To Caress My Day

Within the Casino’s newly constructed lucrative club located in their basement, the two parties congregated together, Bachelorettes and Bachelors. Much like the last club the Bachelor party attended before, this one was dark with very dim lighting that gave the feeling of solitude while being within an open room amongst other people. Unlike the last club, it wasn’t a lusty joint with cheering and cat-callings to Burlesque performers, but the soft murmurings and chuckles of groups that preferred a low volume ambience. Because Seth was seated near his ex-fiance, Avery, he figured he’d make an innocent exchange with her and in the meantime also resolve the mystery as to why she was even in Las Vegas to begin with. Leaning closer to the couch she shared with three other women, he inquired. “So um, what brings you over to Las Vegas? And how is it you know Libby, our bride to be?”

“Seriously? You don’t remember introducing me to your buddy, Frederick, who introduced me to Libby?” Avery asked him with a quizzical look before shaking her head at his clueless face and waving the question off entirely. “Nevermind. Libby knew I designed clothes and had gotten in contact with me several months ago to ask me if I’d design the wedding dress of her dreams for her. It took dozens of sessions before we had her dress sketched and by the time it was fabricated she had decided to invite me to her Bachelorette party in Vegas.”

“I see. What does this wedding dress of Libby’s dream look like?” Seth inquired next, brushing aside his surprise that he was the one that had introduced the two to each other. Either way, everything worked out so it wasn’t a big deal in the end. He watched as Avery reached into her pocket and sifted through her phone’s photo gallery until she got to the right one. Reaching out a hand, Seth took her phone and marveled at one of Avery’s best pieces. Traditionally the dress was all white with an open-back design, and a deep V-neck in the front. The sleeves were long and the skirt was a floor-length dream made up of lace. Impressed, Seth handed Avery’s phone back to her. “That’s pretty amazing, Ave!”

“Thank you.” Avery said, appreciating his honesty as she took her phone back and sipped her drink.

Maybe it was the alcohol in his system or the fact that he was madly in love with his girlfriend, but Seth got it into his head to suggest a rash scheme. “You should design a dress for my girlfriend when I get around to asking her to marry me one of these days!”

Not nearly as intoxicated as her exe, Avery gaped at him over her glass. She was taken aback by that unforeseen revelation, but decided to humor Seth along. “Oh yeah? Well then, tell me, what kind of dress do you see this mystery girlfriend of yours wearing on your wedding day?”

Seth was about to shrug in response when a vision of his girlfriend suddenly came to him. In it, she wore a dress of his own making as she walked down the aisle towards him. Glancing down into his glass of whiskey, Seth began to detail it to Avery with love glowing in his eyes even in the dark of the lounge club. “I see a big Princess ball gown look. She’s literally the Queen of my heart so it only makes sense she looks the part, right? I want everyone, NO, I want the world to be able to see it and understand it too! She has to capture all of their hearts like a Disney Princess. Hell, she has to look like a Disney Princess!”

“Can’t go wrong there. It’s always a gorgeous look and if done right will definitely make that statement loud and clear without verbal explanation.” Avery had to agree. It didn’t hurt her that the man she once loved was talking about marrying another woman. In fact, it intrigued her which she found to be odd.

Still absorbed in his own fantasy of his wedding day, Seth went on with a faraway look on his face as he leaned back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling. “I fantasize about this all the time whenever I have a moment to myself. I always see her in lace with only a hint of flesh just to tease me all day and into the night with what is lying underneath all that material for me to ravage later on when we’re finally alone.”

Avery’s eyes widened at Seth’s random carnal direction. She was stunned for a few minutes by his raw male honesty like she was just one of the bros, not his ex-fiance. Deciding to try and redirect him back on course, she cleared her throat and stated. “Yes, lace is another beautiful material to go with. One of the classics really.”

“I want an off-shoulder look, but I don’t trust myself to keep my hands off of her. Every time someone looks I’d be kissing along her exposed shoulders.” Seth groaned, forgetting where he was or who could be listening in. Not that anyone was other than Avery. “Which brings me to her hair! It’s gotta be curled up for me to gain access to those shoulders! Or perhaps it should be down to keep me away instead.”

Frowning at this new side of Seth that reminded Avery of a horny teenage boy experiencing his first girlfriend for the first time, she couldn’t resist shooting him a weird look. “Or you can just NOT do that. You can keep your hands off of her like every normal red-blooded male on his wedding day does.”

As if he hadn’t heard her, Seth frowned as he said to himself. “But what if she doesn't like the whole ball gown look? What if she picks something skin tight instead? God, I wouldn’t be able to make it through our own ceremony if she wore something that hugged her body!”

“How about a slip style then?” Avery hastily proposed, becoming concerned with how distressed he looked trying to figure out what his girlfriend’s wedding dress should be. “It’s nothing like a skintight dress, it LOOSELY hugs the body but doesn’t try to hide it all like a ballgown skirt tends to.”

Seeming to have heard her then, Seth shook his head as he stared up at the ceiling like a man in turmoil. “No, you don’t get it! I need MORE clothes on her or else I won’t make it through the wedding…AND so no one else gets the bright idea of objecting to our union because they fell in love with her at first sight somewhere during our damn wedding! They might try to claim her and take her away from me forever!”

“Well then I suggest you go for the ball gown then!” Avery impatiently solved Seth’s situation, hoping it would lower his tone that was beginning to rise the longer they spoke. Luckily no one in the club seemed interested in what was going on their way. “It’ll successfully fend off any perverts from her.”

Tapping a finger on his chin in thought, Seth concluded. “Then it’s decided then. I’ll have to figure out how to get my way when it comes down to her choice of wedding dress.”

Out of the blue, Aaron Bates rose from his chair followed by the rest of the men minus Seth and Frederick. Holding up a hand, he addressed all the eyes now on him thinking he’s about to make some Bachelor speech. “Alright, us boys are going over there to the bar for some drinks. You ladies, STAY here and far away from us, you understand?”

Several of the women of the Bachelorette party rolled their eyes at him, not believing he was still peeved about their separate parties uniting together. Yeah, they too felt some type of way about it when both the bride and groom came up with the idea to become joint also, but they quickly got over it at some point in the night while they were lounging in the club together. Aaron clearly hadn’t.

“C’mon, you guys! This is our Bachelor Party! And you’re the Bachelorette Party! They’re never supposed to mix, that's why there is one for the men and one for the women to have fun with.” Aaron contended his case, not backing off of the old time tradition that should’ve been respected.

Annoyed with Frederick’s close friend relentlessly getting in the way of her time with her man, Libby decided to throw up her hands and let him have his way. Anything to keep him from whining at this point. “Fine, whatever! You boys can get out of here already. You’ve been cramping our style anyway.”

With that settled, the men headed to the bar leaving the women behind in their intimate spot across the room in the corner.

“Well, I guess I better go join them.” Seth told Avery, rising from his seat on surprisingly steady feet. “It was nice talking to you again.”

Lifting her drink in a toast to him and in thanks, Avery smiled. “See you around, MacFarlane.”

As soon as Seth was at the bar, Avery became surrounded by the Bachelorette party nosy for information. Libby was the first to speak on everyone’s behalf. “Oh my god, Avery! You guys spoke!”

“Uh, yeah.” Avery answered casually, not seeing why it was such a big deal that she chatted with her ex-fiance. Did they expect her to hit him or scream at him for showing up in the same place as her?

“Okay so..what’s going on between you two exactly?” Dana leaned over to whisper, compelling all the others to do the same to get all the tantalizing details. Identical grins of excitement were stretched across their faces. “We know you two broke up…but you guys just sat here in front of all us and spoke so casually like you’ve only ever been friends and never engaged to be married!”

Choosing honesty, Avery told them. “Because that’s what we are. Casual friends. Nothing more.”

One by one, her friends receded with disinterested pouts on their faces, especially Libby. They were hoping for more despite the fact that this Bachelorette party was all about the soon-to-be bride.