Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Savina
IT’S EARLY ON a Saturday morning when my stepmother decides to take Darby and I wedding dress shopping.
Honestly, I haven’t even thought about what kind of dress I would want to wear on the day I’ve been dreading for ten years.
I’ve been too miserable thinking about all the other details that deciding what to wear apparently slipped my mind.
A car picks up Darby and I from our apartment, and we meet Cosette at a boutique downtown.
The bell above the door chimes delicately as we enter.
The air inside is sweet with the scent of lavender and starch, and every surface seems to gleam in soft whites and pastels.
There are tons of dresses on display throughout the store; all in various styles, lengths, and colors.
“Savina!” Cosette calls from behind a curtain.
We go to the large dressing room area at the back of the store.
There are several changing areas, and a large platform stage in the center of the room.
Numerous mirrors surround the stage, and I almost groan out loud.
I hate being put on display like this, but I guess it’s all part of the experience, or so I’ve been told.
When we walk in, I see Cosette downing a glass of champagne, which no doubt is complimentary, and I grimace when I think about how many bottles they’re going to go through while she’s here.
She waves her hand in the air and slowly stands up, almost falling back down in her seat, but quickly righting herself at the last second.
“This is the bride,” Cosette tells one of the attendants as she points her long, manicured nail at me. “And this is her maid of honor,” she says, flicking her middle fingernail nonchalantly at Darby.
“Did she just,” Darby starts, but I quickly wave a hand in her face, distracting her. I don’t need them both getting their claws out this early on. We’ll never survive the day if that happens, and I desperately need to get through today with my stepmother.
“I’m Savina. And this is my maid of honor, Darby,” I say in a quick introduction to the team.
“Excellent,” the attendant says with a big smile. She’s young with blonde hair and pretty, blue eyes. “I’m Ava, and this is Evelyn,” she says pointing to the petite, brown-haired girl standing beside her.
“Nice to meet you,” I say with a smile of my own.
I’m going to try to be as nice as possible to the staff even though deep down I’m miserable and that this is literally the last place on earth I want to be right now.
It’s not their fault; however, so I’ll try not to let my mood filter out into my attitude.
“Let’s get started,” Ava chirps happily before Evelyn leads Darby to another part of the store to look at maid of honor dresses. “Your mother already chose several options that she thought you would like,” Ava starts, but I cut her off.
“Stepmother,” I whisper.
“Oh, stepmother,” Ava corrects herself before giving me a knowing look that speaks volumes. I’m sure Cosette has been driving her up the wall all morning. “Ah yes,” she says, sorting through the dresses hanging on a nearby rack. “Let’s start with this A-line dress from Vera Wang.”
After I change out of my clothes, Ava helps me into the expensive gown. “It’s a little tight,” I mutter, struggling to breathe as Ava tries to zip me up but fails miserably.
“Maybe your stepmother told me the wrong size,” she explains.
I roll my eyes. “I’m sure she told you a size smaller so that she could gripe about my weight,” I confess.
Cosette has been constantly on me about my weight since I was a child.
It’s definitely given me a complex; and leave it to her to try to screw with my head today by telling the attendant the wrong gown size. “I’m a size six,” I tell her.
“This is a four.”
“Of course it is,” I grumble.
“Don’t worry. After this, I’ll distract her with a selection of dresses with one of my staff while I switch out all the dress sizes. For right now, we can just let the zipper down, and I’ll cover it with a veil.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” I tell her with a watery smile.
“Hey, I have a monster-in-law, so I pretty much know what you’re going through,” she says with a knowing smile.
I decide in that moment that I really like Ava. I watch her work her magic as she attaches the veil and covers the unzippered part of my dress. Hopefully Cosette won’t see the mishap so I don’t have to hear about it later.
“All set,” Ava says. “Let’s go show this off before I can get you into something more comfortable,” she informs me before pulling back the curtain.
Cosette looks unpleasantly surprised by the fact that I managed to stuff myself into a size four dress.
Luckily, for me, the gown has some give; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get into the damn thing.
A tiny line forms between her botoxed brows as she frowns at me.
“Wow, that looks great on you,” Cosette proclaims, but I can hear the disdain in her voice.
I approach the platform in the center of the room and stand on it just as Darby comes back with an armful of dresses. “What do you think?” I ask her.
“It’s okay, kind of plain. Definitely not the wow factor dress we’re looking for,” my best friend says earnestly before adding, “You need something that’s going to show off your boobs.”
Leave it to Darby to not have a filter, but I have to admit I totally agree. Well, maybe not so much about the boob part, but she is right about the dress being nice but too plain. It’s definitely not going to dazzle anyone, including my future husband.
Cosette scoffs at Darby’s opinion but decides to down another flute of champagne instead of speaking her mind, which I’m grateful for. Thank goodness for free booze.
I stare at my reflection in one of the full-length mirrors, and I can’t help but wonder what Dimitri would think about this. He probably wouldn’t care what I wore to the wedding, because he’d most likely be ripping it off of me by the end of the night anyway.
And then, I have to force myself not to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Here I am standing in a wedding dress, but I’m thinking about the groom’s brother.
The man who ate my pussy so good the other night that I actually passed out.
And the same man who then put together the cursed vanity that I’ve been struggling with for over a week.
When I woke up the next morning to see he had not only constructed the cabinet but had carefully put my things away inside of it, I’ll admit to having shed a few tears.
If Dimitri is anything, it’s not knowing how to be gentle, and he’s definitely never kind.
But what he’s been doing lately has been both of those things, and it’s seriously messing with my head.
What if I was wrong about him this whole time? It might change everything…
“Would the material be easy to let out if Savina would happen to gain weight?” my stepmother says, breaking through my inner thoughts.
Darby pipes up this time. “Why are you always on her about her weight? So what if she gains a couple of pounds? It’s not the end of the world, Cosette.”
Cosette’s mouth falls open in complete shock that Darby is speaking to her like that. “I just want her to look her best for her wedding, that’s all,” she sputters.
Ava calls for another attendant and then says, “Can you please show Mrs. Cipriano some mother of the bride dresses, please?”
“Sure thing,” the older female says.
“Thank you,” Ava says with a saccharine smile.
Once Cosette begrudgingly leaves, Darby turns and rolls her eyes. “I don’t know how you put up with her shit,” she mumbles to me. “I would haul off and hit the bitch. Family or not,” she says before grabbing a glass of complimentary champagne from one of the tables.
I sigh inwardly. I would love to hit Cosette too, but the consequences of such actions wouldn’t make the satisfaction of finally putting her in her place worth it. And so, I simply keep my mouth shut and plaster a fake smile on my face, which is getting harder and harder to maintain by the minute.
“I’ll be right back with the correct sizes,” Ava says to me before disappearing from the room.
“Correct sizes?” Darby questions with a raised brow.
“Yeah, Cosette told her I’m a size smaller than what I actually am.”
“That bitch,” Darby seethes. “I’m telling you, Savina,” she says before balling her fist and punching it into the palm of her other hand.
I laugh. “No violence today, okay? I just want to get through this.”
“All right,” she agrees with a frown and a nod. “I’m gonna go try on some of these dresses. I’d hate to see what Cosette would say about my size. It’d probably send her to an early grave.” Then she turns and her eyes widen. “On second thought…”
I laugh out loud. “Go and try your dresses on!”
Darby waggles her dark, perfectly arched brows and then goes into a dressing room, pulling the curtain shut.
Darby has the type of body that men dream about — curves in all the right places, big boobs and a big butt.
If she would ever try to put herself down, which she wouldn’t, I’d set her ass straight.
She’s perfect just the way she is. And if Cosette would ever make a remark about her weight or her size, then I probably would haul off and punch her.
That would definitely send me over the edge.
Consequences be damned. I don’t care if my stepmother talks about me and puts me down; but talking shit about my best friend is a whole other matter.
Ava eventually exchanges out all the sizes, and we try on another dress. It’s a ball gown, and I feel like I’m going to fall over as I walk out to the platform. It’s a definite no, and Ava can clearly see my thoughts written all over my face. “Let’s try another one,” she suggests.
I’m slipping into yet another gown when I hear my stepmother asks, “I like this dress for me, but do you have it in white?”