Under the Surface

Chapter 24: Stella

Stella sat up on the bar stool scrolling through her laptop and hastily tapping away at the keys, whilst her coffee released steam beside her. It was Thursday morning and she decided to go to the office a little bit later than usual as it was a slow week compared to others as they only had two catering jobs and one had already been done yesterday, another anniversary party! *Eye roll*. Martin had already left for work and she had already dropped off JJ to school earlier, Danielle on the other hand was still asleep. "Oh hi," announced Stella as she saw her daughter stroll in, wearing a black silk dressing gown and pink fuzzy slippers. "Hey," she managed to mumble as she rubbed her eyes..."coffee?" she asked. "I just made some, it's in the pot," answered Stella as she pointed over to the coffee pot where her daughter was now walking over to. "So, I was thinking it might be nice for us to spend some time together and your formal is speeding up and you haven't even gotten a dress for it yet, do you want to go to the mall today to shop for something to wear to it?"  asked Stella, as she removed her glasses and placed them on top of her head as she looked at her daughter. She used to not need glasses but, time goes on and as it does, so does age! "Umm..sure," replied Danielle as she stirred in creamer to her coffee. "Okay great, how about we go in about an hour? That suit?" she replied as she took a sip. "Cool," Danielle replied as she hopped up on the bar stool next to her and started scrolling through instagram. 

"Oooh, I love this one Danielle!" exclaimed Stella as she stood gazing at an eight hundred dollar elegant, silver-grey dress with bead embellishments and sheer sleeves. Danielle shrugged. She knew they both had completely different styles and probably wouldn't agree on the same dress, however she was trying to not be so controlling and to let her daughter chose, after all it was her formal. But nothing trashy, low cut, too short and everything else that fell into that category. "OMG!" shrieked Danielle as she speed walked over to a one armed, black sequinned dress that flowed all the way down to the ground, with every sequin emitting a blinding sparkle. Stella thought it was nice, however not really her taste, but it could be worse! That was until she saw the slit at the side of the dress. "Hon, it's got a slit, that's going to going up very high!" she said, as she held up the slit at the side of the dress. "Ugh, mom! Please, we've been to four stores already and I haven't even found a dress that I remotely like and this...this is everything I wanted!" she pleaded as she gripped the dress close to her. Stella cocked her head to the side to properly view the dress and chewed the inside of her mouth, trying to decide what she thought. Meanwhile her daughter was staring at her in anticipation, waiting for an answer. Stella sighed and said, "Okay, go try it on at least!". Danielle let out a small scream, which caused another shopper to turn their head and stare as she cheerily walked to the fitting room. 

"Wow, may I say I look hot as fuck in this!" admitted Danielle as she turned to get a view from the back of it in the mirror in the dressing room. "Ssshh, language!" replied Stella, rolling her eyes. She had her arms crossed staring at her daughter and the dress she was in. It did look good on her, in fact it made her look about twenty years old, not sixteen. The slit was really the only issue, but it didn't even go up as high as she thought it would, it came just above the knee where as she thought it would be under the hip bone on the hanger. "I love it mom!" she beamed to her in the reflection. Normally she'd advise her daughter to try look for another one and not settle on the first one she liked, but she knew getting it would make her happy. She was also buying it for her out of guilt. She still had the memory of her worried little face in her mind when she asked her were her and dad getting a divorce in the car. Over my dead fucking body are we getting a divorce, your dad is being annoying and is just going through a little mid life crisis hon, don't worry I'm trying to drag him back to reality. Do you think I'm going to let him ruin this family and our families reputation by getting a divorce just because he's gotten lazy...no fucking way! That, that is what she really wanted to say. The topic of divorce never even came up between her and Martin, but she couldn't help but wonder if that's where they were heading. "Fine! Get out of it and I'll go pay for it," she smiled to her daughter, who at this stage was jumping up and down with glee.