Page 109 of Heartstruck at Dawn
“You’re practically family. They’re happy to dress you. Right, Marcus?”
“Elated,” he said, shuffling through the rack with dark-colored outfits. I don’t know if he sounded aselatedas he said he was.
Most of the looks had moons on them—crescent moons. They were literally stuck on the clothes. Later that day, I googled the collection. And in fact, Enzio de Luca had inspired himself on the moon when designing it. Wow.
“Ilaria, what do you think?” Marcus pulled out a navy-blue strapless gown with thin, black horizontal lines throughout the shiny fabric. The dress looked simple and elegant. Beautiful. This was one of the dresses that had no moon on it. I guess the moon reference was the shiny fabric itself. “Number twenty-six of the Spring twenty-ten collection,” Marcus shouted. Elijah kept taking notes.
“It can lookspettacolarewith the red hair,” Ilaria said. “Billie, come.” She moved her fingers back and forth. I was afraid to go near her. She had such a strong personality.
“We also have the beige—” Marcus said, pulling another dress.
“No beige,” Ilaria cut him off. “I want beige for Lily. What else?”
Elijah took the navy dress to the guest room and hung it on an empty rack for me to try on while Marcus kept looking for another option.
“Wait!” Marcus said before Ilaria shut the door to the guest room. “Look fourteen. You know how Enzio loved these pantsuit looks. He might want these to be photographed on the red carpet.”
It was a blush-pink pantsuit with straight, angular shoulder pads. The pants were slightly flared on the bottom. The jacket had a big, shiny, silver moon on the front instead of a button. The silhouette was feminine and sophisticated. Ilovedit.
“I remember this look. It’s the one Frida wore on the runway. I love it!” Lily said with excitement. “What do you think, Ilaria?”
“Let’s see it on her,” Ilaria replied. Elijah rushed to the guest room and hung the outfit on the rack next to the dark blue dress.
“Who’s Frida?” I asked as Lily pulled me to the guest room.
“Gustavsson. She’s a friend of ours—a model. Swedish, too.”
Lily closed the door to the guest room, and Ilaria asked me to undress. I put on the pants. They fitted me well, but they were way too long. I almost tripped on them.
“No bra,” Ilaria ordered.
I gave my back to them and took it off. Ilaria helped me with the jacket, and I quickly closed it before turning around. I was a little embarrassed to have them see my breasts.
“She’s not a model,vero?” Ilaria asked Lily.
“No, she’s not,” she replied.
“I can tell. Too shy.” Ilaria used the sparkling silver moon to clip the jacket close. The deep V neckline had a shiny fabric trim of the same blush-pink color. “You might be wearing this. I like it,” Ilaria said. “Marcus!” She opened the door and walked away, looking for him.
I hadn’t even seen myself in the mirror.
“You look stunning,” Lily said. “Want to take a look?”
I tiptoed to the big mirror in the foyer. I didn’t want to trip on my pants.
Oh.My.God. The outfit was amazing.
Someone whistled behind me, and when I looked around, I saw William darting my way. He was coming back from the kitchen holding a beer. He approached me and kissed my cheeks. I was a second away from pushing him away.
I hadn’t seen much of William after I saw him flirting with Nina. And he had been remarkably annoying that day. So let’s say I wasn’t too excited to see him.
“Is that for the premiere?” he asked, scanning me. “I like it.” He glimpsed at the crescent moon on my jacket and raised his brows. I turned to look at Lily, and she was staring back. Her eyes slightly widened.
William brushed the moon with his index finger and whispered, “Now I like it even better. Besides, it’s the same color you wore last year for Midsummer. It reminds me of our first kiss.”
“We didn’t kiss. I pushed you away. But you keep forgetting.” Not that I would have if I weren’t dating Thomas at the time.
At least Marcus, Elijah, and Ilaria were busy picking something for Lily and not listening to our conversation.
