“Flowers?”
“Check.”
When Shelly wanted to know what type the bride had settled on I knew hesitating would sink me, but I couldn’t lie this time either. “She wanted sunflowers.” I saw the look of horror on Shelly’s face. Sunflowers were not a guest at any of Tiffany Weddings bridal events. “I’m working on making the sunflowers fade into the background.” Shelly smiled at me. Somehow that one smile let me breathe easier.
I had no intention of changing the flowers, or even suggesting a change. I planned to leave the hideous yellow monsters floating around the room. I wanted them on every table, in every corner, and if I thought I could have done it, I would have had the bride walk down with a bouquet full of them.
“How are your other weddings?”
“Just fine. The Chase affair is moving along nicely.” I explained that I was late to the meeting because I had been reassuring Evelyn of the smooth sailing ahead of her.
“Such dedication.” Shelly patted me on the head as if I were a puppy.
I finished up a morning at Tiffany’s only to make my way to my next challenge—dress shopping with the enemy. Allison was late again and the bridal shop wasn’t exactly thrilled.
“We do have other brides Ms. Meyers.” I had been told. I can’t control how or when a bride shows up for her appointment, and it was as much a waste of my time as it was the shop owner’s time.
After the first five minutes of her tardiness I was still able to put on a smile and say, “she’ll be here soon.” Soon had turned into twenty minutes late and Mrs. Kruvich wasn’t getting any more patient.
The door opened. I had hoped to see Allison coming into the store. “Hey, what are you doing here?” Ray hugged me. Mrs. Kruvich focused her attention on us. She was trying to figure out if Ray and I were an item. In other words, she was trying to drum up future business.
“I thought you might need support today,” he took my hand and guided me to the bench. This was not my first experience dress shopping with Allison, but that didn’t stop Ray from hiking up the drama meter.
“She’s not here yet.” I had already called her twice and each time she told me she was almost there. Ten minutes later, and thirty minutes late for her appointment, Allison finally showed up.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I just had to get my nail fixed.”
I would have laughed if it weren’t for the fact that Mrs. Kruvich seemed more annoyed by the excuse than amused. I guess on some level she must have thought if Allison were late due to accident or death in the family then it would be okay that she wasted thirty minutes of her appointment time.
“You see the polish had chipped and I hate that,” she glanced at my nails. I rarely had time to do them, and often the polish would chip off. I had tried to solve that problem by wearing a neutral shade. It didn’t look nearly as bad when the polish started fading and chipping away. Her gaze drifted to my hands. I instinctually curled my fingers into a loose fist to hide my nails.
“We can get started now.” She ordered as if she were really in a position to give orders. Mrs. Kruvich rolled her eyes and took the first dress for show to the dressing room.
Once Allison was safely tucked inside the dressing room Mrs. Kruvich came over to me. I thought she was going to have it out with me for not keeping a tighter reign on my bride, but instead she patted my hand and said, “I understand dear.” Ray snorted back a laugh and I gave a simple smile that said “thank you for understanding, but it gets worse”.
This was my second time shopping with Allison. She had gone twice on her own. I received a call from Hank at Lander’s Bridal when she had left. He put it rather nicely, but in short—no more brides that can’t pick a dress even after they’ve tried on practically everything in the store.
I checked my watch. “Have somewhere you need to be love?” Ray asked me.
“Date with Alex.” He nodded in a fashion that told me he understood, and that he would do whatever he could to move the dress shopping process along.
“He’s a cutie,” he said and I laughed. Unfortunately I laughed just as Allison was walking out the dressing room. She assumed I was laughing at her.
“Well that is certainly not the reaction I want when I walk down the isle. Bring me another one.” She practically sashayed back into the dressing room.
Ray looked at me, I looked at him and we both said, “Oh boy.” We knew we were going to be there for a while.
“What time is your hot date?”
“Seven,” I mumbled. I knew that it was only one o’clock in the afternoon, but my last dress shopping experience with Allison told me it might just take a good five hours for her to decide.
“You’re not wearing that are you?”
I looked down at my black pants and my yellow top and said, “What’s wrong with it?” He snorted again and waved his hand in the air as if I were a lost cause. “No really, what’s wrong with it?”
“Honey, you want the man to jump you. You need something sexy!”
Going from work to a date might not have made the sexiest ensemble, but I didn’t think I would have time to drive home and change.
“You should wear a sexy dress to show off those legs. You’ve got great legs.” His eyes traveled the length of my legs.
“Compliments of ten years of belly dance.” He gave me a look that told me he was wondering if I had really taken dance. “I performed a little too.”
“Well I’ll be damned. Please tell me you wore more makeup than that? Honey subtle is one thing, barely there is another.”
I had been busy and I hadn’t had a chance to do the full eye shadow, mascara, blush ordeal. I wore just a hint of foundation and a little slither of lip gloss.
“Highlight your eyes before you go. And for God’s sake put some lipstick on.” He always told me I should wear a bolder shade. Not too bold he would quickly add, but something that brought out the lusciousness of my lips. He did like the fact that my lips and my eyes seemed to have a natural line that stood out despite my lack of makeup.
“I’ll try to get home to change, but I don’t want to be late.”
“Keep ‘em waiting, that’s what I always say.”
Allison surfaced again. The second dress was even worse than the first. A bow in the shape of a rose sat centered on her butt, which made her butt look bigger, the feathers on the side made her look like the white version of Big Bird and the puff sleeves were entirely overstated. She took one look at our faces, blew out a huge puff of air, turned on her heals and headed back to the dressing room.
Though it would have given me great joy to see her walk down the aisle in that hideous thing, I just couldn’t do it. I guess there was some level of maturity left in me after all. Not that I was going to offer any suggestions, but there were several cute dresses on the rack that she could have tried.
I saw one I would have bought. It was mahogany colored, simple and a-line with a bit of rhinestone accent lining the bust. It was strapless and had a slight train. It was perfect. I had been eyeing it since I walked in, and that hadn’t gone unnoticed by anybody.
“You can wear it to one of those shindigs Alex is bound to take you to,” Ray said. He had a point, but spending nine hundred dollars on a dress wasn’t really my style.
Allison came out again. The dress was almost perfect. In fact it probably was perfect. It had a full skirt, almost princess-like, and strapless. “It’s nice.”
“I don’t want nice,” she frowned. “I want spectacular, sexy, all eyes on me,” she darted back in the dressing room and called out for another dress. Mrs. Kruvich rolled her eyes. I was fully aware the gesture was not directed at me. It was directed at the diva in dressing room four.
Three hours later and we were still sitting there waiting for Allison to find the perfect dress. Mrs. Kruvich had long since taken a seat on the bench beside us instead of doing her normal duty of catering to the bride-to-be. She pushed back her perfectly curled brown hair and leaned her elbow on her knee
.
“Honey I’m not sure they’re going to let her in any of the other bridal stores.”
Mrs. Kruvich looked up, “she’s not coming back in here.”
I apologized. Fortunately she hadn’t thought I needed to. She assured me that I was welcome anytime, just so long as I didn’t have another bride like Allison.
When Allison emerged again she was in a straight a-line, ivory gown. The front showed just the right amount of cleavage and the back dipped almost to her bottom. Maybe not the most appropriate, but if anybody could pull off she could. She had a phenomenal body. Tall, slender, very few curves, but her breasts were big enough to get her noticed. She had kept her hair blonde with constant retouching. She was practically perfect.
“You look amazing,” Mrs. Kruvich said and Ray seconded. He was less enthused. He had already made it his mission to hate her simply because he had seen the way she flaunted this wedding in my face.
“All eyes will be on you,” I said. For the first time in a long time I actually didn’t feel any since of remorse for paying her a compliment.
“I’ll take it.”
I got Allison wrapped up with payments and scheduling for the fitting, that had she picked sooner Mrs. Kruvich could have started that day, just in time to get out the door and get ready for my date. Ray wasn’t thrilled with letting me go looking as if I’d just stepped out of the office. He called a friend and told her to clear the floor because we were coming in.
“I’m tired of shopping.”
“Too bad. You’ve got two hours before you have to meet him. The store is only about fifteen minutes from the restaurant and you are not going looking like that.” He pointed up and down my body as if I had been wearing a fashion disaster. “It’s good for work honey, but not for a date with the most delicious man this side of Texas. Well, maybe other than me.” He said this so seriously that I had to fight back a laugh.
I agreed; not as if I had much of a choice. It had been years since I had done serious shopping, and I wanted some new, sexy clothes anyway. Thank God it didn’t take me as long as Allison to decide on whether or not I liked an outfit because I really didn’t have that much time.
I managed to buy three pairs of pants, five dresses, three skirts, four blouses and two sexy pairs of shoes. There was no way I was wasting Ray’s expertise on one outfit.
Ray made sure I had a fresh coat of neutral polish over my nails since I didn’t have time to have them “properly” done. He even touched up my makeup. I thought he might have a fight with the makeup artist at the counter when he took over, but she stepped aside and let him work.
Ray had pulled my hair back into a ponytail at the base of my neck and fastened it tightly with a sexy sparkling clip. I had to admit it; the man had an eye for fashion. At six forty-five I was on my way out the door. I knew I would be a little late.
When I arrived at the restaurant Alex was already waiting for me. I apologized for being a little late and he smiled and said, “No problem.”
“How was your day?”
I wasn’t sure what to say. A part of me wanted to really tell him about my day, but the part of me that hates to be a bother kicked in and I said, “Fine.”
“Okay, now that we’ve got that out of the way. How was your day?”
“You’re crazy.”
“No, I just figured your first answer would be standard and if I asked again I might actually get the whole truth.”
He explained to me that he really wanted to know how my day was. I could tell he wasn’t the type to just ask and move on. I had friends in my life that never really wanted to hear the truth—unless it was perfectly wonderful, but Alex wasn’t like that. So since he asked for it I decided to tell him. If he thought I was crazy afterwards, well it would be his fault because most people would have stopped when I said it was fine.
“I had dress shopping with Allison. She couldn’t pick a dress,” my hands started moving in the over exaggerated gestures that I always do when I’m excited or angry about something. My mom often laughed at me whenever I got like that. She would always say, “You’re so hyper.” I really wasn’t that hyper. I just had an animated approach to telling a story. “She must have tried on practically every original design in the store before deciding.
“That’s not even the worst part. Do you want know what the worst part was?” I didn’t give him a chance to respond before I lit in again. “She was late for her own appointment. Poor Mrs. Kruvich looked irritated and stressed about the fact that Allison had kept her from something important. Oh and she was rude. How can you be rude when you’re the one that’s late? I don’t mean rude in the standard sense, but rude as in bossy, and uppity. When she finally made it to the shop her excuse for being late is a chipped nail. Not even the nail really as much as the nail polish. Of course she always makes some gesture that makes me feel about as big as an ant…”
“Ants have amazing strength for their size.” He said this as I paused to take a breath.
I sat puzzled for a moment and then I started laughing. He seemed to have a way for calming me down. I loved the way he listened. I also liked the fact that he hadn’t said I was stressing the small stuff, or that I was making too much out of nothing. I always hated when people would say things like that to me.
Since he had been so understanding and patient I felt a little guilty for going off on a rant about Allison. “I’m sorry. I just got a little carried away.” On the other end of that, it’s not as if I didn’t get carried away often. He would probably see that side of me a lot, assuming he stuck around.
“You’re cute when you’re ranting.” He smiled. I guess that’s when I knew he would get used to my antics. “Now that your day with Allison is behind you how do you feel?”
“Now that I’m here with you, I feel all right. I had a little transition before I came here. I wanted to look nice for you.” I realized once that sentence had come out of my mouth that I sounded like a love struck schoolgirl. “I mean I always want to look nice. I just didn’t want to look as if I came straight from work.” I tried to tell myself to shut up before I put my foot even further in my mouth.
“You look great.” He took my hand in his. “By the end of the evening I hope to make you feel better than all right.” He had a way of making me feel as if I were the only person in the room.
“I’m fine, really.” I laughed. “I think going from work to a date night is probably not the best idea. I seem to be a little…”
“Tightly wound?”
“Cute…but yes. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m not always in a good mood either.” He laughed. Thankfully he wasn’t expecting perfection. I certainly wasn’t the woman to offer perfection. I could be temperamental at times. Obviously I tried to keep my moods in check, but like everybody else, I do have moods. I like to think of it as being emotionally diverse. It’s healthy.
For the rest of the evening we talked, laughed and held hands. After dinner we went for a walk around the Commons and then we drove back to my place. He insisted on seeing me home. I’m sure he would have insisted on picking me up too had I not been coming from work.
He walked me to the door. We stood there for about fifteen minutes just talking. Lucky for me, my outside lamp was on a timer so it had already clicked on. I knew I should say goodnight, but I didn’t want the moment to end. Instead of saying goodnight I stood there and talked to him some more.
At some point he looked at me and said, “You should probably get some rest.” It was getting late and I knew I had a long day ahead of me, but I wanted to freeze time.
“You’re probably right.” I said. The evening had been amazing, but I truly did need to get some sleep.
I leaned in and gently touched my lips to his. One little goodnight kiss couldn’t hurt anything.
The Best Ever
Alex and I hadn’t been dating that long so obviously I was not going to just fall into bed with him. Okay, you’ve got me. I did fall into bed with
him. What can I say? The man knew exactly how to make me melt.
We both had been holding back our passions. I think he wanted me to be sure I was ready to take on a new relationship, and I wanted to be sure he was ready to take on me—baggage laden though I may be.
I had barely pulled away after my light series of kisses. He leaned in. He smelled fresh and utterly masculine. I held on to every second as if it were my last chance to be that close to him. He didn’t speak. He slowly caressed my lips with his. Our tongues moved in an elaborate dance of slow, quick – quick, slow. I managed to open the door somehow and we went inside. I don’t remember being apart from him for too long.
I slipped my hands beneath his shirt, pulling and tugging until I realized it was a button down and not a pullover. I changed my tactic and started pulling on the buttons. Before I realized it, we were both naked. He had carried me to the bedroom.
“Do you have something?”
“I’ll be right back.” I bolted from the bed and into the bathroom. I rummaged through my vanity drawers for my diaphragm. I bypassed the vibrator Tay had bought me after the divorce and finally found what I was looking for. It was dusty, but what the hell. I blew the dust off, popped it in and ran back to the bedroom. I couldn’t remember how long I was supposed to wait after putting it in. It had been a while since I actually used it.
That night was the first of many great nights. If I were asked, I would have to say he was the best ever. Alex just had a way of taking his time and doing things right. He made me feel beautiful, sexy, hot, and like the only woman in the world for him. I liked that feeling a lot.
The next few nights after our first night together we spent at his place, then back to my place. I think we must have christened in every room. We also bought the condoms for all future excursions. One can never be too safe, especially given the fact that my diaphragm had dust on it.
We were back at my place, and I had made it my mission to help Alex relax. He had had a long, hectic day. When I called him to invite him to dinner he told me he might not make the best company. At my insistence he came over anyway.
The Bride Wore Black Page 4
