Ghosts ✔

124 • Dana/Happy

"Patience, killer. It's just around the corner."

Dana sauntered behind him, exchanging a look with her brother, who didn't seem to know what to do. They rounded the corner. At first they passed a bridal shop, beside it was a shoe store. She wanted to move along, but Kozik's fingers glided around her wrist and he made her stop.

"This is it."

"What?" she asked confused.

"You're not gonna wear a jeans at your wedding, do you?"

"No but..." She stared at the wedding dresses behind the shop window. Sure – she had dreamed about her dress, had fantasized about it. She however had no mother to take with her, and her female friends were dead or gone. She'd decided to go to an outlet a few weeks before the wedding, or she would buy something online. With a lump in her throat, she looked at Kozik.

"You didn't think you had to do this on your own, did you? No way kid, we're gonna get you a pretty dress." He shoved her towards the door.

Dana looked over her shoulder to Happy, who crossed his arms, his face wronged. "What am I doin' here?"

"You're here because I know shit about fashion."

"And I do?"

"No. But the opinion of two dumb asses is still better than one. Come on grumpy. This is your sister's day."

Dana went through the door. A pleasant warmth came towards her. She still felt moved because Kozik did this for her and when she headed towards a rack with dresses and stroked the soft fabrics, she swallowed a lump in her throat.

"Pick all the ones you like," Kozik told her. "Hap and I will tell you what looks best on you. If you need any advice."

On a whim she pulled her friend in an embrace. "Thanks Koz," she whispered. She closed her eyes. He might not be a girl, but she couldn't think of anyone she'd rather wanted around.

"I love this, baby," he answered with a wink. "A girl's supposed to choose a wedding gown with her bestie."

Before she let go of him, she pulled him close one more time; then she took a knee-length dress from the rack. She took a critical look at it, but hung it back after concluding it was too simple.

"What kind of dress do you like?" Kozik asked, who started to search too. "Such a hoop thing?"

"Something classy," she answered. "But not too bombastic."

She looked over her shoulder, to the saleswoman. She was watching them from a distance, but she wasn't sure if the woman wanted to give them some time together, or whether she didn't know how to deal with a biker, or whether she was simply too scared to walk past Happy, who had taken a seat in the middle of the room and looked like a grunting rottweiler.

"Think you should have left him at home," she chuckled.

"And missing the chance to see him bawl his eyes out when he sees you in a wedding dress?" He laughed. "No way!"

. . .

Never in his life he had expected to be inside a bridal shop. Still, that was exactly where he was right now. Waiting until Dana left the dressing room, in which she had disappeared a while back, together with the saleswoman. Kozik sat down next to him, a way too wide grin on his face.

"Come on man. This means a lot to her."

"That's the reason I'm still here," he grunted. Sure – she deserved this. But somehow the thought that she only had her brother to take with her, stung. This was something she was supposed to do with her friends, or with her mother or mother-in-law. She had none of them.