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And every day, the wedding drew nearer. A thing that I’d thought would terrify me but was now … exciting me.
Are you sure I can’t come with you?
I laughed at the text from Gavin.
I don’t think the groom is invited to the wedding dress fitting.
But I want to see it.
You’ll see it in a week.
He responded with a pouty face, and I sent him back a picture of me sticking out my tongue.
Yes please.
I rolled my eyes again. Ridiculous.
“For whom exactly are you all smiley for?” Katherine asked, appearing at my side outside of Cunningham Couture.
I put my hand to my heart. “Hey! I didn’t know you were coming today.”
“To see you in the dress I helped design?” Katherine arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “You should always expect me.”
I laughed. “That’s fair.”
“So? Smiles?” She pulled the handle on the door. “Tell me everything.”
“Just Gavin.”
“Just? It seems someone is falling for their own trick.”
I couldn’t deny that even if I wanted to. When Gavin had shown up at my door a few short months earlier, begging me to be his fake girlfriend, I never would have thought we’d end up here. Where I’d be looking forward to my own wedding and not utterly dreading this thing we had ostensibly been forced into it.
Katherine laughed when I didn’t respond to that and pulled me into the boutique. The Fifth Avenue shop was immaculate. Everything I would expect from a designer brand with a cult following. Brightly lit clothing racks lined the walls with only one or two sizes of everything on display. The woman in a smart skirt suit at the register brightened at the sight of Katherine Van Pelt in her store. Everyone knew who she was.
“Hello, Katherine,” she said cheerfully. “Anything I can help you with today?”
“No, thank you. We’re here for Harmony,” Katherine said as she continued through the store as if she’d done this a million times. Maybe she had. She’d been a model for the company for years, and the second floor had long held the design team.
Katherine opened the back door, and we climbed another set of stairs into the madness of high fashion. My eyes roamed the space filled with scurrying designers and assistants holding bolts of fabric, rushing to a nearby sewing machines and gesturing emphatically to the drape of material on various mannequins.
An assistant saw us standing there and smiled. “Katherine, what a pleasure. Harmony is this way.”
“Excellent,” she said, following the girl down to Harmony’s office.
Katherine seemed right at home, but I’d never been more out of my element. Even my short stint at a Fashion Week gala had resulted in a fistfight over me, and I’d sworn never to return. I would have been just as happy with a dress off the rack if Katherine hadn’t been so adamant that I let her handle it. And I trusted Katherine with my life.
“Prompt as ever,” Harmony said with a smile as she took in the sight of us. “I’ve been waiting for this.”
She instructed her assistant to bring champagne to the suite, and then we were walking past the harried designers and into a private dressing room larger than most New York City bedrooms. The assistant returned a minute later, offering top-shelf champagne to the room as Harmony walked over to the only article of clothing in the room, covered by the purple garment bag that Cunningham Couture was known for.
My stomach tightened with anticipation. That was my wedding dress. Everything that had happened up to this moment had been going through the motions. Even the bridal shower wasn’t all that different than a birthday party. I’d opened gifts and laughed with Gavin’s family about the wedding. The closest I’d come to feeling like this was real was months ago when Gavin slid that ring on my finger. Now, it belonged there.
I glanced down at it now. It was crazy to think how much I’d gotten used to this ring. But once I had that dress on, the wedding was going to get twice as real.
“Ready?” Harmony asked.
I nodded because I couldn’t get the words out. My emotions went haywire. I felt Katherine’s eyes on me, as if she were assessing my every movement. She always saw straight to the heart of things, and I was sure she was seeing it right now.
