Save the Date (Modern Arrangements) (25 page)

Lilli spent a lot of time Sunday talking
to Viola as they planned to get together on Wednesday. I overheard Lilli
talking to Phoebe and Celia about meeting her here on Wednesday morning so they
could go over to plan wedding stuff with Viola. I heard Lilli groan a few
times. I knew she wasn’t thrilled to do all this but she was going along with
it for Viola. I didn’t know how to convey how much I appreciated that.

I left for work Wednesday morning
without seeing or talking to Lilli. Surprisingly, it bothered me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lilli

Wednesday arrived quickly. I heard Aidan
moving around downstairs as I showered and dressed. I was shoving a piece of
toast in my mouth when there was a knock at the door. I answered.

"Lilli!" Phoebe chirped as she
hugged me tightly. I almost choked on my toast.

"Down, lawn gnome," Celia
laughed and then took her turn hugging me.

"Hey girls, you ready to experience
all this?" I wiggled my eyebrows.

"Bring on the mimosa’s,
dahhling," Celia joked. Phoebe and I giggled as we all went downstairs.

"Lilli, where are we goin—?"
Phoebe looked confused.

"To the car," I motioned over my
shoulder to the black car waiting to drive us over to Viola’s.

"The car?" Celia said with a
smirk.

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes
and smiled. "Viola had the car sent over. I have to get used to this kind
of shit for the next four years, don’t make it worse for me." I pretended
to lecture them.

We all climbed into the car and headed
to Viola.

"Lilli dear!" Viola exclaimed
as Mrs. Summers showed us into the house.

"Viola," I smiled as she
kissed both of my cheeks and I kissed back. "This is Phoebe and  Celia."

"Hello and welcome" Viola
hugged both of them and then motioned us into a large room to the left of us.

"Holy shit," Phoebe stated
when we entered the room. I knew that all three of our mouths were hanging wide
open.

Viola had removed all of the furniture
replacing them with tables and garment wracks filled with dresses. There was a
large three way mirror against the far right wall with a small stand. A large
table of fruit, pastries and mimosas sat next to the entrance.

"Viola," I breathed out.
"This is too much," I shook my head.

"Nonsense," she rebutted.
"You should see what I could do if I had proper time to plan," she
winked and turned to a large garment bag hanging beside her.

"I want you to try this on."
She motioned to a small curtained off area in the room. "Then come out and
we’ll see what needs to be altered." She smiled brightly. "I hope
that you like the dress, dear."

I took the bag and headed to the
curtained area. Slipping into the dress, I emerged from the area and heard
gasps around the room. I looked up and saw Maggie, Viola, Elora, Celia and
Phoebe all looking at me with different emotions on each of their faces.

"Lilli, you look amazing,"
Phoebe said as she flitted over to my side and walked around me.

"It’s a gorgeous dress," Elora
added with a warm smile.

"Oh, Lilli, do you like it?"
Viola pulled my hands out in front of me while looking me over.

"Are you sure you don’t want to
save this dress for Maggie?" I questioned and looked from Viola to Maggie.

Maggie giggled.

"Does my daughter look like she
would wear this dress?" Viola smiled and we both turned to Maggie who was
wearing black fishnet stockings, a pleated red plaid skirt, black rock band
shirt, black patent leather boots and her red hair was up in multiple twisted
knots.

I laughed.

"Yeah, I guess not, huh?" Then
I looked back to Maggie again. "Why aren’t you in school, by the
way?"

She shrugged.

"I get to be here for the wedding
stuff," she smiled brightly.

Viola led me to the white stand so that
the seamstress could go over the dress and pin the places that she would need
to make alterations. I glanced into the mirror in front of me and looked at
myself in the ivory dress. The dress was made of ivory organza. It was
strapless and fitted through the body, flaring at my hips all the way to the
floor. A single wrap of sheer ivory organza went around my shoulders and there
were creamy sparkled appliqué’s across my stomach and over my right hip. The
dress was truly beautiful, too beautiful to waste on a
fake
marriage. I
sighed.

"What’s wrong?" Celia cocked
her eyebrow at me.

"I just feel like it’s all a bit
much for what this is, ya know?" Celia smiled softly.

Viola interrupted.

"Lilli, this may be an arranged
marriage, in a sense, but that does not mean that you don’t deserve a beautiful
day." With that she turned back to the seamstress to discuss things.

"Guess she told you," Phoebe
piped in from behind me.

"Hush it, gnome." I laughed.

"I am not a lawn gnome!" She
argued.

I changed out of the dress and was
instructed to walk through the racks of clothing to look for bridesmaid dress
ideas. I stopped on a strapless empire waist gown. It was simply, yet elegant
and it was just beautiful. The dress was a very deep fuchsia like color; the
description on the dress tag said watermelon.

"What about this?" I shouted
over my shoulder and the girls appeared at my side. They all looked it over and
added it to the pile of dresses to try on.

I sat back with Viola and Elora with a
mimosa and some fruit waiting for Celia and Phoebe to change into the different
dresses.

 "Try the same one on at the same
time" I asked. I then noticed Maggie starting to sit next to Elora.
"What are you doing?" Maggie looked at me confused. I smiled and
nodded my head toward the changing curtain. "Get your little ass behind
that curtain." I winked. She smiled large and ran to the curtain.

"I think you just became her
favorite person" Elora leaned over and whispered.

"Oh hell, she loves you
already" Viola stated and tilted her flute glass back completely.

 Whoa. Viola is feeling the champagne.

I smiled to myself as I heard Elora
giggle at Viola’s change of demeanor.

"Well, Viola, I do believe that you
are a little hell cat underneath all of this." I smiled as I motioned over
her body. She just smirked and grabbed another glass with a wink. I giggled
with Elora. The girls went through a few dresses until they came upon the one
that I picked out. Each of them looked perfect in it and they felt comfortable,
so that’s the one we got.

I thought that the dresses would be the
end of it but I was so wrong. The rest of the afternoon was spent picking out a
cake; I picked out a plain white cake with deep red lilies decorations.
Selecting flowers, deep red lilies and ivory color snowball flowers or Guelder
Rose and going over hairstyles, shoes, menus for the reception and the
location. Viola had a couple of New York locations picked out but I could tell
that there was one she favored, so that is the one that I picked. The wedding
and the reception would be held at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Pier. It was truly
a beautiful location.

We were all about to start our goodbyes
when Phoebe chimed in quickly.

"What about the Bridal Shower and
Bachelorette parties?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Phoebe, there is no time for those
things. We simply…" Viola cut me off.

"Nonsense! What did you have in
mind Phoebe?"

"Well, I’m sure you have family and
friends that you would like to invite to a shower type brunch, right?"
Viola nodded. "Okay then, I say we plan a brunch shower for the weekend
before the wedding." She smiled brightly.

"Sounds perfect," Viola
agreed. "We can tell Aidan to make a guys day/night out and we can use the
apartment. I’ll have arrangements made for catering, table set up, etc." I
sat back as they continued to discuss things before exchanging numbers to talk
later.

Returning to the apartment, Phoebe took
off saying she had plans to make. Celia and I took a nap before we had to get
to the club to work.

Once we got dressed and were on our way
to the club, I turned to Celia.

"Well, at least I got out of the
bachelorette party." I smiled at my small victory.

Celia smiled slyly.

 "Oh, I wouldn’t count on
that." She giggled.

Chapter Fourteen

Events and Parties

Aidan

I was sitting at my desk glaring at
James who was not paying one ounce of attention to the conference call going
on. I muted my phone from Mr. Yiroshimu as he rambled on about quarterly
standings.

"James," I hissed. He looked
up. "Am I taking up too much of your time this afternoon?" I glared.

"Oh Jesus, it's just the financials,
Aidan. What the hell has your tightie whities in a knot?" He chuckled.

"You are not paying attention,
that's what the problem is," I snapped. I knew that the sexual frustration
was getting to me, putting me in a pissy mood.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he nodded
absentmindedly. I growled.

I was about to yell at him again but my
cell phone vibrated.

"Hello?" I picked it up
without looking at the caller Id.

"Aidan," It was Viola.

"Yes, Viola, what can I do for
you?" My mood lightened at the sound of her voice.

"Lilli and the girls just left, I
wanted to make sure that you didn't mind me rearranging your apartment the
weekend before the wedding for a Bridal Luncheon." I sighed and smiled. I
felt some relief knowing that it was only a month away from the wedding day and
that I was going to be married in time. Though, mid January was cutting it
close.

"Of course you can."

"Thank you, dear. I'll let you get
back to work...oh, and I just wanted to tell you that you have a tux fitting
tomorrow afternoon with your Uncle and James. Make sure you are there, on
time." She was in motherly tone now.

"Okay," I responded and we
said our goodbyes.

As soon as my phone was back on my desk
it vibrated again; Phoebe. I furrowed my brow and answered.

"Hello?"

"Aidan, it’s Phoebe." She
chirped.

"I know. What can I do for you,
Phoebe?"

"I need you to be out of your
apartment the Saturday before the wedding for—"

"For the Bridal Luncheon
right?"

"Well...wait how did you
know?"

"Viola just called me," I
smirked into the phone.

"Oh, well, I'm going to plan more
than that. Viola can handle the brunch. I'm planning the bachelorette
party," She giggled mischievously.

"Really?" I raised my brows.

"Yeah, so I need you to be out
before the brunch and if possible just spend the night with Oscar or something,
okay?"

"So, I'm supposed to hand my place
over—"

"Yes, you are going to let me use
Lilli and your apartment to give her a party." I could tell that she was
smiling.

"Oh, I am?"

"Yes, you are, so make plans with
the guys. Talk to you later, I have plans to make. Bye."

Before I could even say anything else
she had hung up. Well I guess she told me.

"Who the hell was that?" James
pulled himself away from his iPhone to ask.

"Phoebe." He raised his brow
in question. "Looks like you get to give me a bachelor's night out the
Saturday before the wedding." I smiled crookedly at him and a large smile
spread over his face. He turned his attention back to his phone with a little
more enthusiasm.

I took the phone off mute and listened
to the remainder of the conference call.

Plans were made and tuxes were fitted.
Lilli had a few more trips to Viola's during some afternoons to finalize some
things. The planning was good for her since she wasn't working at the club
anymore, I could sense her boredom more and more.

Work had gotten crazy with a couple of
new mergers that were being dealt with. I was rushing out of the apartment
Tuesday. When I got to the elevator I realized that I forgot something. Running
back to the apartment, I found Lilli standing outside of the door with my
iPhone in her hand, holding it out to me. I took it smiling and she walked back
into the apartment.

 "Bye," I yelled before the
door shut.

"Later," she yelled back.

It was small things like that, which I
was starting to get used to with her. She was around so much and knew a lot
about my routine. It was like she was starting to know me and it was
comfortable.

Christmas arrived quickly and Lilli went
to Maine to be with her father while I stayed in New York with my family and
work. Being in the apartment alone felt different after having another person
around; I found myself more irritated at being by myself.