Raffi extended one elegant arm, but Talar’s hand flew to her mouth as it dawned on her, apparently, exactly who this Raffi was. The one Talar had explicitly warned Ani about. Telling Ani stories about his racy, reckless past.
“Nice to meet you, Talar,” Raffi said, prompting Talar, as his hand was still outstretched.
Ani gave her sister a discreet nudge. Talar, her eyes still glued to Raffi’s face finally reached out and shook.
“And you’re…” Talar started. “Here to help with the flowers?”
“Yes,” Raffi said. “Though as usual, Ani figured out how to solve the problem without help. Speaking of flowers, you should have seen her a few months ago when this man refused to sell me his rare plants. I was about to get into a fistfight with the guy when Ani swoops in and sweet-talks him into selling us his entire stock. Still not over that.” He shook his head, smiling fondly.
“And by the way, they’re growing perfectly, thanks to the instructions you left me.”
Talar looked between them, and Ani’s heart ticked up a couple notches. Ani wanted to tell Talar. She really did. But she needed to prep Talar first about how Raffi had changed.
“You’re Raffi Garabedian?” Talar asked, truly puzzled.
Raffi gave a magnificent smile. “I am. You’ve…heard of me? All good things, I assume,” he said, laughing at himself.
Talar gave a weak smile. “Indeed.”
Just then, Ani’s phone rang, which was a huge mercy considering she didn’t know how much longer she could endure the awkwardness of this interaction. But then she saw who it was. Kami. Ani flashed the phone to Raffi, frowning, which he returned.
“Have to take this. Give me a sec.”
Ani picked up and said hello.
“Aniiiiiiii,” Kami wailed, then hiccupped.
She must have heard about the flowers, too. “Don’t worry, I sorted everything out with the florist,” Ani said confidently.
“What thing with the florist?” Kami asked, her voice stillthick but less whiny. Woops. So this call wasn’t about the flowers.
“Nothing at all. Everything’s great. But what’s up?”
Kami took a deep breath and sputtered. “It’s my dress! I’m at the final fitting and it’s all wrong. They messed up. It’s like they made the pins bigger instead of smaller and I’m swimming in this and they say they can’t make all the changes on time and I neeeed youuuu,” she cried out the last two words.
“It’s not that bad,” Ani could hear Galia say in the background.
“It is!” Kami stammered.
Kami’s voice was so loud on the phone she was sure Talar and Raffi could hear it. In fact, she knew they could. Talar rolled her eyes and wandered off, admiring the floral art. Raffi appeared gravely upset. She didn’t blame him. This was more of the job of a relative, not the wedding planner. At the final fitting, Ani would have to examine every inch of Kami to see how the dress was fitting. A close-quarters job that she didn’t want to do. Plus, she hadjustgotten to Napa. She would say no. She would say. No.
“Kami, I’m sorry, I can’t come. I’m in Napa.”Fixing a near disaster you don’t need to know anything about. “With traffic I wouldn’t even be able to get there for another hour and a half at minimum.”
Kami sniffled. “Can you come anyway? I’ll wait.”
Shit. Ani caught Raffi’s eyes, which had darkened. He had heard that and was waiting for Ani to run to Kami again.
“No, I can’t,” she said simply.
Kami sobbed openly on the other line. “What am I going to do?”
Ani took a deep breath and thought. She didn’t want to completely leave her bride in the dust. “Send me photos, lots of them, of all the parts of the dress that aren’t working, and send me videos, too, of you standing and moving around in it, and then of you walking in it, back and front. Tell me which parts they say they can’t fix. Also, remind them that you can pay extra to get it rush altered,” Ani added, remembering that Kami had the benefit of being able to throw money at the situation. “Can you do that? Then I’ll send my recommendations.”
“Ohhh…kay…” came Kami’s shaky voice. “But you are coming to the house in two weeks, right?”
Ani stared off in confusion. “What house?”
“We rented a house in Napa for the hinoum and the wedding and…” she hiccupped, “we got you a room in it so you can stay.”
