Baby Deyes: A Zalfie Fanfiction

Week Twenty Six: Beaches and Bridesmaid Dresses

It was the day of Joe's fiancee Kate's wedding dress fitting. They were getting married in six weeks, on June 4th, and Kate had asked me to be a bridesmaid about six months ago, when Joe proposed, just after our wedding.
"Zoe, come on! Kate and her sister are coming to pick you up in two minutes!" Alfie called upstairs.
"Coming!" I made my way downstairs and into the hall as Kate and her sister Maia pulled into our driveway.
"Hey Kate, Maia." I climbed into the back of the car. "You ready, bride?"
"Yeah. Let's do this! You'll be off crutches by the wedding, right?"
"By about a week. I'll be doing physio, but I'll be fine."
"Brilliant! The theme of the wedding is pale pink, as you know, so I'm hoping pale pink dresses. You won't be too big then, will you?"
"Nope!" I say happily. "My midwife says I have a small bump because I'm small. It'll still be hardly noticeable to everyone but me."
When we arrived we were met by a designer who questioned and stared intensely at Kate for a minute or two, then speedwalked around the tiny store, where we were the only customers, picking four dresses off racks.
The first dress was a meringue, similar to Colleen Evans (Miranda Sings) had had as her dress. But it had off the shoulder sleeves and a silver belt around the waist.
"I like the belt; not sure about the rest."
"No problem. We have plenty of dresses."
Number two was a mermaid cut with a high lacy neckline and lace sleeves.
"Again, the lacey sleeves are nice, but the rest of it... It a not my type of dress."
The third dress had a tighter bodice and a short skirt with a sweetheart neckline. It was beautiful, but according to Kate it 'wasn't comfortable', although she liked the tighter, slightly bejewelled bodice and neckline.
Fourth of the four dresses was a long sleeved, long straight skirt with a wide belt of red flowers.
"The flowers come in any colour you want." Our assistant, Mary, said smoothly. "Pale pink is especially popular."
"Again, it doesn't feel like my wedding dress. I feel too covered up and hot, but I like the skirt with the lace design over the top."
"Wait there just one moment, Miss Dalles. (Kate's surname.) I have an idea."
Mary did another lap of the store in triple speed and stopped at one rack a few metres away from us.
"Here. What about this one?"
This dress had the long skirt with lace designs, the tighter lacey and jewelled bodice and the sweetheart neckline, and three quarter length lace sleeves that covered her shoulders too.
"This is it, guys. This is the one I want." Kate whispered. "Thoughts?"
"Absolutely stunning." Maia said, and I agreed.
"Decided. Now for the veil."
Mary brought over a long lace veil with a train and little glass crystals round the edge, and a matching silver tiara to match Kate's silver belt, and white wedges with crystal roses on the toe straps.
"This is perfect. How much for everything?"
"For the dress, shoes, veil, and tiara that will be £1567." Mary said.
Kate whistled and shrugged. "Its my wedding day. And the matching bridesmaid dresses?"
The dresses were pale pink as Kate had hoped, with silver bands under the bust to fit my growing bump and a drape-y style. We would have roses at the back of our hair, which would be loose down our backs. The whole lot came to nearly £3000.
"Right, celebration picnic! Beach?" Maia asked us.
"Yeah, great!" Kate agreed. I nodded cheerfully.
"Lets go get some food in the Tesco next door." I suggested.
In the end we went for chips on the pier.
While we were sitting on the beach, the tide started drawing in and licking at our toes. We moved up the sand a little bit and kicked off our shoes, splashing in up to our ankles.
"So how's the pregnancy going, Zoe?" Maia asked.
"Alright, I suppose. No more morning sickness, but I'm so tired, it's unbelievable. My back hurts too, and my ankles. It's quite soothing, this cool water. Maybe I should have some quality spa time!"
"We will be having some the morning of my wedding. We're booked in for nine a.m. with foot massages and mani-pedi thingies. Then the hairdresser and makeup woman are there from eleven until one. Then the wedding is at two."
"Brilliant!" Maia exhaled. "I need a spa morning."
Later that night as I lay on the sofa with Nala telling Alfie about the day, Alfie paused while cooking dinner and turned to me.
"Zoe, are you sure you're going to be able to do this?"
"What? Do what?"
"You know... Have the baby." Alfie squirmed, then turned back to round to check on dinner. "It's seems so scary. And you're going to be doing it. Are you ready?"
"Alfie, I don't think anyone ever really is." I hauled myself off the sofa and put my chin on his shoulder from behind. "All we can do is hope that everything goes okay when Kelsey is born. And I don't know how I'm going to do it either, especially not if it takes ages. I've got a new midwife, Kerry, and she says that I have access to any drug at any time because we've gone private."
"So you can not be in pain if it gets too much?" Alfie asked.
"Yes, of course. I know my boundaries."
With that I kissed him on the shoulder and nothing more was said about it.

I'm THIS close to 10K. Thank you all SO MUCH. I get two of my GCSE grades tomorrow and I'm kinda freaking out! (We do Early Entries.)