“You must have more than three people on the list?” I ask, and she leans back in her chair. “Do you think we can set up the extra people at the hotel?”
“We can do whatever you want,” Sofia confirms. “It’s your wedding.”
“Then I want to do that,” I say, my leg now moving up and down with nerves. There is no fucking way that I’m going to have my family feel like they aren’t included or that they don’t matter. I don’t even care anymore; I stand and stretch my legs.
“Would you like some water?” Sofia looks at me.
“If it’s not too much trouble,” I answer her and she pushes away from her desk, getting up.
“I’ll be right back,” she says, then looks at Helena. “Would you like some as well?”
“I’m fine.” Helena smiles tightly at her. I wait for her to walk out of the room before I look over at Helena.
I don’t even wait for her to say anything before I talk. “This is our wedding.” She looks at me. “But my family is part of that wedding, whether you like it or not. I would do the same for your family.”
“It’s our wedding, not theirs,” she declares, rolling her eyes. “We aren’t paying for them to do their makeup.”
“We aren’t,” I say, “but I am.” I can’t even imagine going to talk to my aunts and asking them to pay for their makeup. My father would kick my ass so fast, scratch that, my mother would kick my ass so fast.
“We aren’t using Gabriella,” she states as if she is going to win this.
“Then we aren’t doing a save the date,” I counter.
“Can we not discuss this here?” Helena says between clenched teeth when she looks over her shoulder as she hears the clicking of heels coming closer to us. “It’s so embarrassing, and you’re making this experience not fun.”
I close my eyes, shaking my head before I walk back over and sit back down in the chair. Sofia walks back in with the water bottles on a silver tray. Helena grabs both bottles, handing me one. “Sorry about that,” I say, not sure what I’m apologizing for.
Sofia sits back down. “Nothing to apologize for. Planning a wedding is a big deal.” She smiles and looks over at Helena. “What about a dress?”
“I would love to have an original and I’m working on getting a designer.” She smiles so big. “But I’m open to anyone you can suggest.”
“I have a couple of names for you.” Sofia smiles at her and my chest contracts as I think of her helping Helena with a wedding dress. I open the bottle of water, drinking it. The cold water hits me right away, and then she says, “We can do that without the groom.”
sofia
I look down at the paper in front of me, not sure I can mask the fact that I’m going to help this woman pick out her wedding dress. I look at the paper with the rest of the questions empty, but I think I’ve done my part for the day. The rest of the questions aren’t that important, and I can always reach out to her. “I think I have everything I need.” I avoid looking back up, but I can’t just look down at my papers until they walk out.
“What is the next step?” Helena asks excitedly, clapping her hands. If this were any other couple, I would probably be clapping my hands as well. This wedding is really going to be the wedding of the year and the commission will be amazing. Not only that but having this on my portfolio will be even more amazing.
“The next step is I take everything you told me and make a wedding plan,” I tell her. “You can go over it and see if there is anything you think we should change or maybe there are things you see out there that you want to change things to.” I go over the script I say all the time, ignoring the burning in the pit of my stomach. “After everything is said and done, we will have different days where we do different things.”
“What does that mean?” Matthew asks.
“Well.” I look over at him and fold my hands into each other and lean forward just a touch, knowing my tits will be pushed up. “One day, we will look at flower arrangements. Then the service setting, of course. We make a mock-up of everything that you chose so you can see exactly what it will look like on the day of your wedding.”
“I love that,” Helena says, her eyes have been lit up this whole time. She was the one doing all the talking all the time. The only time Matthew spoke up was about the makeup. This whole wedding is nothing like I thought his day would be. It’s nothing like he said his day would be. When we were together, we would always talk about when we got married, but we were always on the same page. The only thing we wanted was our family and closest friends. Definitely not five hundred people.