She's My Sleeping Pill

Stefan reserved a room for her and her assistant in one of his hotels to make sure that she won’t have a hard time.

“This is weird, you know.” Cayenne voiced out when they met the next day after Monet’s arrival. She was wearing one of the wedding gowns props while Monet made adjustments here and there.

“What’s weird about modeling? You have tried it already.”

“The weird thing is me wearing these dresses. Stefan and I haven’t even done this.”

“Then, why don’t you tell him you want a wedding? It’s not a bad thing to ask.”

“I don’t want to. If I do that, he will only throw his riches on that wedding. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing but I don’t want him to waste his money on me.”

.....

“Dear, spending money for your loved ones isn’t a waste. It’s part of the relationship. And knowing Stefan, he probably feels like getting an affirmation that he has done his best when he spends a lot for you and your family. After all, he never had anything or anyone he can spend his money on.”

“Let’s not talk about it.” Cayenne dismissed unnaturally which brought a smile on Monet’s lips. She didn’t know that she already struck a chord in Cayenne’s heart when they talked about wedding. “So, we’re going to start shooting in two days. When will Thomas arrive?”

Monet stiffened for a moment she heard his name but was able to recover immediately. Since Cayenne didn’t know anything, she acted normally and told Cayenne what she knew. As far as she knew from the information she got, Thomas has to fly to Vienna today for work and will book another flight after that to get to City A.

“Are you going to visit Travis and his family?” Cayenne asked a few minutes later when she remembered that Travis was also Monet’s friends.

“He already set an appointment for us to meet. I think it’s on the night of your photoshoot.”

“Oh. That’s good.”

Cayenne has no idea that it was also night of her big wedding. Of course, they’d set an appointment on that night since they will be meeting on her wedding party.

One after another, Monet asked Cayenne to try on the wedding gowns for adjustments until the final work which was her collaboration with Stefan’s design. It was an off-shoulder ivory-colored wedding gown which was made of French lace, drizzled with thousands of Swarovski crystals, cinched at the waist with a ball skirt that comes with a cascading cathedral train at the back. And the tiara that will hold her veil of scalloped tulle and lace was made of mother pearl, a crown befitting her image as Stefan’s queen.

“Why are you so quiet?” Monet asked when Cayenne put on the final wedding gown. Her eyes never left this piece and she has this curious frown on her face. “Do you like this?”

“It looks beautiful. It’s grand. I mean, how many crystals have you put in this so far? This must be very expensive.”

“Not many.” Monet answered without telling Cayenne the exact number. If she does and Cayenne finds out about the wedding later on, Stefan will surely get burned with her scoldings. She didn’t want to talk about the price with Cayenne who’s very tight when it comes to money.

[I think I’ve seen this gown before.] Cayenne thought silently while watching herself in the mirror in front of her. The gown looked dazzling and she didn’t even know where to place her hands. She was afraid that a crystal will fall off she touches it. [Where have I seen this?]

“Monet.”

“Yes?”

“Have you publicized this wedding gown before? Like, did you show your design to the public when you made this?”

“Nope. I did not.”

“I see.”

She just couldn’t remember where she saw this gown but she really felt that she had seen this somewhere. Pushing this thought to the back of her mind, she cooperated with Monet until the fitting was done.

That night, Cayenne couldn’t sleep because the gown bothered her. She wasn’t sure if it was because she really likes it or if it was because the gown was very familiar to her. Seeing those wedding dresses, putting them on, watching herself in the mirror, she felt that she wanted to have a church wedding as well.

With her tossing and turning beside him, no matter how much she tried to move slowly, Stefan still woke up and found her wide awake in the middle of the night.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked as he moved closer and hugged her from the back “What’s keeping you up?”

“The wedding gowns.”

“Hm? Why? You want to have a wedding now? We can do that.”

“It takes a whole lot of planning, time and supervision. It’s tiring.”

“I never got tired.”

“Huh?” Cayenne turned around to face him and pinched his nose. “You are still thinking of giving me a grand wedding, aren’t you?”

“Why not? My Queen deserves that.”

“I like a church wedding.”

“I know.”

“I want tulips in my bouquet.”

“Got it.”

“I want...”

Cayenne was just going along with Stefan’s idea of grand wedding without knowing that her wedding was just few days away. She thought it was just passing conversation between them to make her sleep but all those preferences, she’d surely see them on her wedding. After all, Stefan had been studying her likes and dislikes from the moment they lived together. It was all because he wanted to give the best for her.

Watching her sleeping face Stefan scratched the tip of his nose and let out faint chuckles because of their conversation. He knew that she will scold him if she finds out the total amount of money that he spent so, he thought of using his friends as his shield.

He already planned which person should accept responsibility for which thing. Luna for wedding invitation. Jill for the church. Monet for the gown. And so on. He only hopes that Cayenne will just go along with him.