41. Georgia #2
I designed this dress at the beginning of last semester. It's supposed to resemble a light green wedding dress, but I made a few adjustments to it, and now it’s perfectly on theme for my whimsical Fae line.
Usually, designers wear all black when they do their final walk, but I wanted to do something different. Why not dress in my own clothes that I designed?
The models walk out behind me, clapping along with the audience. There are cameras flashing, and people are wolf-whistling. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much as we all pose at the end of the runway and head back to the dressing room in absolute silence.
Everyone in the dressing room shares a look, small smiles creeping on our faces, before we hug, cheering as we jump up and down.
“You did it! You did it!” Sienna exclaims, bouncing as I laugh.
“I did it!” I cry out, tears clouding my vision as my friends—my girls pull me into a bone-crushing hug.
The door to the dressing room opens again, and a hush falls over the room as a familiar face struts inside. Her deep mahogany skin is glowing, and her honey brown hair is silky and pressed down her back. I gasp as she gives me a blinding smile and holds out a hand to me.
“Hi, Georgia, I love what you did with your line,” Eden freaking Marlowe says, complimenting me.
I faint. Almost immediately, my knees go weak when her palm connects with mine—okay, so maybe I’m lying, and I didn’t faint, but I wanted to.
There’s no way in hell that Eden Marlowe came to my show. I’m in the presence of an icon!
My knees buckle when Eden gives me a smile, and Cleo squeals quietly behind me. I just know that her hands are covering her mouth as she tries and fails to contain her excitement.
I’ve been obsessed with Eden Marlowe since childhood.
When Cleo, Sienna, and I were little, we begged our parents for matching ASTERI tracksuits and swore up and down that we would be like Eden when we grew up.
She was so magnetizing. She started ASTERI when she was seventeen, and even though she was a child birthed in nepotism, she made a name for herself.
She’s the icon of all icons.
She’s Eden fucking Marlowe.
“E-Eden Marlowe is standing right in front of me,” I gasp out, stuttering as Eden chuckles, pulling me in for a hug!
Is this Heaven? Have I died and been rewarded?
I hug her back instantly and sigh as I inhale her sweet perfume. It smells of lavender and vanilla–my newest favorite scents.
This has to be Heaven.
A loud thundering of steps draws me away from my idol, and my brow raises as the love of my life stumbles into the dressing room with Delilah, my mother, and his mother. My father is nowhere to be seen. Typical.
Derek sighs, sweat beading on his forehead. He’s dressed in the clothes that I laid out for him yesterday. A lightweight sweater that matches his burnt-orange glasses and jeans. It’s simple and makes my mouth water, but I’m mad at him.
Where has he been? I haven’t seen or heard from him all day!
“Damn it, Nina. I told you to wait for me! I wanted to see her reaction.” Derek sighs, dropping his shoulders as Eden scowls at him.
“You were taking too long to get Deli, and I wanted to meet the woman you've been talking my ear off about.” She turns to face me, plastering on a bright smile. “I’m Eden. It’s nice to meet you, Georgia.
Obviously, you know my infuriating godson, considering he’s your husband,” she says, squeezing me in a tight hug as I smile, my cheeks burning.
“He sure is,” I say, my eyes straying back to my small family before locking back on her. She has the most glowing skin I’ve ever seen in my life. I want to be her.
My mother chuckles, and I grin. Looking at her, she points her thumb at Derek before she shoots me a thumbs-up.
The models have all slowly begun to file out of the room, heading to their own endeavors, leaving just my friends and family.
Eden hasn’t let go of me since she first met me, and I’m not complaining one bit as she gives me a warm smile, “I heard from a little birdie that you were denied a scholarship with us that started this spring… I don’t know why your file was denied, and I’ve been looking through it for a while now.”
My head shoots up, turning to Derek.
“What?” I ask Eden, but my eyes are solely for him. The skin around my cheeks heats as he winks at me.
“Yeah, and I honestly am happy that they denied you.”
My head whirls around instantly. “Excuse me?!”
The beautiful and illustrious Eden Marlowe said what?!
“Nina,” Derek warns, his eyes burning holes in the side of his godmother’s head as she breaks into another smile.
“I’m telling the truth, Dere. I’m happy that Georgia was denied; she has the potential to be an amazing designer, and if she’d been put into that internship with fifteen other designers, she’d end up stuck and working under me.
Her designs deserve to shine,” she says, fixing her eyes back on me.
Eden grins crookedly. “I want you to spend three weeks with me after you graduate. In those three weeks, I’ll teach you how to open your own empire.
It’ll be just the two of us—and little Deli, if she wants to join in. How does that sound?”
My eyes widen, and I have to smooth a piece of hair behind my ear to make sure I heard her correctly. I pinch myself, yelping when the pain of it lurches through my skin.
This is real. Eden Marlowe wants to mentor me.
I’m going to be sick, but I don’t hesitate, don’t even think twice.
“I would love to.”
“Good.”
Slowly, Eden and my friends begin to disperse, leaving my family and Derek’s mom in the room.
“How do you feel, Peach?” Mom asks, crossing the room and engulfing me in her signature bear hug.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, a whine in my voice as I hug her back.
“Your husband got me a private plane.” She winks, taking a step back from me and looking me up and down from head to toe. “He also got someone else to join me…” she says, and by her tone, I don’t have to think twice to know who she’s talking about.
I can smell his cologne before I see him. They say that smell is like a keyhole to memory. Someone’s unlocked the past twenty years of my life and slapped me with them. He smells the same, wearing the aftershave that mom first bought him when they were in their teens—it makes me sick.
Richard Adams looks just like me. His hair, though graying, is blonde, unlike my brunette mother’s. He has that golden skin that people would kill for, and his eyes—they’re the exact same as mine.
“My Peach—”
“Don’t.” My voice cracks, my eyes burning, as my chin wobbles.
I haven’t seen my father in months—haven’t talked to him in longer than that and then he shows up here, smiling. “Peach, I—”
I suck in a breath, trembling, and Derek is at my back in an instant. His hand on my waist and the gentle squeeze he gives it ground me.
“You didn’t even say congratulations…” A watery smile breaks across my lips as I speak, my mouth dry and wet all the same as I force my tears back in.
I can’t cry. Not in front of him… not because of him.
I refuse to.
“Oh, come on now, you didn’t even tell me you were dating. Then, I woke up to Alexus showing me your wedding photos on some popstar’s Instanet.”
“Instagram…” I sigh, but that isn’t the point. “You still knew. Your little girl—your only girl, got married, Dad. The least you could’ve done was call me. You had that bitch text and harass me, but you were radio silent. The same woman that you fucked in my room cared more than you did!”
My mom flinches, turning away from me. I mentally curse myself for the harshness of my words, but it had to be said. He cares now, but where was he this past year?
“Do not call her that. She is my wife—”
“And I’m your daughter!”
Derek takes a step in front of me, covering my view of my father. “Did I fuck up by bringing him here? Do you want me to get rid of him?”
I want to say yes, but… no. I need to say this—to get these words that have been clouding my head for the past year out. I started to hate who I was because of this man. He’s my dad, and he hasn’t reached out to me once since the year started… It’s April.
He must see it in my eyes because he places a tender kiss on my temple and sidesteps me. He takes my mom out of the room, leaving the two of us.
Dad has no words, but I’ve got plenty.
“I’m not coming to the wedding.”
I’m drained. Today was a lot with the show, but my mind has mentally faded.
Richard—Dad nods. He doesn’t say anything, only nods, and I think that sums up our relationship now.
“I’m going to make it big in this industry, and I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive you for what you did to Mom, but I want you to know that I don’t forgive you right now.
I don’t want to speak to you, Dad. And no, I don’t care about how any of this makes you feel.
You are disgusting, entitled, and most of all…
a man. Only a man would do the things you did.
I don’t want to be like you,” I spit, and he flinches.
Good.
He deserves nothing less.
“I raised you.”
I scoff, “And somehow, you fucked someone five years older than me.” I shrug, plopping down on the couch behind me.
He doesn’t move, doesn’t say anything. He stares at what he’s created: a twenty-something man-hater.
With a sigh, he plops down on the couch next to me.
We’re silent, neither of us having anything to say to the other, and it feels like the past again. Only now I know that he’s capable of leaving his family—of leaving me.
“I love you, Georgia.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Silence.
“Look, I—”
I suck in a breath. “I don’t want to hear it. My husband has been waiting long enough. We have to put our daughter to bed before our flight tomorrow. Thank you for coming.”
He gives me a small smile and nods. “I’ll see you soon, Peach."
"No, you won’t.”