Wedding planning wasn't all happiness and excitement. Sometimes it was excitement, with a dash of anxiety sprinkled in the mix.
"Are you sure this looks good?" his client asked. All of her bridesmaids and family were out of state, so she had asked him for his opinion on the wedding dress she had picked.
He didn't see a problem with it. He was getting paid to plan their wedding, after all. Of course, he was going to help it succeed to the best of his abilities. And the Bride's dress was the centerpiece of the whole event. No matter what decorations the rest of the venue had, or how well everyone else looked, the bride had to be the best dressed person there. She was the spotlight as soon as she started walking down the aisle and to the man that she was going to spend the rest of her life with.
The rest of the wedding did matter, but the bride was still the most important.
"It looks stunning, Dear," Casimir said, his hand on his chin. "It just..."
It was a shame that this poor bride didn't have anyone to give an opinion on this. All of her and her fiancé's friends and families were in another state. They just moved to Florida about a month ago. It was for the betterment of their jobs, but it couldn't have happened at a worse time when they were trying to plan a wedding. Now they suddenly had to try and figure out a venue for it here rather than back home, along with everything else that had to be planned about a wedding.
They had pushed it back a year because of that. The only reason they were trying to figure out the wedding dress today was because they were trying to make payments on it, and they needed to start this month if they were going to be able to have it paid off by the time she needed to wear it. Hence why he was brought here for his opinion. Unfortunately, they just couldn't seem to get anyone else to fly in at such short notice.
It was quite a predicament.
"It's just what?" the red head looked worriedly at him. They had hired him to ease the stress of planning their special day, as most do. It really helped since they were having to completely start from scratch all over again. Casimir loved that aspect of his job, though. It made all the phone calls early in the morning and all the countless designing ideas worth it when he saw all the smiling faces on the wedding day.
"Well," Casimir pondered, looking at the frilly dress. It was great at showing her curves, and the style fit her perfectly. But there was something off about it. "It seems like it's missing something."
He didn't want to upset her, but he also wanted to make sure that she got exactly what she wanted. That was the trick with this job. It was a juggle of words as he tried his best to make sure they knew that he wasn't trying to insult them at all. Some people got really hurt by an opinion, even if it was a professional one. That was why he wasn't exactly fond of this part of his job.
"Well, what is missing then?" she asked. It was obvious that she wasn't used to dressing up in anything like this. She didn't look confident in that dress at all. That would have to be the next thing he tried to work on with her. Because a bride needed to be confident as she walked down the aisle. But that wasn't what was missing from the image that he was seeing right then. There was something that he couldn't quite pinpoint at the moment.
"That's a good question," he hummed, walking around the bride. She had chosen a small bridal shop to get her dress at. It was located next to a local grocery store, in a small strip mall. They had fallen in love with all of the independent stores that Amor had and wanted to get a lot of their wedding supplies locally because of that. They had even decided to order their wedding cake at a local bakery in downtown. Amor had some gorgeous shops, perfect for unique weddings.
In the center of the room, he circled around the bride, trying to figure out just what was missing. He really wished he could get a second opinion. Usually, he would ask the assistant that was helping them. However, there seemed to be quite a lot of soon-to-be brides there that Saturday morning. It would probably be a while until they could come over to assist them. And they didn't exactly have that much time as it was. She had to be at work in an hour or two. This was the only time they could seem to schedule the appointment. And Casimir was hellbent on making sure that it would work out.
Something caught his eye as he walked around the small shop. Just outside the store, through the clear, bright windows, was a light pink Corvette. It was parked near the back, away from most of the other cars. It was probably to keep from people accidentally hitting into it. But it was still in the area that all the cars were parked to go into the grocery store just next door.
Casimir smiled.
He had the greatest idea.
"Excuse me just for a moment, Dear," he told his client, heading towards the door. "You have my word that I'll be right back."
He ran out of the shop before hearing for his clients reply. This was just the thing he needed to solve this predicament that he was having.
You see, this client was much different from the first clients that he had coming to Amor. Mrs. Sunshine and Mr. Nikita already had many things figured out for their wedding. With the Best Man on their side and taking the lead, something that rarely happened with the best man, they were on the right track for getting their wedding right on the anniversary that they both originally got together. It was great to see that the quiet groom was a romantic at heart.
But these clients weren't as organized as them, which was why he was glad their wedding wouldn't be for another year. All he had to do was figure out this dress today and the rest would come together with plenty of time to spare.
He hadn't been in this grocery store before. It was really nice, and even the people shopping seemed calm that morning. It was one of those stores that even had a small coffee shop in the front, next to one of the entrances. He would have to come back some time and look around a bit more. At the moment, though, he was too busy looking down all the aisles. If he was lucky, he would find just the man he was looking for.
Sure enough, Casimir found him. He was getting some fruit in the produce section, using a small basket hooked to his arm to place his groceries in. It didn't seem like he was getting that much. He must live alone, with how little ingredients he had for cooking.
He was easy to spot, as always. Casimir enjoyed seeing him on the weekend. That was the only time he saw him without his work uniform. He still rather enjoyed talking to him during lunch, although he found that the man had found another place to enjoy his lunch sometimes. It just made seeing him all the more greater when he was somewhere that Casimir could talk to him.
That morning he was wearing dark jeans that clung to his curves, the brown boots hugging his calves tightly. His medium brown hair was left down, resting on the dark leather jacket that fit his shoulders perfectly. The only thing that popped out was a bright pink shirt that caught his eye as easily as a stop sign. It was always so interesting just seeing what he was wearing on his days off. Casimir loved it.
"Valentino!" he raced up to him, shaking off all thoughts of wanting to stay hidden just to look at him more. The man was shocked to see him, understandably so. Casimir enjoyed surprising the man. It was almost as great as watching him walk with those tight pants on.
"Casimir?" the brunette asked curiously. "What are you-?"
"No time for that," he used the act of surprise to get the basket out of his arms. "I need your opinion on something really quick. It's urgent."
"I'm kind of in the middle of something," Valentino huffed, trying to snatch his groceries back from him.
"Just five minutes," Casimir begged, using the hand that reached for the basket to hook onto his own arm. He tucked it nice and firmly into his arm as he rushed to the exit with him. He was still on borrowed time, and he was sure that his client was not happy that he had left so abruptly.
"Hey!" the man hollered, trying to free his hand. "You know I'll have to pay for those first, right?"
"Already thought of, Darling," he told him. He set the basket down next to a worker and fished for a twenty out of his pocket. "Dear," he got the worker's attention. She looked at him curiously. "Would you be so kind as to watch this man's groceries for a few minutes? We have a bit of an emergency."
He was lucky that the worker was a kid. The girl gladly took the twenty he had, looking around cautiously to see if any other workers were around. Once she grabbed it, she nodded her answer, as quiet as a needle drop.
"Fantastic," Casimir smiled politely at her. "Thank you so much, Dear. We'll be right back."
He quickly started pulling the man hooked to his arm with him again, his legs moving faster than they had before. He was going to have to apologize for this afterwards. He could tell just by the way he walked that Valentino was already annoyed of him.
"What do you think you're doing?" he huffed. The sound was kind of cute coming from him. Casimir would have loved to take the time to really appreciate it if he could have.
"Please," Casimir moved his arm and put a hand on the man's back to guide him. "I'll pay for your groceries as payment for ruining your morning. I just really need your opinion on something really quick."
"You are absolutely out of your mind," Valentino shook his head. This did seem like a crazy idea, but crazy led to genius if you were lucky enough.
"It's just one thing, I promise."
"In the dress shop?" he raised an eyebrow as Casimir guided him to the door. "Is Sunshine in here or something? Isn't this more of a bridesmaids thing?"
"Different bride, without any maids to help," he explained, bringing him to the bride in question. He had been in such a rush, he failed to realize until then that his hand was on the man's lower back. That was another thought he had to push to the back of his mind, though. His client was now looking at the both of them, just as confused as Valentino.
"H-hello," she said shyly to the new stranger. She must have been struck by his style and the way he looked at her. Casimir knew from experience that the man was a head turner. That was another reason why he was fascinated with him.
"This is Valentino," Casimir introduced them. "Valentino, this is Pamela."
"Nice to meet you," Valentino nodded to her, looking extremely uncomfortable there.
"I needed him for a second opinion, Dear," Casimir quickly explained. Then he looked to Valentino. "We're missing something."
"Oh, it probably looks horrible!" Pamela hid her face in her hands. "I'm never going to be able to find my dress in time! We're going to have to postpone this whole thing again!"
"It's not horrible," Valentino told her. "It just needs something to accent the front more."
"What?"
"That's it!" Casimir shouted. "Valentino, you're a genius!" That was just the thing that he needed to figure out the missing piece to this puzzle.
"What are you talking about?" Pamela looked down at the dress again. Casimir was too busy rushing around the store, looking for just the right thing that he needed.
"Everything else about the dress is perfect," Valentino told her. "It's just the front that needs something else. It's too bland. The front is supposed to bring the whole dress together and centers the design."
"And that's an easy fix," Casimir smiled, bringing some extra lace with him. He quickly, yet gently, placed the design right on the stomach. "What do you think about this?"
Pamela cautiously turned around to look in the mirror. Her worry didn't last long, though. Soon her eyes lit up and what used to be tears of sorrow were now changed to joy as she marveled in the beauty of the dress.
"It's perfect!" she said. Then she looked over to the both of them. "Thank you. You two saved my wedding."
Casimir loved to marvel in the joy of the bride. It was a joy that rubbed off to others as well. But he was far too distracted this time by the brunette smiling at her, a twinkle of his own joy shining in those dark blue eyes.
It was perfect.
Perfect, indeed.
Author's Note: Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sometimes the most genius ideas come from the craziest of actions. This was one of the first scenes that I thought of when forming this story and it makes me smile every time I reread it.
Thanks for all the votes and comments! We'll get to see just how grumpy Valentino is about this whole thing in the next chapter!
-Saturn