“We need to get going to the fitting,” I told her. “Down at Sadie’s villa.” The hotel had provided her with a private villa that sat right on the beach.
“Fine,” Krista said with an exaggerated sigh. “Let’s go.”
I checked to make sure I had both of my keycards on me as we left our room. Some small part of me hoped Camden would come out when he heard my door shut, but he didn’t.
And I was disappointed.
As we walked down the hallway Krista said, “Just tell him you’re not a spy.”
“I’m sure he’ll believe that. Because he seems like the trusting type.”
“I don’t know what else you can do. There’s no way he can find us online.”
That was true. Taimani made sure of it, and her ability to scrub our names was one of the reasons I’d hired her in the first place. She made certain that our real names were never connected with any pictures of us that were online. I had stopped using aliases because Taimani was just that good.
“Or,” Krista said, “you could just play along and flirt back.”
“I don’t think I want to do that.” Because so far my body couldn’t tell the difference between real and fake, so even if my brain knew it didn’t mean anything, I didn’t think I’d be able to convince my heart.
“It will be fine,” she told me. “Just grab that bull by the horns and see where things go. We’re in Hawaii. Let’s do our job, but let’s also keep having a good time.”
She pushed the button for the elevator and we waited in silence for it to arrive while I considered her advice.
Grabbing a bull by its horns wasn’t a great analogy because I wasn’t up for being gored if things went sideways.
And working at weddings had taught me that stuff always seemed to go sideways.
CHAPTER FIVE
Stefan quickly finished with the dresses for me, Krista, and Mary-Ellen. This was our first time meeting with him, but we’d already sent in our measurements. I hadn’t known what to expect when we arrived, but Sadie had selected some beautiful gray silk dresses that draped like they’d been made for us.
Which, I supposed, they had. It was just nice to get a dress that was so pretty. I actually could wear it again, unlike most bridesmaid dresses.
As Stefan circled around me, moving the fabric this way and that, he tutted and sighed loudly. He made me feel like I should apologize for having hips.
Then he started muttering to himself about things he had to change and I tried to be helpful.
“I think it looks great just the way it is.”
His imperious glare let me know that I was wrong. Technically his company was paying for the dresses, so I decided to keep my mouth shut and just go with the flow. So often the bridesmaids’ dresses selected for us were hideous, even though the brides repeatedly assured us that they were “like, so pretty!” and we could “totally wear them again.” Unless I planned on going to the future marriage of Big Bird and Barbie, the hot-pink dress with yellow feathers from the Hemmings’ wedding was definitely not something I was ever going to put on my body again.
I took off my dress and handed it to Stefan’s assistant. Who was also shooting me dirty looks. I changed into my regular clothes, smoothing my hair in its french twist so that I didn’t look too messy.
Sadie said, “I’m coming out!” I stepped around the screen to see her, and her dress was stunning. It was fitted with a lace overlay on the bodice and was open in the back. The bottom half of her dress surprised me—she’d gone for a poofy skirt with a tulle overlay.
“Does it not look good?” she asked me.
“No, you look gorgeous! It just surprised me that your dress has such a princess feel to it.”
“I considered a lot of different styles, but in the future, I’m going to wear formal, more traditional dresses. When will I ever get the chance to wear a Cinderella-esque ball gown like this again?”
She was right. Her designer, Stefan, walked around her making more noises.
“It looks like it’s all finished,” I offered, not wanting him to stress out Sadie, and he brushed me aside with another icy stare.
“Of course it’s finished. I’m making sure that we don’t need any last-second alterations. You don’t know how many brides put on five pounds the week of their wedding because of all the stress eating,” he replied.
Oh, trust me. I did.
A camera operator panned up and down Sadie’s dress, but I knew this wasn’t being broadcast live. They wanted the footage for later, and for the wedding itself to be the big reveal of the dress.