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“I’m not saying that!” I said, swatting Sebastian’s chest.
He shrugged. “It was worth a shot. All I’m saying is you’re my preferred Cavanaugh.” He kissed me quickly, and I laughed into his lips.
“I would hope so.”
Sebastian made me my toast and made himself some oatmeal. We ate in comfortable silence. Sebastian scrolled through his work email, and I perused a book about pregnancy that Olivia recommended to me.
Suddenly, Sebastian slid a small, mauve envelope across the table.
“Is this for me?” I asked.
He nodded. “Open it,” he encouraged.
I tore open the envelope to reveal a set of keys.
“I figured you could use your own key to the penthouse since you’ve been going back and forth so much. You know, in case I’m not there, or if you have an appointment that I miss. Not that I plan on missing any of your appointments,” Sebastian reassured me.
I ran to the foyer and dug my keys out of my purse, slipping Sebastian’s keys onto my key ring.
I returned and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. This is so sweet.” It really was. While Sebastian was far from the callous player he was when I met him, my pregnancy seemed to have unleashed a tsunami of kindness within him. He was constantly going out of his way to make sure I was comfortable. This week, he woke up early three days in a row to hold my hair back while I vomited senseless streams of bile into the toilet. Luckily, I felt okay today. I finished the rest of my toast and noted a wave of nausea. I brushed it off as nerves. This wouldn’t be the first time the thought of interacting with my mother made me nauseous, and it wouldn’t be the last.
“You’re welcome. Do you want Albert to drive you to the bridal shop?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said. Albert appeared moments later. We drove in silence, and he pulled up to the curb of the bridal shop, giving me a polite nod.
“I don’t want to overstep, but good luck,” he said.
“Thank you, Albert. I’ll need all the luck I can get,” Even though I was only ten weeks along, it felt like I hefted myself out of the car. Now that I knew I was pregnant, especially with twins, it was like I could feel them growing. It was strange and fascinating. I’d always loved science when I was a kid. Now, in a way, I was science. I was growing lungs and hearts like pea shoots sprouting in a damp paper towel. I was my own ecosystem. It was cool!
The minute I walked into the bridal shop, Jasmine pounced on me. She had a measuring tape looped around her neck, and I could see a pin cushion bulging out of the pocket of her jeans. She had a maniacal mad-scientist glint in her eyes. It was the same expression she wore during her senior BFA show, when the night before, she executed three haute couture gowns in twelve hours.
“I figured it out!” she declared.
Immediately, I relaxed. If anyone could tame that monster of a dress, it was Jasmine.
Jasmine led me to the back room where my dress was stored. She unzipped the garment bag. We were immediately flooded with the scent of mothballs and herbs. My stomach rolled.
“Fuck, I tried to put those little mothball sachets in here, and one of them broke,” Jasmine explained. She laid the dress on the table with the back facing up and moved the bodice to reveal the inner structure. The original boning was still intact, yellow, and crumbling like an ancient document, but I could see that Jasmine had reinforced it somehow; there was a second layer underneath.
“So, I reinforced the boning with metal stays that you would find in a corset today. I also spaced the boning out more to give you more room. I took some extra fabric from the sleeves and added it to the bodice, then I ruched that material, so it’ll stretch. See?” She guided my hand along the edge of the bodice. It no longer felt stiff as a cast; it was breathable. Jasmine had done the impossible.
“And then, I took some of the leftover elastic and reinforced the bust while also giving it some room to stretch and accommodate your growing bosom,” Jasmine said the last part in a cartoonish British accent.
“You’ve been waiting all morning to say that, haven’t you?” I laughed.
“Can you blame me?”
I hugged her close. “Thank you so much; you’re seriously a lifesaver.”
“Anything for you and the twins, dude. How are Jazz and Minn, by the way?”
I laughed again. “They’re good. I didn’t puke my guts out this morning, at least,” I said.
“Well, let’s take that as a sign. Today’ll be great if I have anything to do with it. I need to thank your mother for thinking of me. Jay and I might go to Hawaii in the fall, so I need all the cash I can get.
“Damn, an island getaway?”
Jasmine looked ecstatic. I was so happy for her.
