This Heart of Mine

Ch. 13: All Is Well

Naina zoned out before realizing one of Ian's eyebrows had risen and that he'd asked her something.

"Me?" she blurted out. "I'm fine. Never been better."

He tilted his head to the side, like he was studying her. "Really? Cause I heard from Nic that Lauren and Penelope were giving you a hard time."

Oh that. "Yeah, well, comes with the package. Every bride is the same." She thought for a bit before correcting herself. "No, I'm wrong. Some brides are amazing. Most are anal and rude. They just want everything to be perfect and nothing is and the mothers-in-law are a whole other matter."

"Seems to me Penny's been putting you through the wringer." He cooed at Burrito and gave her a goofy looking smile before giving well-deserved scritches behind the chewed off ear.

"She's—She's been heavily involved. As to why, I have no clue."

He nodded slowly, like he was thinking, but offered no response to her confusion. His eye contact hadn't broken, and she found herself being lost in them again. A crackle sizzled the back of her brain.

Her phone buzzed with a text from Gigi.

Where you at? Templetons are here.

Naina's lunch break had ended five minutes ago. She gasped and lunged at her purse, throwing things back in that Burrito had smuggled out. As she reached the door, Ian caught her wrist.

"Hey, it was great seeing you and I'd like to do this again. If you're okay with it." His whisper came across to her like wind rustling leaves. Heat burned up her arm from where he held it and she shrugged it out as slowly as possible.

Deme's face passed through her brain and she wrenched her hand away, babbling, "Sorry, I—Um, I'm really late for an appointment."

She then ran away.

Naina didn't see Ian for the rest of the week. Of course, she beat herself up the whole time, for running away like a coward. It was hard trying to imagine the look on his face as she left.

Was he sad, disappointed, or relieved?

On Friday, she had a meeting with Lauren and Nic.

Things went wrong immediately when Lauren said, "What's this? I didn't ask you to change anything."

Naina felt her heartbeat slow down considerably, and she barely gasped for a few breaths.

Lauren continued to shake her head as Nic tilted his, while reading the paper.

"No," Lauren's voice rose slightly. "I didn't ask you to change anything! How dare you do this! I'm going to get you fired right now!"

Which resulted in the three of them with a tired looking, very annoyed Gigi. "Lauren, you gave Carmella permission to change things," her aunt said wearily.

"No I didn't! I never said that Gigi! She's lying!" Lauren pointed at Naina like a tattle-telling toddler would. "Besides, where's the proof?"

"Carmella came into my office—" Naina started to say, but Lauren cut her off again.

"I only told her to go over things and make sure you weren't ripping me off! Everything's ruined! How am I supposed to—"

Naina was forced to raise her voice to drown out Lauren's whiny babbles. "Nothing is ruined!" she bellowed. "All I have to do is let them know that the location of the event has changed. Besides, your future brother-in-law owns Carlyle. I couldn't understand why you'd wanted to change it, so I let the other place know of your uncertainty and they understood."

"What'd they understand?" Lauren scoffed.

"That some brides can't make their minds up about anything."

Gigi had had enough. "Both of you shut up!"

She got up and slammed the door of her office and stuffed a towel between the gap. "I don't know what's going on Lauren, but you don't let a lying bitch like Carmella take over things and then try and get my best worker fired. She's tried her best to make sure you're saving money on everything, even negotiating with two different places till the very last minute. Now, where do you want the wedding to take place?"

"Carlyle," Lauren said, crossing her arms.

"Okay. Naina, will any problems arise from this?"

Naina shook her head. "None that I'm aware of."

"Good. Now go over everything else and stop being a brat, Lauren. I don't need your parents getting involved. What I want is a nice, peaceful wedding. Do you have anything to add Dominic?"

He shook his head rapidly; it looked it'd fly off if he did it with more force.

Gigi took a deep breath and sighed very slowly. "Good. Now go and finish up everything else. And Naina, don't let this happen again. I won't be as kind next time."

She felt a chill run through her blood, freezing her extremities, and shook it off. "Yes, Gigi."

She had to be careful. Until next Friday, as long as she made sure everything was perfect, she wouldn't get fired. Because as much as Gigi valued her as an employee, Lauren took priority over anything else.

Naina wouldn't stand a chance.

Deme had another view, however, when Naina went to get another free burrito. "She totally did that on purpose. I heard Carmella bragging about something interesting happening relating to the wedding," she stated, looking mildly pissed. She kept banging things around, plates, glasses, pans, but handed Naina's food to her with caution.

Naina's blood coagulated right within her heart. It sloshed around as she considered what to do. "Deme, if she does that again, I want you to record it. Gigi's warning me and I know I'll get fired if something goes wrong again. She loves Lauren too much. See if you can get Carmella to talk about what's going on."

Deme's eyes glinted mischievously. "I got you hon! Oh this'll be like a spy movie!"

She laughed. "Deme, this is nothing like a spy movie. More like a small-town shit drama."

Deme now stared at her with a smirk playing across her lips.

"What?" Naina asked.

"Trust me. That bitch is going to get karma big time."

"I don't know..." she said, softly. "Lauren usually gets things to go her way."

Deme scoffed and moved away to ring out a customer, while Naina thought about things. All the documents were settled. She'd finalized everything with all the vendors; the deposits had been paid and Lauren grumbled the entire time, evidently angry that Naina hadn't gotten her due vengeance.

The tremors in her chest wouldn't calm down. In the deepest pit of her stomach, the beans churned violently.

The sense of foreboding wouldn't disappear in the days leading up to the wedding.

~~~

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As always, if there's anything I should fix, lemme know. I'm sorry it's a bit shorter, and slow, but it'll pick up within the next few chapters XD. Love you awesome people for taking time to read my stories <3