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be...” she tells the uptight, prim and proper cashier. “Are you sure you have the right person?”
    I step up next to my new friend. “What's wrong?”
    Charlie looks dumbfounded. “She.. she says someone already paid for my dress?”
    Is that all? I laugh and guide Charlie toward the rest of the girls. “Jay was going to pay for it as well as Jess's. But, Clink beat him to it.”
    She looks at me, shocked. “Why would he do that?”
    I squeeze her hand gently, reassuringly. “You've got a lot to learn, sweetheart. Don't worry. It gets easier once you learn the basics.”
    Sunny and Jess are in deep conversation, with Sunny making wild hand gestures and touching Jess's hair. Great... here we go. A still confused Charlie and I step up and interrupt the two other girls.
    “Jules! Sunny is going to make me a blonde!” Wow! Wasn't expecting that one.
    Charlie and I quickly glance at each other. Obviously both unsure how to respond to the drastic makeover plans. Sunny is busy studying Jess's hair and feeling the texture, rubbing it between her fingers and mumbling to herself.
    “Ah... really? Wow.... wow.” I try to hide my shock. I fail miserably.
    She starts to panic. “You don't think I should?”
    I shake my head frantically, back pedaling.
    “No... that's not what I meant.”
    I pat her hand. Sunny barely bats an eye, still engrossed in Jess's mane.
    “Sunny is a hair genius. It's... it's gonna be great. So, when is this gonna happen?”
    Sunny chimes in. “We're gonna head over to the shop now. I've got some time this afternoon. She's gonna look fuckin' hot! I'll be finished to do your hair before we go out tonight.”
    Tonight is my impromptu bachelorette party. Nothing too big, just my main girls. At least, I hope it's nothing too big. I really didn't have much to do with it. These girls took care of everything themselves. They even got Christine to agree to go. She's not very happy that I'm actually getting married before she is. I understood when she declined my invitation to be one of my bridesmaids, with how busy she is in the last stages of her own wedding plans. But still, it hurt.
    What hurt worse, though, was when she asked me to reconsider being a bridesmaid in her own wedding. I had already bought the dress, ordered the shoes and picked the perfect gift to give her. I was really looking forward to it. We've grown our separate ways over the years, but we had a lot of history. I thought that counted for something. Apparently not. Jess doesn’t want a known biker sitting at her bridal table as my date.
    Regardless... I'm glad she's gonna tag along tonight. Maybe we can patch things up a bit.
    “Great. So, we'll meet up with you guys at my house later.”
    I give them each a quick peck on the cheek before Sunny wisps Jess out the door into the parking lot.
    Once the door fully shuts behind them, it's free reign.
    “This is either going to turn out really good... or really bad.” I nod at Charlie's observation.
    Jean pops up behind us, finished with the last details of her dress alterations. “You girls ready to go?”
    Charlie smiles awkwardly at Jean. They've only met a handful of times so far, but Charlie always seems uneasy around Ma. Like she's waiting for her to turn around and bite her or something.
    I smile, “I am soo ready to get out of here. But... still no dress. I'm seriously running out of time. Unless I want to get married in jeans and a T shirt, we'd best hit up another store.”
    I slide my sunglasses on.
    “Don't you worry, I've got just the thing.” Ma puts her arms around both Charlie and myself and pushes us lovingly out the door.
    We pile into Jean's Escalade. Charlie looks unsure at first, as she had driven with Sunny on the way in, but she eventually follows suit and hops in the back seat. We buckle up and I blast the AC. It is damn hot today. Lately, I'm either freezing cold or scorching hot, with no happy middle ground.
    Country music croons from the hidden speakers