Read Online Changing Habits: A Short Story (A Giulia Driscoll Mystery) by Alice Loweecey - Free Book Online

I

      
    Giulia Falcone stared in horror at her full-length reflection in the bridal shop’s mirror.
    “I am not walking into a church with chandelier bits dangling from my nipples.”
    Her sole bridesmaid laughed. Laurel and Giulia became friends the day Giulia walked into Laurel’s soup kitchen three years earlier. Giulia became Katie’s godmother and Laurel was the only one Giulia trusted to give a sensible opinion on wedding gowns.
    “If you make them swing against each other like wind chimes, they might go with the organ music.”
    Katie, Laurel’s fifteen-month-old daughter, reached for one of the dangly bits.
    “Pretty!”
    Laurel caught the tiny hand before it did irreparable damage to the designer wedding gown.
    “Enough.” Giulia unzipped herself and stepped out of the ridiculously expensive dress. “Katie, it’s time for ice cream.”
    Katie clapped. “Strawberry!” she said, minus all the r s.
    “It’s your own fault for leaving the dress shopping so late,” Laurel said. “You do realize you’re getting married this Saturday?”
    Giulia climbed into her jeans and sweater. “Trust me; the date is never far from my thoughts. I blame work. Driscoll Investigations has been buried for the past four months. Frank is being more of a boss than a bridegroom. I told him if I didn’t find a dress tonight I’d walk down the aisle draped in a white sheet. He said video of a toga wedding would be sure to go viral.”
    “Men.” Laurel said, and Katie managed “Den.” Giulia and Laurel tickled her.
    Giulia brought the final three dresses of the evening out to the sales staff. Laurel got Katie’s coat on her and the three of them escaped into the February evening.
    “There’s a new custard place two blocks from here,” Giulia said, pulling her alpaca wool hat down over her ears. “Is Katie up to the trip?”
    “Katie will do anything for strawberry ice cream.” Laurel hoisted her daughter on her hip and they walked along slushy sidewalks past stores decorated for Valentine’s Day.
    Couples walked mitten-in-glove as they headed into restaurants covered in red and pink for the holiday.
    Giulia pointed at an antique store on the other side of the street. “A steampunk wedding. Frank wouldn’t have a clue what was happening. His mother would love it.” A gust of wind snatched at her hat and she clamped both hands on it.
    They entered the custard shop as two sets of teenagers exited. Giulia breathed in the rich sweet aroma of hot fudge. Multiple conversations and the voices of adults and children competed with piped-in Sinatra ballads. Valentine’s Day decorations covered the walls, the tables, the custard machine, even the glass counter protecting thirty flavors of hard ice cream.
    Giulia traced a bright red heart with lace trim. “I’d look like a Wild West saloon girl if I wore a red dress with white lace, wouldn’t I?” To the teenager at the counter, she said, “Coffee-vanilla twist in a waffle cone, please.”
    “The dangly crystals would work for that outfit,” Laurel said. “Two scoops of cotton candy in a sugar cone, please, and a baby-size strawberry in a regular cone.”
    They sat at a table next to a window. Now that rush hour had passed, people on the sidewalks outnumbered cars on the street. Giulia savored the custard, the flavors as good as an extra-strong cappuccino. Laurel held her own cone in one hand and Katie’s in the other. Giulia kept a pile of napkins in readiness.
    “You tried on nine dresses tonight and not one of them made you smile,” Laurel said. “Do you have any idea what you want to wear?”
    Giulia bit into her custard. “Everything is so cookie-cutter. I spent ten years dressing exactly like four hundred other nuns. I want a gown that’s different but not weird.”
    “Katie, it’s dripping down the side. Lick it! There you go. Giulia, every one of those dresses came from different patterns. Three had clingy skirts, four had cathedral trains, two were