Love and Liquor

Dearly Beloved

XX.
Dearly Bleloved

After a sleepless night thinking over yesterday’s events at her father’s house, Grace awoke a rather large argument outside her door.                                                               

“Nina, let me in god dammit. I just want to see her,” she heard Luca say. His voice was harsh and stern.                                                                                                  

 “Luca, I can’t let you in. You’d ruin a perfectly good tradition. It isn’t like you will never see her again; she is just getting ready for the wedding. Gracious! Now shoo! Find somewhere else to be. I’m sure Vince could use help bringing the wine up from the cellar,” Nina responded.                                                                                                                 

Grace pressed her ear up against the door just in time to hear Luca mutter some less than desirable phrases under his breath. She covered her mouth to giggle, so as not to give herself away. There was the sound of feet stomping down the stairs and the doorknob began to twist.                                                                                                              

Grace was not surprised to see Nina walking in shaking her head.                                       

“That boy, what am I going to do with him?” Grace shrugged with a breathy laugh. “Well perhaps I’ll just leave him to you. It would seem that he is absolutely smitten with you,” Nina wagged her eyebrows suggestively.                                                                    

“Now,” she continued, “Shall we get you ready for your wedding?”

 Grace nodded. “I think we shall,” she responded playfully.

Grace was determined to enjoy her day despite everything that had happened yesterday with her dad and Russo, both of whom she was still angry at. Nevertheless, today was her day, and it was going to be perfect.

 “Have you thought about how you’d like your hair done?” Nina asked. Her voice sounded muffled. Grace turned to see Nina buried amongst the clothes in the closet.

 “I haven’t given it much thought at all,” Grace admitted.                            

“Not to worry. I will take care of everything. I’m assuming you haven’t given any thought to your makeup either, have you?”

Grace shook her head guiltily.

 “I think you should wear red lipstick. It’s sexy.” Nina laughed as she watched Grace’s cheeks turn a bright red color. 

“Ah ha! Here it is. I was wondering where Gia had hidden it,” Nina exclaimed, pulling a gorgeous dress out of the back of the closet.

 Grace had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. The dress itself was made of ivory silk with gossamer overlay and lace sleeves.    There was a simple pattern of beading tracing over the different lines throughout. She had thought the dress Madame Duboire had made for the Governor’s ball was exquisite, but this dress was of a different caliber all its own. She had never seen anything like it.     

 “I-is that mine?” she asked, still not fully recovered from the beautiful dress before her.    

 “Of course it’s yours. Now you understand why I wouldn’t let Luca see you. If this is how you reacted to the dress, imagine how he is going to react to you in it.”