Chapter Five
Kate
I woke up the next morning after my first night in Jonathan’s house, trying to piece together the series of events that had led to me spending the night in my room trying to convince myself that I wasn’t making the biggest mistake of my life.
The one thing I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about was his lips and the way he’d kissed me and made me feel as though I was the most precious thing in his world.
He didn’t know that I’d been waiting my whole life to feel that way. Needed, wanted… loved, and I couldn’t bear the thought that men like him with his cool manner and effortless charm had the ability to make women like myself, with insecurities from a broken life, feel as though I really meant something.
The way his lips had grazed mine gently and the way he’d held my face in his hands… I rolled over on the bed not wanting to think about it anymore. I didn’t want to allow myself to get swept up in the thought that we were embarking on a real marriage with real feelings.
He was my business partner and we were in a gigantic business deal. That was all. The contract said I had a minimum of five years to be bound by it and then I could leave if I wanted to and even though the thought of moving and living in a remote Italian village appealed to the adventurer in me, I wasn’t sure if I was able to turn my back on Jonathan, despite the no love or emotional attachment rule. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to let him go that easily and turn my back on the only person who would have been constant in my life.
There was a knock at my bedroom door and I sat up, checking the time on the alarm clock before running my fingers through my wild hair and pulling it into a manageable ponytail.
“Come in!”
The door opened slowly and I saw Helen’s face first. She gave me an awkward ‘sorry I’ve been asked to interrupt your privacy’ kind of look before speaking.
“Morning, Kate.”
“Morning.”
“This is Genevieve, your personal stylist.”
A tall leggy woman with thick wavy hair walked into the room behind her and we both exchanged small waves.
“She’s going to get you ready and sorted for today’s press release and article about your upcoming nuptials.”
“Press release?” The words sounded almost foreign to me. “We’ve only been engaged for a number of days.”
Helen laughed.
“Unfortunately, news about Jonathan is highly sought after. Magazines and papers are going to be clambering over each other to get this story.”
I swung my feet out of the bed slightly embarrassed by my frumpy brightly colored pajamas, that I hadn’t expected anyone to see, compared Helen and Genevieve who were wearing black, tight pencil dresses.
The thought of the press hounding me for information had never even crossed my mind, and for some reason I’d only expected to have a big wedding party with his friends and family and then go back home and just live. I hadn’t envisaged the press interviewing me and becoming the next Kate Middleton.
I felt the nerves in my stomach and a slight feeling of panic, but there was no time for that as Genevieve came to my side of the bed and helped me up.
“Right. Let’s get you some outfits and then we’ll work on the press one. I‘ve been asked to provide you today with a full wardrobe for each season and…”
“Each season?” I asked, incredulous. “As in, fall, winter, spring and then summer again?”
She nodded enthusiastically.
“A full wardrobe for each one? Where would I even put them all?”
Helen stepped forwards with her clipboard and pen.
“The dressing room is down the hall. I’ve arranged for someone to come in and coordinate everything seasonally and by color once we have them all. You won’t have to worry about a thing.”
I couldn’t quite believe that people had someone to come in and sort out their wardrobes, but I remembered I was playing his fiancé. Now wasn’t the time to be in awe of how the other half lived.
Helen turned to leave, but I stopped her before she disappeared.
“Any news on Jonathan? Is he awake yet?”
She smiled and nodded.
“Oh yes, I’m afraid he’s already left for work, but he told me to tell you ‘good morning’ and he said he’ll ‘call you at some point’.
“Thank you.”
She nodded and left, leaving me feeling slightly disappointed. I’d hoped to see Jonathan before he left to smooth the air between us, and I had to apologize for leaving the meeting with his mom. It was so out of character for me, and I wanted to let him know why. It was about time that I explained the real reason I was so guarded about my life and my feelings.
If I was going to marry him and spend a great deal of my life by his side, I had to at least let him have the chance to get to understand me. I had to find out everything I could about him, even if that did mean cracking his tough outer shell. I had to get in somehow.
“You see Kate, I love this look for you. It screams sophistication without the age limit, and look how it accentuates your figure. Curves are all the rage right now.”
I looked at Genevieve in the mirror, turning slightly as she pointed out all of my best assets.
“Do you see the way it grazes your hips and skims your thighs? It’s giving you the Marilyn Monroe hourglass figure. That’s the look we want to create with today’s pieces.”
I looked at the Dior wrap dress, trying to make out what she saw, but all I could see was what I wasn’t. I wasn’t one of the women that would usually be on the arm of Jonathan with tight figure hugging mini dresses accentuating their endless slim line legs, and I wasn’t one of the model, statuesque beauties that he was renowned for going through. In my eyes, the dress did nothing but remind me how far out of depth I was. Thee was no way the press or the public would be convinced that I really was his fiancé if I appeared in front of them stuffed into a dress.
“What’s the matter?” Genevieve asked, and I realized that I’d been frowning.
“Nothing, I just… does it really say Jonathan?”
I fingered the material trying to imagine myself beside him in the magazine photos and I just couldn’t picture it.
“I think it does,” she said, smiling knowingly at me through the mirror. “I’ve been given strict instructions on the style that he’s expecting for you and I think this is perfect. Jonathan is a man that knows what he wants and the vision he had for you was very specific. He wanted to show off your figure. Now, why don’t you take that off, as I’ve got a couple of other dresses for you to try before we continue.”
I walked back into the changing room with another dress hooked over my fingers, a mixture of nerves and excitement inside.
By tomorrow, America would know who I was. I’d gone from working in a hotel bar, watching the world pass me by and hoping I could somehow change my destiny, to standing in shops that I wouldn’t even have dared walk past before and being dressed by a personal stylist, ready to have my life presented to the world.
“Are you ready?” Genevieve asked from beyond the door, and I thought about my answer, weighing up everything going on in my life. I thought about the negative press I would receive after the press release went out and the vulture-like journalists digging into my past to find out who I really was and it frightened me a little. Would life ever be the same afterwards? Was I ready?
“Um, I’m not sure.”
I felt the heat from the light above me on my face and suddenly the room seemed too small to even breathe. I needed air, I needed something other than the confined walls of the changing cubicle.
“Oh, are we still talking about dresses or are you having cold feet for tomorrow?” Genevieve joked lightheartedly.
“Both.” I said perching myself down on the bench. “I’m talking about both.”