Lily heard the cork pop from the bottle as she slipped off her clothes and stepped into the stunning dress, loving the way that the material felt against her skin. She reached to her side to pull up the zip, securing the beautiful skirts at her waist and then upwards to where the top half pulled together about her chest, the thin spaghetti straps falling into place above the silk cresting between her breasts. She looked down at the skirts and saw a flash of white silk at her thigh. Frowning, she went to spread the skirts.

‘No! Wait!’ Victoria said, rushing over to the bathroom door and pulling it open for the floor-length mirror. ‘Now. Walk towards it.’

‘V—’

‘Lils, just walk,’ Victoria insisted.

She did as commanded and let out a cry of joy as she saw the way the sage green silk skirt parted as she did, to reveal a bolt of white silk panelled into what would have been a thigh-high split. The effect was stunning, but more than that, Lily spun to her friend, realizing what she’d done.

‘It’s the same white silk that my dress is made of,’ Victoria said, with a shoulder shrug as if she hadn’t just done the most beautiful thing. ‘I wanted us all to have something from—’

Victoria didn’t get to finish the words because Lily grabbed her into a hug, cutting off her words.

‘It’s stunning, V. So, so stunning,’ Lily exclaimed, feeling her eyes well up.

‘Don’t you dare cry. Don’t you dare. You’ll set me off and then we’ll both be sitting here crying into our bubbles,’ Victoria ordered. ‘And I don’t cry into bubbles.’

‘I call Lost Hours!’ Lily demanded, causing Victoria to laugh and grab her phone. ‘Wait, where is Zo at the moment? I’ve got no idea and I’m not sure what the time difference is.’

‘Don’t worry about Zo.’

‘Oh, but it’s, like, 6 a.m. in Hawaii! Malie will be—’

‘Perfectly fine to answer the phone,’ Victoria insisted, pressing buttons on her phone while Lily gazed at herself in the mirror. As she’d expected, the dress fit perfectly. No alterations needed. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes sparkled as Victoria pushed a glass of bubbles into her hand. Suddenly, more than anything she wanted Henry to see her. Wanted to know what he would think of her dressed like this. Could almost imagine him standing behind her in a tux, looking so devastatingly handsome. She blinked and the image was gone.

‘Morning, Malie,’ she heard Victoria cry at the screen of her phone.

‘This. Had. Better. Be. Good. V,’ came the muffled response.

‘Are you doing sit-ups?’

‘My body is a lean, meaning, fighting machine. Got to keep it in shape.’

‘Have you got the phone between your knees?’ Lily laughed as she caught sight of Malie’s head getting closer, then further from the screen.