Ripped at the Seams Read Free

thinking of going over to the Bridal Building in about an hour,” Sami told her. “You know, that place we saw in the magazine that’s just floors and floors of wedding designer showrooms. I have thesketches from your dress and the bridemaids’ dresses. Then there are the designs I came up with for our prom dresses—I thought those could work as bridesmaid designs.”
    â€œThe prom seems so long ago now,” Celia mused. “Everything’s changed.”
    Sami knew what she meant. Their senior prom had only taken place two months ago, but now everything was different. Celia and Al were married, and Sami was a thousand miles …
a whole world
… away.
    â€œDo they have a maternity wedding gown showroom?” Celia joked.
    Sami laughed, remembering how she’d had to change her design for Celia’s dress when, all of a sudden, at the end of her third month of pregnancy, Celia had suddenly begun to show. “Wouldn’t surprise me,” Sami said. “This is New York, after all. So how’s my brother?” she asked, changing the subject.
    â€œOh, you know Al,” Celia said. “He’ll never change. He’s watching me like a hawk and making me crazy. Every five minutes it’s, ‘Did you drink enough milk? Have you had your protein today? Driedapricots have a lot of folic acid.’ He’s making me crazy. But what can I say? I love the jerk.”
    Sami giggled. “If you think it’s bad now, just wait till the baby’s born.”
    â€œI know, I know.” Celia chuckled. “Look, Sami, I gotta run—I’ve got my monthly checkup at Dr. Gladstone’s in twenty minutes, and if I’m a minute late, Al’s going to have the whole police force out looking for me. Besides, you shouldn’t waste a second more talking to me. You’ve got some pavement to hit. Now grab that portfolio I gave you, get out there, and put Elk Lake on the map!”
    Sami smiled. Putting Elk Lake on the map had been a joke between her and Celia ever since they’d been in third grade and discovered that Elk Lake was too small to show up on any map of Minnesota. Back then, the girls had vowed that when they grew up they were going to become so famous that everyone in the whole state—or even the whole country—would know where Elk Lake was. Celia was going to dance her way to stardom, and Sami was going to design all her costumes. But withCelia married and about to be a mom, it now fell to Sami to fulfill their childhood promise.
    â€œIt’s as good as there,” Sami promised Celia as she hung up the phone.

Two
    Midtown Manhattan in July was not a pleasant place to be. It was the height of the day, and the noon sun beat down from above onto Sami’s head. More heat came up from the sidewalk and was trapped by the skyscrapers that stood tall on either side of the street. Cab drivers with their windows open to save money on air-conditioning screamed at messengers sweating their way through the streets on bicycles, and throngs of people pushed past one another on their way to their air-conditioned offices.
    But Sami tried not to be affected by the heat as she walked along Broadway,clutching her black leather portfolio tightly under her arm. She was too focused on the task at hand to even think about the temperature. She studied the large numbers on the glass doors that lined Broadway. 1379, 1381, 1383, 1385. Ah, here she was. 1385 Broadway. The famous Bridal Building. It was one-stop shopping for any bride: gowns, bridesmaids’ dresses, veils, flowers. Celia and Sami had read all about it in the bridal magazines they’d pored over in the weeks before Celia and Al’s wedding. At the time, it had seemed like a fantasy world. Now, as she stood in front of the door, the fantasy was about to come true.
    Sami walked into the lobby with a determined look on her face. She tried to appear as though she fit in with