Bryony arrived alone for the fitting and immediately apologized for being alone. “Dad’s working. Kit offered, but I don’t want him to see it yet. Is that old-fashioned?” “It’s your choice.” “I keep asking people that and they keep saying it’s my choice. It’s very unhelpful.” Coralie smiled and took her coat. The girl was …
Stellan was standing beside his car when Coralie arrived, wearing a coat that made no attempt to be flattering. She liked him more for it, then immediately wished he would take it off so she could see his shoulders. “Hello,” he said. “Hello.” They stood in the parking area with the lake beyond them and …
The woman on the fitting step wanted to be able to raise both arms above her head without looking as though she had raised both arms above her head. “It’s for a photograph,” she explained. “What happens in the photograph?” “I throw my hat.” Coralie looked at the jacket, then at the hat on the …
Farah canceled at eight fourteen, while Coralie was deciding which jacket suggested she had not spent any time deciding. I’m so sorry. Child sick, husband already at work. Can’t come. Go without me. Coralie read the message twice. Then she put both jackets back on their hooks. Of course. Hope everything’s okay, she typed. It …
Coralie read Bryony’s approval twice before picking up the scissors. The room was quiet. She had moved the other work away, covered the clean table and laid the dress exactly as she wanted it. There was no reason to delay except the weight of knowing someone had once danced in the shape she was about …
Gareth brought her things in a supermarket bag. Coralie had imagined a box. She didn’t know why this mattered, but when he stood outside the apartment holding a bag with a cartoon orange on it, she wanted to shut the door in his face. “There’s another one in the car.” “How much did I leave …
Coralie had forgotten how much she disliked the phrase getting out of the house until Farah used it three times in one telephone call. “I get out of the house every day. I have a business.” “That doesn’t count.” “The tax people think it does.” “Put on something without loose threads attached. I’m collecting you …
On Wednesday morning Coralie told a client that the wedding arrangements were coming along nicely. The lie left her mouth before she could catch it. The woman was standing on the fitting step in a jacket that pulled across the back, and Coralie had a mouthful of pins and an appointment after hers. The quickest …
The young woman brought the dress in a blue cotton bag held against her chest, as though she had carried it all the way from home without putting it down. “I’m Bryony. We’re a bit early.” “Only a minute.” Coralie had been ready for forty. She had wiped the same clear portion of the worktable …
Gareth called off their wedding with Coralie’s pins still caught in his sleeve. She had one between her lips. She took it out before she answered, because some small functioning part of her understood that she might swallow it. “What?” He looked over her head at the mirror. In it they made a familiar arrangement: …
