Page 43 of My Fake Fiancé

“I’m sorry that we sprung this little trip on you.” Mrs. Michaels tosses her arm around my shoulder and pulls me into a side hug. I smile and lean into her for the hug. “I hope it wasn’t too much for you.”

“Oh no, of course not. It was very nice of you to set this up for me and everyone. I had a lot of fun. I’m sorry it didn’t exactly end up with a happy ending.”

“Oh dear, don’t worry about it.” Mrs. Michaels waves her hand, dismissing my apology. “I should have realized it was too soon to go dress shopping, I guess I got a little excited.”

“Can we still try on bridesmaid dresses?” Merrin pops up next to us, smiling and lifting the mood. We look over at the stylist who smiles at us.

“You do have a five-hour appointment. And it’s only been about three.” She checks her watch to confirm and gives a nod then looks up at me for approval. I turn to look at Tatyana and see her face looking a little terrified. I smile and nod my head in approval.

“Oh, yes. I think we should. Can we go around the shop again and look at the dresses for the bridesmaids?” I look back at the stylist and she points out all the racks for bridesmaid dresses. I excitedly make my way over to Tatyana and drag her off the couch. She groans but lets me lead her to a rack of bridesmaid dresses. Merrin joins us and soon we are all crowded around the different racks.

“So, is there a theme that we want to stick to when looking for bridesmaid dresses?” Mrs. Michaels asks. I’ve noticed she’s done most of the talking today. My mom usually talks a lot as well but I guess she is trying to be on her best behavior in front of Mrs. Michaels, her future in-law. Well, not really but she thinks so, everyone thinks so. This is so hard.

“I like pastels.” I offer up, not really sure what theme I want but drawing from their earlier discussion. Mostly because there isn’t a real wedding to have a theme for. Of course, I have thought about my wedding a few times, more than a few times but that does not mean I thought specifically about this wedding right now.

“See! I knew it. I mentioned pastel earlier, didn’t I? I totally did.” Merrin claps her hands excitedly and starts shifting through dresses to find pastel-colored ones.

“That you did,” My mom says and gives me a look. I shrug. “I thought you always wanted your wedding to be pink and sparkly, with tons of flowers?” My mom smiles as she teases me. She seems be having fun and enjoying herself today. I smile and laugh at the comment.

“I still like pink, certain shades. And flowers. But sparkly? Not so much.” I laugh again remembering that I did in fact want a pink, sparkly, and floral wedding when I was younger.

“And I don’t mean pastel pink, I am talking about bright pink, hot pink.” My mom teases me more and we both are laughing. “Hm, that would be a fun idea for the bridesmaid dresses?” She looks at me and raises her eyebrows, smirking a bit then looks over at Tatyana. Tatyana’s face drains of color and she looks horrified.

“Oh lord, please don’t make me wear hot pink.” Tatyana groans again showing her disgust at the idea.

“Yeah, normally I would say yes to whatever you, the bride, would pick but honey no. Please no hot pink.” Even Merrin looks a little worried which makes my mom and I laugh even harder. Mrs. Michaels starts snickering a bit too and Gram follows soon and we all start laughing. Tatyana still looks a little scared but I reach out and squeeze her arm.

“Don’t worry, I won’t force you two to wear hot pink. I think I grew away from that a few years back. We should probably stick with pastels for now. Oh! Here’s a cute one!” I pull a delicate blue dress off of the rack and hold it out for everyone to see.

“Ooo, yes. That is beautiful.” Merrin reaches out and I hand the dress to her.

“There are more dresses similar to that dress, if you’d like to see?” The stylist comes over to us. “It is part of a collection. We have the same dress in multiple colors and then we also have the same color dress but in different styles, if either of those ideas is of interest to you.”

“Uhm, can we see the same dress but in different colors first?” I make the decision and the stylist nods and goes to pull more colors in the same style.

The stylist brings them back over and hangs them all for display on a rack facing our group. There are four different colors including the blue one. The other three are; green, pink, and gray. All the colors are light pastels and would fit the theme I have in mind if the wedding was real. This is probably going too far at this point but I don’t know how to stop it, I don’t know how to get out of this day. Hopefully, there aren’t more days like this in the future. I have enjoyed hanging out with everyone but dress shopping for a wedding that isn’t going to happen is such a stressful situation. Especially spending five hours on it.

Tatyana reaches for the gray dress but I’m quicker, I smack her hand away and hand her the pink dress. She groans audibly but accepts the dress. I turn to Merrin and think for a second then hand her the green dress. She smiles and accepts it, excited by the choice.

“Okay!” The stylist claps her hands and then gestures to the dressing rooms. Tatyana and Merrin each go into one of the other rooms and the stylist moves to help Merrin while I offer to help Tatyana. The stylist thanks me and shows me the back of the dress and how to fashion it once the dress is on. I nod my head while watching and confirm that I understand. Once I’m in the dressing room with Tatyana, she whispers to me.

“I can’t believe you’re actually letting them pick out bridesmaid dresses and your own bridal dress!” She whispers harshly and I shush her. “And worst of all, you’re making me try on the pink dress!”

“You’re lucky they didn’t have a yellow option for this dress,” I whisper back while I lace up the back of her dress and fix the fabric to get it right; the way the stylist showed me.

“Uh!” Tatyana gasps looking at me in the mirror. “You wouldn’t!” I chuckle and give her a look with my eyebrows raised. My expression says, ‘Test me, I dare you’.

“Oh, come on. You look great in yellow.” I tease her but honestly, she does look good in yellow. She hates it but also knows she looks good in yellow.

“You ladies ready to come out?” The stylist calls to us and I hear her push back the curtain of Merrin’s dressing room.

“Yup, all set here,” I say then push our curtain back and step out then I take Tatyana’s seat to see the show of bridesmaid dresses.

Merrin and Tatyana step out pretty much at the same time and the stylist helps both of them up onto the platform in front of us and the giant mirrors. There are a few initial reactions that show everyone is relatively pleased with the dresses.

“So what do you all think of the dresses?” The stylist asks, looking around at the group.

“I like the dress, I do. I’m not sure which color. Can we see the blue dress on someone?” Mrs. Michaels asks the stylist and she nods looking over at Tatyana and Merrin. Tatyana looks pretty bored but I know she’ll want to get out of the pink dress.

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