The Ceo's Contracted Mistress
The Ceo’s Contracted Mistress Chapter 57

Bobbie smiled apologetically at the owner of the boutique who had come to the estate and was now in the middle of a standoff between Olivier, Meri, and Veronique. None of them were willing to budge. Veronique had told the man to just leave and there was no reason for him to be there because Bobbie’s dress had been chosen already and it was hers.

Olivier was furious with her and told the man he was not to leave because he wanted to see Bobbie in the dresses, he selected so she had the full experience of her wedding.

Meri didn’t want Olivier anywhere around. She felt it was bad luck for Olivier to see Bobbie in her dress before the ceremony. She was adamant he had to vacate the salon where they had set up the makeshift boutique.

Bobbie wanted him to stay because she was feeling overwhelmed without Grady and Everly with her and was worried about what other antics Veronique had up her sleeve. Fiona had said the woman never stayed this long at the estate. She usually was in and out like a breeze. Fiona and Elise had gone to hide in another part of the house worried she had something planned for them too. They had warned Bobbie if she started taking longer sips of the flask, she routinely pulled from somewhere on her person, to replace a way and run.

Levi, Walt, Timon and the kids were all in the pool. When Bobbie questioned whether anyone in the family actually had jobs, they needed to go to they all laughed at her. Levi was the boss. It wasn’t as if anyone was coming after him. Fiona just shrugged and said her boss was understanding.

“Olivier you need to leave,” Meri’s furious words interrupted Bobbie’s thoughts.

“Not leaving. Get over it. You and the crazy witch can both leave if you can’t behave.”

Veronique smacked him behind the head making Bobbie giggle. “Respect your elders. I will allow for the spectacle and song and dance of trying on the other dresses but be warned I will gloat when she chooses my dress.”

“You are six feet tall. She is easily a half foot too short to wear your old rags.” Olivier pointed out rudely.

“Not to mention Bobbie has curves and you’re a straight silhouette.” Meri commented and the looked to Bobbie, “that’s a compliment to you.”

“Okay,” Bobbie held up her hands as she decided Meri’s words hadn’t seemed complimentary. “Enough. Olivier, I want you to stay but stop antagonizing everyone. Mauricio, please let me try on the dresses you brought and then I will try on the dress Veronique chooses. After I’ve tried on all the dresses, I will make a final selection after Olivier has left the room. Is this fair? Can we compromise?”

Nobody but Mauricio appeared to be excited about her words and they immediately started arguing.

“Then I’m done,” she called out earning instant silence. “Pick what you decide upon and let me know. I’m going swimming with the kids.”

“Fine, fine, we will do this your way.” Meri agreed placating everyone in the room. She patted Olivier on the arm, “you can offer your opinion and we will consider them before Bobbie makes her final choice, but you should be somewhat surprised?”

“Fine,” he acquiesced begrudgingly

Bobbie fought her grin at his morose tone. There were times she could see her children in him and when he was disappointed it was flagrant. Even though he’d been part of their lives a few short weeks, he had been part of them long before their first encounter. He pouted in a way which made Max and Ollie look like amateurs.

Bobbie followed the clothing shop owner behind a partition he had set up and his assistant followed them in. The first dress was a mermaid silhouette and while Bobbie liked the way it hugged the curves Meri had pointed out earlier, she wasn’t excited to step out in it. It felt too Hollywood and nothing like herself.

She went out anyway and no sooner had she stepped out did Veronique snort and laugh. “Olivier? Did you pick this out? No wonder you struggled so long with girls if you can’t figure out a woman’s shape.”

He scowled at her, “I selected multiple silhouettes just in case.”

“Good thing,” the older woman mocked him.

Bobbie turned back to the dressing room with a frown, “it’s a tough crowd out there.” She shook her head at the assistant and let her unzip her from the dress.

Bobbie’s eyes kept drawing to the long box sitting on the floor away from the ones on hangers. She was pulled to it, but she forced herself to focus on the dress now in front of her. It was a lot of lace and had a long train. This would be a dress she imagined Lark would have picked. It was princess like and had a big puffy skirt and a tight corset. As she stepped into it, she felt like Cinderella gone horribly wrong. Her chest was spilling out in all the wrong ways and the skirt over emphasized the size of her h**s. She looked at the salesman. “This is the antithesis of who I am.”

He gave a shrug. “I would not have picked this for your frame. I believe your fiancé very much wants to see it.”

“Must I?”

He motioned to the exit as if telling her she had no choice. “If you choose not to go out you can tell him.”

She almost stomped into the room and the silence to greet her was deafening. “How bad?”

Meri tried keeping a straight face, “on a scale of one to ten, it’s a zero.”

She exhaled loudly. “Oh, thank god. I thought for sure one of you would love it and I’d be stuck in this monstrosity.”

“It’s not so bad,” Olivier commented and when his mother pinched his arm, he slapped at her. “Bobbie could never be a zero.”

“The dress is a zero,” Veronique called out. “Bobbie is still a ten”

“Agreed,” Olivier nodded his agreement at his grandmother

Bobbie disappeared behind the screen and begged the assistant to get her out quickly. “I feel it’s constricting my breath.”

“It was too much dress for your frame,” the shop keeper sighed. “Let’s try this one. It’s the one Olivier felt most strongly about.”

Fifteen minutes later Bobbie was standing in an A-line shaped dress with a sweetheart neckline made of satin. It was simple and elegant and as she looked at herself in the mirror Mauricio twisted her hair into a quick chignon. Bobbie felt elegant and sweet in the dress and yet, she admitted almost childlike. The dress felt innocent and youthful and while she wasn’t matronly by any stretch, the dress very much made her feel she was trying to relive her teenage youth. However, she fought the feeling as the man and his assistant clapped excitedly. She felt she was attending a quinceanera and she neither a teen nor Spanish.

She knew everyone would like this dress. Yet she wasn’t feeling it. She felt her inability to adjust her facial expressions was going to give her distaste away.

She stepped into the room and Olivier stood up. “Beautiful!”

Meri nodded, “it is a good look. I give it an eight. With a veil and jewelry, it could be a ten.”

“Zero!” Veronique spat. “She looks like a child bride. The only thing missing from this dress is the doctor to check if her hymen is still intact.”

Bobbie choked back her laugh as Meri gasped in outrage and Olivier sputtered at her words. Perhaps she and Veronique were not so different after all.

Bobbie listened to them argue back and forth until finally Olivier ordered her back to the room to try the next one.

Dresses four and five had similar reactions to one and two and Bobbie was starting to feel bad for everyone involved. As she stared at the sixth dress on the hanger with more hesitation than she knew she should have, she sighed in exasperation. It was a trumpet style dress and a champagne color. It was satin with a slave overlay and the sweetheart neckline Olivier clearly liked.

Yet as she stepped into the dress, she felt immediately special. She twisted and turned in the mirror and checked out her body from every angle.

“You are beaming,” Mauricio smiled as he adjusted the small train at her heels.

“Its quite lovely, isn’t it?” she could barely speak as she stared at herself.

“You make the dress.” The assistant finished the buttons at her back. “Its as if it were created with you in mind.”

“I feel magical,” Bobbie admitted to the pair watching her.

This time when she stepped into the room, the waiting trio jumped up in sync.

“Wow,” Meri said in a childlike voice. “Bobbie. How do you feel?”

“I love it. It’s beautiful.”

Olivier coughed and Bobbie looked at him to see the tears on his cheeks. “Breathtaking. My love you are breathtaking.”

He moved close to her and took her hand and spun her around under his arm. She obliged his movement and reached to wipe a tear off his face.

“Do you like it?” She asked him quietly.

“How could I not? Chérie, you could come down the aisle in burlap and mud and I would still consider myself the luckiest man alive. This,” he waved his hand exaggeratedly around her frame, “is the cherry on top.”

She turned again to look at herself and smiled. She caught Veronique’s gaze in the mirror and noted the confliction there. “Veronique?” Somehow her opinion was needed.

“Olivier is right, ma fille, you are breathtaking. He made a wonderful selection for you,”

“Then it’s settled,” Olivier spoke.

“No.” Bobbie argued. “I have one left to try.”

Olivier and Meri both pulled faces, but she saw the appreciation in Veronique’s expression. If only to try it on and appease the woman.

“May I help?” Veronique asked her politely which made Olivier and Meri both do double takes at her. The woman was rarely in possession of manners.

Bobbie nodded her agreement, and they went behind the partition.

Veronique lifted the lid off the box. “I had it cleaned and hemmed just in case. My feelings will not be hurt should you decline.”

Bobbie knew the lie for what it was. Her hand reached out to the soft lace and multiple thin layers of chiffon and felt a buzz running along her skin. She let Mauricio and his assistant help her out of the champagne dress and admitted feeling sad to remove it. She watched as they hung it up for her, like Olivier and Meri believing she had made her choice.

Standing in her underwear she saw Veronique studying her frame and felt embarrassed. The older woman reached long bony fingers to her jaw, “never feel shame for a body which gives you life. It is your temple. Revere it.” She held up the dress. “Come.”

Tiny lace cap sleeves and lace bosom fit around her top. It was soft and ethereal. At the point where the sternum meets cleavage layers of chiffon gathered to fall in angelic pleats to her feet. As Veronique zipped it up, she whispered, “I was four months pregnant with Levi when I wore this. I had breasts and h**s. I never had a shape before, or after which didn’t resemble a willow tree. The moment I saw you, I knew.”

Bobbie turned to face herself in the mirror and instantly her fingers moved to remove the chignon at her nape. Letting her hair trail over her back she felt emotional and weepy in the strangest way. The dress indeed fit her like a glove. The sleeves sitting perfect to her shoulders and the scalloped edges of lace laying flat against her decolletage molding perfectly to her. The ivory color against her tanned skin was pristine and demure but not innocent or waifish. She felt very much a woman embarking on the next step in her life.

“Olivier,” she called his name.

“Oui ma chérie?”

The sound of his footsteps made her yell for him to stop.

“What is wrong?”

“You need to leave.” Bobbie felt a sob break through her throat. “Please. I’ve made my decision and you have to wait now until Saturday.”

“We agreed I would see all –”

“Olivier!” she raised her voice as she accepted a tissue from Veronique and wiped her tears. “Leave now. It is not up for discussion. You are choosing everything else. I am choosing to make you wait until Saturday. Now go.”

Meri stepped behind the partition and looked at Bobbie in the mirror. “Holy!”

Bobbie exhaled shakily. “Can you or Veronique get my phone? I need Everly.”

Meri backed out of the room nodding at the request. Her hissed commands to Olivier to leave were even more ferocious than Bobbie’s.

The sound of the man grumbling was punctuated by the sound of the shopkeeper packing up the wedding dresses. While he still had to dress Meri, Fiona, and Elise and the three girls, the wedding dress shopping was over. Bobbie had found her dress just as Veronique had predicted.

She accepted the phone from Meri who was wiping tears from her eyes as she played with the folds of fabric spilling at Bobbie’s feet.

Everly picked up on the first ring of the video call. “Why are you red, blotchy and crying?”

Bobbie started sobbing, “I found my wedding dress and you’re not here and Olivier is mad cause I won’t let him see and its beautiful and magical and I can’t stop crying!” she wailed at the top of her lungs.

Meri pried the phone from her, “hey Everly. Let me show you what she’s decided on.”

Everly gave a loud shout of excitement followed by a demand for Meri to make Bobbie spin around. “Where did Olivier replace it?”

She sniffed at her friend, “he didn’t. It was Veronique’s. He fell in love with a different one. I mean we all did but then I put this one on and it felt like it was meant to be.”

“Its perfect. It’s you in dress form. Elegant and sexy and yet innocent and ethereal.”

“That was the word I had in my head too!”

“This is definitely your dress.” Everly spoke through a wad of tissue to hide her own sniffles.

“It absolutely is, right?” she looked at her friend in the camera. “I never want to take it off.” Bobbie twisted again in the mirror. She looked to Everly again, “bring Rosamunde when you come?”

Meri backed up, “what?”

Bobbie giggled nervously, “I had some of her ashes pressed into a stone pendant. I need her here for this.”

Veronique leaned forward and pressed a k**s to her cheek. “I can summon her spirit for you, if you wish.”

“No,” Bobbie made wide eyes at the offer. “I’m content to have her with me on her terms without forcing her to cross from whatever peace she is in.” She looked to Meri who was hiding a laugh behind her palm. Everly’s crying sounded strangely like a laugh. She shook her head. “Veronique, I think you have done more than enough. I cannot express to you my gratitude for the dress.”

“I expect one of the babies to be named after me.”

“One of the babies?” Everly jumped into the conversation

“Yes! Yes!” Veronique gave an exuberant nod. “Olivier and Bobbie are meant to have more than one more.”

“I will be quite content with just one.”

Veronique gave a menacing smile and backed away. “I will let you finish up here. I need to go see Elise. I need to help her.”

“Holy s**t, is she always this nuts?” Everly asked Bobbie and Meri

“She covered me in warm chicken b***d this morning to rid me of the toxins Olivier had deposited into my womb.” Bobbie looked at her friend’s stunned expression.

“Wouldn’t a spermicide foam do the same thing?” Everly was confused

“I cried and she said my body was still releasing toxins so evidently they come out the eyes too.” Bobbie shuddered at the memory. “Everly, she killed the bird in front of us.”

“It was quick and humane,” Meri defended her mother-in-law.

Bobbie slapped at her, “it was weird, and you know it. She also warned Olivier of bad juju if we fornicate ahead of the wedding.” Everly was roaring now at Bobbie’s story. “Laugh it up, Hoffman. I just want to remind you she will be here for the wedding.” Bobbie remembered something, “she also said Lark and Max are going to grow up and be a couple after he decides to stop being a man-whore.”

Everly stopped laughing. “Max? Green nail polish and skirts Max? The boy who was The Scarlet Witch last year for Halloween? He’s going to be a man-whore?”

“Maybe he’s bi?” Meri spoke up as she moved to unzip Bobbie.

“Who knows?” Bobbie spoke. “All I know is her predictions are crazy.”

As they continued chatting while Bobbie got out of the dress she never wanted to remove, Bobbie felt a sense of peace cover her. She wondered if this was the storm before the calm.