ELECTRIC FEEL ↝ Schmidt

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  ON THE NIGHT of the engagement, Elise hadn't entirely realized how much work it meant and had been rather surprised because of Schmidt's very thorough plan to make the wedding work. To be honest, Elise was growing stressed and anxious already, but instead of revealing how suffocated she was feeling, she smiled at her fiancé — which felt good to say, nonetheless — and offered to take care of tasting the cakes. Naturally, she also had a wedding dress to pick and that was the only task of the day yet it terrified Elise wonderfully.

  At least Elise didn't have to work. She had successfully hired some people to work at Comic Planet and now, things weren't so exhausting and she was able to cut out some of her own hours in order to give most of her attention to the wedding arrangements. Although, the stress that work had caused didn't leave, merely moved over to different, but equally relevant matters she now had to handle. Choosing a wedding dress was certainly challenging, and she was aiming for perfection because she knew that was what Schmidt aspired to have as well, but Elise was sure that with Winston's help, she'd have the prettiest dress in the world.

  Winston claimed that he carried tons of experience and therefore also the ability to pick the most breathtaking wedding gown, and as soon as Elise had insisted on leaving the bottle of champagne back at the loft, she felt safe and trusted her friend. It had been a while since the two of them spent time together anyway, so Elise was more than happy to find company in Winston, who drove them to the nearby boutique where Elise accepted the mission of finding a wedding dress that was grazing perfection, if not all in.

  The sight of so many white dresses, mixed with a couple of other colors, caused Elise to gulp thickly and shiver at the thought of wearing one herself. She was positive that she wanted to marry Schmidt, but it was a big step nevertheless and the idea of taking someone else's name, promising to spend the rest of her days with someone and showing the best and the worst of herself to him, frankly, terrified Elise. Getting married was the dream, but it wasn't an easy thing to do — in any way, really. For the past couple of days, Elise had been sensitive and on the verge of tears but somehow she had managed to avoid falling apart, although it only meant that once it was bound to happen, it was going to be major. It wasn't healthy to bottle things up, especially for someone as emotional and fragile as Elise.

  Yet, she put a smile on her face and glanced at Winston, who seemed equally amazed by the dozens of dresses. "Where should we start?", Elise asked, but before Winston could end the dreamy sequence playing in his head on a continuous loop, a woman working in the shop approached the two with a bright smile. Instantly freezing and falling into utter discomfort, Elise's eyes widened and her hand searched for Winston's arm to she could grab it rather painfully, but at least the grip woke him from his thoughts and he saved the situation by answering for Elise.

  "Hello there... Cynthia", Winston began after glancing at the name tag on the woman's little black dress, and then stepped out to take over the moment and protect Elise from the excessive amount of interacting with unknown people. "My friend here is getting married and we're looking for a wedding dress. Something... Hmm, something classy and stunning but not too pompous. Something that'll make her the prettiest woman in the room, but in a cute way, you know what I mean, Cynthia?", Winston explained then, glancing at Elise once in a while to observe the woman and gather together what was most likely her preferred style. And so far, it was quite accurate.

  Cynthia nodded and left to find the dress that fit their criterias, and in the meanwhile, Winston and Elise found their way to a fitting room with seats outside, where the man ended up. Elise was pacing nervously back and forth the room and waiting for the woman to return with some potential dresses in anticipation, though there was a pang of fear knocking at her heart and causing her to doubt and overthink everything. Soon enough, Cynthia came back with three dresses and Winston cheered at the options, and Elise felt just as excited about them all, even if she tended to be quite nervous but admittedly, all the dresses were gorgeous and it was going to be a hard choice, for sure.