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Banner is by Me

"Love is a single soul inhabiting two bodies" - Unknown

The shop was empty. The lights were still off. It was a Tuesday morning before we were supposed to open. Clara and I shuffled through the bags thrown across the floor around us. We were soon heading off to the airport so we could catch our bridal show in Virginia. I smiled to myself as i checked over all my items. Did i have everything? I could tell Clara was doing the same. She digs through her vibrant pink bag that honestly hurt my eyes this early in the morning. I wondered if the strangers on the street thought we were stealing stuff. Two girls, with giant bags, shuffling around in a closed shop before 5 a.m.

After checking all of our things it was time to head out. I grabbed my papers needed off of the main desk before reaching for the door. "Do you have everything?"

"Yes," there was a slight grunt, "why is it so damn early?" I chuckled at my friend whose hair was still perfectly wavy, and her makeup didn't look like she missed a beat. Me on the other hand, my hair was matted and thrown up in a ponytail all while my face was bare.

"Early bird gets the worm." I cringed at the cliche of that sentence. Tossing the key into the lock on the door, twisting until it gave way, a click sounding that we were free. I locked the door behind us and we headed off in the direction for the airport. This time we called an Uber. Making sure we had a larger vehicle to fit our bags and stuff in. We each had a giant luggage bag and a carry on for entertainment and snacks on the plane. I was certains Clara's bag was loaded with candy. I almost laughed to myself just thinking about it. We hopped safely into the SUV and told them where we were going. The giant skyscrapers passing by as the driver tried to weave through traffic. Clara laid her head down on my lap, taking I guess a 15 minute snooze. I watched the place we call home whizz by. Traffic wasn't heavy and that made me happy. Itd give us extra time to lug our giant bags around the airport.

The SUV made a few other turns before stopping in the drop off parking lot. I nudged Clara awake and began gathering my things. At least one of us was awake and coherent . She dragged along side of me, the cold wind nipping at our collars. We waved our thanks to the driver before heading through the large doors of the airport. The heater must have been blasted because the difference between the air in the building and the air outside was miserable. We walked up to the ticketing lady and handed her our drivers licenses. She typed some words, her nails making annoying clacking noises. I reached down and put a tag on my bag quickly filling out the needed information. Clara did the same. The lady behind the counter handed us our tickets before taking our bags, weighing them, and putting their own tags on them. She took the bags from the scale throwing them on a belt that took them away. I grabbed Clara's sleeve grabbing the poor sleepy girl. She wasn't a morning person.

We moved our way towards the security line, getting ready to remove our shoes and do the run through. It wasn't long before we were sitting at our gate scrolling through emails or snoozing uncomfortably on the crowded seats. Our plane was supposed to be here any minute, boarding should begin in around 30 minutes.

I could tell my body was getting restless. I was lacking the sleep I needed to stay awake much longer. Clara and I had stayed out way too late last night. If I had a dollar for every time I thought it was too late, and I only stayed out upwards of ten p.m. I shook my head a little embarrassed of myself. A few airport employees made their way to the podium standing next to the door leading us to the plane. The short woman got on the intercom and begins announcing the people who can enter the plane. I nudged Clara to wake her up, we were in first class for this flight.

Once we were allowed to enter, we jumped from our seats and made our way over to the podium to get our tickets scanned. It didn't take us long after that to get on the plane and get ourselves situated. Hopefully I was able to get some sleep on this flight. Lucky for me I had a window seat. Grabbing the tiny blanket I stored in my carry on, I wrapped it around myself leaning against the side of the plane. My eyelids were heavy and it didn't take me very long to fall asleep.

~*~

We rushed through the long large hallways of the Virginia airport. Clara followed behind me with her bag rolling carelessly over all of the cracks in the floor. We were rushing for the taxi cabs, we needed to get to our hotel so we could get ready for the bridal show. It would be starting within the next hour.

"Come on Clara keep up." I looked back to tease the brunette flailing behind me. She was rushing. Her heels clicking against the ground. I rolled my eyes. Why would you wear heels to an airport?

Soon enough we were in the taxi cabs that took us to the place where we would pick up our rental car. It was about a five minute drive to get where we needed to go. Once we got there hopefully we would be able to speed this whole process up.

~*~

Once we reached the hotel we threw our stuff all over the floor. Clara and I wanted to make this trip a little cheaper, we hadn't paid for the tickets but we were paying for the hotel. We decided to just share a room. Clara was finally awake. Buzzing around the room she grabbed herself a black dress quickly throwing it on. I myself threw on a navy blue long sleeved dressed that hugged every aspect of my body. I pulled my hair out of the messy ponytail that it was in, I fluffed out the curls that fell closer to the bottom. There wasn't much time for me to fix my hair or makeup as we needed to get going. Honestly Clara was probably hogging the bathroom anyways. I pulled back a few strands to have a half up half down hair do. I figured that would look like I somewhat tried. These events were crazy.

Clara finally strolled out of the bathroom. "Okay I'm ready." She chuckled grabbing a jacket. I smiled back at her.

"Are you sure you're ready for another one of these bridal shows?" I grabbed my own jacket before taking one glance at myself. Reaching for the doorknob we quickly made our way out of the hotel room. The venue wasn't too far from us so we decided to walk. Clara was probably regretting the shoes she was wearing.

The building was probably only around three away from our hotel. It felt like as soon as we left the elevator we were heading inside the venue. Other buzzed around in fancy clothes carrying whatever they were trying to sell to us.

Once we were through the doors and fully engulfed in all the bridal show had to offer. I had no clue where to start. Clara and I went straight to the back of the building avoiding as many booths as we could on the way.

"I guess we just come back here and we can work our way towards the front."

~*~

It had been three hours, it felt like we were only on our third booth. I had see so many new materials and new buttons. New ways to sew the button onto the dress. New thing that weren't even new but they were trying to advertise them to you as if they were. Booth after booth, designer after designer. Things were just blurring together and I needed a break. "Hey Clara let's go get something to eat. I need to give my eyes a break from all of this white." She nodded her head. I assumed she was starving.

"Where is the food at?" Clara shouted a little louder than she expected to. Her hands shot down to her mouth and she started walking away from the booth we were next too. I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm not really sure." I tried to say through laughter.

"Well, let's hurry." She grabbed my arm and rushed towards the exit of the door. The fresh air was really nice to be in instead of the super crowded overly small building.

"I think there is a small little diner just right here. It might be packed from all of the others visitors but It looked really cute." Clara led the way to what was actually a cute little diner. The outside of the building was a coral color, with small little pink highlights. It stood out compared to the other buildings around it. We stepped in and it felt like a family environment.

"Hi cuties please take a seat wherever you would like." A waitress stated as she rushed passed us with a tray of food. We looked around the room and found an empty seat tucked away in the corner. It wasn't long before water glasses were sat down in front of us and we were browsing over the menu.

"This show is so insane, I don't think I've seen anything that is useful for us." Clara mumbled while browsing over the food items they served. I couldn't say I disagreed with here.

"Why is everything all about revamping how to sew on a button. Everything here is just a bunch of the same shit we saw last year, but 'new'." I put air quotes around the room new. Silently picking my menu back up. I decided what I was going to order. I tucked the menu towards the rear of the table.

"How many damn ways can you sew on a freaking button." Clara was obviously passionate about the situation and I couldn't say I was.

"Anyways, I don't really want to talk about the show. It's been kind of a bore this year. Are you still hanging out with that Richard guy?" I question, taking the straw in my water between my fingers and spinning the water in the glass.

"No, he didn't really work out a whole ton. You were right that guy was just a jerk." She placed her menu on top of mine, fiddling with her fingers on the table. A waitress was quick to come take our orders. Taking the menus away it felt like she was gone quicker than she got there.

"You know all these dates you're trying to make me go on. They've really made me have a hard time not thinking about Carter. I kinda miss him." Clara obviously stiffened up.

"Oh yeah?" She asked, but was cut off when the food arrived. Clara was the first to dive into her food. I wasn't sure what to respond to her with so I just went to eating my own food.

A few minutes into our meal a man decided to show up. He stepped carefully to the table we were sitting at. His suit was very elegant, obviously he was coming from the bridal show.

"May I take a seat?" His voice was stern but soft at the same time. I was amazed with how he could say something in such opposite ways. Clara nodded her head, she scooted over in the booth. If I could have seen the expression on my face, I bet I would have wanted to slap myself. "Thank you."

"So umm hello?" I proceeded with caution trying to figure out what this stranger was doing.

"Hello, sorry my name is Stephen. I saw you guys at the bridal show. You both look very lovely." He smiled glancing at both of us. "Are you guys enjoying the show this year?"

"It's alright." Clara mumbles. She stared at the guy as if he was a unicorn. I wanted to kick her under the table to tell her to knock it off, but I didn't want to accidentally kick the guy instead. He sat with us for a moment, his leg tapping in the isle.

"So what are two lovely ladies like you doing out here?" he paused for a moment looking around the table. "Either of you guys getting married or something. What brings you to a bridal show?"

"I own a bridal shop down in New York." I cut in before Clara could spill my whole life story to yet another stranger. She looked up at me and smiled, nodding her head like she knew what I was doing.

"Oh that's amazing! Well i should probably introduce myself... My name is Stephen and i'm a wedding photographer. Im looking for some young beautiful girls who would like to model for me." Yet another pause. "I think this town is really inspirational for the photographer mindset." My stomach turned. Was this code for he was going to murder us in the woods? Clara looked very interested.

"Well what would two lovely girls have to model?" She leaned towards the guy and my skin began to crawl. I couldn't believe she was asking this guy these questions. She couldn't have been serious.

"Well there's this really pretty lake just five minutes outside of town. I'd love for you two to come model some wedding dresses for me. 8 p.m. tonight. Right before sunset preferably so if you guys could meet me there at around 6, we can get you girls all dolled up and ready to go. Im offering advertisement for bridal shops that help out." He smiled. I could see the gears clicking in Clara's head. She was very very interested. I wanted to freak out and run away this situation seemed so scary and just unusual.

"Well Stephen, I guess we will have to get back to you on that." I was hoping by saying this he would just go away. My plan didn't work.

"What, Erin no. We are definitely going to do this. Free hair and makeup. Free photoshoot. Oh and did you hear the part about free advertisement for the company. I mean, Little White Dress doesn't really need it, but i'm not letting you turn down an opportunity for more success." I wanted to kill her if Stephen didn't first. I found myself shaking my head more in this lunch, than I ever have in my life.

"Well here is the place," Stephen slid a card across the table to me. I took it in my hand. On the back was an address, on the front his photography business card. "I will leave the option out there for you guys. If you don't show up, fine. I really hope you guys do. You both would make stunning models." He smiled before removing himself from the seat next to Clara.

I opened my mouth to say something but before and sound could leave my lips, Clara had her finger firmly placed on them to shush me. "Nope, we are going."

~*~

I collapsed onto the bed. I wasn't sure i could do another day of this stuff. Multiple times throughout the day I had wanted to tell Clara to pack up, we were heading home early. There was nothing here. I had millions of business cards that were worthless. Hardly any mattered and most would be thrown away once i was home safe and sound. I pulled the pillow over my head for a quick moment, closing my eyes to try and get some rest. Before i could even take a relaxing breath the pillow was pulled away from my head. Clara was using it as a murder weapon. I screamed as the girl continued to bash the pillow into the back of my body.

"Stop it, I'm not going!" I shouted the pillows still slamming into me.

"Yes we are, break out of your comfort zone." Clara shouts back. I imagined this looking someone like a war between two sisters. I couldn't imagine what someone would think if they walked into this room at this moment. I struggled to pull myself out of the crosshairs. I slipped off the edge of the sheets falling to the ground with a thud. I'd be a liar if i said that didn't hurt. Clara chased me around the room as I scrambled to get to my feet. "Take a damn risk!" she yelled sending another blow my way.

"Fine fine, i'll go!" I shouted in response. I flinched against one of the walls waiting for another strike. A few moments passed and nothing had happened. I finally peeked through my half closed eyelids. Clara was just sitting on the edge of the bed staring at me. She looked so innocent. Like she wasn't just barely abusing me with a pillow. I finally let my body relax itself.

"Well are you going to get ready?" Her voice was so soft. Who the hell was this girl? I nodded my head and straightened my clothes.

"Well I guess I better." I didn't take my eyes off of her as i moved carefully through the room. I quickly pulled some pants on and a long sleeve shirt. I chose tennis shoes instead of heels. I had to be prepared in case this Stephen guy was a crazy psychopath murderer. I glared at Clara. She was still just resting on the bed. "Are you going to put on some better shoes to run away from murders?" I pointed to her shoes.

No response other than a slight shrug. I couldn't believe this girl. "Are you ready?" She jumped off the bed almost stumbling on her shoes. I smacked myself on the forehead. We were going to die.

Stephen was right, the address was only about 5 minutes away from our hotel. As we pulled up to a small little cottage in the middle of some trees, my nerves were getting worse. They were frying. We jumped out of the car and headed towards the cabin. There were a few other cars around but no one was to be seen. Clara strolled without a care in the world. Her body dancing across the dirt. Quickly running up the stairs she knocked on the door waiting for a response. They say blonde always die first. The door swung open and we were greeted by Stephen. His build filled almost the entire doorway as he smiled at the sight of us.

"Welcome, you're just on time. Come come you need to get ready." within seconds Clara and I were being rushed to makeup chairs as different artists began doing god knows what. "Ladies we start shooting the first set of dresses in half an hour." I glanced over my pale skin in the mirror. I wasn't a model.

It was almost magic how fast they had whipped us into wedding dresses, did our hair, and completely covered our faces in a whole new look. I was amazed by the production that had gone on here. Before I could even process everything we were heading outside into what seemed to be a garden. This place was stunning. Stephen was right yet again. The whole thing was a blur. From Clara posing by a fountain in a designer wedding gown, to me sitting in a rose garden. Somehow in the last hour we had become models.

"You guys look stunning, you sure know how to pick them." Said one of the makeup artists to Stephen. He smiled and nodded his head. Mumbling something under his breath.

It felt weird to have all the attention put on me. It felt weird to see my best friend in a wedding gown. Hell, it was weird to be in a gown myself.

"Well that's all the shots we can get for today ladies. Nice work." Stephen said before pulling the lens off his camera. The sun had fully fell behind the treeline and it was starting to get rather dark.

"Hey Erin, that was soo much fun." Clara carefully picked up the end of her dress walking them back to the cottage. I couldn't disagree with her. I actually had enjoyed myself today.

"How long are you girls going to be in town?" Stephen asked, while helping us carry our gowns back inside.

"Oh we will be here for a couple of days." I smiled at him, looking down the stairs. Clara had headed inside first. Stephen stood at the bottom of the stairs staring up at me.

"You know you are absolutely stunning right?" He questioned. His voice still strong, but somehow still soft all at the same time. I could feel the color rushing to my face. I was seriously blushing.

"Well umm Thank you." I mumbled awkwardly and I was kicking myself in the ass for that.

"Can I take you out to dinner?" I froze. I had no clue how to respond. Was he seriously asking me on a date? In my awkward mess of a personality. I just stood on the top steps, staring back down at Stephen.