"No worries, darlings," Dominique said. "Amanda promised that I will be getting lots of business after people see Arezoo in this dress. I'm doing this practically on the house."
"That's very kind of you." Arezoo examined her reflection in the three-way mirror. The woman staring back at her looked like a princess. "I promise to tell everyone this dress is your creation."
"Much obliged." He grinned. "Amanda also said she was going to put my name on her private social network group."
She'd probably meant the clan's virtual bulletin board.
The excuse of free promotion sounded good, but Arezoo suspected that either Amanda or Ruvon had covered the difference between the real cost of the dress and the five hundred dollars Dominique was charging her.
Still, some gifts were better accepted with grace, so she chose not to press the issue.
"It's so pretty," Laleh breathed from beside her mother. "You look like a princess."
"I look like me. Just... fancier."
"You look like a bride." Her mother's voice cracked on the word. "My daughter is a bride."
"Not yet. Still a bride-to-be for another two weeks."
"Twelve days," Donya corrected. "Not that anyone's counting."
"You are."
"Someone has to keep track." Donya pulled out her phone and started typing. "I've got a spreadsheet."
"Of course you do."
Her sister was super organized, like their mother, and she aspired to become an accountant. After a thorough investigation of possible careers, which amounted to bugging Kian's assistant, Donya had decided that the clan was short on accountants and that she would become one.
Dominique stepped back, surveying his work with a critical eye. He was a slim, short guy with slicked-back, black hair that was probably colored and elegant hands that moved like they were conducting an orchestra. "The hem needs to come up half an inch. And I'll take in the waist just a touch. Either the measurements you sent me were incorrect, or you've lost weight over the past week."
"Wedding jitters," Arezoo admitted. "My stomach is tied in knots, and I can't eat more than a bite here and there."
"You need to eat," Dominique and her mother said simultaneously.
"I will, I will."
"She won't," Donya muttered. "She's been surviving on coffee and anxiety for a week."
"That's not true. I had a granola bar before we came here today."
"That was yesterday," Laleh said. "You only had coffee today."
Her mother made a sound that fell somewhere between a sob and a laugh. "Girls. You always argue."
"We're not arguing." Arezoo caught Donya's eye in the mirror. "We're just talking."
Dominique cleared his throat. "Please stop moving. I can't mark the length correctly if you keep twisting like a spinning top."
"Sorry." Arezoo looked straight ahead and kept her arms by her sides.
When she heard her phone buzzing in her clutch on the settee, she glanced at it instinctively, though she couldn't reach it without disrupting Dominique's work.
"Donya, can you check that? It might be Ruvon."
Her sister grabbed the phone, her eyebrows rising. "It's a message from Drova."
"Can you read it to me?" Arezoo said before thinking it through.
