“Okay,” I said, keeping my voice light. “So, when do you want to settle up? I can text you the total for fabric and labor.”
Sophie froze for a split second.
Then she zipped the bag and straightened as she’d just remembered something mildly annoying. “Claire…” she said slowly. “Do we really need to do that?”
“Pay,” she said, giving a weird little laugh.
“I mean, I’m not saying you didn’t work hard, but you’re my best friend. And honestly, it’s not like it turned out perfect-perfect, you know?”
My stomach dropped. “Yeah, but I thought about it,” she said.
“You were going to get me a wedding present, anyway. This is way more meaningful than a toaster. Let’s just call it your gift.”
My hands started to shake.
“I never said this would be free. You said you’d pay in full.”
Her expression hardened just a little. “Why are you making this a whole thing?
We’re best friends. You know I don’t have extra money right now.”
“Sophie, this is my job. I paid for the materials out of pocket.
I’ve been working overtime. I can’t just pretend it’s nothing.”
She rolled her eyes. “God, Claire, don’t make it weird.
It’s my wedding.”
That was it. In her head, my boundaries were the problem, not the fact that she’d just decided my labor was free. She left with the dress.
No payment. No plan. Just a smile and a “Love you, babe, text me later!” tossed over her shoulder.
I tried to tell myself she was stressed. Brides go a little nuts, right? I texted her a few times about the bill.
She dodged each one. If I called, she’d say, “Can we talk later? I’m at the venue,” or “I’m with Ethan’s mom; it’s hectic, I’ll call tomorrow.”
Tomorrow never came.
And then I realized something simple and stupid. I still hadn’t gotten a wedding invitation. At first, I made excuses for her—maybe the mail was slow, maybe she was handing them out in person and I’d see her soon.
But a week before the wedding, when I still had nothing, I called her. “Hey,” I said, trying to sound casual. “I just realized I never got an invite.
Did something happen with the mail?”
She was quiet for a beat too long. “Oh,” she said. “Yeah.
About that.”
She let out a little sympathetic sigh that made my teeth clench. “Claire, you know how it is,” she said. “Ethan’s parents are very particular.
They’re inviting a lot of business people, important guests. It’s… a certain kind of crowd.”
I waited for her to say, “Oh, of course you’re coming.”
She didn’t. Instead, she said, “It’s not a huge wedding.
We had to be selective.”
So I asked the only question left. She hesitated. “Claire, don’t take it personally.
You know I love you. It’s just… you’re a seamstress. You don’t really know Ethan’s world.”
There it was.
Not said cruelly. Just casually. Like I was a mismatched chair in her curated living room.
I didn’t yell. I didn’t beg. I just said, “Okay.
I understand.”
And I did understand, finally. She didn’t see me as family. She saw me as help.
I stayed home on her wedding day. I worked a little, checked on Mom, did laundry, tried not to imagine the dress I’d made walking down an aisle without me in the room. I told myself I’d learned an expensive lesson and that was that.
A few hours into the reception, my phone rang. It was Nina, another friend of mine, who sometimes waits tables at events when she’s not in school. I answered, expecting something normal.
Instead, I got, “Claire, you are not going to believe what just happened.”
My stomach dropped for the second time that month. Nina lowered her voice even though I wasn’t there. “I’m working Sophie’s wedding,” she said.
“And karma just did a full backflip.”
I sat down hard on the couch. “Okay. Tell me.”
“So,” Nina began, “everything was going fine.
Then, during the toasts, one of Ethan’s drunk groomsmen gestured too wildly and knocked a full glass of red wine all over Sophie’s skirt.”
I winced. I’d put hours into that skirt. “She freaked out,” Nina went on.
“Like full panic. She grabbed two bridesmaids and sprinted to the bathroom. I followed with club soda and towels because that’s literally my job.”
I could picture it so clearly.
It hurt. “They’re in there, blotting the dress, and one bridesmaid starts digging around the seams like she’s on CSI: Couture Edition,” Nina said. “Then she goes, ‘Wait, where’s the label?’ Like, loudly.”
I closed my eyes.
“Another girl says, ‘Luxury gowns always have something—label, stamp, whatever. There’s nothing in here,'” Nina continued. “Then someone else goes, ‘Didn’t your seamstress friend make your dress?
Claire? Why isn’t she here?'”
My grip tightened on the phone. “Sophie tried to play it off,” Nina said.
“She goes, ‘The seamstress isn’t here. It’s a custom designer piece, okay? It cost a fortune.'”
“One of them literally laughed and said, ‘So your friend made you a dress, and you lied and told everyone it was some luxury label?
And you didn’t even invite her?'”
I could almost hear the bathroom go quiet through the phone. “People outside heard them,” Nina continued. “You know how bathrooms echo.
When they came out, two bridesmaids were clearly angry. Now the whole table is whispering about how she stiffed the friend who made the dress.”
She hesitated, then added, “And Ethan’s mom heard. She did not look impressed.”
That part caught my attention more than the gossip.
“What did she do?” I asked. “She pulled Sophie aside after. I couldn’t hear everything, but I caught ‘image,’ ‘lying,’ and ‘how do you treat your friends like that.'” Nina let out a low whistle.
“The vibe shifted, Claire. People still danced, but you can tell some of them are looking at her differently now.”
I sat there, staring at the wall above my TV. I wasn’t happy she was embarrassed.
I wasn’t throwing confetti because her image was damaged. I just felt… done. “I thought you deserved to know people are finally seeing it,” Nina replied.
After we hung up, I sat with my phone in my lap for a long time. My apartment was quiet except for the hum of the fridge and my mom’s TV murmuring down the hall. I thought about college Claire, who would’ve bent over backward to fix this for Sophie, who would’ve apologized for making her look bad, who would’ve offered to come steam the dress for free, and smile at everyone.
I wasn’t her anymore. I had bills, a mom who needed me, and a job that deserved to be treated like a job—not a cute little hobby to be exploited. The next morning, I opened my laptop and typed up an invoice for Sophie, anyway.
Materials, hours, and rush work fee. It wasn’t an outrageous amount. It was just fair.
I sent it with a short message: “This is the balance for your gown. Payment due in 30 days.”
No emojis, no apologies. She replied the next afternoon.
“Wow! After everything, you’re really going to shake me down like this? I had the worst night of my life, and you’re thinking about money?”
I read it twice, then three times.
Old me would’ve caved. New me typed back, “Yes. Because this is my work.
You promised to pay me. Just cause you got married doesn’t mean you can go back on your word.”
I stared at the screen, then added one more line. “I’m glad you liked the dress enough to lie about what it cost.”
Then I hit send and closed my laptop.
I don’t know if she’ll ever pay me. If she doesn’t, I’ll survive. I’ve survived worse.
A week later, Nina told me she’d heard from a coworker that Ethan’s family wasn’t thrilled about how the wedding went. Apparently, the story about the “designer dress” and the uninvited friend had made the rounds, and it wasn’t going away. And somehow, Sophie also let it slip that she never paid for the dress.
I didn’t gloat. I just made myself a cup of coffee, sat at my sewing machine, and took in a new client’s dress that actually came with a deposit. Mom shuffled into the kitchen, leaning on her cane.
“You’re up early,” she said. She nodded like that was the most normal, solid thing in the world. Later that day, I posted a new policy on my business page.
Fifty percent deposit up front. No exceptions. Friends, family, strangers—everyone gets the same paperwork now.
Because here’s what I learned from sewing Sophie’s dress: If someone is thrilled to take your time, your skill, your labor, and then makes you feel guilty for wanting to be paid, they were never really your friend.
They were just auditioning you for the role of an unpaid extra in the story they’re telling about themselves. I don’t want that part anymore. So I stepped off her stage, picked up my needle and thread, and started rewriting my own script instead.
If karma wants a supporting role, that’s between her and the universe. I’ve got hems to finish and a life to live. And next time someone smiles at me and says, “You’re so talented, could you just whip something up?” I’ll smile back, hand them a quote, and see if they still think my work is just a favor dressed like friendship after all.
