The Reluctant Wife

2. Finding the Dress

“Jeremy, can you seriously believe that?” Amira puffed out her cheeks much like a child would and grumbled, still furious from this morning’s senseless confrontation with the beautiful ex-wife of one very handsome Xavier Ruiz.

“I can and I do,” He said, partly amused, partly exasperated. “If only you hadn’t decided to keep a low profile…” he began but she cut him before he could continue.

“Don’t!” she barked at him.

And he quieted down immediately and made a gesture to zip his mouth. “Just saying.”

“I said don’t!” She all but growled the word at him as she looked around to see if anyone had heard them argue. Then, after eating the last bite of her croissant, she finally went down to business. “What’s the plan for today?”

“The plan is to go shopping and then pamper you and make you ready for the movie premiere,” he said seriously, his last two words hushed.

“You didn’t make me wake up at eight in the f*****g morning for that?!” She exclaimed outraged.

“Sure did,” he nodded, looking unrepentant.

“The movie premiere is at five,” she spat out, angrier by each passing second, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with you?” he countered rather aggressively. “You don’t even have a f*****g dress and you’re so chill with it all.”

“I do have a dress,” she said angrily.

“A dress from an unknown brand that didn’t even cost you two-hundred bucks… is that the dress you’re referring to?”

“What’s wrong with it?” She retorted, eyes spitting fire and glaring daggers at the same time.

“Everything,” he deadpanned, blue eyes boring into hers. “It doesn’t make you shine. Tonight is basically your debut night. You should be glowing.”

“Some highlight would help with that,” she supplied sarcastically.

“Believe me when I say there will be plenty of that,” was his acidic retort.  

She grimaced and averted her eyes in dismay, losing the fight in her. She didn’t want to fight Jeremy. He was only trying to watch out for her.  

Tonight was the night. He was right. She was supposed to look like a star ought to be when she didn’t even feel it deep down. To her, she would always be a small town girl who had studied to become an IT engineer, only to excel in a field that was completely off – writing fiction.

What had started as a mere pass-time, and had grown into a passion, became her full-time job soon enough.

One of her stories was so well-received by the audience, she had been contacted by a producer… and that was how, two years later, she was to be introduced to the masses as the person who had thought the story through, who had spent countless nights writing it down, polishing her piece so her readers would enjoy it.

And they most certainly did.

Nevertheless, when she had been invited to Spain for the movie premiere, she had asked for a small hotel but was denied the request. She therefore asked that she be known as Amira Al-Habachi, not as AA Hush which was her pen name.

“Whatever,” she finally said in defeat and Jeremy, her agent, beamed at her.

                                               *****************

They had been trying to find the right dress for nearly two hours. Amira would have been fine with the first one, but not Jeremy.

When they were about to enter the last shop in the renowned avenue, she pulled him apart. “If I don’t find a f*****g dress in here, I am so wearing the one I brought with me.”

“Keep dreaming, Amira,” he said with a smirk before opening the door for her. “You’ll find one. Don’t worry.”

And she did. As soon as they entered the shop, her eyes landed on a golden dress that was just it.

Jeremy looked in the same direction as her and whistled. “You’ll look like the new showbiz eye-candy in that”.

She rolled her eyes at him and approached the dress with resolute steps, ignoring the sales assistant, and touched the dress’ material. It felt even more exquisite than it looked. Good god!

“I’d like to try this on,” she said, finally acknowledging the woman with a smile.

The woman smiled back and showed her where the changing rooms were.

It fit her like a glove, but not sinfully so. It showed enough cleavage with its plunging neckline, and enough leg with its high slit, without it being slutty. At least that’s what she thought.

As she emerged from there, and Jeremy looked her over, she definitely got the feeling that he approved. And his thumbs up only came to reassure her in her assumptions.

When she took off the dress, overjoyed with having found a one that was so beautiful, she looked down at the price tag and let out a startled gasp.

It cost a freaking fortune.

“As beautiful as it is, it’s too much. Too expensive,” she said as she exited the changing room, looking slightly defeated.

“It would have been expensive if you couldn’t afford it. But you can,” Jeremy supplied rather off-handedly, as if it didn’t matter. “Don’t make this any harder than it is, A.”

And although Amira wasn’t a stingy person per se, she didn’t like to spend too much, choosing to lead a simple life instead… but it looked like life had other plans for her.

“Fine,” she finally agreed to pay for the fifteen-thousand-dollar dress.

“Now, let us find a pair of shoes that would go beautifully with this dress,” Jeremy said joyfully as he led her out of the shop, while holding her bag for her, both looking and sounding proud of her.