A Dress

Cindy and I stole away for lunch and a movie. After getting many recommendations for “Blind Side,” we chose that film. There were several themes in the film, but the one that caught me was how Sandra Bullock’s character just brought Michael into her family without conditions. It was touching.

Afterwards, we decided to stroll through Dutch Square Mall. I wonder how many times in my life I’ve walked through that center hallway. The Cromer’s Monkeys and the Barrel of Fun are long gone. Even the center stage Santa display looks thrown together.

Cindy wanted to go into Dress Barn and I, well, I didn’t. I told her she could find me in the Game Stop. I really thought I was going to be in there for a while, but this particular GS has that Funky Mall store smell that drives you to leave as soon as possible.

I left and found a bench outside of Dress Barn and waited. It was 4:00 in the afternoon and Santa had several visitors. 4:10 came and still no Cindy. There was a Game Stop newspaper insert on the bench and I flipped through, halfway interested, but, not really.

4:15. Ok, I’m going in. It didn’t take long to get through the door before the little “Ding Dong” announced that a customer was entering the store. Ugh, I hate the attention.

Scanning the store, I found Cindy outside of the dressing room looking at herself in the mirror. She was stunning in a little black dress that she had found. So often, I just see her as my wife Cindy, wearing every day clothing. But, caught off guard and I saw this attractive, petite lady.

Cindy was ecstatic about the dress because it was placed on the 70% off rack. I had no problem buying it because a) She looked great in it, b) She wanted it for her cousin’s wedding next summer and c) I spend way more than that on a single video game.

At the register, it rang up full price and the sweet deal turned sour. Cindy, not in the least married to the dress, was prepared to leave. I wasn’t. Pulling some of my best Dave Ramsey skills, I asked for a bargain. The best the manager could give me was 20%. Ok, not bad, but not 70%. We left.

A few steps out of the door, we were talking about the dress. I was really hoping Cindy would buy it, but she was more in love with the deal. I was more in love at how fabulous she looked in it. After a few back and fourths, she decided that she did like the dress.

She went in to purchase it and I walked over to the Game Stop to look at the outside displays (the smell was holding me out). Suddenly I hear Cindy calling my name and I turned. With her was the manager who shook my hand. She told me that she was really touched at how my face dropped when we left, and that she had given Cindy the 20% discount plus an extra 10 dollars. I was stunned that the manager came out to tell me.

So, we didn’t get the “best” deal, but, Cindy got a great dress and we got a neat story.