Six Months Later...
Rafe's POV:
"So are you excited?"
She widened her eyes and I instantly regretted my inquiry, "Am I excited? What kind of question is that?"
I just smiled, "Don't get an attitude with me Hal. I might just have to do something about it."
"I'm sorry." She sighed, "I'm honestly just a little nervous. I mean what if I hate all of them, and then I don't have a dress. What would do that? I would-"
"Angel." I grabbed her shoulders, "You're going to find one. Everyone is going to be there today, and you know Mags is like a professional at picking out things for you."
She sighed, "I know, it's just stressful. It's not even a huge deal, I just don't want to settle on one."
"And you don't have to. If you don't find one today, we keep looking, yeah?" I tried to reassure her.
"Yeah." She let out a deep breathe, "What time are you supposed to meet the guys?"
"Same time as you." I rubbed my hands on her skin, and she gave me a worried look, "Hal, it's gonna be okay, we're just getting sized. No one is gonna change what we picked out."
She wrapped her arms around me at that, and I just squeezed her, attempting to comfort her. Hallie had been stressing herself out of the max lately, and it was starting to stress me out too. I know she couldn't help it, especially with the paintings that she's been working on for that Charles guy, but it was getting to an overwhelming point.
I had tried my hardest to help her when I could, not wanting her to do it all by herself, but she was very adamant that everything had to be done a certain way. Therefore, anything that I did remotely wrong in the slightest, she would take over and do it herself. We were both similar in that we liked things done a specific way, but with the wedding being an pretty important day for us, Hallie was taking her usual habits to the extreme, wanting everything to be perfect.
I understood, to a certain point, why she was so worried about it, and I was thankful that her stress hadn't carried over to make our relationship, as a whole, suffer. I mean, we were getting married, it was supposed to be a sweet day, and I didn't want us ripping each other's hair out during the moment we had been dreaming of for years.
"After today is over, I'm gonna pick up dinner, okay? Whatever you want, and we can just have a chill evening with Sadie and some movies."
She sighed, "That would be nice."
"Okay." I looked down at her, only to see a tear rolling down the side of her face, "Hal, look at me."
She did as I asked and our eyes met, except hers were slightly red, "Baby, it is going to be okay. We are going to get through this, just taking it one step at a time."
"I know, I'm just..." She sighed, "I'm just thinking about mom I guess. Picking out my dress today is supposed to be something you do with, well, your mom. So it's a little surreal."
"Hal, you know she's here with you. She's watching you, and I know Jules is ecstatic to see you make this huge decision today. I know she's so proud of you baby, hell, I'm so proud of you."
She smiled, "Thank you, and I'm sorry that I've been all over the place lately. With this last painting and then the wedding, it's like I have no time to just, be with you in the moment."
"Angel, it is totally okay. We've both been running around with our heads cut off, and we will have plenty of moments to spend together, just like right now." I smiled, very grateful to be here with her, "Although, you have to promise me that you will let me help you more. I know how you are, but you can't do this all yourself, okay?"
"I promise I will. I don't even think I can make any more decisions without you at this point either. I'm honestly just so exhausted." She scoffed a little and I just rubbed my hands on her back.
"You don't need to overwork yourself when I'm right here, anything you want or need help with, just tell me."
She nodded, "I will Rafe."
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Hallie's POV:
I had been trying on dresses for almost three hours, and I was starting to get restless. Everyone could tell that I was at my breaking point, especially Maggie. That's why she had pulled my into the dressing room by herself, leaving the associate, who had been helping me the whole time, outside.
My best friend had chosen a dress for me herself, thinking it was more me than the others, which I couldn't deny that I was thankful for. Rafe was right when he said Maggie knew me better than anyone when it came to picking things out; that being said, when she locked the door and hung the dress up, I let go, sighing in relief as the tears started to pool in my eyes.
The dress she had picked really was absolutely everything I had wanted, and when our eyes met, she knew it too.
"Hal, come here." She wrapped her arms around me frame and I did the same.
I felt the warm water drip down on my face, "I'm sorry Mags, I'm just so tired."
"Babe, you have every reason to be. You've been absolutely working yourself to the death, and I'm surprised you even wanted to still do this today."
My eyes trailed over to the dress again, and when I opened my mouth again, I completely forgot about Maggie's comment, "That dress is perfect, by the way."
I felt my friend shift as she continued to hold me, "You think so? It really spoke wonders about you when I saw it."
"It really does." I sighed.
"You wanna try it?"
I nodded, "Yeah, let's get this ugly thing off me."
She laughed, taking one last look at the dress I was wearing, and decided that she agreed with me about it being ugly. Mags wasted no time after that to spin me around and undo the clips on the back, letting the dress slide off of my bare skin. I hung the old one up as she reached for her pick, and then we both worked together to get the new one onto my body.
I stood in front of the mirror, tears dripping down my face with my make up smeared slightly, and took in the beauty of this dress. Everything I wanted and more in a dress was right in front of me. It wasn't anything too revealing, which wasn't my usual style, but for my wedding, Mags and I had both agreed that it would be nice to do something different. It was simple, off the shoulder, white, a slit that ran up to my mid thigh, and honestly perfect.
It was the one.
"Can I be honest with you, without swaying your opinion?"
I heard Maggie ask, interrupting my thoughts and I turned to her, "This is it Mags."
I tried to hold back any tears as her face changed to a soft look, and she nodded, "It's the one Hal."
I lost it at her agreement, ruining my makeup even more, and she did too. We both were crying mess when our arms folded around the other's figure, and I felt her warm tears hit my bare shoulder.
"We could have saved so much time if you would have picked this one up sooner." I laughed, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"Well your associate out there was determined she could do it." She scoffed, lowering her voice a bit, "But I don't think she knows what the fuck she's doing."
I tried to not laugh too loud at Maggie's words as she did the same, and I was the one to pull myself together first, "Should we go show everyone, so they don't get pissed?"
She smiled, "Oh yeah, I've gotta rub it in their faces that I picked your dress."
"I would be surprised if you didn't."
Maggie rolled her eyes at my comment, but grabbed my hand immediately afterwards, pulling me out of the dressing room past the associate. When we made it to my friends, along with Rose, Sarah and Wheezie, who had been sitting in the same spot for the past few hours, they all gave me a soft look, as if they knew immediately that this was it.
I pulled myself up on the platform, turning to face them and Emma was the first to break, "Hal, it's-"
"Beautiful." Kate added, interrupting her.
Zoey slapped Kate's arm, "Dude."
"I'm sorry! Oh my god. Hallie you seriously look gorgeous." Kate smiled.
Rose stood up from her spot on the couch and came over to me, putting her hands on my arms, "Hallie, this is absolutely the one for you. It's perfect, and I can see it in your face, you love it."
"Thank you." I smiled, "I really do love it."
That was another thing, Rose. Over the past couple of years, she had become a mother figure to me, and I was extremely thankful to have her here with me today, along with Sarah and Wheezie of course. At first, our relationship was a little rocky, obviously she just didn't know how to feel about me and I felt the same, but now, I had been fully accepted into the Cameron family.
"So this is it?" I heard the associate finally ask, interrupting my moment with my almost mother-in-law.
"Yes, this is it." I nodded, smiling over to Maggie, who quickly returned my expression.
~
After some more enthusiasm from my friends and new family, along with making some alterations to the dress and shuffling out of it, we were finally able to check out. I had already said goodbye to Kate, Zoey and Emma, who had left not too long ago, all three having some thing's to do, and was left with Mags and the girls in Rafe's family.
I tightened my grasp around the strap of my bag as we walked out of the store, and turned to Sarah, "So what are you guys doing for the rest of the day?"
"I have no idea." She laughed and put her attention on Rose who just shrugged.
"Well, tomorrow I know we have all the time in the world to see you guys before you leave, if you want?"
"That would be great, just call me in the morning sweetie and let us know where to meet you guys." Rose smiled.
We chatted for a few moments, saying our goodbyes, and I watched the three girls walk off before Maggie's arm draped over my shoulder, "Are you going home?"
"Yeah." I sighed, "If you're not busy and want to third wheel tonight, we're just gonna watch some movies and eat dinner with Sadie."
"Oh hell yeah, I love playing child with you guys." She laughed.
I did the same and pulled my phone out to call Rafe, and after a few rings, the dirty blonde picked up, "Hey angel."
"Awe that's so sweet of you Rafe." Maggie smiled as she leaned over the phone.
"Oh god." He chuckled, "Are we babysitting you tonight?"
"Yeah, it's our weekend. Emma and Tom kicked her out."
I heard him sigh sarcastically, "Okay, I guess we can improvise, but there will be no making gay jokes about having sex with Hallie, deal?"
Mags rolled her eyes, "I guess I can do that, only because I kind of like you Rafe."
We all laughed at Maggie's tone and the Rafe spoke up again, "What do we want for dinner?"
"Sushi!" Mags and I both yelled out simultaneously.
"I should have known." He scoffed, "Well I'll see you at home. I love you Hal, be safe."
"Thank you, I love you too."
"Love you too Cameron." My friend added right as the call ended.
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double update!
IMPORTANT THO! SO PLZ TELL ME WHAT WE THINK ☟︎☟︎☟︎☟︎☟︎
do you guys want me to just on into the wedding for the next chapter(s) or do we want a little more prep stuff?
i can't do whatever:)
also thank you so much for 3K reads!! that's insane!!
love you all!