Pure Belleza | ✔️

(73)

"Look at this custom made, traditional Sari dress that I made for a girl at school," Bernie said while we were on FaceTime later that evening. I was sitting on the sofa in the living room, finding some quiet while the antics outside had turned up, fuelled by alcohol. In fact, from what I could see, Lucas was buried up to his neck in sand and Milly was sitting on his head while she sipped on white wine. The fuck? "She's going to her sister's wedding later this month and she asked me if I would make something for her. So, voila."

The screen panned to Nattie who stood on Bernie's step box in the most exquisite Sari that I had ever seen. The bandage crop top was a pale pink, as well as the long flared skirt which was detailed with thousands of little white, gold and red beads that created intricate patterns from top to bottom. The sash was red and had the same white, red and gold beads that seemed to shimmer when the light caught them. The fabric was a matte satin and swayed soft and gentle, like it was choreographed to ripple with perfection as Nattie did a slow turn.

"Nattie is just modelling the dress for me," Bernie explained from behind the screen while her best friend grinned. "She's a similar size to Arpita, I might need to make some adjustments but no big deal. Nattie has been here so much that she's almost fluent in Spanish. She's been doing my assignments for me while I work on this around the clock."

Nattie's porcelain skin ignited into a bright red as she smiled. "It's no big deal."

"False!" Bernie shouted. "Huge deal. Huge."

"Bernie, that Sari is perfect. How long have you been working on it?"

"Close to a month."

"But— how?" I pulled my legs up under my bum and settled into the sofa. "That bead detail. How has that not taken forever?"

Bernie flipped the screen around so that I could see her proud grin. "Well it is summer vacation. I haven't left the house, at all. I haven't slept. I have beads under my fingernails at this point."

"Dedication," I jostled with excitement. "That is why you're the best. It's perfect. You might be able to save enough cash and get your butt to California for a week this summer."

She rolled her eyes as she held out her hand to help Nattie down from the step box. "I could vacation for a month in Greece if I wanted to."

"Excuse me?"

She laughed. "Maybe not. But I do have a savings account that is growing and growing and growing and dad has been showing me how to manage my finances and set aside for tax and what to put back into product, all of that adult stuff that bores me to death but like, I have to listen or I'll end up in trouble and do you know what I hate? Tax. It's like, my money is right there and I can't spend it because—"

"Wait, you're earning enough that you have to pay tax?"

She shrugged. "I guess. I don't know. Dad makes me put like five dollars per sale into a tax account."

"Oh," I laughed. "He's probably just putting that there for future purposes. Because eventually you could have to pay tax and it'll help to have some money set aside for it. That's super cool of him. He's helping."

Bernie stared into the distance for a short while and then her jovial smile zoomed in on me again and she threw a thumbs up. "Well that's great. To be honest though, I have to admit, I don't love charging my friends for outfits. It feels bad man. Like, I should just give it to them, because we're friends."

I was about to give her a stern talking to when I heard Nattie's soft tone of disapproval. Bernie watched her, all I could see was the intent expression of focused listening on her face. Which I didn't see often. Most of the time, even if Bernie was listening, she was doing something else at the same time. Pinning a skirt, flipping through her schedule, sketching designs.