Page 18 of Once Upon a Beast

I opened my mouth to correct Steve that Layla wasn’t my woman but I stopped. “I plan on it. Don’t drink all the Scotch,” I said and walked out the door.

Chapter 10

Layla

“It’s wrong. It’s all wrong,” I declared as I looked down at my dress on Ella’s bed and tried not to cry.

Ella put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “Nonsense. It’s beautiful and you’re going to look stunning wearing it.”

“I can’t wear this. Not now,” I said and shook my head.

Ara stood behind me on the other side of Ella and looked at the dress. “This is from Jared Andre’s personal collection. I can guarantee no one else will be wearing this dress, nor will anyone look as good as you will tonight, including me.”

“The dress was fine before. Why isn’t it now?” Ella asked.

“A lot has changed since I got the dress,” I admitted.

Dax, Ella’s fiancé, had been kind enough to make himself scarce so that Ara and I could come over to get ready with Ella. Their bathroom was a lot bigger than the tiny one in my studio or even in Ara’s place. He had even had a massage therapist give us massages before we got ready. Ella told us he had offered to have people come and do our hair and make-up but we had declined. We agreed it would be more fun for us to get ready on our own. I originally had been happy to have only Ara and Ella around, now I would have gladly taken any help.

“Ah, yes. You have a date tonight. With Nic,” Ara sang.

“It isn’t a date. It’s more of a business arrangement. I’m helping him out,” I reminded them.

“You keep saying you’re only doing this to help out a friend but the way you’re freaking out makes me think it’s more,” Ella suggested.

“Of course, it’s more than that. This is one of the biggest social events of the year. It certainly is for the library. All my co-workers will be there, my boss, friends of my father, politicians, and a whole slew of famous people. There’s nothing wrong with me second guessing my outfit.”

“You’ve gone to these functions since you were a child. You never had a problem with it, nor were you ever this nervous,” Ara sat down on the bed and gave me a concerned look.

“I know. This one is different. There’s so much more to tonight. I have to make people think I not only care about Nic but I’m in love with him. We need to put on a show for the world to see. The press had a field day with our announcement. They’re going to be there anyways but before they would have left me alone. Now they’re going to want to talk to me, take my picture, ask me questions.”

“Are you worried about the questions they’re going to ask? You can just smile and wave. You don’t have to answer them,” Ara said.

“I’ve gotten good at that,” Ella said.

“Didn’t you and Nic discuss what you would say to people? I thought you two figured out your story before you even left his penthouse?” Ara asked.

“We did. I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about the other questions they’re going to ask. What if I can’t answer them? Or if I answer them wrong? What if I trip up and say I had dinner with him one night at his place and it turns out he wasn’t there or with some other woman? There’s such potential for all of this to go wrong and I don’t want to be the one who does it,” I sat down on the bed next to Ara.

“Oh sweetie,” Ara said and wrapped her arms around me. “You aren’t going to screw this up. You and Nic know what you’re going to say. If anyone asks, just look up at Nic, smile up at him as if he is the most amazing person you’ve ever met and say “Why don’t you tell them, sweetie.” Then he can tell the story and you’ll know what it is.”

“You could also tell him that you’ll do the same thing. You could take turns telling stories. The man has hardly been seen in public; he doesn’t date. It would be easy to believe that any time you say you two were together, he was free. And if anyone questions it, you could always say you saw him later in the night and let everyone draw their own conclusion,” Ella said.

“Great, I’ve turned into Nic’s booty call. Wonderful,” I muttered

“As far as everyone knows you’re his fiancé. You would come over to his place, you would sleep over. You’re not his booty call,” Ara said.

“This is our first outing. Everyone’s going to be looking at me. I don’t want anyone to find fault in what I do or wear,” I said.

Ara reached over, picked up my dress, and looked at it. “This dress is incredible. I had wanted you to look special tonight because I know how much this evening means to you. I had no idea it was going to end up mattering this much. This dress is perfect for you and for the night. If anyone says otherwise, they’re idiots and aren’t worth your time,” she said.

Ella bent down in front of me and said, “Exactly. You’re going to look sensational. Nic and everyone else is going to be so in awe of how amazing you look that they aren’t going to care what you say.”

“Are you saying I’m going to say something stupid?” I asked.

“No. Never. You’ll be as eloquent as you always are but the main story is going to be people seeing you and Nic together and what you’re wearing. Don’t worry about what you’re going to say,” Ella stated.

“Plus, if you do anything wrong, or we see you heading down the wrong path, we’ll come in to help you. Not that it’s going to happen. But if it did, do you think that Ella or I would stand back and just let it? I don’t want to, but if I must make a fool out of myself to deflect people from you, I’ll do it,” Ara said.