Chapter 42
Brides by the Sea, St Aidan, Cornwall
Big reveals and desperate measures
Thursday
By next Thursday two more happy and grateful couples have been married at the beach hut, and Tia and I are back in the shop waiting for Athena.
We’ve brought her wedding dresses out of the bridal store and hung them in the main fitting room, and we’re just coming back with her shoes when Lando appears in the doorway.
I smile at him. ‘If you’re here for your sister, she shouldn’t be long.’ I’m shaking my head at Tia. ‘She’s cutting it fine. Most brides don’t leave their final try and collect until two days before their wedding.’
Lando winces. ‘Poor, Fi, it’s all been very rushed.’ He lowers his voice. ‘Our parents had the wedding of the decade pencilled in for her for next year, but things went awry, and now she’s desperate to do it before her bump shows.’
I think of faking shock, then I remember it’s Lando. ‘She looked like a ghost at her first appointment, but she didn’t say why.’
Lando looks at the ceiling. ‘She was probably still in shock, but I thought I’d better mention it.’ He raises his voice again. ‘I mainly came to warn you that since Fi heard about our outing to see the seals, she’s insisting you all come to the wedding, and she’s impossible to say “no” to.’
A face pops up beside Lando. ‘Too right I am.’ It’s the woman herself, and she grins. ‘As you get to know more of us, Maeve, you’ll find it’s a family trait.’
Lando laughs. ‘You can’t use the excuse you’ve got another wedding either, because Fi’s booked the beach hut out all day.’
I turn to Tia for help, but she only shrugs, then the truth hits me.
‘Apart from anything else, what would I wear?’ I have nothing to lose by admitting the truth. ‘There is no time or money for me to get stately-home-wedding ready before Saturday. End of story.’ And thank Christmas for that.
Athena pushes my excuses aside. ‘We always pass party dresses around. I’ll lend you whatever you need. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s a designer something no one’s seen before.’
I pull myself up to my full height. ‘If your wedding is the day after tomorrow, you do not have time to find dresses for random guests!’
Athena narrows her eyes as she looks at me. ‘Of everyone on the guest list, you are probably the one I want to see there the most.’ She pats Lando on the back. ‘He always ducks out of weddings. If he’s finally consenting to come to one, we have to get him the partner he wants.’
Lando turns. ‘Great! And Jess is happy for the kids to wear whatever they want from the shop. So now we’ve got that sorted, I’ll leave you to get on.’
As we head towards the fitting room, Athena’s looking at me. ‘I’m guessing Lando prefers you in mini dresses?’
I laugh as I pull back the curtain. ‘Nothing too short, please.’
She pulls the curtain closed, and calls from the other side, ‘I’ll send you a few, then you can choose. And don’t worry about damage, if the party gets out of hand, everyone’s dresses will be write-offs.’
I mouth ‘what the actual eff?’ at Tia and wonder what kind of world they must inhabit. Then we put our customer faces back on again and I hurry to do Athena’s dress up. I hand her the flat sandals and she slides her toes in.
She twirls around, pulls back the curtain then looks down at the embroidered cut work on the hem.
‘It’s as gorgeous as I remember – very simple, but everything I want in a dress.
’ She shakes out the layers of muslin. ‘It’ll be beautiful in a breeze, and if it rains it’ll be fully transparent, but I’ll take that. ’
Tia’s looking at the hem. ‘How is the length?’
Athena laughs. ‘It’s exactly how I want it, which is good because I haven’t factored in time to bring in a seamstress.’ She pulls a face. ‘I can’t wait to wear it! Onto my next favourite!’
When she pulls back the curtain the next time, she’s in her shimmery evening shift with the bow on the back, sitting on the chair, doing up her block heeled sandals. She springs to her feet and I pull the zip, which flies up like a dream. She does a few dance moves and sits back down again.
‘Excellent. Now for the last.’
Emotions run high with brides, so the whole process can go to pieces at any moment, but outside the fitting room Tia and I put both our thumbs up.
It’s been high speed, but two dresses down and with Athena being such an easy-going bride, we’re coasting to the end here.
However, we also know the last dress is the super expensive elaborate one, and I sense it’s the one she likes the least.
I put my head around the curtain. ‘Shall I help you into this one, Athena, seeing as it’s got more layers?’
It takes a while to get the dress off the hanger, but eventually I get the fabric under control and find the gap for her body.
She steps into it, then slips her fingers through the straps and smiles down at the bodice with its exquisite lace and tiny beads and pearls.
‘This one will have the dowager duchesses gasping. I knew the instant I saw it, it’s perfect for the job. ’
I’m easing the dress into place on her waist, remembering the first time she tried it. ‘You flew into it last time, didn’t you?’
‘Flew in, then out again just as fast.’ She laughs. ‘I was feeling dire, but I was also rushing to get back to a black fly invasion on my roses.’
‘My mum had those this year too. She was out round the clock spraying them with fairy liquid.’
Athena rolls her eyes. ‘We have acres of them and our whole confetti crop was under threat. I grow organic cut flowers too, so I can’t look away for a second.’
I’m thinking back. ‘So you don’t live in London?’
She laughs. ‘We’re in deepest Somerset.’ She takes in my reaction. ‘Why do you look shocked?’
She’s caught me off guard. ‘I didn’t think of you having a job.’ I try to cover how rude that sounds. ‘Especially not a practical one.’
‘It’s more of a passion, but it saves me going to the gym.
’ She glances at her fingers. ‘Though don’t look at my hands.
The manicurist will have a fit tomorrow, but I can’t help that.
’ She goes back to her dress, and pulls at the hips.
‘It feels tighter than it did. It can’t have shrunk can it? It is the right dress?’
My alarm bells are ringing.
I give a cough. ‘It’s definitely the same dress.’ I try to line up the sides of the zipper, but they’re nowhere near doing up. As I push my head out of the fitting room, I’m grateful to Lando for thinking ahead to warn us.
Over by the dress rail Tia takes in my throat cutting gesture and two strides later she’s beside me in the fitting room, staring at the expanse of Athena’s bare back.
She goes round to the front, checks the fit of the bodice, then comes around the back again, and tries to bring the top edges together, but they’re still a mile apart.
Tia takes a breath. ‘Athena, being completely open and honest, we’re having difficulty getting the dress to fasten. We could try to force it, but I’m not sure you’d be able to breathe.’
Athena is a lot cooler than she could be. ‘Show me from the back.’
Tia brings a mirror and holds it so Athena can see her reflection.
Athena pulls a face and clamps her hands to her chest. ‘There’s no way that zip is going up.’
Tia nods at her in the mirror. ‘We feel the same. Shall we talk through the options?’
The fallout from a bride finding her dress won’t fit this close to the day could be catastrophic. I’m counting the seconds of silence, waiting.
On the count of three, Athena’s sob rises to a wail. ‘I can’t believe I’ve grown out of my main wedding dress!’
I grab a box of tissues, and she takes one then sinks down onto the armchair with her head in her hands.
‘It’s all gone to shit. This is just the latest crap shower in my epic wedding disaster catalogue.
’ She’s sobbing behind her arm. ‘I’ve let everyone down.
They wanted a monumentally huge bash, and I’ve totally messed up on that.
My only real job was to find myself a suitably impressive dress, and now I’ve stuffed that up too. ’
I grasp Athena’s fingers, squeeze them tight and watch Tia pull in a breath.
‘We aren’t going to dwell on any of that now, Athena. Let’s think how we can best move forwards.’
I’m not wimping out, but apart from the hand holding, I’m leaving this to Tia.
She bites her lip. ‘There’s nothing to steal from the seams. We could add a criss-cross tie fastening, but that might spoil the lines.’
Athene shakes her head hard. ‘My grandmother would never get over a lace-up wedding dress. Nor would my mother.’ She sighs.
‘It’s okay, you don’t have to sugar-coat this.
The reason my boobs are pneumatic, and I’ve burst out of all my jeans, is because I’m pregnant.
’ Her voice drops to a whisper. ‘People can be so awful. I’d just hate anyone to think the only reason we’re getting married is because of that, which is why I’d hate it to show. ’
As I look at her hunched over her hanky, it hits me that despite her gigantic spend, she’s just another woman, with the same worries we’d all have in her situation, and I’m willing her to feel alright.
I kneel down beside her and slide my arm around her. ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to make this okay.’
She sniffs. ‘I’m lucky there’s still room in the other two.’
Tia’s keeping super calm ‘If we’d had any idea, we’d have steered you towards something less fitted.’
Athena groans. ‘I was so sure I’d be a size eight all the way to the end.’
I feel so sorry for her, I chip in again. ‘On the upside, if we can find you another dress today, it should still fit on Saturday.’ I’m throwing everything at this. ‘While you get dressed again, I’ll get you a ginger tea and one of Poppy’s cupcakes. And Tia can look for some others for you to try.’
‘Great!’ Athena gets hold of both my hands and squeezes them tightly. ‘Thank you for understanding. And thank you for helping.’