She started talking me through the options she’d come up with. There was a whole lot of fluffy pink and frills happening. It was gorgeous, designer fluffy pink, but I felt out of place just looking at all of it. I wanted to be the kind of woman who could rock something this delicate and feminine, but it never felt like me.
Maybe that was the point.
“Did you start without me?”
I whipped around to see Ophelia pulling her sunglasses off, wearing my favorite leather pencil skirt and a white blouse. I didn’t even care that she’d stolen it. I was just happy to see her.
“You can’t answer a fucking text, but you can stalk me?” I couldn’t keep from smiling as I said it.
She waved her hand dismissively the way I’d seen her do to subs countless times, and I laughed because I felt a million times better already just having her there.
She said, “This appointment has been on my calendar since I saw it on your schedule weeks ago. As though I would miss your fancy fashion appointment.”
She introduced herself to Dawn and we went back to talking dresses. She looked deeply skeptical, but had the tact not to question the pro about the options that had been chosen for me.
Dawn explained, “Everyone knows she’s a dominatrix, so instead of dressing her like one, we thought we’d do something unexpected and give her a more innocent look. We like the idea of making her safer, more comfortable for a mainstream audience now that we’ve played out the drama of Alex with a dominatrix. With her coloring, she can pull off any range of pinks.”
She sent me into the dressing room with the first gown, a spectacular one-shouldered confection with layers of champagne colored tule. It almost certainly cost more than my car, but it didn’t really work for me.
I came out and showed it off. Vague complimentary things were said, but we moved on to the next. And the next. And the next.
“I think we’re going about this wrong.” Ophelia stared at the elegant peach satin gown I’d just come out in. “With all due respect to both of you ladies, trying to pass her off as something else makes it seem like you’re ashamed of what she does. It feels like she’s trying to distance herself from that part of her identity instead of owning it and making it her brand. You need to double down.”
I let out a tense sigh. I’d been sitting there feeling guilty for being ungrateful. It was just a dress. But I didn’t want to tone myself down. I’d worked hard to be comfortable with the image I’d created for myself, to feel authentic in my own skin. Watering that down felt like a preview of what would be expected of me if Alex and I gave it a shot. It’s not like I wanted to carry a whip and wear a catsuit on the red carpet, but these dresses simply weren’t me.
Sometimes a dress was more than a dress.
“Always open to new ideas,” Dawn said, looking genuinely interested. “What do you have in mind?”
“Let me make a few calls,” Ophelia said mysteriously. She stepped outside without explaining further.
“Okay.” She finally came back looking excited. “They’re expecting us at Tantalus.”
“What’s Tantalus?” Dawn and Asha asked in sync.
“Oh, my sweet summer children.” Ophelia sighed. “It’s the home of the latex couture of your dreams. We’re going to dress her in a latex gown and she’s going to rock the shit out of it. It’ll be something sophisticated. Hell, it can even be pink if you want. But it’s going to be on brand for Lady Elena and no one else on the red carpet will be wearing anything like it.”
She was right of course. They wanted splashy, but classy. This was the better way to go about it. I could nod to what everyone would be talking about anyway while still pulling off an edgy red carpet worthy look.
Asha and Dawn were giggling when we piled into one car to drive over. Tantalus was run by a notoriously reclusive designer named Sergio who I’d heard so many wild rumors about, he was basically a walking urban legend. Some people swore in total seriousness that he was a vampire. I’d heard he hadn’t left his studio in a decade and that he never spoke to anyone.
When we arrived, I’d thought the rumors were silly. By the time we left, I wasn’t sure what to believe. But we had a gown that was a work of art.
“What the hell was his deal?” Ophelia asked me as the four of us made our way back to Dawn’s office.
I pondered what my read on him had been. “I mean, latex fetish, but that much is obvious, right? Beyond that, I don’t have a fucking clue.”
Ophelia said, “But like…I’m into it and I don’t even know whatitjust was. He’s all dark and mysterious and broody, but also a fashion god.”
“I’m into it…” Asha said from the back seat.
“Yeah, sign me up for whatever that was,” Dawn said.
“Ophelia, your mission whether you choose to accept it or not is to infiltrate the Tantalus lair and get us some answers.”
I waited for her cackle, but she paused and stared at me awkwardly.
Slowly, she said, “No can do, my lady. I’m…unavailable.”
