Chapter 6

One month later . . .

It did take a week or two longer to prepare for the elopement than they had planned. The real hold up was the prenuptial agreement. To be on the safe side, Robert Rice consulted with an estate lawyer in Louisiana to make sure the document met legal requirements in Louisiana as well as in New York.

Derek hadn’t seemed to mind, but Chelsea did. She had waited half her life to marry this man and it had been detained by some ridiculous paper work. She didn’t want his money. She wanted him. Period, the end. It was bad enough they had only seen and talked to each other a handful of times during the past month.

But everything was finally in place and they were on the Dawson jet heading to New Orleans. There was only one problem. Derek was on the phone almost the whole plane ride. If he wasn’t talking to his stockbroker, he was talking to the manager at The Oasis. If he wasn’t talking to the manager that ran a restaurant he owned, he was talking to his assistant at Dawson Inc. She knew he had a lot of responsibilities but not this many. And this was the first she had heard about him owning a restaurant. When she had mentioned that to him during landing, he had said he owned seven restaurants. Two were in Pennsylvania and one in Jersey.

They grabbed a rental car from the airport. That’s when she noticed he only had one suitcase. A small suitcase.

“You like traveling light?” she asked as he put his one suitcase in the trunk.

“Huh? Oh? We’re just staying overnight so there was no need for me to pack more than one suitcase.”

“What? I had the whole week planned for our honeymoon with activities. Since I’ve never been here before, I had hoped to –”

“I’m sorry, darling, but I have to get back to New York by tomorrow late afternoon. Allendale is performing at the Oasis tomorrow night, and I must make sure everything is perfect,” Derek said as he closed the trunk.” Allendale was a group of three singers who were up for three music awards this year.

You could have said something earlier. I had booked a hotel suite for a whole week and purchased tickets in advance for events. Chelsea had planned an itinerary of things to do for them like going on a haunted tour, graveyard visits, plantation visits, etc.

Derek stilled when he saw her profound disappointment written all over her face. “Oh, love, I’m sorry. I see now you were looking forward to a good time in the crescent city. We’ll, come back one day when I have more time, and we’ll stay a whole week.”

It won’t be the same. This is our honeymoon. We only get one of those.

“In the meantime, you can come to the club tomorrow night and meet Allendale,” he said. “Come on, we need to get to city hall to pick up our license before it closes.”

All Chelsea could do was get in the car, not saying a word.

An hour later they were checking into Hotel St. Pierre on Burgundy Street. Chelsea had booked them two rooms. She didn’t want them to be in each other’s way while they got dressed for the ceremony. Derek took the regular room and Chelsea was going to get dressed in a classic king suite with a balcony that she had booked for a week and was going to spend her wedding night in.

They had to be at the chapel in three hours. Plenty of time for Chelsea to take her time getting ready. She showered, did her hair, and make-up.

After that, she sat on the edge of the bed in her satin, gray robe. She took a deep breath and took the time out to really look around the room.

There were two large - almost floor to ceiling windows. Both opened up to the balcony that overlooked Burgundy Street. The curtains were royal blue. The king size bed had a blue and white comforter of light material. There was a long inch width bureau drawer with black old-fashioned handles and brown stained finish. A mirror was over it that hung on the wall.

She was still disappointed that they weren’t going to stay the week. But she realized she was still going to spend her wedding night in New Orleans.

She smiled at the thought of her and Derek making love for the first time. It was going to be wonderful.

Her cell rang.

It was Caitlin, one of her older sisters. She lived at the estate as well.

“Hello?”

“Hey, you,” Caitlin greeted happily. “I was just calling to make sure you and your friends landed safely.”

Chelsea had to tell her family something before she left. After all, she had planned to be gone for a week. So, she told them she was going to New Orleans with a few friends from Columbia University.

“We did. We’re about to go out in an hour and a half to check out the sights.” Chelsea never took in account all the lies she would have to tell her family when she and Derek started this whole thing.  And the sneaking around.  She couldn’t wait until she would be able to tell the truth again. “We just needed to freshen up first.”

“I see. Well, have fun and send me plenty of pictures. I’ve never been to New Orleans before.”

“I will.”

“Ta ta,” Caitlin said and clicked off.

Chelsea lowered her phone to her side. Caitlin calling reminded her of the one void in this blessed event. Her sisters. She didn’t get to have a bachelorette party or a bridal shower. And her sisters weren’t there to make a fuss over her as she got dressed for her wedding.

She exhaled heavily. “Well, that’s the price of elopement. I knew that,” she mumbled with a hint of sadness. “But on the bright side, I’m marrying the man of my dreams.”

                                                                             ****

            Derek had put on a pair of dark ivory pants and a white dress shirt. A silk, light gold tie hung around the collar of his neck. It was the first of July in New Orleans, it was too hot to wear a suit jacket.

            He plopped down on the bed and checked his messages.

            Q had texted him asking what he was doing. Derek decided to call him.

            “Hey, my man. What’s shakin’?”

            “Wedding bells are shaken,” Derek answered.

            “Oh, snap. Your lawyer finally got the prenup done.”

            “Yep, and by tonight I’ll have a wife – in name only, of course.”

            “That’s great. So you’re in New Orleans now?”

            “Yeah.” Derek had told Q and the rest of his friends of Chelsea’s plan for them to elope to New Orleans.

            “How long will you be there?”

            “Just overnight. I have to get back to The Oasis for Allendale’s performance. Did you forget they were playing at the club?”

            “No. I just thought you’d spend a few days with that cute little bride of yours. I remember the picture you showed me of her online.”

            Derek had found a pic of Chelsea on a blog coming out of a night club with her friends. It had been taken last year. He had showed it to Q because he kept asking what she looked like. “She’ll be my wife. I can spend time with her on vacation anytime.”

            “Yeah, man, but it’s your honeymoon.”

            “Hell, Q, this is a fake marriage. It’s not a big deal,” Derek said as he looked at his Rolex.

            “That’s true. When are you getting the deed done?”

            “In about an hour. Chelsea arranged for a horse and carriage to pick us up at the hotel and take us to the chapel.  It’s just down the road from the hotel. I’m glad she made that arrangement. As short of a distance as it is, it’s too hot to walk and she’s probably is wearing heels, too.”

            “Hmm. Yeah. Look, I’m going to let you go. I don’t want to make you late for your own wedding.”

                                                                            ****

Chelsea stared at herself in the full length mirror. She wore a Nicole + Felicia wedding dress. It was an ostrich feather trim mini skirt with beaded front cross straps.

“Not bad for off the rack,” she said as she stared at herself.

Since she had such little time, the Kleinfeld representative had said she had no choice but to get a dress off the rack in the store. There just wasn’t enough time to get one made. Luckily, the dress she had on was a perfect size four. It just needed to be let out a little in the bust. Once that was done, all she had to do was get it cleaned and voila. Another Kleinfeld bride was born.  

Chelsea sported a pair of sexy, white strapped heel sandals. Half a carat diamond studs were in her ears. Her blonde hair was folded neatly in a spiral on her head. An ostrich feather clip was pinned up and to the left of her hair.

She wore dark pink lipstick and pink eyeshadow. She usually didn’t wear much make-up because she didn’t need to.

She took a deep breath. It won’t be long now.

And just as if she said it aloud, there was a knock on the door.

“Goodbye. Chelsea Van Dyke,” she whispered at her reflection. She turned and picked up her purse from the bed and headed for the door.

Chelsea almost stopped breathing when she got a look at her groom. Derek can make the simplest outfits look fabulous. He wore dark ivory pants, a white dress shirt, and a silk light gold tie.

“Well, aren’t you quite the dish,” Derek said with a big smile as he gave her the once over. “Very chic.”

Chelsea beamed. “Thank you. And may I say you look very handsome.”

“You certainly may say,” he said with a grin. “My lady, your chariot awaits.” He offered Chelsea his arm.