Lily's Dream (Unexpected Lover Series) (10 page)

During the presentation, Marcella was
making “Oooo” and “I love it” noises. When Lily finished Marcella said, “Oh
Lily, they are all so beautiful. I love them.”

Lily asked, “Which one do you want?”

Marcella replied, “All of them. Nobody
will have dresses like me. I can wear them in Paris, New York, London,
everywhere we go, and I will wear my Lily dresses. I will tell everyone I have
a special American designer who designs for me.”

The men had walked back into the office
to hear Marcella’s comment and everyone was looking at Lily to see how she
would handle this situation. Lily sat down and looked at Marcella’s excited
face. Lily asked Marcella, “What do you like about the dresses?”

Marcella replied, “They will make me
look slimmer, and your dresses are beautiful. I will look good maybe instead of
just big and unattractive.” When she made this statement, she looked sad and
revealed a lot about her perception of herself which she kept hidden so well.

Lily went over to Marcella and hugged
her. “You will be my very special client, Marcella, and I will begin work
immediately on the blue one. We will need to get together for a fitting and we
will discuss the next dress then. I will call you and we can work out a time
for a fitting depending on how much I get done.”

Marcella said, “Oh thank you so much,
Lily. I am so excited that I can hardly wait. Goodbye everybody.” Marcella
swept out leaving everybody stunned.

Jacqueline said, “I think we’ve just
seen a world class con.”

Lily disagreed. “I think she was telling
the truth and I just couldn’t turn her down. She dresses all wrong which
emphasizes her size. I want to help her look good.”

Andre went over to Lily and said, “I
knew when she pulled at your heart strings like that what your response would
be. Now we have to deal with the complications this adds to our lives.”

Jacqueline commented, “Lots of money and
fame….a client any designer would die for.”

Andrew suggested, “Let’s go somewhere
quiet for a drink and a discussion. I have a suggestion.”

They walked down the mall to a bar. Once
seated and drinks ordered, Andrew began the discussion. “I’d like to bring you
up to date on my plans, Andre and Lily. I have already told Jacqueline.
Lorraine and I have agreed to divorce and my lawyer is presently drawing up the
papers. I have put the company up for sale and received one offer but I’m
hoping for a larger one. At any rate, I should have sufficient funds to invest
in a new business. I asked Jacqueline if she would like to expand or open
another shop. Have you decided, Jacqueline?”

“It’s very tempting to expand. I’ve
often thought it would be nice to stock shoes and accessories but don’t have
the room where I am now,” replied Jacqueline.

“But I am worried about you, Lily. You
are in over your head. You were going to make one dress for Marcella and now
you’re her personal designer. That’s a full time job so we have to work out how
we’re going to take care of making the
Lily Collection
. I’d like to know
if you would consider getting help to expand your dress making so that more
could be made. Do you still have an emotional involvement with your dresses?”

Lily replied, “I realized some time ago
that things had to change. My dream was to have a
Lily Collection
. Now
that dream is coming true but I can’t do everything. I need help in
streamlining the production, more sizes and, I’ll admit I have gotten very
interested in the middle aged woman and designing for an entire new group of
women.”

Andre added his thoughts to the
discussion. “I have said before and will say this again. I don’t want my wife
stressed out about dresses. I want her to be relaxed when I get home. I suggest
we hire someone to streamline the production of the
Lily Collection
with
Lily relying on this person. She can concentrate on the Marcella line for now.”

“Since Lily needs relief now, I will
volunteer to be the person to streamline the production. Lily can show me the
steps and I will get things organized for her. She can concentrate on Marcella.
What do you think about that idea, Lily?”

“I will be so relieved to have the
responsibility on the shoulders of someone I can trust. Molly will help but I’m
not sure how involved she wants to be. I don’t know if we can find anyone else
who can do the beading but I can bead fast and could do all of the beading,”
replied Lily.

Jacqueline added, “I’d like to have ten
or so dresses each week. Is that possible?”

Andre put in, “Let’s not add the stress
of a number now. Let’s get things organized and see how it goes. Father, are
you still staying at the hotel?”

His father replied that he was. Andre
suggested he move into Lily’s old apartment so it would be convenient for them
to work on the new production line.

Everyone agreed on this plan so Andrew
went to get his luggage. When he returned, they rode to the apartment building
in Andre’s car. Andre introduced his father to Louis and explained that Andrew
would be moving into Lily’s old apartment. Key in hand, Andrew looked around
his new apartment. “Very nice and modern. Quite a change from that museum full
of stuff that Lorraine liked.”

He looked at the sewing room and
questioned that it would be large enough for increased production. “It may be
necessary to use the bedroom, too, so I’ll get my own apartment and we’ll have
more space available,” he decided.

“Why don’t I call Molly and ask her to
come up so she can meet Andrew and explain what is going on, “suggested Lily.

Within minutes Molly arrived wearing
tights and a loose blouse over her exercise top. Her curly hair was pulled back
with clips on each side. “Please excuse my appearance. I was exercising.”
Although petite, Molly was very shapely with a pretty face and almond shaped
brown eyes. Andrew’s interest was evident as he looked at Molly.

“Andrew, this is Molly Sanderson who is
my good friend. She lives directly below me and has been helping me out. Molly,
this is Andre’s father, Andrew, stated Lily as she introduced them.

“It’s certainly easy to tell you two are
related. You look so much alike. I guess you’ve heard that a lot,” said Molly
as they shook hands. Andrew responded, “It’s nice to meet you. It’s good of you
to help Lily out.”

Lily brought her up to date on the events
of the afternoon. “I’m impressed, Lily. You are Marcella Devereaux’s personal
designer! As far as the making of the
Lily Collection
, I have enjoyed
helping you but I don’t want a commitment for several hours every day. It’s so
great that Andrew is here and will help you organize the work. I would help but
you need employees. It has been a fun time to spend with you but now you really
are in need of help. Perhaps I could help with the Marcella line. Let’s wait
and see how it works out.”

“That’s an excellent idea, Molly. Andrew
will get things organized so I can start on Marcella’s first dress,” agreed
Lily.

“I would like to treat us to dinner
tonight. Not a date, Molly, just friends and co-workers. You pick the place,
Andre, and we will leave in about two hours. What do you think?” asked Andrew.

Andre and Lily agreed but Molly looked
uncertain. “Please go with us, Molly. We’ll be like a family celebrating
solving the dress problem,” urged Lily. “We will go to a place where there’s
dancing.”

“Okay…like a family,” agreed Molly.

After Molly left, Andrew looked very
puzzled. Lily explained, “Molly just doesn’t go out very often. Her husband
died several years ago and she withdrew from everything. We have become good
friends and she went out with us once but mostly we get together and sew and
talk. Andre checks on her but I don’t think she has any other friends except
for her old dancing partner, Tony. She’s so sweet. I love her sense of humor. I’m
so glad she agreed to go. Let’s go get dressed. We’ll be by in a couple of
hours.”

When they walked into their apartment,
Andre immediately took Lily in his arms and started kissing her. I’ve got to
make love to you or I’ll just wilt up and die.” He picked her up and took her
into their bedroom and began undressing her. Soon she was naked and she lay
down on the bed and spread her legs wide. She ran her finger around herself and
then licked it. He was pulling his clothes off as fast as he could and knelt in
front of her legs and groaned as he started sucking and licking her.

“You drive me crazy with wanting you. I
think about this all the time.” He continued licking and sucking paying special
attention to her clit when she buckled and climaxed. He moved up her body and
sucked on her nipple on one breast, then the other. “Harder,” she begged and he
obliged. “I want you inside me, hard, fast and deep,” she said. He parted her
and thrust his penis already dripping with cum into her vagina. He rode her
fast and hard. She scratched his back with her fingernails as she felt the
climax coming and cried out when it enveloped her. He drove into her a couple
more times, and then pushed deep and hard, shuddering as he reached his own
climax.

Breathing hard, they lay on the bed,
sated and exhausted. “Who would have thought you’d be so hot in bed,” Andre
murmured. “I get hard every time I see you, think about you, and get near you.
All I want to do is make love to you.” “You are pretty hot yourself,” Lily
replied.

“Hey, lover boy, I am sorry to remind
you we’ve got to get up, shower and get ready for a big night out,” Lily
reminded him.

Andre stood next to the bed and said,
“Lily, let’s get married.”

She looked startled and replied, “Okay.
When?”

“Tomorrow. We can get out marriage
license and have a Justice of the Peace marry us. Later you can have a church
wedding with your parents present, if you want. You know how much I love you
and I would feel you’re safer if I can legally take care of you,” he said.

“I will be happy to marry you tomorrow.
I love you so much. All I want is you.”

        Andre and Lily knocked on Andrew’s door to find him
looking handsome and eager to go out. “You two look great and very happy, “he
said to them. Andre replied, “We are very happy.” 

Molly was also ready and looked very lovely
in another of her chiffon dresses and curly hair like a halo around her heart
shaped face and almond shaped brown eyes. Andrew was obviously impressed with
Molly and told her how beautiful she looked.

Andre took them to a large and very
popular dinner club complete with orchestra and dance floor. Once seated, they
look around with interest. A soloist was singing a slow ballad and a few
couples were dancing. The waiter for drink orders came around and Andre
suggested they order a bottle of champagne. Andrew asked, “Are we celebrating
something?”

Andre told them, “Lily and I are getting
married tomorrow and we’d like you both to attend.”

Both Molly and Andrew were surprised and
speechless for a moment. They both offered excited best wishes and Andrew asked
when they made this sudden decision. Andre explained, “I’ve been worried about
Lily’s safety and once we’re married, I can chain her to the bed.” Everybody
laughed and Andre said, “I want her to be my wife and I don’t see any point in
waiting. Neither of us wants a big wedding so we’re going to get the license
and be married by a Justice of the Peace tomorrow morning.”

The champagne arrived and everyone
toasted the happy couple. “Hmmm,” said Lily. “I do love champagne.”

Andre reminded her, “Remember you can
have only one glass. I don’t want you dancing on the tables.”

Both Molly and Andrew looked puzzled and
Andre explained, “Lily can’t handle wine or champagne. Two glasses put her in
lala land. She gets a real strong desire to dance on the tables. She is
strictly a one glass girl.”

Another slow song had come on and Andre
asked Lily to dance to celebrate their last single night. They looked into each
other’s eyes and he kissed her gently on the lips. “Andre and Lily are so lucky
they found each other and are so much in love. If Lily had married that wimp
Jack, she would be very unhappy. I admire her for just leaving him and looking
for her dream,” mused Molly.

“Have you ever been married?” asked
Andrew.

“Yes, I was married for three years but
my husband was killed in an automobile accident. I was devastated and didn’t
want to live myself for quite a while. It slowly gets easier as the years go
by. My friendship with Lily has helped a lot because I didn’t have any friends
except Andre who always stopped by to check on me when he got home from work. I
actually went out with them once and enjoyed it a lot. I happened to run into
my old dancing partner when I danced professionally and went to dinner with him
a few nights ago.

 It has been nice to get out a little
and tonight is special because of my friendship with Lily and Andre. I feel
these are steps toward normalcy. Big steps for me after so many years.” She
looked up at Andrew and said, “I don’t usually tell people about that. I hope I
haven’t embarrassed you, Andrew.”

“On the contrary, Molly. I am glad that
you trusted me with something so personal. I would like to tell you my story
but there isn’t time right now. I don’t have any friends here. Will you go to
dinner with me again, just as friends? We can do things together as friends?”
he asked with a hopeful look on his face. “Yes, I’d like that,” answered Molly
as they were joined by Andre and Lily.

Their dinner was served and Andrew asked
Andre how his salon was going with him being out so much lately. “I have a good
assistant manager and she has been managing well. Once we’re married and Lily
is busy with you around organizing, I will be able to focus on the salon more.”

They had finished dinner and a fast
number was attracting many dancers to the floor. Andrew asked Molly if she would
dance with him. Andrew admitted that he hadn’t danced since he was in college
but wanted to give it a try.

Andrew proved to be a rusty but good
dancer and Molly followed his lead with ease. Molly added some moves of her own
and Andrew began to relax and enjoy the dance. Once the dance ended, Molly
complimented Andrew saying, “You’re doing very well. You just need practice.” “Perhaps
you could help me out with that,” he suggested.

They returned to the table and Andrew
commented on what a good dancer Molly was. Lily told him that Molly was a
professional dancer years ago.

A slow song began and Andre suggested,
“Let’s all dance this last one of the night.”

Lily and Andre danced with her arms
around his neck and his around her waist. She rested her head on his shoulder
and whispered, “Tomorrow we’ll be married.” She could feel his erection as they
slowly moved to the music. “Hmmm” was his reaction.

Andrew and Molly were dancing slowly
looking into each other’s eyes, Molly smiled and Andrew asked her what she was
smiling about. “I was thinking how beautiful your eyes are and that Andre’s are
exactly the same. It’s the first thing I noticed about him. His eyes are so
kind and caring and he has always been both to me.”

He responded, “Don’t you want to know
what I’m thinking?”

Molly hesitated, and then said, “Okay,
I’ll bite. What were you thinking?”

“That I’d like very much to kiss you.”

Molly smiled said, “you really don’t
waste time or words.” She reached up and kissed him gently on the lips. “Will
that do? I kissed you instead.”

Andrew said, “That’s not exactly what I
had in mind but it will do for now. Will you let me kiss you some time in the
future?”

Molly was surprised at how humble Andrew
seemed to be. He looked like a confident, hot, sexy man but she might have been
wrong in that assessment. She realized that she automatically distrusted
handsome men. “You aren’t divorced yet, Andrew, so you are a married man. Once
you’re divorced, ask me again.”

He smiled and replied, “It’s something
I’ll look forward to. Rest assured I’ll ask again.”

The dance ended and everybody agreed
they would like to leave now. In the car on the ride home, they agreed to meet
in the morning for Lily and Andre’s marriage. “Let’s ask Jacqueline since she
introduced us,” suggested Lily. Andre thought it was a good idea.

The next morning after showering, Lily
tried to decide on which dress to wear. When Andre finished shaving, they both
discussed what to wear to their marriage. She decided to wear a cream chiffon
cocktail length dress and he wore a black suit. He pulled her hair up into
curls on top with a diamond necklace twined between curls. “You look so
beautiful. I am a very lucky man,” he told her.  Andre called Jacqueline and
asked if she could be free a couple of hours in the morning. When she asked
why, he told her it was a surprise. She agreed to meet them at the mall
entrance at ten a.m.

They stopped for Andrew, Molly and the
happy group went out to the waiting car. At the mall, Jacqueline got in the car
and said, “Okay, guys, what’s going on?” When they told her they were going to
get married, she clapped her hands and claimed responsibility since she
introduced them.

Andre secured their marriage license and
they stood before the Justice of the Peace repeating their marriage vows. It
was a short time before the “
I pronounce you man and wife
” was said and
Andre and Lily kissed for the first time as a married couple.

Jacqueline insisted on taking everyone
to lunch so they went to a lounge in the mall. They toasted the marriage with
champagne and Andrew hugged Lily, kissed her on the cheek and said, “I’m so
happy to have a loving and beautiful daughter-in-law.” Lily kissed him and
said, “I’m so happy to have such a wonderful man for my father-in-law.”

“Due to the expansion of the sewing
process, I’m going to need my own apartment. Does anyone have any ideas? I’d
like to be downtown, I think,” asked Andrew.

Andre replied, “I have a tenant moving
out the end of this month, Father, if you would like to live in the same
building. If you would like more time to get your business affairs settled, we
could work out a six-month lease, which I don’t usually do.”

“That sounds like a sensible option.
Then when six months are over, I’ll know more about what the future holds. That
will work out fine, Andre, thanks for the offer.  Also, I will need to spend
some time in Chicago soon. I left matters that need to be settled.”

Jacqueline said she needed to get back
to her shop and the party broke up with Molly asking to be taken home. Andrew
offered to take her.

In the back of the car they smiled at
each other and Molly commented, “It’s so wonderful to see two people who love
each other so much. It makes me feel warm inside. They seem made for each
other.”

“Yes, I am very happy for Andre that he
found someone to love who loves him.”

He reached for her hand and told her, “I
would like to take you out to dinner and get to know you better. Would you
consider that? Just as friends. Nothing but friendship, I promise. Would you do
that?”

“Andrew, you haven’t met any other
single women yet as far as I know. We don’t know each other well enough, and
I’ve already told you I don’t date married men and you are still married. Tell
me these things when you are divorced,” responded Molly.

“Don’t you want love in your life
again?” asked Andrew.

 “I honestly have never thought about
it, nor have I thought about another man in my life. I don’t want to care for
anyone.  I like my life as it is, calm and predictable. I don’t mean to hurt
you, Andrew, but I am just not interested in a relationship. Look for someone
else.”

“I don’t give up that easily, Molly.
When I’m divorced, I intent to ask you again, “replied Andrew. “I didn’t get to
choose the first time. This time will be different.”

“You need to know more women. A man as
handsome as you are will have no trouble attracting women. You need to look
around more. I hope you aren’t hurt but I feel it is best to be honest up
front,” explained Molly.

“I will accept what you have said for
now. Just friends and that’s all,” agreed Andrew.

Lily called her parents to tell them the
happy news. She had been telling them about Andre so they weren’t too
surprised. They told her that Jenny and Jack were on a road trip and had not
called in a couple of weeks. After Andre talked with them and accepted their
welcome into the family, he and Lily walked slowly along the mall.

They stopped at his salon to tell
everyone of their marriage. When he made the announcement, there was a lot of
excitement and congratulations as Lily was very well liked by the staff.

They walked down to
Marco’s
and
told him of their marriage. He congratulated them and offered free drinks. They
accepted iced tea and sat at a secluded table in the rear. Marco came over to
their table and Lily asked him if he knew anyone who could sew well. Of course,
he said he had a relative who was a very good seamstress, his wife’s aunt’s
daughter made clothes for everybody including festival dresses and wedding
dresses. Lily said she needed an employee and if his relative would be
interested, she should bring a sample of her sewing to the apartment tomorrow
morning at 11:00. He assured Lily she would be there. “Great!” exclaimed Lily.
“If this works out, then I would have some badly needed help.”

Andre did not look pleased. “I want my
wife to concentrate on me, not sewing.” Lily took his hand and gazed into his
eyes, “Nothing means more to me than you. If you asked me to give up sewing, I
would do it because I love you so much. But Andre, you will be at work all day
and I need something to do. I love sewing and once things are organized, I
won’t be stressed about getting dresses to Jacqueline. I have already decided
her request for ten dresses a week is unrealistic so she will have to be
satisfied with what I can get done for her. It is essential for me to have your
approval and support with whatever I do.”

“I’ve been selfish. Of course you need
something to occupy you during the day. But I want you to be ready and eager
when I get home.”

“You will always be first. But don’t you
see a helper would give me more time and less stress so I could concentrate on
you even more?”

When they were leaving, Marco presented
them with a bottle of champagne adorned with a bow for a wedding gift. Lily
hugged him and kissed him on the cheek, leaving Marco laughing and blushing.

“Let’s go tell Molly and Andrew about a
possible seamstress,” suggested Lily.

When they arrived at the apartment,
there were two police cars and an ambulance in front. They rushed up to the
entrance not knowing what to expect. Andre identified himself as owner of the
building and was told that Louis had been hit on the head and knocked out.
Someone had pressed the button to open the door and entered the building. The
police were presently searching the building for an intruder but so far have
not found anyone.

Lily immediately called Molly and told
her what had happened and to keep her door locked. Louis had not regained
consciousness and had been taken to the hospital ER. The police thought he had
been taken by surprise and hit with a heavy object.