Life in Technicolor

“Valerie! I need your help quick!”

Valerie looked over the till to see her mother stood to the side of the large cream spacious room, with one of her clients stood on a stool in a grand white dress. But far from looking relaxed, both women had stress lines growing on their faces.

She knew what the problem was even before she shut the till with a gentle ping.

Miss Jennifer Hearn, soon to be Mrs Philip Brooks had been a little too extravagant on her Hen Night. Valerie knew this because it had been her misfortune being momentarily in the same club as Jennifer four days ago. The combination of excess cocktails and cake were never a good idea just before a wedding. The body had a sneaky way of adding little amounts of weight onto you without you realizing until it was too late.

Jennifer’s wedding was in two days and at this point she could not fit into her Vera Wang customized dress.

The tears of anguish and panic spoke their own story, but it only took a couple of minutes for Valerie to calm Jennifer down. She instructed her to drink green tea and to eat a large breakfast tomorrow, a small lunch and an even smaller dinner, a visit to the gym and a positive mental attitude would fix the rest. It was Valerie’s magical miracle worker that had been executed many times before. A lot of the time it was the women themselves who caused the pounds to slide on by letting themselves get too stressed, and this not how a wedding was meant to work at all. They were meant to be happy times, and not stressful.

Once Jennifer was calm and composed enough to leave the shop without having a breakdown, Valerie’s mum turned to her only daughter with a look of pure relief on her face.

“You are a walking miracle, you have such a calming effect on people and can make any situation better. I don’t know how you do it.”

Valerie just smiled up at her mother, grateful to have been of some use. In the past few days her mind had been somewhere else rather then with sorting out the new batches of lace of thinking about new wedding dress designs. She didn’t like admitting when her thoughts were elsewhere because it not only showed unprofessionalism but also because it felt like she was giving away her Achilles Heels, and this was without a doubt Andrew McMahon.

It was strange having him around again. Usually she had to deal with the bitter aftermath of her best friend, and hopefully more than just that, leaving. But this time not so much. He was back in California where he belonged and it felt good. He was optimistic about his new record and rightly so. It was beyond anything she had ever heard before and she was insanely proud of him.

Valerie helped her mother shut up the shop for the evening and walked home along the boardwalk, letting the slight frustrations of the day wash away by the soothing sound of the ocean and focusing her spare raw energy by studying the groups of people that walked past her.

Gaggling girls in high heels making an early start to what they hoped would be an epic evening they could cloud with alcohol, business men who were worn out from their office jobs, slightly agitated mothers who were carrying big brown bags of freshly purchased groceries that would be cooked for the children at dinner time and teenagers still in their groups walking home to report to their parents about the events of the day.

Valerie was glad to be able to take the short walk up to her sunny and open flat on the first floor, where the minute she opened the door she was greeted by the overexcited yaps of her four week old fawn coloured Pug puppy, Pepito. Her current stepfather who was Italian had worried about her being all alone in the flat, and had seemed to think that a puppy was a worthy investment as a companion and guard dog all at the same time.

She smiled as she crouched down to pick the tiny animal up and to coo into its wrinkly face. Despite the fact that it was only four weeks old the puppy showed an immense amount of affection not only for Valerie but also for Andrew. In fact any time Andrew had been present during the past week the puppy would follow him around everywhere, whining and demanding his attention.

With the dog held gently to her shoulder Valerie put her bags down and walked into the living room where she fell onto the sofa with relief. The first thing that she saw was the yellow wall that held so many of Andrew’s scribblings. In all honesty she had not read all of them yet. Despite the fact that the majority of his inner most lyrical thoughts were plastered on her wall for her to read, Valerie thought that in doing so she was invading a part of him that nobody else was allowed to see. But by having his words grace her walls she was one of the only people who knew him best and that was the biggest honour for her.

With a smile on her face she set Pepito down on the sofa and pulled out a thick notepad from her satchel bag. Inside this notepad were all of Valerie’s designs and measurements for the dresses that had been made or were about to be made. Lace samples were stapled all over the pages, beads cellotaped in corners and sketches spread across the large white spaces. Just as Valerie flicked to the page that held a rough plan for Chloe Williamson, soon to be Keller, the doorbell of the flat rang.

Pepito knew who it was even before Valerie herself could hazard a guess and he bounded over to the door and sat whining in front of it, begging Valerie to open the door. Once she had done so and Andrew was revealed the puppy jumped towards him and began circling him eagerly barking like crazy.

With Andrew’s presence suddenly lighting up the apartment any thoughts of work were pushed aside by Valerie and her sketchbook lay forgotten on the coffee table. Valerie attempted to cook a stir fry whilst Andrew played with Pepito who revelled in the attention that was brought his way by his second favourite human.

“Guess what Val?” Andrew said as he walked into the kitchen with the puppy on his arm.

Valerie put down the wooden stirring spoon and just looked at him questioningly, but smiling at the shortened form of her name that only he was allowed to use.

“I’ve got a small tour lined up at the end of April!” Andrew said excitedly as he beamed at Valerie. “It’s only two weeks but it’s all part of the promotion for the new album and I get to go to New York!”

Often when Valerie heard that Andrew was being whisked away on another tour her stomach would fall and she would feel immensely depressed, but this time she was able to bring a genuine smile across her face. The couple of weeks that he had already spent back at home had done him good, and she knew he was itching to get out on the road and share the new music that had been so therapeutic for him.

“I’m so happy for you, I know how hard you’ve been working on this record,” she said smiling at Andrew glad that he had something to look forward to.

“If I could take you with me you know I would,” Andrew retorted slightly more seriously as he scratched Pepito behind the ears.

Every time that Andrew had left for a tour he would ask Valerie if she would come with him. But every time she had to say no, it was either family commitments such as her mother’s numerous weddings or in fact work. For the majority of the time Andrew’s tours had clashed with the busiest time for weddings, so it was impossible for Valerie to leave her mother alone.

Andrew for the most part had been very understanding, of course it was frustrating that the person who acted as his driving force and, often unbeknownst to her, as his inspiration could not see him travel the country and the impact he had on each city that he visited.

But Valerie knew that someday she would make it up to him, she would be there on the day that he opened with his new record and charmed everyone again. She had even circled the date in her calendar the minute the album release date had been announced and had refused any commissions or plans for the month that followed.

It would be his greatest tour ever; she had no doubt about that.