Creative Non-fiction // The wrong perfect dress👗

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Mrs. Thompson reached out to me that fine Sunday morning on WhatsApp, to bring some of my best quality African fabrics to church, after the service, she would make her choice and we decide on the style for the dress, also taking part of it about 2 yards to her husband's tailor.

As usual, after the church service, I got crowded by different church members who were my clients too, they will rather prefer to meet after church than come to my place of work, according to them the familiarity will make them easily beat the price down a bit, little did they know that once a businessman is always a businessman, or rather a woman in my aspect, whether church or my location of business, the price still remains the same but fair, over-familiarity doesn't run my expenses or do the work for me.

While focusing On Mrs. Thompson, because she did book the appointment more formally than the rest, occasionally giving side glances and reply to the women that were in a hurry to go prepare lunch for their families, also collecting their fabrics. I noticed Mrs. Thompson brought along another fabric with her and was emphasizing how important she needed the two dresses she will be making urgently, each dress in the two forthcoming weekends, one for a relative's funeral next weekend while the other fabric she bought from me will be used for her child's dedication the week after that, and it was slated to occur in her hometown according to their tradition. She finally settled for the two different styles. I made sure to reconfirm the fabrics for each style and occasion again, so I thought. But I wouldn't be able to meet up with the two dresses this weekend, I let her understand that I had much workload, so I had to make the first one she needed this week and would deliver the other dress next week.

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I put my best into the job as usual, the week was a tiring one for me, with much work load, and all deliveries were to occur on the weekend, Mrs. Thompson called from time to time asking about her custom-made dress and how far gone I was, I assured her she could come for fitting on Friday.

Friday came but she couldn't make it due to her traveling plans the next day, she asked for the dress to be delivered to her house in the evening, this was not the first time I would make a dress for her, I had made a couple of dresses in the past for her, probably the reason she felt very confident to not come for the fitting in the morning.

A notification popped up that the dress was delivered to her, I waited patiently for her call, and it wasn't long after I saw her name displayed on my phone screen, this woman should have come for fitting I thought to myself, only to receive the call, she sounded calm but sad,

"sister G this dress is perfect but isn't the fabric, you've got them mixed up, this one is for the funeral next week while the other one I bought from you is for my child's dedication this Sunday"

Oh no! My shoulder fell, and to make it worst, she said all her family and friends bought the fabric as aso-ebi (uniform), even though it was perfect, she couldn't wear it, I felt bad, I must have gotten distracted while concluding with her or we misunderstood each other. Right then, I had no other choice than to fix my mistake, I told her to give me till morning to see what I can do. Thank God she had a calm personality and I also had the materials needed to make the new dress at home, all I needed was a strong cup of coffee to keep sleep away, I worked all night long, taking non-stop sips of my coffee, thankfully, my mum was around, she helped a couple of times with the ironing process. By 5 am, I was done and overly exhausted, dark circles around my eyes gave me an all-night-long badge like hivebuzz does to every hivians accomplishments, I sent the finished dress to her, she was shocked and very happy, she couldn't stop saying thank you and job well done on the phone, by 7 am she was off to her home town for her child's dedication while I slept throughout the day like a sack of potatoes, hubby occasionally checking if I was still breathing and forcing me to take my meals.

On Monday morning I was greeted with beautiful pictures from her and a credit alert with a huge tip and a thank you alongside, I felt proud and happy to have gone extra length to satisfy my client.