Dancing With Velvet Read Online Free Page B

she bought them. Listen, you go on to your movie, and have a good time, you hear?”
    “Thanks, Sister, I will.”
    “Love you, Cece.”
    “Love you, too.”
    ****
    She’d just paid for her ticket when she heard, “It must be fate.”
    “Are you following me?” She lifted her chin and made herself look at him. She knew, when her heart turned over, it was the wrong thing to do.
    “Nope, just lonesome on a Saturday night and decided to take in a movie. Are you by yourself?”
    “My friend is meeting me.”
    “Boyfriend?”
    “No.”
    “Is there room for one more?”
    Celeste dropped her eyes. “I don’t think so. Excuse me.”
    She shared a box of popcorn with Marilyn, and they sat through the previews a second time before they left the theatre. The young man was nowhere in sight. She wondered if she’d hurt his feelings and made him leave without seeing the movie, but it did seem like he was trying to pick her up. On the way to Marilyn’s house, they passed Cox-Rushing-Greer.
    “I tried on that dress,” Celeste said, stopping in front of the window with the blue velvet dress.
    “I’ll bet you were a knockout in it. You’re really pretty, Cece, but you still dress like you were in school. My father says I should dress professionally even if I do only work a counter at Woolworth.”
    “I’ve got some new things on layaway.” Celeste put her fingers against the glass and thought of how the dress felt between her fingers. “It costs almost fifty dollars.”
    “Fifty dollars! Did you strike oil in your backyard?”
    Celeste laughed without being amused. “Yeah, think of that on my salary.”
    “On both of ours put together.”
    “But it’s the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen.”
    “Where would you wear it?”
    “That’s just it. I don’t go anyplace where I’d wear a dress like that. It would be a waste, even if I could afford it.”
    “You ought to get out more.”
    “You’re the third person to tell me that in two days.”
    “Don’t you want to get married?”
    “Someday.”
    “I’d marry Brad tomorrow if he asked, but he says we have to get ahead first. My parents think he’s the most sensible boy I ever dated.”
    “That’s not such a bad idea.”
    “I guess not, but sometimes I wish he wasn’t so sensible.”
    The bemused look on her friend’s face made Celeste laugh. “Well, I’ll just wait for my handsome prince, and if he’s rich, I’ll ask him to buy this dress for me.”
    ****
    That night, she dreamed almost the same dream and watched the unknown man fade away as the blue velvet curtains billowed out of her reach. The clock chimed midnight over and over as she listened to him call her name from beyond the velvet barrier.
    ****
    The next morning she left Marilyn in front of Sacred Heart and walked down Oakes Street toward her own church. She’d always loved the square yellow brick building and the way the dark wooden pews were set so there wasn’t a center aisle. She liked the corner of a middle pew on the left, where she could watch the organist and see the sun filter through the three stained glass windows above the choir loft.
    She’d always felt safe in the church, as if it were her second home or something, and Coralee had made sure they were in Sunday School every week. Now, her class had scattered, so she only went to church, and she missed the group of young people she’d known all her life.
    The minister’s text that morning was “Ask and ye shall receive.” She chewed her bottom lip as she tried to concentrate. I wonder what would happen if I asked God to give me enough money for that dress? I wonder how much of a sin it would be to ask for something material. And even if the money dropped out of the balcony, like manna from Heaven, where on earth would I wear a dress like that? Then, as she closed her eyes when the minister said, “Let us pray,” she saw the young man coming across the dance floor again, his hand outstretched. Before she knew it,