The White Canvas Operation

ELEVEN (Sunny P.O.V)

  Video: "Mistake Waltz"  Please take a moment to watch it, it's just three minutes but it's hilarious. 

'White Canvas Operation' phase twelve: socializing more.

954 Madison Ave, New York.

"I don't understand it, Sun. I'm pretty sure you have dozens of dresses in your closet, I bet my gay charm... why did you need a new one for the ballet?"

"Because dressmakers got to eat too. And save your 'gay charm,' you'll need it tonight."

"What?" Stella stops in the middle of the sidewalk brushing her hair away from her face in order to look at me confused. Today is very windy and the dry leaves of the trees fly from Central Park towards adjacent streets dancing in whirlwinds in the corners. I turn around to look at her holding in my hand my bag of Dior and smiling like I always do when I remember my wife.

"One day we went shopping and I was so tired that I told Cassie I had enough dresses and I didn't want another one, I could just wear again the dress I bought for a night at the opera in London for the dinner we had in New York that evening and no one would know. But she answered that dressmakers got to eat too, and textiles workers and shop assistants, and if those who had enough money to spend didn't buy another dress, all those people would never earn a salary and then wouldn't pay their taxes, and the owner of the clothes store either, the very same taxes the government uses to pay education and healthcare for example... So she dragged me to the store, I bought the damned dress and smiled at the assistant when she said thank you."

"You can't fight against Cassandra's logic, it's impossible to win..." Stella sighs and shakes her head amused. "Come on, I think it's going to start raining any minute..." The moment she moves to step forward a gust of wind coming from a side street pounds on us, shoving us against the wall, and a loud bang scares the death out of me. My heart beats in my throat while I look around trying to find out what the hell has happened, Stella puts her arm on my waist to hold me tight... I haven't realized till now that my legs are shaking and the bag with my dress is lying on the ground next to a huge terra cotta flower pot shattered on the street just a few inches away from us. "Fuck!" My companion's yell takes me out of my trance. "Are you okay, princess? Than pot almost landed on our heads, it could've killed us. Why people don't take those things out of the balcony on windy days? At least they could secure them, that won't leave room for the accidents to happen."

"Stella... I feel dizzy..." my heart is still pounding very fast and I hear a ringing in my ears now that my brain has finally realized how close we were to dying or at least to end up seriously injured.

"It's okay, Sunny, calm down. Take a deep breath... slowly... nothing has happened, all right? We're fine..." I try to do as she tells me and adjust my breathing to match her steady rhythm while her knuckles rub my neck gently and her arm still holds me tight against her body. That Chanel perfume she bought smells really good... "I think you need to sit down for a while, are we very far from home?" She looks around and seems lost.

"Véronique..." I mumble swallowing hard because my throat is dry. "Her coffee shop and bakery is near here, around the corner..."

"That's perfect because you need to sit down, drink something and while we're at it we can use that shrew's chatter to entertain us and forget about this. Let's go, princess." Stella bends down in order to grab my bag and starts walking keeping her arm always on my waist. My steps are a bit hesitant at first but I'm feeling better little by little, above all because Stella is again close to me and it feels great: she's been acting weird for the last three days. She's been working her ass off in the studio, that's true, but my guts tell me that she's avoiding me too, not only working on her art: she never had lunch with me and ate a sandwich in the studio, also she's been very quiet during our dinners together, answering my questions with one word occasionally, blushing slightly and lost in her thoughts most of the time. I was starting to get afraid that she was thinking of abandoning me, I mean, leave the apartment and try her luck alone. I've wracked my brain trying to find out what I did wrong or if I put too much pressure on her with all that shopping, the gallery and the social events but I still can't understand what's happening... And now she's started calling me 'Princess' for no reason.