“The Boutique of Miracles”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Molly sighed as she stared at the woman in front of her. It wasn’t the worst that she had had to work with before, but it was definitely not optimal.

Molly set to work arranging the clothes on the rack beside her and tried to picture something–anything–that could help her fix this mess standing in front of her. Even with her extensive experience in fashion design and styling, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to provide a ‘miracle makeover’ for this one.

“So?” the woman–Lydia, Molly thought her name was–asked, looking up with those stupidly hopeful eyes. “Do you have any ideas?”

Molly forced herself to turn and look Lydia up and down. Everything about her screamed that she didn’t care about her appearance. It was an absolute fashion nightmare.

After staring at the clothing on the rack, Molly decided to give Lydia the exact same treatment that she gave everyone else. She would give her clothes that matched her personality.

“Here,” Molly said, grabbing a few pieces and shoving them towards Lydia. “Try this.”

Lydia eagerly took the clothes and scurried off to the dressing room. Molly sighed again. Was it too much to ask for someone with at least the slightest bit of fashion sense to walk into her boutique?

Lydia reappeared moments later, looking overjoyed. “This is incredible!” she squealed, spinning around in front of the mirror to observe herself from every angle.

Molly forced a smile. “Yes, isn’t it lovely?” she asked dryly, watching Lydia happily twirl around in the white tank top and jeans that she had picked out.

“I’ll take it!” Lydia exclaimed, practically bouncing up and down.

That statement made Molly’s smile become genuine. “Excellent,” she purred. “I’ll ring it up right now and you can walk out of here in your new outfit.”

Lydia nodded happily and reached into her purse. Molly walked to the cash register and punched in the total.

“That’ll be five thousand dollars,” Molly said, trying to keep the glee from her voice.

Lydia paused for a moment, her hand lingering in her bag. Molly felt her heart lurch and thought for a moment that she had lost her customer, but then Lydia’s hand resumed its path and brought out her wallet. She handed over her credit card and Molly’s smile brightened.

When the transaction was complete, Molly grinned at Lydia. “Have an excellent day,” she said.

Lydia nodded and waved good-bye, leaving the shop with the twinkle of a bell.

Molly leaned back and sighed one last time, thinking about the profit she just made for helping yet another unpopular rich woman believe that some pieces of fabric could drastically improve her life.

She loved her job.

Final Comments: I struggled a bit to come up with an idea for this prompt. Ultimately, there ended up not being that much of a twist, and I feel like I could’ve probably communicated the story much better.

Overall Rating: 😓