Page 32 of Love Redesigned
“Well, it’s still technically a secret. The press release won’t drop until next week, but LeFranc is debuting its first-ever line of wedding gowns in January. The Sasha Wellington Collection.”
“January? That’s so soon.” As Sasha’s assistant, I felt like I knew every single aspect of her business life. How had she planned the launch of an entire line of wedding gowns without me knowing?
“It took forever to convince Alicio it was a good idea, but he’s finally on board and I’m determined to make this work.”
My brain still struggled to keep up. “LeFranc has never done wedding gowns before.”
Sasha tossed her hair over her shoulder in a gesture that might have made me gag had I not been so distracted by her news. “LeFranc has never had me before either.” She held out her hands. “Welcome to the new face of the company.”
I swallowed. The whole entire company? “What does this have to do with me?”
“And my dress?” Paige added.
“Dani, I’m going to have a lot of influence when it comes to these gowns,” Sasha said. “I’ll need people I can trust—designers I can trust—on my team.”
“Are you...?”
“Asking you to design for me?” She motioned to the dress with a slight tilt of her head. “Are you willing to give me that dress?”
I hesitated. “It’s Paige’s dress.”
“Well, I’m sure she can still wear it,” Sasha said. “I’ll just need to borrow it for a bit first.” Sasha’s offer was enticing. Almost too good to be true. But, for the hours I’d put into that dress, it took all my logical reasoning not to sleep with it tied to my wrist.
“Dani, I think you should do it,” Paige said.
“I think you should too,” Sasha said.
I willed the knot in my stomach to loosen. This was a good thing. But something was making me hesitate. And I was pretty sure it had a lot to do with Alex and the text he’d sent warning me to be careful.
But this could mean designing.
It could mean finally landing my dream job.
“If the line goes live in January, the dresses are done. That’s not even five months away. You can’t add an extra dress to an already finished collection.”
“I’m in charge,” Sasha said. “I can do whatever I want. We have half a dozen dresses to debut, and they’re very good. It’s why you’ve had to help so much with the spring line, Dani. I’ve just been so consumed by these dresses. And they’re fantastic. Truly. But this,” she motioned to Paige, “is too perfect not to be featured.”
“I still don’t know. Does it even fit with the rest of the collection?”
Sasha rolled her eyes. “They’re all wedding gowns. They’re white. There’s lace. Isn’t that enough of a unifying theme?”
Her lack of understanding grated on my nerves. How had she managed to get so far with so little understanding of how design actually worked? I shook my head. “I’d need to see the other dresses. Maybe if you let me see them, I could find some ways to tie them together, to—”
“Fine, fine,” Sasha said. “Whatever you want. But you can’t do a thing tothisdress.”
I looked at Paige and she gave me an encouraging smile. “Will my name be on the dress?”
“Darling, you can bow from the runway at Fashion Week beside me. This is your big break, Dani. It’s time for your talents to truly shine.”
Paige squealed as she ran across the room and threw her arms around me.
“So I guess I’ll bring the dress to work on Monday morning?”
Sasha moved to the apartment door. “And not a day later.”
“Wait,” I called, stopping Sasha with her hand on the doorknob. “When will I actually start designing?”
“Start whenever you want. You’re a designer now. The faster you start, the better. Though”—she hesitated—“things are stillhush, husharound the office. And I might get some push back bringing on myassistantas a lead designer on the new team. It’s probably best that you don’t say anything for now. Even to Chase. Not until we’re ready to go live with the big announcement.”
