There is a forgotten verb tense in the language of women: the frivolous imperative. It lives not in textbooks but in the soft slide of silk over a clavicle, the decisive click of a heel, the way a sleeve falls just so when you point at a wine list.
Last Tuesday, I walked into a restaurant wearing a dress that had no business making decisions. It was sage green, backless, with a skirt that started its sentence somewhere around my ribs and finished with a whisper just above the knee. A frivolous dress. The kind you buy after one glass of Sancerre, thinking, When? and the dress answers, Tonight. -I frivolous dress order the meal-
So yes: I frivolous dress order the meal. There is a forgotten verb tense in the
You see, a frivolous dress is not merely clothing. It is a caucus of confidence, a small rebellion sewn into every seam. When I leaned forward to look at the menu, the neckline dipped. The waiter appeared. Not because I called him—because the dress did. It ordered the oysters before I could say no thank you . It asked for the Sancerre (the other Sancerre, the one with the unpronounceable vintage). It gestured, with a sleeve that caught the candlelight, toward the bone marrow. It was sage green, backless, with a skirt