Therapy was one hell of a miracle drug, she’d decided. For the next fifteen minutes, she stood on a raised platform within her dressing area wearing nothing but her bra and giant panties as the silent pixie took her measurements, only speaking to instruct her to raise her arms or move her legs apart. Two years ago, it would have been an unthinkable scenario. She would have left first, would have simply opted out of attending whatever event necessitated the formal gown in the first place. Oh, it was her own wedding? Too bad, so sad. Not today, love handle Satan. There would have been no possible combination of factors that would have made her willingly get up on that platform, her arms stretched out in her unmentionables — not while she was conscious, at least.
Now, Lurielle simply reminded herself that this girl probably saw a hundred bodies a week. Not all of them were lithe and toned, not all of them were perfectly proportioned. Her body wasn’t any different than any of the other dozens of bodies that had stood in this same spot — and most importantly, her body was fine just the way it was. She didn’t need to cut herself into ribbons of mortification . . . she just needed to close her eyes and go to her happy place.
Her happy place was, ironically enough, that green hillside at the resort. Pantsless Time with Bluebell, stretched in that ridiculous hammock, pressed to Khash's broad chest. She didn't need to worry about the number on the tape measure that was wrapped around the widest point of her hips, or her waist, or, for some reason, her head. She was swaying beneath a pink-swirled sky, the tree frogs already chirping their evening song and the smell of someone's outdoor fire carrying the taste of smoke and barbecue on the air.
The girl set her checklist down, her tape measure retracting. And just like that, it was over.
"I might not have much in your size in the showroom," the girl said frankly.It’s fine. Just breathe. You just wanted to look in the first place."Don't worry though. If you see something you like, anything can be ordered in. You can try on a smaller size and leave the back open for now, just to see what it looks like."
When the pixie stepped out of the curtain room to talk to her coworker near the mirrors, Lurielle pulled out her phone, quickly snapping a photo of the clipboard she'd left behind. She hadn’t intended on taking any of the girl’s time, but she also didn’t need to do this whole experience again if she didn’t have to.Free champagne and they gave me my measurements. Check and mate.
She was not interested in a frothy white confection like a human bride. Nor did she think she wanted something Orcishin style, or the trendy ruffles the goblins were wearing several years earlier. She didn’t need one of these jewel-encrusted corset dresses, and didn’t need to peruse the monochromatic showroom, now that she’d gotten a glimpse of what it offered, on her walk to the dressing salon.I just want a simple blue dress. Something traditional. Something that will make me feel beautiful. And they’re not going to have that here.
Elves traditionally married in dresses the color of the summer sky. She didn't know why that felt so important to her. It wasn't as if she was marrying an elf in a traditional Elvish ceremony. Despite belonging to a club, none of the elves she'd grown up with were particularly observant of ritual or sabbath days, and she was fairly certain she could count on one hand the amount of times her parents had brought them to the sun temple when she was a child.
Still. It felt important to her, and she wasn't willing to compromise.
She remembered a conversation that she had with a human, of all people. Violet, her neighbor Rourke's human girlfriend. She had been asking Lurielle for tips on the finer points of interspecies relationships.
There were the big things to consider, of course. Biological compatibility. Anatomy. Whether or not your significant other was nocturnal, if they had dietary needs you could not tolerate, if they might be tempted to turn you into a vampire alongside them.
She'd been in a relationship with Tev nearly the entire time she'd been at university, but Lurielle had heard plenty of horror stories from her dorm mates. Sorority hookups that came to a screeching halt when it was discovered the partner in question possessed a dick the size of an athlete's forearm, study session sexytimes that were interrupted by unexpected ovipositor. As an adult, it was too common to know couples who'd not donea thorough enough job of investigating whether or not their biologies were compatible, finding conception an unfortunate impossibility.Life span. Probably should add that to the list.
And then, of course, there were the little things.
Lurielle suspected it was amplified in an Orcish-Elvish relationship. Ris was correct in her assessment — it was like looking into a comically reversed mirror. Both communities were insular, both traditionally kept to themselves. Both had their specific ways of life and each thoughttheirway was superior. Elves with their private clubs and orcs with their clans, each the same in their superiority.
She was willing to cut Khash a wide berth when it came to species specific traditions. Unlike her, he had grown up in a traditional household, in an observant community. She had seen that firsthand when she visited his clan. Their fire oaths, their adherence to a court of elders, their ancestral worship and observance of rituals. She thought it was beautiful and was glad that their children would have a solid foundation outside the common in this human-centric world. Ris and Khash had been right aboutthatas well.
Growing up in an Elvish enclave meant she'd not been exposed to the reality of a human majority for much of her childhood. University had been different, although, by then, Lurielle had already been struggling to fit in for years. Ironically enough, she was able to make human friends at her school easier than she'd ever done with her fellow elves at the club. But then she left school and entered the adult world, and she'd seen how invisible every other species seemed to be, particularly in cities where the human majority was outsized.
She loved Cambric Creek, loved the inclusiveness, loved the multi-species aspect and the fact that her children with Khash would fit in just as well with their schoolmates as any of her neighbors.
She was willing to cut him a wide berth, but that didn't mean that she was willing to entirely give up her Elvish identity. She had told Violet that the pitfalls tended to be in the little things. Little, inconsequential things that were silly to get upset over, but they had a tendency of piling up, and then they didn't seem quite so little and hardly as inconsequential. Khash had a tendency to steamroll when it came to their cultural differences. He simply assumed Orcish would be the default, and while she was willing to indulge him much of the time, that did not meanallof the time.
Lurielle couldn't explain why it was so important to her to have a pretty blue dress to speak her promise to him before the fire, only that it was. A tiny piece of her independence, visible for everyone to see.
"Ladies, I amsosorry.” Her dark-haired neighbor threw open the curtain, handing one of the cocktail dresses to the attendant. “My office just called and I need to jet back. Can we put this one on my account? I’ll have it picked up later this afternoon and I'll pop back in sometime this week to try the others." Lurielle had just stepped out of her own room, deciding to use the other woman's exit as her own getaway. Vanessa gave her a bright smile. "Good luck getting started with things. We’re on the 18th floor if you ever want to commiserate, not that any of us are probably evernotworking. I'm sure I'll see you around the building, and if not the whole damned town squats in that sheep coffee shop."
Lurielle laughed again. "It's true, we really do! Thank you for the tips! And uh, good luck to you and your wedding planner!"
She breathed a sigh of relief when the attendants were too busy to take note as she extricated herself quickly from the salon, not slowing when Rosebud shuffled her papers at reception, saying she would get Lurielle on the books with an officialconsultation.See? You did it. And look at that, you even made a friend. Sort of.
Finding herself in Bridgeton in the middle of the week was already an anomaly. She typically only joined Khash in the city on the occasional weekend, usually when he was working late or they wanted to do something specific. He was more than happy to come to her, spending time in Cambric Creek, and that suited her just fine. His building was too fancy, too intimidatingly upper-class for her tastes. The apartment itself was better – there were the comforts of his vibrating chair and hair products and the bedding smelled like him, but she had never felt entirely comfortable there. It washisapartment. She was happy to visit, but she only ever felt like a visitor, completely a problem of her own making.
You won't have to deal with it too much longer.It was an orc-sized relief that Khash suffered no similar qualms in her own house. He wasted no time making himself at home, making himself comfortable, slipping into the landscape of her home and her life as if he'd always been there, exactly the way she wanted it.
It was unusual to be in the city in the middle of the week and rarer still for her to have a random Wednesday afternoon out of the office, but there was no way around the mandatory furlough day. Since she was already out of her comfort zone, out of her environment and her element and since she'd already beenexceptionallybrave that morning, Lurielle decided to add one more first to the afternoon.
Take out from one of his favorite restaurants and a visit to his office. She had never once beenthatgirlfriend, but, she reminded herself as she exited a rideshare, she was a brand-new elf.
What if he’s too busy?She frowned at her reflection in the elevator door when the thought occurred to her.You shouldhave called first. This is a mistake. He's probably already had lunch. He's not going to have time to do more than take the bag and kiss you on the cheek and then you're going to feel terrible for the rest of the day and it's not even his fault.When the doors opened on the 14th floor, she had nearly convinced herself to simply step a bit deeper into the car, and return to the lobby.
His eyes widened in surprise when she tapped hesitantly on the door she'd been directed to, her breath catching and tripping, unsure if his shock was conveying displeasure . . . Until his chocolate eyes crinkled with the force of his smile, and her heart beat on tiny wings. She wouldneverget tired of that smile. And, she reminded herself as she crossed the threshold, Khash had never said no to a meal in his life.
"Bluebell, you had best not to be a hallucination. If you have the nerve to be out and about lookin’ as pretty as a peach and this is just a mirage, we are going to have some words."
She raised the bag, letting him see the logo and name of the restaurant on its side. "The mirage brought lunch."
