I had a company dinner the next night. I was packing up all my stuff coz I was supposed to go to the function right after work (btw, I'm attending the dinner as a slave, not as a guest)
Shoes, settled. Make up, done. Dress, OK... I took a second look at the black cocktail dress lying on my unmade bed. Hmm. The zipper at the side of the dress was a huge pain in the arse the last time I wore it. Even though it was close to midnight and I had a long day ahead the next day, I decided to try it on just in case.
The friggin' zipper would not zip up properly. It kept getting stuck at midpoint, and the more I tugged at it the harder it got to actually unzip. Ok maybe it'd work better if I zip it gently. It didn't budge. Frustrated, I wriggled out of the little black monstrosity that was turning into the bane of my existence and flung it across my bed, completely working myself up into a full-blown anxiety attack. I had no other dress to wear (Hi, my name is Cindy and I never have back-up plans), no time to go shopping for one, and no money to get it repaired.
I was freaking out in my room, half naked and sweating like a Sumo wrestler eating steamboat despite the air-cond on full blast.
Another fifteen minutes of trying to get the blasted thing to zip up with AND without me in it, I was about to call my personal 911 for help. My mom. But it was already past midnight and rationally she couldn't have done much for me considering she was over 200km away from me.
I heard football sounds coming from the TV. Downstairs. Immediate help! Although I had no idea how a 24-year-old bachelor can help me with a girly crisis such as the one currently at hand. I was that desperate.
I dashed downstairs and knocked on the door.
"ANDREAAA-- It won't ZIP UP!!" He looked bewildred for a moment as he stepped back to let me barge in. Then he took a look at the dress on my hand and burst out laughing.
"For tomorrow night?"
"YESSs. I know I should've tried it on way before but I didn't and now I have nothing to wearr!" Always in my most attractive behavior around my housemates, of coz.
"Come, lemme have a look." He took the dress from me and checked the zipper, squinting at it like it was a specimen slide on a microscope.
"It's broken adi." He announced just as the football crowd on TV groaned and moaned over a missed shot, like they were taunting me. I glared at the TV. Get your dress ruined the day before an important event and find TRUE misery, people.
"Are you serious? Like, there's no way to fix it at all? Maybe at the alteration shops or something?" I was going on a panic attack; I could feel it. I needed someone to tell me it could be fixed, somehow, before 5pm tomorrow.
"Well... they can probably change the whole zipper but it'll take some time." He tried to sound sympathetic, but I could tell he was biting his lips trying not to laugh at the crazed look on my face. As ridiculous and cliche as the situation was, I was seriously in distress.
I buried my face into the fluffy pillows, hugging the dress as if to coax it into zipping up properly. "I am so dead..."
Finally able to keep his laughter under control, he suggested that I wear it without unzipping the dress. IF I ever get it to zip up in the first place. The zipper was halfway done at that point.
If only... half-heartedly I sat back up and tried to zip up the dress gently. God, please let it zip up, I promise I'll stop stealing the Japanese chocolate stash my group leader keeps hidden in the cabinet next to the copy machine if You'd help me fix this zip...
It zipped up almost immediately, without me having to tug at it ceaselessly. Andrea and I looked at each other, then at the perfectly zipped up dress.
"Go try it on la! Without unzipping it. Juz slip it over your head!"
I was doubtful, but there was really no other way. No way was I gonna risk having it stuck in the middle the moment I try to unzip it.
I slipped it on. It fitted perfectly. I didn't even have to struggle into it. So I managed to attend the dinner in a presentable outfit as a slave. All's right with the world.
Needless to say, I stopped stealing my leader's chocolate. Instead, I told him I found out about his stash and insisted that he share it with the rest of us since I found out his salary is almost double of ours. He relented. XD
