by Sian Ceinwen
“Thank you for asking, Ariana,” she said while smiling politely at her, “yes, I was thinking of making the bridesmaid dresses myself and definitely my wedding dress. I’ve actually already started designing it.”
Heather’s eyes went slightly out of focus as she envisaged what she was planning for the dresses. Her wedding dress would take the most time to create, but if she pulled it off, it would be amazing.
It would have a tight bodice, full skirt, and intricate detailing. It was the dress she had been fantasizing about wearing on her wedding day since she was a little girl, and she had some ideas about ways to take that childhood dream and turn it into a modern reality. The sketches that she’d started in New York were turning into something amazing, and she would start work on the actual dress, soon.
“I’m sure it’ll be amazing,” Ariana assured her, “your designs are absolutely beautiful.”
Heather wondered how many of her designs Ariana had seen. She was curious how closely she had followed them in the two years since she’d seen her. A frown crossed Heather’s face as this thought came to her. Everything came rushing back to her—Ariana had left them for two years.
Dammit, she’d almost forgotten it for a moment. Tonight, they had effortlessly slipped back into their old rapport. The joking with Sebastian, the random chitchat. No. She needed to remember that Ariana Chamberlain wasn’t her friend anymore.
“Yes, they are. Thank you.”
Heather hadn’t been able to keep the cold tone from creeping into her voice as she said it. She saw a look of disappointment cross Ariana’s face, and she looked away from Heather’s frown to talk to Jake instead. Heather saw her grab Gabriel’s hand and squeeze it as she did, and felt a tiny pang of guilt at hurting her. She looked away from Ariana and saw Sebastian watching her. He, too, was frowning.
“Heather, do you want to dance with me?” Sebastian asked her.
Most people had finished their appetizers now, and the DJ had recently started up the party music again in between the courses.
“I thought you had a cousin to be dancing with?” Hayden asked him.
“Why have the pale imitation when you can have the original and the best?” Sebastian smirked.
“I don’t know whether I should be flattered at the compliment or outraged on Nikki’s behalf.” Heather laughed and pretended to look confused.
“You can be both, just come dance.”
He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the dance floor. There was a fairly slow song playing, so he put his arms around her waist, and she put her arms on his shoulders. They had been dancing for less than a minute when he finally spoke.
“Team Sebastian, Heather. You’re fraternizing with the enemy.”
“I’m being polite. Something you could probably work on.” She stuck her tongue out at him.
“I thought you were defecting for a minute, there.” He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Me, too.” She admitted to him. “I almost forgot…until I didn’t. That being said, I don’t want a scene at my engagement party, Seb. Please be nice, just for tonight.”
“Hey, I’m getting good at it. Some of us don’t have the luxury of avoiding practically every event she’s at,” he said and gave her a pointed look.
Heather was beginning to see why she had avoided these events, though. She felt as though she might easily fall back into friendship with Ariana, and she didn’t want that. She couldn’t risk the possibility of being hurt that way again. Heather felt a strange longing for friendship with her and for wanting to go back to what they’d had two years ago, though.
She imagined how it all could’ve been so different if Ariana had never left. Tonight would’ve been less stressful; they could’ve sat next to each other at the table, gossiping together all night, getting excited while making plans for Heather’s wedding and Fashion Week. It brought a sense of sorrow to Heather, and she sighed deeply.
“Don’t worry; I’m Team Sebastian and Heather. Forever.” She grinned at him. “I’m pretty sure it’s actually Team Gabriel, Ariana, Hayden, and Harrison, though.”
They looked over at their table. Sure enough, everyone was laughing and chatting together as if nothing had ever changed within their group from the time they first met Ariana until now. Heather became acutely aware that she and Sebastian were the cause of the tension now. Ariana really had been nothing but polite and friendly since her return to their group. Would their inability to forgive Ariana be the thing that tore the group apart at the seams?
“Seb, why do you hate Ariana so much?”
“You really want to do this now?”
He frowned at her, and she looked around. People were dancing around them; they were at her engagement party. She was dancing with a man who wasn’t her fiancé and talking about bloody Ariana. Not how she thought this evening would go. She felt bad about being part of the source of conflict in their group, and she needed to know the answer to her question.
“Yes, I do. Follow me.”
He followed her off the dance floor and out of the room. She found a small, empty room off the hallway and entered it.
“I’m worried, Seb. I think if we don’t forgive her, things are going to go to shit soon.”
“That is not a good reason to forgive someone.”
“Then what is?”
“Nothing. I’ve told you that I won’t forgive her.” He shrugged. “Didn’t you tell me less than five minutes ago that you wouldn’t, either?”
Heather frowned and rubbed her face with her hands. She had basically said that.
“Tell me why you hate her so much.”
“The same reason you do. I love Gabriel. I love you, Harrison, and Hayden. I fucking loved her, too. I don’t think any of you understand what it was like for me. It was supposed to be the best moment of our lives. We’d won the Grammys, swept the fucking things. Fulfilled a literal lifelong dream, and that moment was stolen from us. Instead of getting to enjoy it, everything was falling apart.”
He crossed his arms across his chest, protectively. Heather could see the disappointment and hurt written all over his face.
“What else? I know there’s more to it than that.”
She stared at him, waiting for an answer. He could be selfish sometimes, but even he wouldn’t refuse to forgive Ariana over something like that.
“I was so scared.” His voice had dropped to a whisper now, as he admitted it. “Gabriel…I didn’t know what he would do. I was terrified to leave him alone. Then, Harrison told me that you weren’t eating, and he was so worried about you. You were like a zombie, Heather.”
She felt guilty for the concern that she had caused everyone. Heather had opened herself up to Ariana, and the rejection that came from having her best friend ditch her without a word had been brutally painful.
“I couldn’t fix the people I loved; you were both going through some kind of hell, and I couldn’t get through to either of you. I don’t understand how Hayden or Harrison can have forgiven her. They saw it, too. I know Gabriel’s happy, and I want that for him, but I also know how much power she has over us. If she ever decided to leave again…”
He trailed off, unable to continue and obviously lost in the terrible possibilities that could entail. Heather’s mind was whirling; Sebastian had given a powerful voice to the fears she’d been carrying about what might happen if Ariana decided to up and leave them again. It reaffirmed why she could not open herself up to friendship with her again.
They both looked up as the door to the room opened, and Harrison appeared in the doorway.
“There you guys are, they want us to order our main courses. What the fuck are you doing in here?”
“Sorry, honey, we were just talking. We’ll come now, Seb, are you coming?”
She looked at Sebastian, and for a second, she really thought he might ditch the rest of the party until his expression cleared and he nodded. Heather walked over to Harrison with Sebast
ian following behind her. She took Harrison’s hand in hers as they walked back into the main room for the party.
Heather found it hard to focus on the party after that. Sebastian’s words were echoing around her brain, coloring their interactions with the others. Ariana had changed, Heather could see that, but had she changed enough to be trusted again? That was a question to which Heather didn’t know the answer. They’d all trusted Ariana once before, and she threw it back in their faces. It was pretty hard to forget that.
After dinner, the DJ invited Heather and Harrison onto the dance floor so they could dance together. The song they’d chosen for this moment was a Cruise Control song called “If I Were You.” Harrison had written it with Gabriel, and it was ‘their’ song. Soft and soothing, she relaxed into Harrison’s embrace as they danced.
As she looked into his chocolate brown eyes, all of her stresses melted away. Nothing else mattered when she was with him, all of the drama with Ariana and Sebastian meant nothing. The terrible time when Ariana had left them all was long gone, but Harrison, he was here, and he was hers.
Heather couldn’t believe that she had wasted most of their engagement party feeling bitter, stressed, and indulging in the drama when she could have been just enjoying her time with Harrison—celebrating their love.
“I’m sorry, Harrison,” she said as she looked up at him.
“For what, angel?” He smiled at her.
There were so many things to be sorry about. Not being capable of forgiving Ariana. Not being one hundred percent present with him all evening. For siding with Sebastian instead of him. For being the cause of conflict at a time in their lives when they should be nothing but blissfully happy.
“For everything.”
He leaned down and kissed her, which caused quite a few of their guests to cheer, bringing Heather back to reality with a powerful force. As the song ended, they made their way back to their seats, her hand in his and her heart feeling slightly less bruised than it had been earlier.
“It’s time for speeches!” the DJ announced.
Her mom gave a beautiful, heartfelt speech about how Heather’s dad would be so proud of them and that he’d loved Harrison as much as he had loved his own son. Robert gave a similar speech about Heather and how he and Sarah had considered her their daughter many years ago but would be glad to have it be official. Her brother gave a speech about how proud he was of her for what she was doing with her design career, and for Harrison supporting her dreams, then the microphone was handed to Hayden.
“Harrison and Heather, you are two of my favorite people in the world. Getting to watch you two fall in love and grow together as a couple has been a true honor. You have the kind of once-in-a-lifetime love that people write songs about, in fact, we actually did…” he paused until the laughter that was echoing around the room died down, “…but at the end of the day, I know that you two will be incredibly happy together. Congratulations!”
The room exploded into applause as Hayden finished his speech, and passed the microphone to Sebastian, who stood up to give his toast.
“Heather, when the wedding day arrives, I’ll be up there and already wearing a suit, so if you change your mind, I can easily step right in.”
Both Harrison and Heather laughed at this, which seemed to be the cue for others to laugh since a lot of their guests didn’t quite know how to take this comment.
“But, seriously, as Hayden said, you two are pretty damn great together. I know I joke a lot, but everyone can see how Harrison lights up as soon as Heather comes into a room and vice versa. It’s kind of gross, but if Harrison’s happy sleeping with one person for the rest of his life, I guess he’s just leaving more women for me!”
He looked around the room and found her cousin in the crowd of guests.
“What’s up, Nikki?” He raised his eyebrows at her suggestively, and she turned pink at the attention as other guests looked at her, too. Sebastian laughed and raised his glass in the air. “to Freedom!”
Their guests didn’t seem to know exactly how to respond to Sebastian’s speech, and there was some confused clapping as he handed the microphone over to Gabriel.
“Harrison. Heather. I’ve known you since we were teenagers. We always knew you two would get together. Heather, you have no idea how much shit we gave him for how madly in love with you he was before you hooked up! At the end of the day, it’s obvious to the world that you two are meant to be together, and we’re all so happy that you’re finally getting married.” He raised his glass in the air, “Congratulations, guys. To Harrison and Heather!”
Their guests all dutifully repeated the phrase as they took a sip of their drinks. Gabriel smiled widely at them, and Heather returned his smile, even smiling over at Ariana, who was also beaming at them.
Gabriel gave the microphone to Harrison, who held it out to Heather.
“Do you want a turn, angel?”
“Sure, why not.”
She took the microphone from him and stood up.
“I want to thank everyone for coming tonight to celebrate with us. We really appreciate it. Harrison Fletcher”—she looked down at him, and her heart felt as though it might explode with the love she felt for him right now—“you are my everything. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you. Our lives are pretty crazy, sometimes, but whatever comes our way, I always know that I can handle it because I have you by my side. When I’ve been too weak to stand, you’ve held me up, and I can’t thank you enough for that. I love you, honey.”
He stood up and kissed her deeply, drawing more cheers from their guests, then took the microphone from her hand as she sat down.
“Like Heather, I want to thank everyone who came tonight. It’s been a great night, and part of that has been having you all here with us. Heather,” he said as he looked down at her now, “you are the brightest star in the sky. You bring light to my world, and I consider myself so grateful to have you in it. I look forward to every day of our future together. I know that there will be ups and downs, challenges to overcome, but I also know that we will be facing them together, which is all that matters to me.”
The DJ took the microphone back off Harrison, and he sat down, wrapping his arms around Heather and pulling her close to him. She could smell his scent, feel his warmth, and his strong arms enveloping her. She was safe. She was home.
The evening wound down and, eventually, they said goodbye to their guests and headed out to their waiting limousine amidst camera flashes from those paparazzi that had stayed around, waiting for them to leave. She sat next to Harrison, his arm around her as the car headed home. It had been a good evening. Not perfect, but good.
“Are you going to tell me now what you and Sebastian were talking about? Or should I guess?” Harrison asked her.
“You can probably guess,” she said with a wry grin at him.
“Just tell me you were having crazy sex with him and weren’t off in another room, bitching about Ariana.”
She laughed at him.
“Yes, crazy sex, that was it.” A serious look crossed her face as she remembered what Sebastian had told her. “What was it like for you when Ariana left?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Heather.” A pained look crossed his face.
“Well, I need to talk about it. Tell me, Harrison.”
“Yes, what Sebastian said the other night was true. You stopped eating, and I was so, so worried about you. He and Hayden did pick up a lot of the slack at the time. Gabriel was out of commission, and most of my time was spent with you or worried about you.”
“How have you and Hayden forgiven her?” she asked him, echoing Sebastian’s thoughts from earlier.
“I can’t speak for Hayden,” he said solemnly, “as for me, I want Gabriel to be happy, and she makes him happy. I have to trust that she won’t hurt us all again, but if she does, we survived it once before, and we’ll survive it again. If she doesn’t, then I get to see
my friend happy and in love, which is all I’ve ever wanted for him.
Heather thought about this for a while as they drove along in silence. Tonight had given her a lot to think about. She still didn’t know if she could forgive Ariana and get over her fear of being hurt again. What she’d said in her speech tonight was true, though. With Harrison by her side, she knew that she could face anything, was there any reason that one of those things wouldn’t be the possibility of Ariana leaving again?
~SEPTEMBER~
THIS CRUISE CONTROL GOSSIP IS TOO HOT TO HANDLE!
Longtime couple, Harrison Fletcher and Heather York’s engagement party was last weekend, and the gossip coming out of it is insane. A close friend of the band told us that super sexy Sebastian Fox was apparently upset by something early in the evening, enough to leave the table that Cruise Control was sitting at in quite a mood!
Later in the night, Sebastian and Heather disappeared together for a clandestine rendezvous somewhere outside and didn’t come back until Harrison went looking for them. Is there trouble in paradise? Have Sebastian and Heather been having a secret love affair? We wouldn’t blame her, who wouldn’t want to break off a piece of that, but we thought she and Harrison were meant to be!
Meanwhile, New York Fashion Week is upon us, and WE ARE NOT CALM. Heather is making her debut with her collection for her fashion line, Serenity, and we can’t wait. Inside sources tell us that her show is going to be spectacular, but we just want to know if any or all of our favorite boys will be front row! Who gets to be front and center, though? Sebastian or Harrison…
Chapter 7
FASHION IS AN ISLAND
HEATHER GROANED AS SHE rolled over in the bed in her hotel suite and looked at the clock. She’d slept in; it was already nine. It was Thursday, and she had been in New York all week. Ally had been amazing, organizing all of the different facets of the show that Heather didn’t need to have a direct hand in organizing. She and her team had liaised with Heather’s PR firm, the models’ agencies, security, and even catering for the event.
