by Sian Ceinwen
They’d spent hours going over possible seating charts, coming up with multiple iterations depending on who actually showed up on the day. Heather felt like they’d done hundreds of options, but it was probably closer to twenty, all of which had the flexibility to be switched around if need be. In between that, there had been model fittings and time spent with Tristan and Jessica to work out what hair and makeup she wanted for the show.
Each of them would have a team of makeup artists and hairstylists working under them to ensure the models all featured the same look, and everyone got ready in time. Ally had thought she was crazy, not choosing a lead makeup artist and hairstylist with experience doing fashion shows, but she trusted them and wanted to give them a chance to prove themselves.
All in all, Heather was utterly exhausted, but the finish line was in sight. Now, she had a constant ball of nerves in her stomach, though, suffering permanent anxiety and spending roughly fifty percent of her time running through worst-case scenarios in her head.
She couldn’t figure out which would be worse—nobody showing up to be in the audience or no models turning up to work. Her nightmares were split between the two options and sometimes would feature both possibilities at once. When she wasn’t obsessing about apocalyptically bad outcomes, she was hyper-focused on ensuring that everything was absolutely perfect for her show.
Two of her employees, Rachel and Louise, had come out to New York to assist her with any last-minute alterations they needed to make to her designs. She was meeting up with Ally today to run through the designs a final time and ensure they were all organized in the correct order and assigned to each model for the dress rehearsal tomorrow morning.
Most importantly, Harrison would be arriving this afternoon. She needed him; his presence would help soothe her frayed nerves. He’d be traveling with Sebastian and Hayden, while Gabriel and Ariana would be staying in Chicago. Apparently, one of Ariana’s friends was turning twenty-five, and she was organizing the birthday party for her.
On some level, Heather was hurt by this. It wasn’t so much the fact that Gabriel and Ariana wouldn’t be attending her show—Heather had told herself and it had been proven multiple times that Ariana wasn’t her friend anymore. It was more that Ariana had friends, ones she organized birthday parties for, and Heather didn’t have that. She loved Harrison and the guys, but the longing for the friendship she’d once had with Ariana hit her, and it stung.
Heather wanted to talk to Ariana; their long-overdue conversation needed to be had. She’d been thinking about it a lot since her engagement party. What Sebastian had told her had certainly provided a compelling reason for staying clear of the situation, but what Harrison had told her also stuck with her. They had survived it last time, and it couldn’t be any worse now. Heather just needed to get through Fashion Week, and then she’d try and figure out what to do about Ariana.
Her phone buzzed on the table next to the bed, and she picked it up and looked at the screen.
Hey, angel. I can’t wait to see you.
A smile came to her lips. She couldn’t wait to see him, as well.
Me, either. Room 606. Not a moment too soon.
Everything okay?
She could read the concern coming through from his text.
Yeah. I just need you.
Her phone started ringing, and Heather wasn’t surprised to see that it was Harrison calling her.
“Hey, honey.”
“Are you okay, angel?”
It hit her unexpectedly. All the tiredness and stress, combined with Harrison’s concern about her, and she suddenly felt like crying. Heather felt like she was unraveling, and this was literally the one day that she couldn’t do that.
“I’m not coping, Harrison,” she admitted to him quietly.
“I wish I was there with you. You can do this.”
“I have to do this. I don’t have another choice. I know I can do it, but it just”—she paused, and took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly—“it’s been a lot. I’ll feel better when you’re here. Tomorrow’s the day, and then it’ll be done, and we’ll know how it went.”
“It’s going to go brilliantly, Heather,” he assured her, “I know it will. Your designs are amazing, and from what you’ve told me, everything there is going according to plan.”
“You’re right; my brain is just being a scumbag and making me think bad things. I’ve got this.”
She tried to sound confident and almost hit the mark, but just missed.
“I’ll be there before you know it.”
“I know. Thank you, honey.”
“Have you eaten?” he asked her, the concerned tone creeping back into his voice.
“Not yet, I only just woke up. I’m going to get room service before I go meet Ally.”
“Make sure you do. You don’t want to get distracted and forget to eat.”
“I promise I will. I love you; I’ll see you this afternoon.” She smiled at the thought as she said it.
“I love you, too, angel. See you then.”
They hung up, and Heather followed through with her promise, immediately calling room service to order a large, hot breakfast. Harrison was right; she’d be so slammed today that she might not get a chance to eat.
As she waited for her food to arrive, she showered and dressed, ready for the day. She was seated at the table, eating her room service and scrolling through her emails when a text from Sebastian popped up on the screen.
Hey there, lover. Wanna screw later?
She laughed out loud. They’d all thought it was hysterical when the media had started printing articles about her and Sebastian having an affair. He’d gone so far as to rename her in his phone to ‘My Lover.’
Sure. What is a secret love affair with no sex?
A pretty crappy one, that’s for sure. How come we haven’t fucked yet?
I’m not sure. We should get on that, I guess.
She finished eating her meal and stood up from the table as her phone pinged again with another text from Sebastian.
Tomorrow is going to be just as awesome as you are.
Of course, he and Harrison were together. Either Sebastian had overheard the conversation she’d had with him, or Harrison had told him about it. Either way, it was nice to feel so loved and supported. Being here on her own had really been messing with her head, it would be so good to have her support system around her.
Her mom was flying in with Robert and Sarah tomorrow morning, hoping to avoid the craziness that occurred when the guys were traveling together. The more of her family that was here in this city with her, the stronger she would feel, she knew it.
Heather checked her watch and realized that, in the meantime, she really needed to get going if she was hoping to meet Ally on time. She grabbed her hotel key and headed out of her room. She took an elevator to the ground floor, ordering an Uber on the way down, and arrived out the front of the hotel about a minute before her Uber was due to arrive.
As soon as she’d stepped outside of the sanctuary of her hotel, she was accosted by people taking her picture, shoving cameras and microphones in her face, and asking her questions. She ignored them and tried to walk past, but somebody grabbed her arm and tried to pull her back. Heather panicked and she felt a bolt of fear run through her. She was surrounded, but she managed to pull her arm out of their grasp and make her way to the safety of her Uber just as it arrived. She instructed her driver, Paul, to leave quickly as soon as she’d opened the door to slide inside.
She locked the car door behind her and tried to calm her breathing. That had been terrifying; she was already on edge with nerves, and being attacked by the paparazzi was unexpected. It had never been like this before; she’d always managed to exist safely on the edges of the Cruise Control world. When she was with the guys, she experienced it, but they were the focus of everyone’s attention. Since Harrison had proposed, though, the attention had reached the next level. It was inte
nse and scary. It felt like everyone wanted a piece of her, and now she often found herself being followed around, even when she wasn’t with anyone from the band.
Paul drove to the address she’d put into the app, and as she got out of the car, she thanked him and apologized for the drama at the start of the trip. Heather was relieved that no one seemed to have followed them here and took the lift in the building up to the fifth floor. Ally shared office space with an interior designer friend that she had. They both spent so much time out with clients that, apparently, they rarely clashed over the need for actual office space. At the moment, though, Heather’s collection had very much taken over their office.
“Hi, darling,” Heather greeted Ally as she walked into the big room.
“Hi, Heather.” Ally smiled at her from where she sat in front of a big desk stacked high with paperwork for Heather’s show.
“I hope your office roommate doesn’t hate me too much.” Heather cringed, looking around at the clutter.
“Claire is probably my oldest friend; we met in elementary school. Besides, I almost drowned in curtain fabrics two months ago, so she owes me one.”
Heather laughed but wondered what it must be like to have such a long-lasting and close friendship. She was envious of them. It must be nice to have someone to rely on like that. She reminded herself that Hayden, Sebastian, and Gabriel were as much her friends as Harrison’s. Even though she did have those friendships, it had never been like those six months she’d spent being friends with Ariana. Sebastian wasn’t interested in going to the nail salon together, and Hayden didn’t particularly enjoy spending the day with Heather while she tried on clothes at whatever local boutique she’d recently found.
Heather had spent so long pushing down the memories of the time she’d spent with Ariana that she’d almost forgotten how much fun they’d had together. She was hit by a tidal wave of memories. She could practically hear Ariana’s laugh as they joked together one day long ago. They had spent the day window shopping, then sat at a café in Philadelphia where they served s’mores to your table.
“Are you serious?” Ariana seemed incredulous and laughed.
“Deadly.” Heather grinned at her.
“Sebastian really used to hate Gabriel?”
“Oh, yes. ‘Perfect Gabriel’ is what he used to call him, and Gabriel was also very artistic when we met him. Tragically so. He wore these turtlenecks all the time and carried around a notebook with him everywhere. He was always writing away in it.” Heather speared a marshmallow on the toasting fork and held it in the flame, “Of course, a lot of the stuff he wrote in that notebook eventually became Cards Have Been Dealt, so I probably shouldn’t mock him.”
“No, you should definitely mock him. That’s hilarious!” Ariana’s green eyes were alight with mischief as Heather put the biscuit, chocolate, and marshmallow together before stuffing it in her mouth. “Oh my god, Heather, we should go buy turtlenecks and wear them to dinner tonight!”
They both doubled over in hysterical laughter, and Heather covered her mouth to stop herself from spitting her food everywhere.
“Fuck, Ariana, that’s brilliant! Yes. I am in.”
“Heather?” She realized that Ally was trying to get her attention and shook her head as she came back to the present.
“Sorry, darling, I missed what you said.” She looked over to see Ally had a frown on her face.
“Are you okay? You seem distracted, and you don’t look”—Ally paused and searched for the word she wanted—“well, there’s no nice way to put this, but you don’t look great. You normally look great!”
Heather hadn’t spent a massive amount of time on her appearance today, to be fair. She’d rushed getting ready, hadn’t gone with a full face of makeup, and if she looked half as frazzled as she felt, she must look like shit. Damn, the paparazzi were probably loving the opportunity she had given them to rake her over the coals for not looking amazing this morning—especially so close to her show.
“I’m so fucking stressed. I think I might snap,” Heather wrinkled her nose at Ally. “I got attacked by paparazzi on the way here. It’s getting beyond a joke.”
“Don’t you have a bodyguard?” Ally asked her.
“Nope. We’ve never really needed them, certainly not me, that’s for sure. There’s security on tour, anyway, and it’s only recently that it’s started getting this crazy.”
“You should really consider it. I’m surprised the guys don’t have them, at the very least. I’ve seen some of the mobs that celebrities deal with at events in the past. I’m shocked to hear that Cruise Control doesn’t have personal bodyguards!”
“We’ll probably have to soon if it keeps going like this. I feel like such a prat wanting personal security.” Heather rolled her eyes.
“Your safety is absolutely the most important thing, though.”
“You’re right. I might talk to Harrison and see what he says.” She smiled at Ally, then sobered as she remembered this morning, “It was truly terrifying. I’ll be so glad when Harrison’s here with me, even though that will probably make them crazier. At least I won’t be alone, you know?”
“That makes sense. When’s he getting in?”
“This afternoon, he’ll probably be at the hotel by the time I’m back.” She smiled and felt a sense of calm wash over her just knowing that she’d be seeing Harrison soon.
“You two are disgustingly cute together.” Ally laughed.
“You’ve never even seen us together, though!”
“Oh please, Heather, everyone’s seen you two together at some point or another! Besides, you just get this look about you when you talk about him. Like I said, disgustingly cute.”
“Well, thanks, I guess?”
“How is the wedding planning coming along?” Ally asked her.
“It’s going okay. I’m completely slammed with the show, of course, but both our moms are helping to organize it. We’re going to lock in all the vendors by the end of the month. Harrison will be out at Galena on a songwriting retreat with the guys for all of October, so we kind of have to.”
“What about the dress? I assume you’re making it yourself?” Ally smiled.
“Of course. Oh my god, Ally. If I can pull off what’s in my head, it’s going to be epic. I can’t believe I’m actually getting married!” Heather shook her head.
They moved on to the work they needed to complete. Reviewing all of the outfits, running through the results from the last model fittings, and double-checking the alterations that Heather, Louise, and Rachel had made to the outfits.
Ally had a minute-by-minute itinerary prepared for the show tomorrow, and they ran through it.
“I’ve left plenty of buffers for anything that might come up, but this needs to be followed as if our lives depend on it.”
“Mine kind of does!” Heather cringed at her.
“Well, I didn’t want to be the one to say it”—Ally laughed—“we will be fine, though. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in better positions before a show in the past, but I’ve been in a lot of worse ones that still led to a brilliant show.”
“So, we’re middling?” Heather raised an eyebrow at her.
“More than middling, and for a debut show, we are well ahead of the curve.”
“That’s a relief!” Heather laughed.
Once again, Heather found herself so glad that she had Ally to guide her through this. She couldn’t even bear to think about how hard it would’ve been to get this all done if she’d had to work with someone who knew less or who she had clashed with. Aside from the incredible amount of stress, mostly caused by the pressure of trying to meet her own expectations for tomorrow, Ally had made it a fairly pain-free process.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out to look at the screen.
Hey, angel. Just landed. See you soon.
“Harrison?” Ally asked her, and Heather looked up.
“Yeah
, how did you guess?”
“Your face”—Ally faked a gag, and Heather laughed—“is he here already?”
“Yup, he is.” Heather tried unsuccessfully to wipe the smile off her face.
Harrison was finally here in this city with her, and she’d be seeing him soon.
“Okay, well, let’s get this finished as quickly as we can, so you can go see your sexy man.” Ally grinned at her.
It was another hour and a half before they were satisfied with everything they had achieved. Confident that everything was in order for the next day, Heather gave Ally a hug.
“Thank you so much, darling. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to thank you enough.”
“My fee is all the thanks I need,” she said, and Heather laughed.
“I would pay double, and you would still be worth every cent.”
“Good, because there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you”—Ally paused as though trying to find the right words and Heather wondered for a second if she really did want more money—“if my calculations are correct, you should have one fiancé waiting for you at your hotel by now.”
Heather glanced at her watch, “Oh my goodness, you’re right! Time flies when you’re having fun!”
“Please be careful on your way back to the hotel, Heather,” Ally said seriously, “and please talk to Harrison about security. You guys need it.”
“I will. Thanks, darling.”
They exchanged hugs, and Heather took the elevator downstairs. This time, she stood in the lobby of the building to wait for her Uber. Thank god they would be using a car service for tomorrow. Heather didn’t think her nerves could handle any more scenes like this morning. There was something safe and secure about limousine travel. She didn’t mind taking Ubers or even taxis when needed, but they didn’t offer that added level of protection that the blacked-out windows of a limousine did.
While she was waiting, she pulled out her phone and texted Harrison.
On my way! Took longer than I expected. You at the hotel?
