Chapter 14 #2
She hadn't removed her shoes as her mother had instructed, and she intended to walk into her new house on her own two feet.
"Thank you, Anandur," she said.
"My pleasure."
"For driving us and for the song. It was beautiful."
He grinned, and for a moment there was a shadow of the goofy Anandur she had expected, and then it passed, and he just nodded.
"My brother is the true singer in the family but thank you for the compliment.
" He tipped two fingers to his forehead in a salute.
"Good night, you two," he called as he climbed back up into the driver's seat. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," Ruvon said.
He turned the cart in a small circle at the end of the lane, waved once over his shoulder, and drove away.
It was suddenly very quiet.
"Ready to go home?" Ruvon asked.
"Ready."
He bent down and scooped her up.
She made an undignified sound. The skirt of her dress flared and crumpled, and one of her shoes slipped off and landed somewhere on the path, but she did not care.
"Ruvon! I can walk!"
"I know. But I want to carry you. It's tradition."
"Whose? It's not ours."
"So? I like it. We can appropriate it."
"Oh, why not?" She wound her arms around his neck. "I will return for the shoe in the morning."
He carried her up the path, past the bobbing balloons, under the Congratulations banner, and over the threshold of his front door. The door swung open under his shoulder, and he kicked it shut behind them with a soft thud and carried her through the entryway.
"Bedroom?" he asked.
She nodded. "Bedroom."
He carried her down the short hallway to the door at the end of it, kicking that door open too, and Arezoo was already laughing softly against his shoulder before she saw what was waiting inside, and then she stopped laughing and just looked.
The bedroom had also been decorated.
Someone had filled the room with flowers.
Tall vases of white roses stood on each nightstand.
Pink rose petals had been scattered across the bedspread in the shape of a heart, and on the dresser, a bottle of champagne was nestled in a silver bucket of ice with two crystal flutes beside it.
Next to the bucket, a heart-shaped silver tray held heart-shaped chocolates, each one wrapped individually in different colored foil.
Ruvon set her down carefully, and her bare foot, the one without its shoe, found the soft carpet, and the other foot, still in its remaining heel, balanced unevenly until she reached down and pulled it off.
She set it beside her on the floor and stood there in her wedding dress.
"Whoever did this went to so much trouble," she said. "Any idea who it was?"
"No clue."
She turned to face him and realized that the moment had arrived.
The dress, that beautiful wedding gown made for a princess, had done its job, and it was time to take it off.
"I need help getting out of this," she said. "The lace is so delicate, and I don't want to tear anything."
"I'll be very careful."
"There are tiny pearl buttons all the way down the back. A ridiculous number of them. It took Donya over five minutes to button all of them."
"I will count them with utmost patience."
He stepped behind her, and she felt his hands settle at the small of her back, move up her spine, and then she felt the first small button at the top of her dress slip free.
"There," he said softly. "That was the first one."
He worked down the line of buttons, releasing them carefully one at a time, and the bodice loosened in stages.
Arezoo looked down at the skirt that was pooling around her feet and realized with horror how filthy the hem was.
"Oh, dear Fates!"
Ruvon's hands stilled on her back. "What's wrong?"
She held the front edge of the skirt up to the light from the bedside lamp to show him. "My beautiful dress is ruined!"
"It's all right, sweetheart. We will have it dry-cleaned. It will come back looking like new."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive."
She let the skirt fall.
"I want to save it. Perhaps one of my sisters will want to wear it for her wedding. Someday. Or maybe our daughter," she added in a whisper. "This is no ordinary dress. This is an heirloom."
"We will have it preserved properly, and if need be, I'm sure the designer can redo the bottom layer."
He was right, of course, and his calm reassurance settled her sudden panic attack.
He had reached the last of the buttons, and she felt the bodice go fully slack. The dress sagged forward, the weight of the skirt pulling it down, but the lace sleeves were tight and prevented it from sliding off.
"Hold still," he said.
Gently, he pulled on one sleeve, and then the other, and the dress slid down.
He held the waist as she stepped out of the puddle of tulle, and then he gathered the dress up in his arms with care, treating it like the heirloom it was. He laid it across the armchair in the corner of the room, smoothing the skirt out so that it would not crumple.
Arezoo stood in front of Ruvon in her white bridal bra and her white bridal panties, crossed her arms over her stomach, and looked at the floor.
When she'd imagined this moment, she had been bold. She had stood up in front of Ruvon, with pride and desire in her eyes. In her imagination, she had been brave, but in reality she was scared.
She heard him swallow, and that small, audible sound was somehow more affecting than any compliment he could have delivered.
"You are beautiful," he said.
She lifted her eyes to his face.
He was looking at her the way he had looked at her at the foot of the dais, and at the lookout point under the stars, and across the table in the café with the poetry book between them, and at the front door of his house when she had shown up unannounced with food as an excuse.
It was a look that had not changed from the first time he had directed it at her.
It was the way he saw her.
She uncrossed her arms and let them come down to her sides.
He looked.
After a moment, he cleared his throat.
"Would you like me to draw you a bath?" he asked.
"Yes. Please. I need to wash my face and take this makeup off."
He did not move immediately.
He stood there for another beat, just looking at her, and then he seemed to remember that he had offered to do something, turned, and walked toward the bathroom door.