Los Angeles. April 2016
"How was your birthday weekend?" Suzie asked Kristen one afternoon.
"Relaxing." She answered, remembering their lovely time in New York. "We spent one night at the Bowery then we took a road trip to Mohonk Mountain House. It was really beautiful and peaceful."
"Sounds like the perfect romantic getaway." Suzie said dreamily.
"It is. If we didn't have any ideas for our honeymoon I'd go back there." Kristen checked her to-do list under the loving stare of her friend. "Go there with Jack." She winked and smiled seeing Suzie blush.
"I don't really wanna go where my best friend shacked up with her fiancé for a whole weekend." She made a disgusted face and Kristen rolled her eyes. "So, are you relax enough for the next crazy six months of your life?"
"I am." And she was. She freaked out but Rob was supporting her. What was at the end of the road was worth it. October couldn't come soon enough. "Okay, so can we check what I already planned so far?" Suzie nodded. "We have a date, a place." She checked her these items on her list. "I called some wedding dress designers for this month. You're coming with me." Kristen pointed at Suzie with her pen and she saluted her with her hand like a good soldier. "Good. We need to send the invitations, thankfully the guestlist is not that long. The honeymoon is Rob's job and so is the music. What else?"
So for the next half hour Suzie and Kristen checked her list and organised appointments and task between family and friends. Doing this appeased Kristen. Slowly her wedding was looking less messy and she couldn't wait to share that with Rob. They had agreed he was going to be involved in the wedding as much as her.
"What about the rings?" Suzie asked. "Where would you guys want them made?"
"It's a surprise." Suzie gasped mouth wide open. "What?"
"Your wedding ring is gonna be a surprise. Wow." She leaned back on her chair. "Aren't you scared? I would be!"
"No." Kristen chuckled and looked at her hands on the table focusing on her engagement ring. "He chose it perfectly." She moved her hand to show it to Suzie. "I trust him."
"Such a perfect match." She said in aw. "It's almost sickening."
•
"What about this one? It's not puffy or fluffy." Suzie said placing a white dress in front of her to a bored Kristen. "Okay. What do you want?" She sighed and put the dress back on the rack. Crossing her arms she stood in front of her friend.
"Not one of these for sure." Kristen waved her hand around.
"We've been driving around L.A all day and you found nothing." Kristen arched an eyebrow. "You don't want a designer dress." Suzie sat down next to Kristen.
"I love their dresses but I don't feel it for my own wedding." Sighing she tucked at her hair. "I want the one." Suzie giggled.
"You will. Don't worry."
"What a waste of time."
"It was funny to watch you whined. You're very entertaining."
Back home Kristen tossed her keys and shoes and walked to the kitchen, followed by her dogs. She was frustrated with herself and the only way to get her mind to think of something else was to cook. So she decided to prepare the dinner.
That's where Rob found her, surrounded by lots of food. Carefully he entered the kitchen and tried to assess her mood. He knew she had been shopping with Suzie, so he wondered how disastrously it had been. Kristen turned around wiping her hands on her apron.
"Hey. I didn't hear you." Kristen kissed him and went back to her task. "I cooked dinner."
"I see that." He replied slightly confused. Taking a sit at the island he observed her for a few minutes, until she took off her apron signaling she was done. The kitchen was full of food as if they were having a party. Containing himself from making a joke, that he knew would fully backfire. "How was your day?"
"Peachy!" She said placing a dish in front of him. "How about you?"
"Uh. Good." He cleared his throat. "I booked a flight to London with Tom. I mailed the paperworks you wanted. And I picked up the invitations samples."
"Oh good. That's nice. At least this is done. We can look at it after dinner."
Rob agreed and started to get the plates out to set the table. In a coordinated silence they got everything ready then settled ready to eat. They made small talk, both of them avoiding the subject of Kristen's shopping. Rob wanted her to calm down before asking her about it. He knew that trying to get it out of her when she was in this mood would result in them arguing. But to him it was obvious that Kristen couldn't help herself but put so much pressure on her, especially if it wasn't working on the first try. He had to make her see that as much as she wanted a 'perfect' wedding, she didn't have to turn it into an horrible chore.
Later that night, Rob was happy to see that Kristen looked less tensed. He was laying in bed lazily scrolling on his iPad when Kristen joined him after her shower. Without a word she took her laptop and furiously tapped on her keyboard, groaning every five seconds.
"What are you doing?" He asked her eyeing her from his screen. Kristen fell on her pillow sighting.
"Looking for a dress."
"It didn't go that well this afternoon?" He was apprehensive but he wanted to get to the bottom of this.
"No." She closed her laptop and closed her eyes too.
"Love." He whispered moving away her laptop and grabbed her right hand. She hummed back. "It's okay you know." Kristen opened her eyes looking up at him. "To not find it on the first try. You started less than a month ago, it takes time. I told you to enjoy this." Once again Kristen sighed and turned around to embrace Rob and laid on his chest.
"I know, you're right. But we have so little time." She kissed his naked chest.
"Try again tomorrow. Or even next week." This time he kissed the top of her hair. "Just don't turn into a bridezilla." They both chuckled at this and she hit his shoulder earning a yelp.
"I won't." She finally said. "Can we look at the samples you got today?"
"Sure." He detached himself from her to go downstairs to pick the samples. On his way back he was shuffling them in his hands, looking at them to get an idea of what he liked.
"What's wrong?" Kristen asked from where she was sitting on the bed, seeing Rob frowning. He looked up from the samples and shook a baby pink invitation. "That's why it's called samples." She rolled her eyes smiling. He knew her, pink would not be her choice no matter what. So Rob shredded it into pieces and let them on his nightstand. "You're crazy."
"You love me anyway." He said proudly and took a seat next to Kristen. "So. What do we do now?"
"We pick the colours. It'll be the whole theme of the wedding." She answered spraying out the samples on their bed. "I pick some and you do too. And we'll go from there, okay." Agreeing they spend a few minutes choosing what they liked the most. Then they tried to make their choices fit together.
"So, we have green, blue and uh. What's that colour? Reddish?" Rob placed their chosen samples and moved away the discarded ones.
"Burgundy." Biting her bottom lip Kristen played with several shades of the primary colours they had. She could feel Rob's stare but she focused on what she was envisioning in her head and to make it happen into her hands. "Wait." Getting out of bed she walked into the bathroom and got back with an eyeliner pen and started to draw on a piece of coloured paper. Rob was fascinated by what his fiancée was doing. "Here."
"It's beautiful. I like it."
"Really? It's just a silly mix of colours nothing extraordinary."
"You want this as a theme then?" She nodded. "Maybe I could have one of this colours on my costume." He wondered out loud.
"Hell yes!" Kristen cheered under Rob's laughter. "Aren't you gonna be handsome." She moved on her knees to stop in front of him and peck at his lips. "Autumn wedding, here we go."
"I can't wait." Bringing her closer he fully kissed her feeling her smiling against his lips.
_____
Kristen has to find the right dress, no?!
Rob, supportive fiancé as usual 😍😉.
The wedding is slowly but surely coming along.