R O S A L I E

Wedding Planner Rule Number 3

The Bride is always Right.

Jenna slammed two files down on my desk.

The files had two copies of the same agreement to be signed. She looked at me pointedly and put her hands on her hips.

I looked up at her.

"I hope Aiden comes for all the meetings," she mused out loud.

"You want to ogle someone else's fiancé?" I asked, giving her a smirk.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with looking," she told me, wagging her index finger at me, "A girl can dream."

"Thank you, Jenna," I sang, turning back to my notebook, laughing at her comments.

She turned to leave. "They're here," she sang back to me.

Raising my head, I saw Caroline and Aiden walk in through the front door and Sarah, the receptionist greeting them. Jenna ran to open the door to my office and let them through.

Caroline walked in, all smiles. "Rosalie, darling!" she said, greeting me, not saying my last name, "I'm so excited to see what you have for me."

Behind her, Aiden let Jenna exit the room, before walking in.

Today, Caroline wore a fitted, red Alexander Wang dress that I had seen in a catalog. She carried a Prada crocodile skin bag.

Aiden, as usual, wore a well-fitted, probably custom-tailored charcoal grey suit, with matching tie pin, cufflinks, pocket square and a watch.

"Please, have a seat," I gestured to the couch. Once they sat down, Jenna brought in a tray of refreshing lemonade and fresh cookies. I preferred to give my clients lemonade than champagne, especially because some of them are so lightweight that I can't get any work done with them.

Caroline's lips pursed the moment the tray was set down. "I'd like a glass of water, if you don't mind," she said, as her fiancé took a glass of lemonade that he was being offered.

I nodded to Jenna and she ran off to get some water.

"Let's go over the binder and then get down to the agreement, shall we?" I suggested.

"Great," Caroline agreed, while Aiden relaxed in his seat, his suit unbuttoned and his arm draped over the backrest of the couch.

"Caroline, I put together this album of things I thought you'd like to see based on our discussion last week," I said, handing her a folder, "You can go through it and tell me the things you like, don't like and any changes or additions. You can hold on to that and give it back to me at our next meeting."

Caroline opened the file and smiled, broadly. "This is absolutely beautiful," she told me.

Aiden reached over to the plate of cookies and picked one up. Seeing that from the side of her eye, Caroline angled her face to look over at him. She pursed her lips and gave him a tight smile, the veins in her neck showing. I assumed she was unhappy that he had a cookie, but I couldn't understand why.

"Mr. Carlisle," I said, "Would you like to go over the agreement for the time being?"

Aiden moved his confused eyes from Caroline to me. He blinked. "Yes, Ms. Darling, I think that's a good idea."

I handed him one of the files and he took it, gratefully.

"This," Caroline said, turning her head sharply back towards me, "Is good, but take out everything that is rustic. I don't want any exposed brick or communal tables. Everything must be elegant and classy. Nothing that looks too eastern."

I could see Aiden cringe at Caroline's crude comment. I had met narrow-minded brides and knew how to handle it, so I let it pass.

I nodded, taking back the binder and making notes in my book.

"Of course, we can start looking for a dress," I told her, "I can recommend some boutiques, if you like, or some places that do great custom work, if that's what you prefer. Some brides like to play around with their hair early on, just to see if they find a good fit as the year goes on. I don't advise making any drastic changes, and your hair is beautiful and the blonde is perfect."

"Strawberry blonde," Caroline shot back at me, startling me and making Aiden wince. She then, smiled, sweetly. "My hair is strawberry blonde."

I managed a smile. "Of course, I'm sorry."

Aiden thoroughly read through the whole document, while Caroline continued to tell me everything that she didn't want at her wedding.

"I think this is quite good," he said, when he had finished, "Everything seems to be in order."

I smiled. "Caroline, would you like to read through it as well, before we sign?"

Caroline chuckled and shook her head. She reached out and touched Aiden's knee. "If it's good enough for Aiden, it's good enough for me."

Once they had signed the agreement and left, Jenna waltzed back into my office. "Shall we go out tonight?" she asked, "We can go for the open mic night at that comedy place and you can tell me about Mr. And Mrs. Richie Rich."

I laughed. "We don't discuss clients," I said, jokingly.

"No, we don't discuss clients with other people. This is a safe space," she assured me.

"Sorry, Jenna. Not today. Ian and I are finally going out for dinner today," I said.

"Boo," she mocked, before walking out.

That evening, I was happy. There was a sense of excitement that was lingering in me, with the anticipation of my date with Ian. We had been dating for two years now, but in the past few weeks we hadn't been able to find time to spend with each other.

Ian was always frustrated when I had to stay late and work or be occupied during weekends when there was a wedding, but finally we had managed to squeeze in a date.

I was getting ready when he called.

"Where are we going today, Rosalie?" he asked, in an excited tone, which made me even more excited, "How about that new place about two blocks from your place? I heard it has good steak."

My nose crinkled. Ian loved steak, but I wasn't a big fan of beef. "That place is fancy, Ian."

"You love that kind of thing," he told me.

"I know, but I feel like I haven't seen you in so long, so maybe we should go somewhere cozy? How about Antonio's?"

"The pizza place?" he questioned.

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me. "It's so cozy and private and their booths are so comfortable. And the pizza and garlic knots are amazing. There's free refills and we can talk there. We can catch up with each other, you know," I said, hopefully.

Ian laughed on the other end of the phone. "If it makes you happy, Princess. I'll pick you up in about an hour, alright?"

I agreed and hung up, feeling happy about us.

About an hour later, the doorbell rang and I opened it to find Ian standing there, in a smart blue shirt that highlighted his grey eyes. He held a bunch of colourful flowers in his hand, and it was beautiful.

"Ian," I sighed.

"For my girl," he said, handing them to me.

"I love them," I said, inhaling their scent.

"Ready?" he asked, smiling.

I quickly put the flowers into an empty vase on the counter and grabbed my bag and we walked to Antonio's which was just about a block from my apartment. We picked a booth in the back, which was secluded and cozy.

Ian slid into the couch side of the booth and I slid in next to him. He opened the menu and looked through it.

"Let's get the meat lovers," he said.

"You know I don't eat pepperoni," I said.

"Yeah, but you won't even notice it. You eat meat," Ian shrugged.

"Let's just order a half and half," I suggested.

Once we had given the order, Ian put his arm around me. "How was your day?"

"Good," I replied, "A new couple came in and I signed them on. The wedding earlier this week was a complete success, but of course now, I'm helping them out with everything else that needs to be done. This bride is such a sweetheart. She called me up after the wedding to thank me, almost in tears."

"That's cool," Ian nodded, "You know we're working on this huge merger at the moment and I pitched this idea to the heads of the board and they were so impressed."

"That's so great, Ian. Is the merger almost over?" I asked, wanting to be interested, even though I didn't understand much about investment banking, because Ian was so passionate about it.

"Not quite," he shook his head, "There's a few more weeks of work, maybe two months."

He rambled on about the inner workings of the merger and how he had impressed everyone in the board room. I was proud of him. He talked about the people on his team and what they were like, until the food came.

We dug in and he asked me, "Why were you working late last week?" as he chomped down on the pizza.

"Oh, well, I got a new client that day. I stayed late and worked on some of the ideas while they were fresh in my brain. They're celebrities, I would say, so everything is very much under wraps. I can't talk about anything until they announce their engagement soon."

I knew it was in my job description to be confidential, but despite Ian being so close to me, I could never bring myself to tell him the intimate details of the weddings I planned until they were public.

By the time I had eaten two of my slices, Ian had finished all four of him. He grinned at me, looking down at my two slices.

"No!" I warned him, picking up my third slice and taking a bite, "Those are my slices. If you want, you can get more, but those are mine. Don't touch them."

He teasingly inched one closer to himself.

My stomach was almost growling. I was extremely hungry after the day I'd had and I fully intended to finish all four of my slices.

"Don't," I said again, and then told him about some new music I'd heard.

Ian slowly, picked up the last slice that was on the pan, a sheepish grin on his face.

"I want that," I told him, as he took a bite, grinning like an idiot.

Something was bubbling up inside me and it wasn't the hunger I was feeling. Ian always took huge bites, and this was no exception. He was grinning at me the whole time, making me feel like I was making a big deal of all of this. Maybe it was the hunger.

Very soon, he had eaten the whole slice that was supposed to be mine and I felt like a child for being as upset as I was.

"I'll buy you an ice cream," he told me, looking at my face.

I shook my head and tried to smile, finishing my slice. I got up. "I'm going to the ladies'," I said, picking up my bag.

I rinsed off my hands and told myself to stop being such a baby. Blankly staring at myself in the mirror for a while, I shook my head and decided not to let it get to me.

When I walked back out, Ian was on his phone. I picked up my drink and sipped, silently, waiting for him to finish his work.

After a few minutes of silence, I decided to speak up. "So, are we doing anything after this?"

"I don't think so, Ro," Ian said, still scrolling through this phone, "I have to be up early tomorrow and run to the office because we're meeting with the people for the agreement tomorrow."

I nodded, sipping my drink.

"Tell me something," Ian said, after a while, typing something into his phone, "Anything."

I sighed, deeply, leaning forward and resting my elbow on the table and my cheek on my knuckles. "You know, I heard this song recently and the lyrics were so good. The song is called "Be My Mistake" and the lyrics say "you do make me hard, but she makes me weak" and I thought that it was so poetic, don't you think?"

Ian locked his phone and slid it into his pocket. "Definitely. It's nice."

He leaned over and kissed my cheek.

"Shall we leave?" he asked.

Everything inside me deflated, but because I didn't want to cause a problem when Ian looked so happy, I let it go.

"Sure," I said and we got up to leave.

Ian walked me to my door and kissed me. "I had a good time," he said, "We should try and do it more often. Goodnight, babe."

I watched him walk away. "Night."

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Hello, lovely readers!

I have a favour to ask. You must have seen the last three chapters having book covers. 

Well, I'd like you to tell me if one of those is better than the current cover and if so, which one? If you like this one, let me know!

I actually dedicated this chapter to a wonderful friend I made here who gave me some good advice about covers!

Anyway, thanks so much for reading!

Don't forget to vote and comment!

Much love!

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