I liked Alex, but I was afraid. My track record with men had not been that great. My first boyfriend, Nate Baxter, had paraded me on his arm to the junior prom and paraded Missy Casper out of it. My second boyfriend, Hank Lankan, seemed oddly fascinated only with the help I could give him with calculus. I worked on the homework while he went to the college games.
Whoever coined the term “third time’s the charm” apparently knew nothing about relationships. Brendon was my third, and supposed last, boyfriend. I married him and he walked off with my heart. I could honestly say the third time was not the charm for me.
“You’re strong Anise you’ll bounce back,” Taylor had said. Sure I was strong, feisty and usually ready to take on the world, but there was that other part of me. It was the part that never truly realized just how much I would miss being held until there was nobody around to do it.
As a bridal consultant, no matter what my personal feelings were I was supposed to know how to put my professional face first. Something I had lapsed in doing a couple times, but I vowed to get better. No tearing up, crawling, mumbling or bad recommendations—at least that was the plan.
The office had been crazy that week. I had attributed the lack of usual Tiffany perfection to the fact that we all had impending nuptials within the few weeks to follow. Paul and Donna were exceptionally busy, and Shannon, well I hadn’t seen much of her.
It was at about nine o’clock Thursday when it all seemed to go south. Shelly, in all her gracefulness, called a consultants meeting. While I was happy to know I wasn’t the only consultant with the bride from hell, I wasn’t happy to be put on the spot. Donna mentioned my brides name in a calculated effort to divert attention away from her many mistakes.
“How is the Chase affair going?” Shelly frowned in the only manner that a woman with too many Botox injections could. The truth was what I had assured myself I would tell.
“It’s going great.” Then again it was not as if I were working in a very consultant friendly environment.
“Last I heard you still didn’t have a venue.” Donna’s smile was genuinely evil.
“The venue is taken care of, but thank you for your concern Donna.” I kept my voice professional. “No need to worry Shelly, my brides will be ready to float down the aisle right on time.”
Shelly looked at me, and for a moment I wondered if she could see my deceit. “That’s good Anise. I only wish the rest of my consultants were so adequately on top of their weddings.” I fought the smile approaching my lips. “You should all take a lesson from Anise.” Shelly pursed her pink painted lips tightly together. I looked at the other consultants and I realized I was going to pay for that compliment. At that moment; however, I was simply taking delight in the knowledge that I had fooled them all, including Shelly “perfection” Pratt.
At precisely 10:50 I arrived at my destination. “No pressure.” I told myself, though somehow I knew there was enough pressure to draw blood from a stone. I had no idea what my next step would be if Evelyn didn’t decide on the new venue. Alex wasn’t going to cave, and if Evelyn didn’t break we were going to be one wedding down. “No pressure.”
“That’s right gorgeous. No pressure.” I turned to see Alex standing within inches of me. God he was cute. Business as usual, but the black suit did nothing to hide his muscular shoulders.
“I didn’t hear you arrive.” If I had I would have leaned on the car like one of the women in those sexy wine commercials. I wanted to say something clever, but the hum of Evelyn’s blue VW bug interrupted me. “Let’s get this show on the road.” I took a deep breath, hoping to calm my nerves.
“Evelyn this is…”
“Don’t think I’m changing my mind.” Her tone was pleasant, but the meaning behind the words was the same. “I agreed to see this place only because you’ve been so nice to me. But I want North Point Anise.”
I wanted a million dollars, Hugh Jackman’s clone and a villa in the south of France, but I wasn’t stomping my feet and pouting. I had learned long ago that we cannot always get what we want. Unfortunately, this red-headed vixen hadn’t yet reached that lesson. I wondered if the unemployment lines were longer on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Those are the breaks I guess.
Death of a Career
“Anise! Get in here!” Shelly yelled. I could tell that something was not right at the office. Unfortunately, Megan was no where in sight.
I tried to think of positive reasons for Shelly to be yelling for me. The only thing I could think of was the fact that Donna hated me. If she could find a way to get me fired she would. Megan had already warned me to lock all of my files up at night.
The morning we walked into my office and saw the Kroger file lying open on my desk Megan had said, “I thought I told you to lock all of your files away.” Megan raced to my desk. It was not as if we had been robbed.
“Calm down,” I dismissed her panic. While I knew leaving a file out for the cleaning people to find wasn’t the best idea, I also knew accidents happened.
“You don’t understand that’s how Heather went down. She…” I turned to see what had stopped the flow of the much needed information. What I saw was the devil herself.
“Morning Donna,” I tried my hand at polite conversation when I really wanted to tell her what a stuck-up, maniacal witch I thought she was. She nodded with a small grin that told me she had something up her sleeves and then she walked away. A week later and I had already forgotten and started to relax, until Shelly started yelling my name.
I started to think about life after Tiffany Weddings. I couldn’t envision it. It’s not as if my life was terrible beforehand and the thought of leaving Tiffany’s sent me into total shock. Sure I had gone through jobs like a baby goes through dippers, my husband had left me and recently I had actually found myself reading the “strippers wanted” ads, but life wasn’t devastatingly unbearable.
When I started wedding planning nobody thought I would last at this new career move. I had only taken the bridal course because I liked helping my friends out with their weddings and I thought it would be something fun to play with. When Brendon left me I realized that I might have to take my new hobby and make it a career. My track record with jobs had my odds at staying at this job longer than a month right up there with the Cleveland Browns going to the Super Bowl. In fact, I think the Brown’s had better odds.
“Anise!” I had already cracked open the door when Shelly bellowed out my name again.
“You wanted to see me.” I walked steadily to Shelly’s desk, shocked by the confidence in my tone.
“My headaches are back,” she rubbed the tips of her fingers against her temple. We all knew this signal. It wasn’t an indication of pain. It was Shelly’s way of drumming up sympathy while showing off perfectly manicured nails.
“Sit down Anise.” I hesitated. I might have been on shaky ground, but I deserved more respect than a command that someone would shout at a dog. “Please.” She directed me to sit. I decided to sit since she had asked so politely.
“What a day.” The idle chit chat annoyed me, but I smiled anyway. I knew that at some point Shelly would reach the point of our impromptu meeting. “Anise I swear sometimes this place is falling apart.” Once again she massaged the side of her temples. “I had to fire Shannon today.” Shock waves flowed through my brain. Was I on the same station as Shelly? Had she really fired Shannon?
“Why?” I didn’t want to pry, but I was curious.
“Oh never mind that,” she pursed her lips and looked at me. This was my indication to let the discussion rest. I knew I could always ask Megan later.
I braced myself, relieved that I wasn’t being fired and afraid that Donna had managed to convince Shelly that I was a super bridal consultant who could handle a heavier case load.
“I have divided her work between the others. I called you in here to congratulate you on a job well done. Evelyn called. She’s very pleased with this new venue. She had nothing but praise for you. I knew you could
do it Anise.”
Shelly’s confidence in me was both a boost to my ego and a blow to my conscience. Before Evelyn uttered those three magic words, “I’ll take it,” I had no clue as to what I would do next.
I should have been wallowing in delight, but when Shelly called me her lead bridal consultant I started to feel guilty. She respected and trusted me. I was lying to her about my credentials everyday. I didn’t feel guilty enough to come clean.
“It wasn’t easy.”
“It never is,” she replied. “It takes a certain something to make it work, and you obviously have it Anise.”
After what one can only describe as a day of triumphant highs and lows, I needed to celebrate my one moment of victory. I had called Taylor, but she had plans of her own. She told me she had a bottle of red wine and a sexy night with her husband planned. As much as she wanted to celebrate with me, she wanted to be with Dan more. So I did the next best thing; I called Alex. I had just lost my nerve and was getting ready to hang up the phone when he answered.
His deep, sexy voice captivated me, and for a moment I felt as if I had forgotten how to speak. “Alex, it’s Anise,” I rambled on. At some point I must have come to the point of my phone call because he said he would be right over.
After resolving to put on my worn, dark blue jeans and a pale pink t-shirt, I busied myself with fixing the only thing left in the cabinets—popcorn. Not the microwave, done in three minutes kind, but the kind my mom made for us when we were kids; the fresh, hot off the stove, real melted butter popcorn that brought us all together at the end of the week.
Alex arrived just as I was taking the popcorn off the stove. “I wasn’t sure what to bring.” He stood there with a case of beer in one hand and a bottle of red wine in the other.
“What goes best with popcorn?” We laughed. The entire time I couldn’t stop thinking about how great he looked in that baby blue button down, and how amazing he would probably look out of it too.
“Your job is still in tact I take it,” he smiled. He had a gorgeous smile. It was the kind of smile that lingered forever. I told him about my day after we met with Evelyn. I listened as he spoke about his day. I had to remind myself to stop watching his mouth. He had the most luscious lips I had ever seen on a guy. They were inviting, intriguing and arousing. I imagined him to be a good kisser. I imagined it because I hadn’t actually had the nerve to lean in for a taste.
One would think I would have been past the adolescent school girl insecurities, but I wasn’t. Instead of saying what I wanted to say I kept speaking about the unimportant aspects of our work day.
I was mid sentence when he interrupted me. “I’d much rather talk about you,” he smiled again. I don’t know how he expected me to think when he kept smiling at me. “I’m curious, how do you manage to find yourself in such awkward situations and still look so unbelievably sexy?” I was sure the awkward situation Alex was referencing was my North Point incident. At that moment the only thing on my mind was that he had just called me sexy.
“I don’t know. I guess it all stems back to my childhood.” He gave me a look that told me he wasn’t sure I should start therapy without the therapist. “Really,” I laughed. “I was always falling down stairs, bumping into something, getting my skirt stuck in my underwear. After a while I guess I just learned how to recover gracefully.”
Crawling around on the floor of an upscale resort wasn’t exactly graceful, but everything turned out fairly well. Ray was rushing Evelyn’s invitations to print. Shelly was content with my work. I was safely in her good graces. Alex was interested in me and life was good, well almost good.
Despite my intentions to move past Brendon’s betrayal I still found it difficult to plan his wedding. I wasn’t sure if that meant I wasn’t ready to move forward in a relationship, or if it just meant I still had some growing to accomplish.
What I did know was that I wasn’t ready to risk missing out on a potentially good relationship. I leaned in, softly planting my lips on Alex’s lips and kissing him gently. I pulled away slightly, not far enough to look in his eyes, but just enough to see if he would lean in for more. He did.
I leaned in again, softly kissing his lips, slowly deepening my caress. His fingers slipped through my soft curls. His hand embraced the back of my head, pushing me deeper into the moment. “Hmm,” the moan escaped me before I could hold back. He deepened his kiss. His tongue softly dancing with mine until slowly, he pulled back and looked into my eyes.
“Wow,” he said.
“My thoughts exactly.” Talk about sparks and passion.
Another Day at the Office…
I realized that getting the job and keeping the job were one in the same. If I could convince Shelly that I was phenomenal enough to be hired on to a top spot at Tiffany Weddings, then I could very well overcome Donna's high school sports antics and keep my job. With that resolve I ventured into my meeting with bride number one with more attitude than before.
“I know this is just a day of planning effort, but you don't want it to come across that way to your guest.” I pushed the list of task in front of Stefanie. “I need to be sure of exactly what you're looking for and the best way to do that is for us to spend more than five minutes with each other.”
I proposed that we actually have lunch as opposed to a quick sip of our drinks and moving on. It must have been my take charge attitude because Stefanie sat back, ordered a chicken salad and actually listened to what I had to say. With some recaps of her dream wedding and finalization of small details I was sure I could handle her wedding day coordinating with no problems.
Back at the office the day went back to its usual office backstabbing, knife wielding, cut throat behavior. Shelly had called Donna and me into her office for an impromptu meeting.
“How are your brides,” Donna smirked. I knew the look, but I wasn't sure why Donna could confidently ask me that question in front of Shelly.
“Stefanie is all set to walk this weekend, Evelyn selected her venue, Toni is ready with only a few minor details to attend to, Allison is still dress shopping and Nicolette and I have a meeting this afternoon. How are your brides Donna?” I smiled semi-pleasantly.
“My brides are fine. In fact, Nicolette called me this morning and asked if I could be her wedding day coordinator. It would seem that you're not really giving her the attention she needs.”
I was shocked. None of my conversations with Nicolette indicated that she was unhappy. I realized why the Kroger file had been on my desk that morning. Donna had managed to steal my bride; worse, she made that fact known in front of Shelly.
“What a shame,” Shelly's tone didn't seem as if she were ready to lecture me on the importance of giving all of our attention to every bride. “Donna since you are now busy, and Anise now that you have a free space, I'm going to give the Lexington wedding to you.”
It was the most coveted wedding in the company, and it was mine.
“But...”
“It is a shame Donna. I was going to give it to you, but now that you're busy I’ll pass it on to Anise. You'll have plenty of time dear,” Shelly rubbed my shoulder and then walked back to her oversized antique chair.
The first thing I needed to do was make contact with my new bride-to-be. I knew of Stacey Lexington. She was a Scottsdalian socialite. Everybody knew of her father’s money. His cosmetic surgery business was the most successful in town. The gossip columnist hadn’t been able to pinpoint which of the seven currents was going to become the one permanent for Stacey. There’s a small sense of victory in being in the know before everybody else. I just had to get my hands on the Lexington file.
“Anise you're meeting with the groom this afternoon.”
I was used to selling the bride, not the groom. Every consultant knew that no matter how grounded in reality the bride was, there was still that hint of little girl fantasy left. Every bride wanted the “perfect” wedding. She wanted to stand out, look gorgeous, and feel like a princess.
&
nbsp; The grooms usually sat by and went with whatever the bride wished, with the occasional input on guest, food and music. Sit back and let the women do the work was the unspoken rule among the men. I’d seen this many times. My wedding had seen this rule amplified one hundred times. The more I tried to involve Brendon the less work he did.
I believed that selling the groom would be difficult, but my meeting that afternoon proved the opposite. I was almost positive that Mitch was the most laid-back, easy to please groom in the history of grooms.
Diva in Dressing Room Four
“Don’t smile too much. Don’t keep a static face. Never frown and never look shocked, puzzled or just plain lost.”
I listened to Shelly rattle off her list. I dreaded her next question. She would want to know how the Meyers/Hildegrant wedding was coming along. It wasn’t something I wanted to share with the entire office.
Our staff meetings generally went the same way. Shelly would give us a lecture on Tiffany etiquette, and then she would proceed to circle the room gathering information on our current projects. She would always start to her right and gradually move around the perfectly pressed room.
Usually I was sandwiched somewhere in the middle, but on that particular occasion I had managed to get the only chair left available in the room. I was sitting right next to Shelly; I knew that meant I would go first. If I hadn’t spent a half hour assuring Evelyn that the invitations had gone out on time, if “on time” was even an option, I could have arrived at the meeting on time. I had walked into the meeting ten minutes late. I hadn’t gone unnoticed. Nobody had ever made it to a Tiffany staff meeting late.
When the question came I decided to do what I had been doing from the beginning, I lied. “It’s going very well. We’re dress shopping today.”
The Bride Wore Black Page 3
