RUBY.
"What the hell? How could the dress get stained?" I shouted hysterically into the phone. It was a white and black-themed party and the white dress I had ordered arrived just this evening stained with ink. How could they be so careless? " You have to do something about my dress."
Toby collected the phone from me when he saw that my rambling was going nowhere. "We need another white dress in her size, you should have her size right?"
He was quiet for a moment as he listened to the lady on the other side of the line, "okay that's great." He said.
"What did they say?" I ask as he hands me back my phone.
"They'll have another white dress delivered to you in thirty minutes." He said, I let out a sigh of relief and went to sit on the bed and wait. Toby had already changed for the after-party, he was going for a more casual look. He had on a white shirt with black graphics over black jeans and a pair of black and white sneakers.
"Thank you," I said, smiling genuinely at Toby.
"No thanks needed, I'll wait in the lounge while you guys work on her makeup'' he said, pulling my attention to the small audience we had in the room. The hairstylist and make-up artist and their assistants formed a small crowd of five.
"Who goes first?" I asked with a smile.
"We should do your hair first." A short man with his hair packed in a low ponytail said.
"Okay," I said, he comes to stand behind me and begins to fluff out my hair.
"What style do you want your hair in?" He asked.
"Something simple, a high-top bun should do. I want a more dramatic makeup look so the less I have going on with my hair the better." He got to work immediately and in no time he had gathered my hair up with a ponytail holder and twisted it into an ice cream bun. My edges were smoothed back and held in place with some fruity gel and he sprayed my hair after. I admire the finished look for a few seconds as they pack up their brushes and hair products while the make-up artist and her team begin to unpack.
"A dramatic make-up look, right?" She asked, bringing out a large pack of different sizes of makeup brushes. She does a dramatic eye look that consists of three different shades of dark blue, almost black eye shadow, cat wings with a dark eye-liner to frame my eyes and a dark mascara that elongates my eyelashes. For my lips, we went with a deep cherry red shade of lipstick. After adding all the finishing touches, I closed my eyes and she sprayed my face with a finishing spray.
"You look, gorgeous dear, have fun with your boo." She said as we said our goodbyes.
After killing time for a few minutes a lady walked in, "I'm so sorry." She said, "I have no idea what happened to your original dress," she continued unzipping the new dress from the garment bag she walked in with.
"Thank you," I said as I took off my robe and slipped into the white dress, careful not to stain it with my makeup. The dress was long-sleeved with an asymmetrical cut neck and a flared skirt that hit my mid-thigh.
"Wow! It fits you so well," the lady said after she zipped the dress up.
The fit felt really good and I could testify that it looked good. "Thank you," I said as I appraised myself in the mirror. My workouts must have paid off because my belly fat was looking almost non-existent and the skirt accentuated my curves perfectly.
"Do you need anything? I need to head back to work." She said.
"No it's fine, thank you once again."
"It's my pleasure, I'm just so happy everything turned out perfect in the end." She said with a smile and a wave as she left the room.
My hair and makeup were done up already so all I did was clip on my diamond earrings and slip my feet into my silver sandal heels.
Toby let out a whistle when I stepped out of the room, "you clean up nicely, you don't look half bad." He said
"You look decent too," I said with a scoff.
As we rode down in the elevator I could not help but notice that Toby was stealing glances my way and it did a lot to boost my confidence. We walked hand in hand out of the building to the white limo that was parked in front of the building waiting to take us to our destination. The doorman opened the door for us, Toby gave me a hand assisting me into the limo like he was the perfect gentleman and then he entered.
We arrived at the venue and as usual, the entrance was swarmed with paparazzi yelling questions at us and taking pictures. Our security details blocked them on both sides, stopping them from getting any closer as we were not answering any more questions this time. We were fashionably late so when we arrived the party was almost in full swing, some people were seated at various tables having snacks, laughing and drinking others were gathered at the bar ordering drinks and the dance floor was packed.
When we walked into the room all eyes seemed to turn toward us, some appreciatively and others looking jealous. We made our way around the room, saying hi, and exchanging fake smiles and pleasantries with several people till we got to our table.
Low murmuring seemed to intensify among the crowd as something at the entrance seemed to have captured everyone's attention. I tried to crane my neck towards the entrance but I was too far away and there were too many people in front of me to see what was going on. A few seconds later Yasmin came into view looking smug, greeting people at every step and wearing the same dress as me. It was not a similar cut or a look alike but the same dress.
I felt so mortified because it was obvious that everyone had noticed and was talking about the fact we were wearing the same dress. I could hear someone ask, "who wore it better?" She walked up to our table and she looked better than I did in the dress I thought. How could I compete with that? The dress emphasised her small waist and flared out draping her perfect ass and hips. Her breast looked small and perky on the top compared to my big-sized ones.
I just wished the ground would swallow me or I could just appear in a different dress. Even if I had another dress and I changed right now it would be too obvious that it was because I felt inferior. What could I do?