Returning Red

#11: Changing Masks.

after you, I can't trust anyone

Isabella

Two days of continuous shopping can be brutal for any normal human. But with how normal everyone around me is making this feel, I know I don't fit in this crowd.

The first day was all about traveling and deciding the theme of the wedding. Jason had set up studios for this and we were asked to choose every delicate detail from miniature albums and 3D models. May has this plan on keeping the wedding theme to start and end with white carnations.

The wedding planner, Emily, suggested a mixup of white carnations and white roses to add an edge but I have a feeling they ran out of carnations for suggesting this. After the flowers, she wanted to do the hall flooring, table arrangement, the wedding band, and all the food catering. When she was finally done, I realized I had done nothing but second her choices.

If it was up to me, I'd have suggested the lawn in front of my house for the setup. I'm more of memory over material kind of a person. The detailing wouldn't matter to me. That's how I know our OCDs are very different.

Yesterday was a little boisterous and lively. We found a small Ritu Kumar shop inside the town. Ritu Kumar is a classic Indian designer who I was really fascinated to meet. She had an absolute ethnic collection of Indian glow. Something very wedding seasoned and very bright with the best color-coordinated dresses. Indian fashion is flamboyant. You can never stop smiling once you enter the studio of an Indian designer. The fabric, the detailing, the designs, and the aesthetic make me so envious. I just think I had a brilliant idea for the collab. We finished most of the Indian clothes shopping there.

Now presently, we were in Vera Wang for the wedding dress. And I was inside a cubicle, trying out my maid of honor dress. My dress was elegant. A soft white that slowly faded to snow blue at the ends of the dress. I loved the feel of satin and the detailed white pearls that lined the strapless outlining of my neck. The dress was too long now but I knew if I wore heels it would be a perfect fit. Except, I didn't want to wear heels. I wanted to wear sneakers.

I lift the sides of my dress so I can walk gracefully out of the changing cubicle and not trip on my first step. The hall outside the mini-changing rooms was filled with tall mirrors. When I saw my reflection, I took my own breath away.

The white shade of the dress hugged my body like a corset and the rest of the satin flowed down slowly changing into a very light baby blue. I loved the minimalistic detailing of the pearl. The neckline of this dress felt unusually deep. I tried to adjust the dress to cover a part of my exposed cleavage but the dress wouldn't budge.

I prepared myself to walk up the stairs and not trip because I had to show this to May before I changed and she was trying on her wedding dress in the biggest changing room upstairs. I was given ten minutes to tell her if I approve of the maid of honor's dress.

"Can anyone help me with--"

I turned around to the voice with such force that my hair clasped into a bandless bun freed itself and fell over one of my shoulders. I gulped when I saw Austin's lips part and a heavy breath slowly escaped his mouth. His eyes slowly focused everywhere on my body, from top to bottom and back to the top.

His footsteps were slowly advancing. One look at him and I understood the color theme for May's wedding. He was wearing a dark navy blue suit with a white shirt and a baby blue tie that was all tangled around his neck. His hair was all ruffled and messed up. He still couldn't look away from me. I wasn't going to make the mistake of looking into his luring eyes and forgetting everything he had said to me since the time we met.