Pride, Prejudice and other bad first impressions

Chapter 2

“So what did he look like?” I was surprised to hear Mary ask that question of all my sisters.

“Bing?” Lydia asked. She waited until she was sure she had all of our attention before she deigned to answer us. “Um like tall and hot.”

“Those aren’t exactly the best descriptors.” I snorted.

“What color were his eyes?” Jane added, with a dreamy quality in her voice that had me alarmed. “Did they seem soulful to you?”

“Well...” Lydia gave a crooked smile. “So his social media accounts are all set to private, and his profile pic is his face in a group shot and he is turned to the side wearing a pair of Wayfarers, so I really couldn’t tell you the colors of his eyes, but unless he is hiding tiny beady little eyes behind those shades he is like a Grade A hottie. And his sister is like, really pretty, so it has to run in the family or something.”

“I’ve got to get to work,” Jane smiled. “You guys should drop by and to try on the dresses I picked out for you for the Regatta to see if I need to make any adjustments.”

I lounged about in my pajamas and read a cozy mystery, while Mary studied, of course, and Lydia insisted on showing Kitty Bennet, our cat, cat videos on Youtube. Kitty loved Lydia the most out of all of us, but that was probably because they were both alike; they were hyper and had infinitesimally short attention spans.

“Girls,” Mother broke the monotony of the day. “You should probably head over to the store before it closes.”

I dragged myself off of the sofa and put on some jeans, a tank top and a pair of flip flops. Father was giving us a ride into town. We only owned two cars in this family, Dad’s Cadillac and Jane’s Honda. Since Jane was the only one of us with regular employment, it made sense for her to have the Honda. Also, she was incredibly unselfish and would never complain about having to give her sisters rides anywhere. I mostly preferred to walk or ride my bike to the library or the market or even the shops, but I knew that Lydia and her pedicure and sky high heels would not stand for walking all the way to the shop.

Jane was alone in the shop when we got there. Pippa had taken off early to have dinner with her fiance, and of course, Jane had no problem closing up shop by herself. She had an hour before closing, so Lydia, Mary and I found ourselves trying on the dresses Jane set aside for us. I fell in love with the navy dress Jane had picked out for me. Mary didn’t even bother to try on the lavender dress Jane picked out for her.

“Why bother?” Mary didn’t look up from the flash cards she brought with her. “Jane always picks the perfect thing out for us. I know it will be adequate for the Regatta.”

Lydia, however, threw a fit at the gorgeous cream lace mini-dress Jane picked out for her.

“I look like one of those lacy things Nana has all over her house.”

“A Doily?” Mary offered.

“You look amazing.” I shook my head at my little sister, but I could see we were in for a fight.

“I look like a little kid.” Lydia whined. “You are always trying to make me look like a baby. C’mon Mary, help me pick out something.”

“Leave me out of this,” Mary huffed.

“Well, you can carry the dresses for me and help me with the zippers and stuff. Pretty please with sprinkles on top?” Lydia made her pouty face, which none of us in the family could resist, so Mary acquiesced to her demands. Lydia proceeded to pick out around twenty more dresses to try on.

“I really thought that she would like that cream dress.” Jane whispered softly once Lydia had sequestered herself back into the fitting room with Mary. The slight pain in Jane’s voice upset me.

“She looked amazing.” I offered, putting my arm around Jane’s. “She is just being a brat. Forget about her. In the end, she will probably wind up taking the dress you picked out. Otherwise she will wind up looking like a tacky hot mess.”

Lydia, who had just stepped out of the fitting room wearing a loud print dress that made her look orange put her hands on her hips and scowled at me. “I heard that!”

“What can I do to help?” I knew that Jane had a lot of responsibility in the store, and I wanted to help her as much as I could.

“You could help fold the scarves,” Jane offered with a smile. “Oh and Lydia! You had better hang up those dresses and put them back where you found them, or I’m not giving you my employee discount.”

“Sure thing, sis!” Lydia squealed, her head popping over the fitting room door. “Mary is helping!”

I set about folding the scarves while Jane went to the back to fill the steamer with water so she could get our dresses ready, when I was surprised to hear the bell at the door jingle. I looked at my watch. The shop would close in fifteen minutes, but if people were coming into buy, it would make sense for Jane to stay open later than usual. I looked up from the scarves and smiled at the two women who were walking in.

Caroline Li in the flesh. It was weird to see that she was as pretty in person as her profile pic. Even though I was annoyed by my mother’s obsession with Bing Li, and ashamed of Lydia’s Facebook stalking, I had, like my sisters, been quite interesting in what our new neighbors looked like and I wondered what they would be like. Caroline, much like her picture, was tall, thin, with a golden tan and long straight raven hair that hung past her shoulders in perfect layers. She had dark brown eyes that were almond shaped, a snub nose and high cheekbones. She wasn’t conventionally pretty in the way that Jane was, but she was striking.

She walked into the store followed by a shorter woman who seemed only a few years younger, but whose similar coloring and facial features showed that she must be the other Li sister. While Caroline was wearing a short chic black dress and platforms, her sister was wearing a Pucci print dress and a pair of Tory Burch flats, and her hair was cut in a bob that landed at the line of her chin.

I looked straight at the sister’s but didn’t say a word. Caroline’s name was at the tip of my tongue, and I almost called out to her, until I realized it would make me seem like a real weirdo, since we hadn’t even been introduced in person. I was afraid that I would say something like, “Hey, my baby sister creeped on your profile and my mother wants to sell me or any of my siblings to your brother.” So, unfortunately, when Caroline’s razor sharp eyes landed on my, instead of saying something somewhat normal, like “Hello, welcome to Pippa’s” I sort of just sat their with my gob of a mouth wide open. Caroline sniffed at the air and proceeded to walk around the store, and her sister trailed behind her. They looked at a couple of things, never even bothering to pick up a hanger or look at a price tag.

After three minutes, Caroline bent down and whispered something into her sister’s ear, and the shorter Li laughed.

“Cmon, Lou,” Caroline said. “Darcy is waiting for us. And you know how he hates waiting.”

The door chimes began to sound again once the two Li sisters left. At that moment, Jane opened the door from the back office and brought out the steamer.

“Sorry,” she huffed. “Scare them off, or were they just browsing?” Jane was joking, of course.I did not have in my entire body the amount of patience Jane carried in her little pinky, and she had no problem pointing that out to me on occasion.

“Oh they were just browsing, all right.” I gave her one of my favorite crooked smiles, and she returned it with a genuinely lovely one.

“I give up.” Lydia cried out. Mary followed her out of the fitting room carrying a huge pile of dresses. “The lace dress is not that gross, so if you like take it up an inch or two, I guess I will wear it.”

I grabbed the lace mini-dress and handed it to Jane, while Lydia and Mary went to put back all of the fitting room discards. “Told you so.” I whispered to Jane, and I couldn’t help but feel great that I was right, once again.