Be Mrs. Stallard." She wiggled her eyebrows and then burst into laughter. She had to have had a few drinks or something because she was rarely like this.

"Uh, can we see the bridesmaid dresses you're thinking about?" I asked, trying to get her to focus and not act so unlike herself.

"Right, right, right. Over here." She spun on her four inch heels and made her way over to one of the little lounge areas that connected to a dressing room. "Alaina!" she screamed, making Braylin jump from beside me. My mother smiled sheepishly at us. "Give me a second to find Alaina so she can grab the dresses. In the meantime, have a seat and a glass. The champagne's on me." She pointed to the side table where glasses and a bottle sat then laughed before running off to who knows where.

"More like in you," I muttered under my breath as I plopped down onto one of the fancy couches.

"She nearly isn't as bad as you made her sound," Bec commented as she and Braylin sat on the opposite couch and Harper joined me.

"Yeah, well, it's because she's a little tipsy, which, to be honest, is probably better than her normal self. You guys get a very weird, giggly version of my mom as your first impression."

"Well, I like her, even if she's had one too many," Harper laughed.

We'll see if that remains when she's sober, I thought but didn't say. I kind of felt a little guilty for even thinking it. It wasn't that my mom was a bad person. I loved her and I shouldn't have been thinking like that. But ever since she had moved to New York, she had changed so much and I wasn't sure she was the same person who I had grown up with.

Sighing, I forced myself to stop thinking about it. I just needed to be here for her, no matter what. Because that's what daughters did and that's what Jesus would do.