I wasn’t letting myself dwell too much on the premiere, because the minute I did I went into a full-blown panic. I still couldn’t believe I was going. I couldn’t believe he was even talking to me after what I’d said to him in the hospital. I wondered if he would bring any of that up, or if God would prompt me to broach the subject again. I almost hoped neither would happen, that it would never come up in the conversation, because I was still so new to the Christianity thing myself, I didn’t know what I would say if he asked me about it. And even Jane and Missy had been unsure what to make of it when I’d told them about my experience.

I finally decided there was no use worrying about it anymore. Whatever was going to happen would happen whether or not I was ready for it. Might as well just hang on and let the roller coaster continue.

One Saturday afternoon in late March, Missy, Joy, and Taylor picked me up and whisked me to the mall for dress shopping. We worked out the most efficient dress-shopping strategy ever created: I pointed, they found the right size, and once we’d amassed more dresses than we could carry, we schlepped everything to the biggest fitting room we could find. We took a lot of breaks—fast shopping burns a lot of calories, after all—and after a total of two mochas, a brownie, a cheese croissant, a hot flavored pretzel, and twelve stores, we finally found the perfect dress: a floor-length, black satin number in a mandarin style, with cap sleeves and little flowers embroidered into the slinky material. It fit beautifully, was neither too dressy nor too casual, and was very comfortable, and we all agreed instantly that it was The Dress. We also found a black satin wrap and shoes I felt sure would permanently reform my foot, and after a very full day, we went home to order pizza to celebrate.

There were about two weeks left before the premiere. I’d started looking critically at myself, trying to figure out if I was being neurotic or if I really was going to look absolutely ridiculous standing next to one of the most beautiful men in the world. I’d always had pretty simple taste; jeans and T-shirts were my favorite outfits. Would I really be able to pull off even a somewhat-glamorous look for this premiere? Or would I just look like a jeans-and-T-shirt girl stuck in a nice dress?