Page 1 of Only Be Mine

Chapter 1

Cate

May 14 - Present

They say you shouldn’t hold onto ghosts.

But I’ve been wearing mine for ten years - stitched into every version of who I became after.

When I was little, I used to imagine my wedding day. The dress, the flowers, my dad walking me down the aisle. Then he left, and all those dreams folded themselves into a box I shoved to the back of my mind.

And then I met John, and everything I’d buried woke right back up.

I let out a slow breath and stepped behind the curtain of the alterations shop, lifting the old gown with a kind of reverence that embarrassed me. Ten years packed away, and the dress still looked as incredible as it had the day I brought it home.

The antique pearls caught the light, duller than I remembered, but still imperfect in the same quiet way. The silk felt cool under my fingertips. It had been designed just for me, back when I thought forever was something you could count on.

I undressed and slid the fabric over my head. It fell down my body in one smooth whisper of satin, and for a second, I forgot to breathe.

Then I looked in the mirror.

The dress was too big.

Or maybe I was too small - hollowed out in places silk couldn’t hide.

My sunken cheeks made the truth obvious.

Once, this dress had felt like the beginning of a new chapter. Now it felt like something I was trying not to disappear inside.

I swallowed hard and gathered my hair off my neck, trying to see the version of me who’d first worn this. The straps slipped straight off my shoulders.

“Miss Larkin? You okay?” Mr. Woo called from outside the curtain.

I hesitated, took one last look, then stepped out. “Yeah. Sorry. Let’s do this.”

He guided me onto the pedestal and immediately got to work, pinning and tugging with his usual brisk efficiency.

“What shoes you wear?”

“I have a pair of heels.”

“How tall?”

I spaced my fingers. “Two inches? Maybe?”

He nodded without looking up. Fifteen minutes later, he stepped back. “Okay. Careful now. Pins.”

I slipped out of the gown and forced myself not to look at it again. I folded the straps inward the way I always had, like the dress needed protecting more than I did. I changed, then handed it over carefully. “When do you think I can pick it up?”

“Five o’clock. Not five-oh-one, I lock door at five-oh-one”

Relief washed over me. Trevor would lose his mind if he knew I’d put the alterations off this long. “Thank you. Really.”

He ushered me toward the front of his shop. “I see you tonight.”

My best friend Amy stood from a chair by the window, tucking her phone away. “All done?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”