Chasing His Kickass Luna Back Chapter 396

Abby

With a gasp of excitement, I pull the wedding gown out of its box and hold it up in the light.

Everything is perfect; the way the beadwork catches the light, the silky texture, the shape. I can’t wait to try it on now that it’s been altered to fit my body.

Quickly, I slip out of my clothes and get to work slipping the dress on, a constant grin on my face. Even though the wedding is tomorrow, I have to see it on my body at least once before our big day. I’ve been anticipating this moment for weeks, and I can hardly contain myself.

But as I start to pull the gown up over my hips and belly, something happens.

It gets stuck. And then I hear a rip.

I gasp, clamping my hands over my mouth. When I turn around to look in the mirror, I see it now: the fabric tore up the side.

“Oh, no!” I cry out, tears already misting over my eyes. Frantically, I try to tug it up one last time to get a better look, but it gets stuck on my belly again and rips just a little bit more.

Quickly, I slip back out of the dress and lay it flat on the bed; upon closer inspection, it’s… bad. A bunch of the beads are starting to unravel, and the fine silky fabric is practically in tatters where it ripped.

A small whimper escapes my lip as I inspect the damage. With the wedding this close, I doubt it can be fixed… And as I turn to look in the mirror, I think a part of me realizes that the gown was never going to fit to begin with.

My belly. It’s protruding more than I anticipated with the pregnancy. “God, how could I forget?” I whimper, sinking down onto the bed next to the torn dress. I lean over with my elbows on my knees and bury my face in my hands, feeling like a fool.

“Abby?”

I hear a soft voice coming through the door, and before I can frantically hide the evidence, Karl is stepping into the room. His eyes widen when he sees me, and he rushes over to me.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “What happened?”

“That happened.” I point to my ripped wedding gown, the gown that Karl wasn’t supposed to see before our big day. But now it’s ruined, so what does it even matter?

Karl furrows his brow and inspects the damage. “Surely this could be fixed,” he says softly.

I let out a shuddering sigh. “Surely it could. But my belly doesn’t fit anymore.”

“Your belly?” Karl looks over at me, sitting there in my underwear, and then realization dawns on him. He walks over to me and sits down beside me, reaching over to rub my stomach. “I guess you’ve been starting to show pretty early.”

“I just feel so… so… fat,” I whine as another tear starts to slip down my cheek.

Karl’s eyes widen. “Abby, don’t talk about yourself like that,” he says. “You’re pregnant. It’s natural for your belly to grow.”

Maybe because of the intense emotions the day before the wedding, or maybe because of the pregnancy hormones, or likely both, Karl’s words just make me sob even harder.

“But I couldn’t even get it over my hips!” I cry out, pinching the soft skin of my hips and thighs. “God, this is horrible!”

“Abby.” Karl sighs and shakes his head. While I cry, he grabs my hands and pulls me over to the mirror, forcing me to turn and look at myself from the side. “Look at you. You’re beautiful.”

I sniffle as I look in the mirror. My belly, somewhat rounded now with the first trimester of pregnancy, protrudes ever so slightly. My hips are wider and my breasts are bigger, something that I would have once attributed to needless weight gain.

Karl is right; it’s a natural, and quite beautiful, thing. But it’s a bit difficult to find it beautiful when it’s just wrecked my long-awaited wedding gown, a gown that I felt so beautiful in when I tried it on at the shop.

“I know you’re right,” I say with a sigh and another sniffle. “It’s just…”

“I know,” Karl says softly, wrapping his arms around me from behind and pulling me close. “Your dress is important to you.”

“And now it’s ruined,” I whisper, looking over at the dress where it’s laying on the bed.

Karl sighs and presses a warm kiss against the top of my head, then walks over to inspect the dress again. “It’s really not that bad,” he says thoughtfully. “It could be fixed.”

“By tomorrow?” I ask with a scoff.

“I’ll tell you what.” Karl picks up the dress, carefully draping it over his arm so as not to lose any of the beads. “I’ll bet my father knows the best seamstresses around. We’re getting this dress fixed for you, Abby. And it’s going to fit like a glove.”

“But it’s so soon—”

“Get dressed.” He’s already walking over to the door, still holding my dress in his arms. “We’ll handle this.”

…

“Oh, dear… Oh, dear…”

As I stand on the small platform in front of the mirror, the elderly seamstress circles around me, her skilled fingers brushing over the dress. It’s stuck over my belly again, with the rip even more pronounced now.

“It’s unfixable, isn’t it?” I ask, dabbing at the tears in my eyes with a handkerchief.

The old seamstress, with her measuring tape around her neck, looks up and shoots me a quizzical glance. “Unfixable?” she asks.

I nod. “I’ve ruined it.”

“Oh, dear,” she chuckles, patting my shoulder. “I’ve seen far worse, honey. Trust me.”

Karl, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, says, “Do you think you could fix it by tomorrow?”

The seamstress purses her lips and prods at the damage a little bit more. “Hm… I think so, yes.”

My eyes widen, and I gasp. “Really? You think so?”

She nods. “I’ll fix the tear and as much of the beadwork as I can; if need be, we’ll put a nice little applique over it. And then, in the back, all you need is an extra panel that you can tie up with a corset.”

“I can’t believe it,” I say with a sigh of relief as the seamstress gets to work taking my measurements. “I thought it was ruined for good.”

The seamstress chuckles. In the mirror, I can see Karl smirking as he continues to lean against the wall. “You’re not the first pregnant bride, honey,” she says. “This is an age-old issue; but age-old issues have age-old solutions.”

As the seamstress works with skilled fingers, humming to herself under her breath, Karl comes up to me and stands next to me. Our eyes meet in the mirror, and I feel a sense of calm upon seeing his smile.

“See?” he says, reaching up to brush a strand of hair out of my face. “I told you we’d handle it.”

I nod, letting out another sigh of relief. “You were right,” I whisper. “Now get out.”

Karl raises an eyebrow. “Get out?”

“It’s bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding day!”