It was the night before a cocktail party; I had nothing to wear. I don't just mean I had plenty of dresses but none seemed right for the occasion... I mean I had NOTHING (that was not jean shorts and tank tops) to wear. I never really needed cocktail dresses in Colorado, where I had been working before. I left shopping to the last second and found myself in a Marshall's 5 hours before I had to be at the party. I was desperate. I tried on dress after dress after dress, each one less flattering the last one. Walking out of the dressing room defeated I saw a rack next to the entrance to the fitting room. It had... more dresses. I flipped through them and a plain satin dress caught my weary eyes. To humor myself, I went back and tried it on. Do I even have to say it? It was perfect. It fell slightly past the knees, was fitted - but not too fitted - on top, and it flowed just right. Gripping it tightly I ran to the front of the store, without bothering to check the price (which is so unlike me!). When I finally did (I got curious...) there was no price tag. I hailed down the first employee I could find. After hearing me out he looked at me, looked at the dress, then looked back at me and said, "There is no way you can buy this dress." **Insert incredulous facial expression**
Apparently there was a sash that was meant to go along with it. It was a two piece set, he said, there was no way I could buy it, it would go against company policy. Maybe he didn't understand, I thought, I didn't care about the sash, I wanted THE DRESS!! I tried to reason with him, I told him I was desperate, I told him I had to be there in (yikes!) 3 1/2 hours, but he seemed take pleasure in my pathetic situation.
I "discussed the situation" with him for a good 10 minutes. He took the dress and walked to the back of the store. If I hadn't been in such a state of shock I probably would have burst into tears. Just then a woman about my mother's age approached me. In a hushed voice she said she was the assistant manager, she said mean old Mr. Grinch was the manger and had been grumpy his entire life, and she said there was no such store policy. She told me to wait and then without another word trotted to the back of the store. The next minute she was back, clutching the rolled up dress like a football. She deftly handed it back to me and told me to go straight to the customer service desk. I did, and without a moment of hesitation they priced it for me and kindly took my credit card. I signed and scurried out of that store with my plastic bag as fast as I could. TOUCHDOWN!
I will never forget that grumpy store manager, but I also never forget the other kind employees who went out of their way to serve their customers.
By the way, the dress was a steal. Sometimes I just wear it around my apartment for fun, it's that cute. Oh and for the record the cocktail party was the best, and everyone loved the dress.
