Mother of the Bride (15 page)

By late afternoon they were back up on Grafton Street searching in Brown Thomas to see if they could find something suitable. The dresses were certainly different, and Amy insisted on picking out a rich heavy satin emerald-green dress with a wide full skirt from the expensive Italian designer collection.

‘Try these on,' she barked, ordering the girls to the dressing rooms.

Helen couldn't believe it when the dresses actually suited the girls, and fitted them both. The colour wasn't what they had been looking for, but with Ciara's black hair and pale skin it looked really well and it made Jess's fair hair and skin glow, and her brown eyes look sparkling and enormous.

‘I like this,' Jess said, twirling around confidently. ‘It's a real party dress.'

‘I don't. I feel like I should be doing Irish dancing in it,' complained Ciara, doing a bit of a jig.

Helen tried not to laugh at her antics as Jess copied her.

‘I'm too tired to try on any more!' Ciara said defiantly, pulling her jeans and boots back on. ‘I'm going home, and I don't care what you say, Amy, I'm not putting on one more thing.'

‘Please, Ciara!' begged Amy. ‘The shops don't shut for another twenty minutes.'

‘I told you, I'm going!'

‘It is getting late,' Helen reminded Amy. ‘We can always try somewhere else another day. Lots of people go out of Dublin, or you can order online. Anna's girls got their dresses for Sheena's wedding from some website in America, and they looked lovely.'

‘But we don't even know what suits them or fits them or what colour to get!' said Amy, exasperated. ‘So how could we possibly order something online?'

‘It was only an idea!'

‘Listen, Amy, I'm going to the cinema at seven thirty so I need to go now, too,' Jess said, grabbing her bag. ‘Your mum is right. There are lots of other places to try. I think that there is a big wedding place in Swords and Malahide, and there are some great shops in Kildare. When Deirdre got married we got a dressmaker to make the bridesmaids' dresses.'

Amy couldn't hide her disappointment.

‘Your dad will be wondering where I am.' Helen laughed, trying to defuse the awkward atmosphere. ‘I promised I'd make a curry as Ronan and Krista are coming over.'

‘We'll have to go looking for the dresses after work on Thursday, and then maybe again next Saturday,' Amy insisted doggedly.

‘Sorry, but I've a teachers' meeting on Thursday night,' Jess apologized.

‘And I'm working on Saturday,' said Ciara.

‘Well then, we'll go the following week and I'll book the appointments.'

Ciara gave a groan of protest at the thought of even more shopping.

Jess threw her a look of sympathy as she said goodbye.

‘Why don't you and Dan come to dinner, too?' Helen asked her elder daughter, noticing how tired and stressed she looked. ‘There's lots and I have poppadums and chutney and the works. It would be nice, all of us together.'

‘Mum, I've too much to do,' Amy replied fiercely. ‘Dan and I are sorting out the guest list, which is a fecking nightmare, and going through the menus from the caterers.'

‘Maybe you could do that afterwards or tomorrow?'

‘Mum, do you realize how many things there are to do for a wedding? Dan is out three nights a week, and I work late one or two nights. I need to catch him at the weekends if we are ever going to get things planned properly.'

‘Amy, love, it will all sort itself out. Honestly, weddings just come together,' she advised. ‘You want to enjoy it. It's such a happy time for you both.'

‘It won't happen without a lot of work and effort, Mum!' said Amy grimly.

Jess yawned as she answered her mobile. She'd had an awful day at school, as two of her second class had puked in the classroom and had to be sent home. She prayed that it wasn't some kind of twenty-four-hour virus that would hit the rest of the class tomorrow, or she'd be dealing with bowls of vomit all day.

She'd done yard duty with Nell Casey. She'd spent the half-hour lunch-break racing around after four ten-year-olds who were playing some kind of dare game. Nell, who was due to retire in the summer, pretended not to see the action when Jenny Fagan fell and almost split her skull jumping from the school wall. Jess had had to clean the gash and Steri-Strip it, and write an accident report for the headmistress.

Tonight all she wanted to do was to go home, have a bite of dinner, go for her hour-long walk and then settle down to watch
EastEnders
and that new
Catwalk Queen
programme, but instead Amy was dragging her all the way over to Swords, to some well-known bridal shop to look for a bridesmaid dress.

‘I'll meet you there,' Jess said reluctantly.

*  *  *

Amy had poor Ciara in the fitting room trying on a hideous corset and skirt in a peach colour.

‘It's vile,' shouted Ciara, flinging it back out over the door.

‘They can get it in other colours,' Amy shouted back.

Helen O'Connor was sensibly keeping out of it, looking at a glossy wedding magazine that belonged to the shop.

Jess braced herself as Maggie, the lady assigned to help them, appeared with an armful of dresses for her to try on. Surprised by the huge range of styles, she slipped off her jeans and top.

The first would barely go down over her chest, and had sleeves so tight they cut under her arms. Why the hell hadn't Amy asked Aisling or Tara or one of her other skinny friends to be a bridesmaid? It would have made things a hell of a lot less complicated. Jess huffed and puffed her way out of the dress and dragged on the next one. This actually fitted. Hallelujah! It was a plum chiffon, with a soft round neckline and a great layered skirt that hid a multitude of sins. It was gorgeous and she loved it.

‘Look, Amy,' she called out, delighted, spinning around.

The assistant went and got Ciara the same dress in a size ten and she dragged it on.

‘Yuk,' she said, stepping out in front of the mirrors. ‘I feel like a birthday cake or a lampshade in this, and the colour is disgusting.'

‘But I really like it,' admitted Jess, catching herself at all angles in the mirror.

‘What other colours does it come in?' pressed Amy.

‘All the shades we have are on the rail here, but we can order different sizes in if they are out of stock,' said Maggie, the helpful assistant, passing Ciara another pretty chiffon dress with shoestring straps, a cinched-in waist, and a lovely full above-the-knee skirt in navy.

‘She's not wearing that colour,' said Amy.

‘Forget the colour, we are looking for a style of dress first,' Maggie explained patiently.

Ciara and Jess must have tried on at least fifteen dresses. Jess still liked the layered one, and tried it in another colour: a cool sage green which looked totally different.

‘Oh, Jess, that looks really well on you, too,' remarked Helen.

Amy frowned, looking doubtful.

‘What a lot of brides do now,' Maggie suggested, ‘if they have a problem getting a style to suit all their bridesmaids, is to buy different style dresses in the range but in the same colour and material. Here's a chart with the full colour range.'

Jess understood what she was getting at straight away. She grabbed a dress with a lovely short skirt and straight bodice in the same sage-green colour she had on for Ciara to try.

The two of them laughed as they studied each other in the green, not sure it really worked.

‘I think if you had three or four bridesmaids or more it would be a great idea,' said Amy. ‘But with two it just highlights the differences between them.'

Little and bloody large! thought Jess.

The shop was beginning to fill up, and Maggie excused herself as she went to see to another bride and her mother.

‘I just don't know what to do!' screamed Amy, panicking.

‘Why don't you take the catalogue and all of you study it at home?' suggested Helen. ‘The girls have tried on most of the styles, even if they are not in the colours that you like. We've less than an hour if you want to get over to that other place you had on your list before it closes.'

The massive Wedding Warehouse, with its proclaimed range of bridal dresses and accessories for every type of wedding, proved a massive disappointment. The bridesmaid dresses were mostly full-length with sequins and beads, in shiny materials and colours like baby pink and turquoise and red. ‘Yuk', they all agreed, high-tailing it out of there.

As Jess drove home at 9.30, promising herself a lovely long hot soak in the bath, she couldn't believe that she had agreed to give up another precious Saturday to go and search for dresses again with Amy. She had to be mad!

Helen was cooking a simple pasta dinner with tomatoes, basil and baby courgettes when Ciara walked in. Her long dark hair looked dirty, its heavy black dye giving it a sooty appearance. Her pale face was accentuated by black kohl eyeliner, and despite the warm weather she was wearing black leggings tucked into chunky black biker boots. Her fingernails were painted black, and every finger was covered in silver jewellery.

Helen bit her tongue and said nothing.

Ciara was a good kid and had gone straight to work from college. She was doing extra shifts trying to raise money for an eight-week trip to Thailand in the summer before she started her final year.

‘I wish Amy would get off my case!' Ciara complained angrily, grabbing a glass of water and sitting down to pick at the bowl of salad on the table. ‘She's turned into a Bridezilla! I don't see why I have to go and look at stupid dresses again this Saturday. I'm meant to be working, and Henry says that if I can't do my normal shift, then I have to do the Sunday plus a late night on Thursday. It's so unfair. I'm going to miss a big music session in Whale. I've helped set it up and I won't even get to see the band. Why does Amy have to ruin my life?'

‘Why do you two fight so much?' asked Helen, weary with it all.

‘Because Amy wants me to look like a nerd for her wedding, that's why. I told her I didn't want to be a bridesmaid!' Ciara said. ‘She says that I have to, because I'm her sister. You saw the dresses, Mum. They're awful. If Amy thinks I'm going to wear a vile pink dress for her wedding she can think again!'

‘Ciara, she's just trying to find a bridesmaid dress that both of you like. Most brides just choose a dress and tell all their bridesmaids that's what they have to wear. When your dad and I were at your Cousin Shay's wedding last July in Cork, the bridesmaids had hideous brown dresses. No way was Joanne, the bride, having other girls upstage her. So you don't realize how good Amy is to let you and Jess have your pick.'

‘I'm not wearing any of them. They're not my style.'

‘Is it too much for Amy to ask her only sister to support her on her wedding day?' Helen said angrily. ‘To tidy herself up and wear a pretty dress for a few hours instead of jeans or leggings and biker boots?'

Ciara refused to answer. Instead she fiddled with her phone, pretending to read a text. Eventually she met her mother's gaze. ‘Mum, you know how much I hate dressing up and putting on fake tan like all the other girls, and wearing high heels and pretending to be someone that I'm not. Why should I do it just because my sister is getting married?'

‘It is only one day,' reminded Helen sadly. ‘One special family day! But if it is going against your principles to be nice and kind and supportive of your sister for a single day – then maybe you are right and it is better if you withdraw from being a bridesmaid. Jess is a good friend, and Amy will have her as her bridesmaid, and maybe one of the other girls will step in for you. Amy will be disappointed and very hurt, so you need to think about it, Ciara. You can be a bridesmaid or you can just be a guest like lots of other people at your sister's wedding. But I am telling you, you will not go to the
wedding dressed like you are attending some grunge festival! Do you hear me?'

Ciara stormed out of the kitchen and off upstairs. Her door banged shut and the noise of some God-awful music filled the house.

Helen wondered how two sisters could be so different. The same parents, the same upbringing and education, and yet Amy and Ciara were absolute opposites. No one would think they were related, let alone sisters! They'd sparked off each other ever since they were little, Ronan acting as an easy-going buffer between the two of them. Sometimes she thought that Ciara, instead of trying to copy her big sibling, like most little sisters did, had decided just to be totally different! Helen had grown up with three brothers, and although they were great fun and had always been there for her, she had longed for a sister, dreamed of having one. She envied her women friends who were so connected with theirs. And here were her girls, despite being sisters, totally at odds with each other – over, of all things, a dress!

Poor Barney had been skulking under the kitchen table during the row. He looked up at her, ever hopeful of a walk. She turned off the cooker. She wasn't hungry now, she'd eat later. She had to get away from the noise upstairs. Helen clipped on the dog's lead, slipped on her walking shoes and grabbed her keys. An hour's walk in the fresh air would calm her down and hopefully do them both good.

‘Come on, fellah, let's get out of here!' she said.

Amy was exhausted and had to drag herself out of bed on Saturday morning. She had been to the launch of a new vodka and cranberry drink they were promoting last night, and everyone had stayed on in Krystle afterwards. She had fallen into a taxi at two thirty and crept into the apartment.

Dan was in a bit of a mood with her and had got up early and gone for a jog, as he was in training for a charity marathon he was undertaking in three weeks' time. Sweaty in his tracksuit, he sat in the kitchen, making breakfast.