Chapter 43 - Bride & Groom
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"I hate it!" I said and stuffed the dress back on the rack as Lina and Brandon both sighed.
"I never knew you were so picky!" Brandon said.
"She normally isn't," Lina inputted.
"That's good to know," Brandon said.
"Stop talking about me like I'm not here," I said.
"Right." Brandon agreed.
I smiled at him. When we were at the Hawthorne mansion earlier on, Evelyn and Richard had convinced us to have our wedding in one month and a half (I have no idea why we listened to them) thus we are here now trying to plan it, and find my dress. The problem was all the dresses that the bridal wedding dress shops had didn't satisfy me in the least. They all were boring and quite useless - in my own opinion of course.
I should say that the gowns were all stunning but none were... for me.
I had often heard of the incredibly magical feeling that a bride would feel when she put on a dress and so far all I could see in the mirror were all the things that I felt insecure about having a spotlight. That magical moment where your breath was taken away from you? Well, I was yet to feel that and I was highly anticipating it too.
We'd gone to my apartment - right after Richard had accepted me as his daughter-in-law - we had picked Lina up and gone to my parent's grave, I had been surprised to see brand new fresh flowers near the angel statue but I did not question it as I assumed that my uncle had been here to visit. He often did. When we lost my parents, it had been very hard on him because he literally lost his other half. His twin. His 'wombmate' as he liked to call him.
We'd told them the good news and spent a few more minutes with them before going straight to the nearest wedding dress shops and here we were now.
"How about this one?" Lina asked sticking the dress in my face.
"Too revealing," I said when I spotted the neckline.
"This one?"
"Too grandma-ish!" I protested.
"Grandma-ish?" Brandon repeated.
I nodded, "Indeed."
"What does that even mean?"
"It's for grannies," I informed him with a straight face.
Brandon laughed, "I'm not sure grannies would wear this, love. It seems kind of a modern-day dress."
"I'm not sure. I still don't want to wear it though." I said.
"Okay," He said.
"We have literally made you have a look at every single dress in the damned shop, I'm sure there has to be something you like!" Lina sighed.
"I don't like any." I insisted.
"Oh, my word!" Lina said exasperated.
I didn't understand why she was annoyed with me. I wanted my dress to be a breathtaking one. One that would steal all the attention.
I laughed, "I'm sorry. I really don't like any dress here. I want our wedding to be perfect!"
"I can see that," Lina grumbled.
"We can look somewhere else if you want," Brandon said.
I nodded, "That would be perfect. Can you make sure the shop is more modern too?"
Brandon chuckled and we walked hand in hand to the car. I got in the front while Lina sat in the back.
Brandon drove us out of town and we were looking at vintage wedding dress shops. One dress had caught my attention but Lina had immediately dismissed it calling it 'granny-ish' as I had done previously to all her dress choices.
I sighed, "I'm scared I'll never find a dress." I said.
"How about you design your own dress? Or we can have someone design one, especially for you. Then you can be the only one in history to wear it!" He grinned happily.
"I like that idea, Hawthorne. I'm starting to like you," Lina grinned.
"I can't draw," I said lamely.
"Then someone will design it!" Brandon said cheerfully.
"Great!" Lina chirped for me and I glared at her.
Brandon left us both and went out of the boutique to make a phone call. I sighed as I saw him expressing whatever he was saying with wild hand gestures, he appeared to be upset.
"I think your man is mad," Lina said gesturing to Brandon and voicing my inner thoughts.
"Probably something to do with the tower," I admitted.
"Now that you're engaged to a billionaire, are you going to still work for Darcy?" Lina asked.
I nodded, "Of course! You both are like family to me."
"Aw, Ashley. That is so sweet of you!" She grinned.
I was about to respond when Brandon walked back in, his face and eyes were filled with absolute fury.
"I need to get back to the office. Now!" He commanded.
Lina and I got off the bench and hurriedly followed him. He took all of us to the Hawthorne Tech tower and we entered. He immediately left us and used his personal elevator to get to his office quickly. The whole time Lina and I were silent.
"What happened to him?" Lina asked, "He was cool and happy a bit ago."
"It's business. A lot of things could have happened."
"Doesn't he have a VP that looks after it?" Lina asked.
I nodded, "He probably does. The VP has quite a bit of power but I really don't think that they can handle all the problems. The thing Brandon was facing appeared to be quite urgent and seriously important." I told her.
"Oh," Lina said, "I thought the VP was a standby C.E.O!"
"No, the vice has limited powers," I told her.
"That makes sense. I guess running a huge business like this one requires a lot of effort, time, and brains."
"It really does. Anastasia tells me that he used to be a giant workaholic before we met." I told her.
"Anastasia, who's that?" She asked.
"His old housekeeper before Gloria. We met on one of the trips we both went on when we dated the first time," I told her, "She's sweet. I think you'll like her if she can make it to the wedding!"
"I think I will. I do like nice people." Lina grinned.
"I know you do, I mean you like me!" I told her and she laughed.
"I do." She agreed, "How about you give me a tour of Hawthorne Tech?" Lina suggested.
"Of course! I used to actually work here before I resigned." I told her.
"I now know why you looked like crap when you first began working at the boutique." She laughed.
I frowned, "Not funny, Lina!"
"I'm sorry mom," She said and stuck out her tongue as I rolled my eyes at her childish antics.
"Yeah, whatever," I said.
"You said your worked here as his personal assistant, right?" She asked.
"Right," I said.
"Then why'd you resign? I bet your salary is much better than what Darcy pays you!" Lina said.
"Brandon and I were romantically involved at the time. He cheated on me and the media made it worse. Two months later he found me again and he apologized and explained and I forgave him. He really did seem truly sorry," I told her.
"I hope so." She nodded, "How did you two meet?" She asked me and I smiled.
"It's a very long story," I told her.
"I got time..." Lina smiled.
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