"Thank you so much for your help!" the bride hugs me tight.
"Of course. I'll get right on this." I smile and tuck my sketchpad under my arm. I follow my guests out of my office and head towards the elevator to go back upstairs for my break.
I've been here for only a month, but I'm not only a model anymore. Some how Randy got wind of my drawings and I have no idea how. I don't know if Lauren tipped him off or if I left a sketch one time in the break room and he saw it totally on his own, but he found them and got super excited. There is a bridal shop on the first two floors of the building and they were looking for new designers for their dresses. Not one to make an entire line of dresses, but one to work one-on-one with clients to create the bride's dream dress. Basically it's for the richest and pickiest brides in New York.
I still get to be a part time bridal model because I really enjoyed that job and didn't want to give it up completely so I work half as a model and half as a designer. Lauren is forever amazed as to how quickly I can move through the ranks at any job and I can't say I really mind. My education from L.A. helped with my fashion design ability and I actually enjoy that part of my job. Thankfully, I don't have to make the dress; I just draw it.
I take off my red pumps in the elevator. They are brand new shoes that I haven't quite broken in yet, but they looked cute with this black dress and red necklace, so I just had to wear them. I am regretting my decision now, but I only have a few more hours to go and I'll be done.
When I get off the elevator, I go straight to Lauren's office and dig through my purse until I find Neosporin and a band aid. I am sitting in her rolly chair taking care of my blisters when her door opens more.
"Oh, hey, Mere! What are you doing up here? Did you finish early?" Lauren pipes.
"No, just getting some band aids in between appointments and taking a break for a minute." I hold up my band aid wrapper before throwing it in the trash.
"Oh okay. Well while you're here, you can meet my new intern." She waves a girl in as I slip my heels back on and stand up.
I smooth out my dress and when I look up, I almost fall back down in the chair. I gasp, but end up choking on my air, typical me.
"Surprise, bitch. Did you miss me?" The new girl smirks and leans her hip against the doorframe.
"What are you doing here?" I seethe.
"Didn't you hear? I'm the new intern." Her voice is thick with fake friendliness and a heavy dose of sarcasm. She hasn't changed one bit.
"You two know each other?" Lauren looks clearly surprised at my reaction.
I give her the look "I-know-you're-not-that-stupid." "Lauren." My voice is flat and annoyed.
My friend looks back and forth between my step monster and myself. Suddenly realization sets in, "Oh! Oh, Savannah your... and this is Savannah... and ... oh." She points between us at first happily, then she realizes what she's done by the end.
"Lemme guess, she's my replacement." Lauren's face is apologetic and I brush her off. "Un-freaking-believable. Another thing mommy bought for you huh?" I turn my attention back to Savannah.
"Something like that." Savannah smirks and looks at her nails.
"What's the hold up, ladies?" Randy appears in the door.
"Lauren just had to pick something up. We're coming." She flips her hair over her shoulder and steps out of the room to stand next to Randy.
"Oh, Meredith, you're up here. I see you met our new intern?" Randy smiles innocently to me.
"Yea, we've met." I think that might have come out a bit harsher than I intended because Randy's expression changes from a warm smile to surprise and confusion instantly. "I'm sorry. I have to go." I snatch my sketchpad from Lauren's desk and push past Randy at the door.
"Tootles, sissy. Nice to see you." Savannah waves to me as I rush to the elevator.
"Meredith" Lauren calls after me sympathetically. I don't stop.
When I get off on my floor, I run straight to the bathroom. As soon as I am inside, I burst into tears. What the actual hell is happening? There is no freaking way she actually earned her place here. She bought it, or sold herself into it or something like that.
I kind of had this suspicion when Lauren was telling me about the new intern. I knew her name was Savannah, but I never put the two and two together. I had no idea she would be across the country happening to work in the same firm as me after almost five years of not seeing each other. There is no way she would know I was here and I can't stand that we had to cross paths again. Oh my God, what if Ursula is here too. I will have to move countries this time, not just states to escape them.
When I am done feeling sorry for myself, I pull myself together again and wipe my eyes with a damp paper towel to tame my now smeared makeup. I fan myself a bit and pat my face a bunch to knock some sense back into myself. I walk out of the bathroom and stop at the water fountain first before heading to my next appointment. I'm almost ten minutes late now, but they're going to have to deal with it. I'll apologize later.
I put on my best fake smile like I'm used to doing and walk out onto the floor with my pad under my arm. I walk up to the couple sitting outside the door to my office. I check with my book first before I introduce myself. "Hello, Paige?"
The girl looks up to me with the brightest smile on her face. "Yes!"
"Hi, I'm Meredith and I'll be working with you today." I shake her hand.
"Nice to meet you."
"You too. Who do we have with us today?" I scan across her small entourage.
"My sister Emma and my fiancé Connor." She introduces. I look down the line and freeze when I get to the last one. Connor, like the same Connor from the diner and the one I have run into on my way to work almost every day who still manages to "accidently" spill coffee on me at least once a week, yea like that Connor.
Both of our faces pale when we look at each other.
I rebound a lot faster than he does and I shake hands with Emma first, then him. "Nice to meet you." I smile.
I don't think anybody else paid much mind to the falter in our introduction thankfully.
"Well I don't usually let the fiancé into the appointments because I'm old fashioned and think the dress should be a surprise..." I offer to the bride.
"No, I want him to come in. I really would like his opinion." She smiles over at Connor.
"Okay, well then let's get started shall we?" I unlock my door and lead the way into my office. This day just keeps getting better and better.
Once everyone is in and seated, I can sense some slight apprehension in Connor and I pretend not to notice.
"So what is the budget to be mindful of?" I ask as I open my pad to begin the appointment.
"Umm, I think 3 or 4 ish thousand?" she looks to Connor. "Right, babe?"
"Uhh, yea." He fumbles.
"Okay," I scribble the number at the top of the paper. "And how do you see yourself on your big day?"
Paige and her sister Emma start shooting out everything that they want and don't want in the dress including the silhouette and neckline and beading, lace, etc. I scribble down all the notes as fast as I can. When the girls finally take a longer break than to just breathe, I start putting together a sketch of a dress that I think she is talking about. This is the most fun part of my job.
I sketch out a couple of options and flip the book around the show the group explaining why I chose what I did. Only the girls give feedback and I make some adjustments to the drawings. Within an hour we start to have a dress that both girls are falling in love with.
Paige is still extremely indecisive despite the fact that she says she loves the design. I can tell this is why she had to come to one of these specialty appointments. She couldn't find one of the million dresses in the store to suit her fancy.
"So is this the one?" I ask hopeful.
"Umm, I'm not sure. Em, can I talk to outside for a second?" The sister nods. "Is that okay?" Paige asks me.
"Sure, sure!" I wave them off and the two girls slip out of the office.
The door shuts behind them and I lean back in my chair with my book, not eager to make conversation with Connor again.
"Erm, hi." Connor breaks the silence.
"Hey. It's a pretty dress your fiancé is creating, right?" I stress the word fiancé so he knows that I know how he neglected to mention this in any of our other candid meetings.
"If she likes it, I guess."
I smile and look back down at the work.
"So this is your other job from the diner?" he asks.
"I only worked at the diner for the summer. I am a part time bridal model upstairs and a part time designer down here." I use my index finger to point between the ceiling and my desk.
"You're really good." He motions to my sketchpad. "May I?" he tries reaching for the book.
I toss the book to him and he flips through the pages of dresses I've drawn for other brides. "You drew all of these??" the surprise is clear in his voice.
"Uhh, yea, that is my signature at he bottom of every page." I reply sarcastically.
He looks up at me slowly and smiles that incredible smile of his. To avoid cracking a smile back, I look away.
"She's a trip isn't she?" he jerks his finger to door.
I stifle a laugh, "Well this hasn't been my easiest appointment, but that's what I'm here for: to sketch and re-sketch until we get it perfect."
"But she's so picky. I don't know how you could to this all day." He shakes his head.
"I don't. Half the time I am a model, remember?" now my sarcasm is really prevalent and I don't even care.
"Right." He places the book back down on the desk. "So how are you doing? Did you ever get the coffee out of that dress the other day? Again, I'm really sorry about that." He tries lightening the mood.
For a second, I felt bad about being so cold to him, but then I remember why I am when he reminds me about the day he spilled coffee on me and offered to buy me a new one. "Yea, yea, I did. It's nothing a little tide-to-go can't take care of." I am not as interested in this conversation as I would be at any other time.
"I'm glad" he smiles and the door opens again. We both stop talking and look at Paige and Emma as they come back into the room.
"Sorry 'bout that." Paige apologizes as she sits down.
"Not at all!" I smile to them. "So what are we thinking?" I slide my pad back to them so that they can look at the designs again.
Paige bites the inside of her lip and twirls the ends of her blonde hair with her fingers. "I really like this one," she points to the more fitted sketch I created. "Like, I can see myself wearing it on my day."
"Great!"
"But I'm not 100% sure it's the right one."
"Ughh" Connor groans. "Come on, Paige. These drawings are beautiful. If you can't find something with one of the best specialty designers in New York, you're not going to find a dress."
"I know, I know!" she twists her hair over her mouth. "I just need a little bit more time to think about it. Mull it over. Maybe think of a couple more things to add before we send it to production."
"That's totally fine. Brides do that all the time." I assure her. "But since you're big day is less than three months away and this is a specialty gown, you kind of need a decision by the end of the week or it won't be ready in time. You're even pushing it if your order today. I don't mean to scare you or anything, but making dresses takes time." I warn the bride.
"Okay. I will have a final decision for you by the end of the week." Paige confirms. "Can I keep these sketches to refer back to throughout the week?"
"I can make you copies. I kind of need these to stay in my book." I tell her.
"That'd be great!"
"Okay, just give me a minute; I will go run these for you." I collect my book and step out of my office.
When I return, their murmering falls silent and Paige and Emma thank me profusely for my help.
"Of course! I'm glad I can help. It was nice working with you guys. Here, take my card and if you have any questions, feel free to call me." I hand each of the girls a card.
"Thank you so much! Your designs are really beautiful." Paige hugs me.
"You're welcome. Enjoy." I send them on their way and Connor waves to me awkwardly before he leaves to. I shut the door behind them, toss my book on my desk, and lean my back against the door, groaning. Why does this always happen to me?
I straighten up around my office a take a few controlled breaths before I step out of my office to meet my next and last clients for the day.
This last appointment is a lot quicker than I was expecting and the bride fell in love with my very first sketch. She was a whole lot easier to please than Paige. In almost half the time of Paige's appointment, I am done with this one and on my way back upstairs to get my things to go home. Lauren should be finishing up now too.
I go straight to her office when I get upstairs and sure enough, there she is collecting her bags. "Hey." I greet sheepishly and rap my knuckles on the open door.
Lauren flips her head to me without standing up from bending behind her desk. "Hey you." Her voice is sympathetic still. She grabs her last folder and stuffs it in her back before crossing the room in two small strides to give me a tight hug. "I'm really sorry about earlier. I had no idea and I-"
"It's okay." I cut her off. "Surprisingly that wasn't even the worst thing that happened today." I let go of her hug and grab my purse from behind her desk and sling it over my shoulder.
"What?! What happened?" she rushes.
"Well..." I start and link arms with her as we leave her office. "'Member that guy I kept running into all the time before work?"
"The dumbass who spilled the coffee on you?"
"... Yea that one." She nods. "Well..." I begin to tell my story of meeting his fiancé today despite the fact that he has clearly been hitting on me for the past month.
"What a little shit!" Lauren spits.
"I know right?!" We continue talking all the way home and as we make dinner together.
We sit on the couch together stretch out our feet over each other's legs as we eat our dinner and watch TV. We mostly talk over the TV, but that's okay. This is why I love her and we are best friends.