Chapter 23 A Buoyant Heart and a Sinking Feeling
Upbeat music played through the speakers in the car with Lara drumming her fingers on the steering wheel and humming along. She was in a good mood despite the fact that she did not want to go shopping. Mokuba had said that a bit of time out would do her good so she listened and did not cancel with the girls.
Mai, Serenity, Tea and Rebecca waited at the Kame Game shop and stepped out into morning sun as soon as they saw the black Audi approach.
Lara rolled up to the entrance and unlocked the doors. Tea climbed into the front with the others buckling up in the back.
"Good morning ladies," Lara greeted with a broad smile. She pulled out onto the road and drove off. Lara invited Rebecca along thinking it was a good way to get to know her a bit more and she really wanted to make an effort for Mokuba.
"Ooh, you're in a good mood," Tea observed.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Yeah there's no way Lara could be in a bad mood today. I mean we're getting her dress," Serenity said innocently.
"Yeah, that's the reason." Lara caught Mai's smirk in the rear view mirror and winked back.
"Shall we go straight to the store then get coffee afterwards?" Lara flicked on the indicator and glanced in her mirror.
"Sounds good," Tea replied.
"Are you excited, Lara?" Serenity asked in a small voice.
"Sure." Lara chuckled.
"You sound so enthusiastic," Tea joked.
"All this has just never been my thing." Lara looked at Rebecca in the mirror and knew she felt similarly. "You know what I mean, don't you Rebecca?"
"That I do. Maybe it's different when you have the right company."
"I'm sure," Lara replied.
"Have you chosen a wedding planner?" Tea enquired.
"Yeah, we met with her yesterday."
"You and Kaiba?" Mai sounded disbelieving.
"Naturally. It's his wedding too. He did leave earlier than I did though."
"Did he say something like 'I don't have time for this nonsense'?" Tea deepened her voice doing a terrible impression.
Lara burst out laughing. "No, he just said that he's busy and whatever I want goes."
"Same thing," Mai commented.
"Can I ask you something?" Tea fidgeted with the phone in her hands.
"You just did, but you can ask another." Lara smirked.
Tea rolled her eyes but was determined to ask her question. "Are you really happy to be with Kaiba?"
Lara's head snapped towards Tea, surprised by the question. She turned her gaze back to the road.
"I guess I can understand why you would ask that. I really am happy with him. I know it's hard to believe, but I love him deeply and I know he loves me. He's just the most amazing person."
"Got it. I just had to check." She smiled.
Lara chuckled but said nothing as she continued to drive along until they reached the boutique. She parked the car outside the large glass storefront that had the name "Asami Matsubara" boldly displayed above the entrance.
"I love her stuff!" Serenity squealed with delight as they entered the store.
"Yeah this place is pretty swanky but I guess with her being the most famous designer in Domino, it should be expected." Tea said.
A trendily dressed woman immediately recognised Lara and made her way over. With an overly friendly smile she offered her help, pointedly ignoring the others.
"I'd like to have a dress designed. Is Miss Matsubara available? She should be expecting me." Lara stood tall with her chin up. The others instantly noticed the difference between the Lara that was just with them in the car versus the commanding woman she now appeared to be.
"Yes, please follow me." She showed them to an enclosed area at the back of the store where there was a modern looking plush victorian couch with a matching round ottoman and an ornate coffee table. Above it hung a bright chandelier and opposite the couch was what they assumed to be the large fitting room. It was currently closed with a heavy velvet curtain.
"Can I get you some champagne Miss Schroeder?" the assistant offered.
"Not for me thanks, but I'm sure my friends would love some."
The lady smiled tightly and excused herself from their company. She was gone only a short while and returned with flute glasses on a tray and a bottle of pink champagne. The cork was removed with a loud 'pop' and she filled the glasses before leaving Lara and her friends alone.
"What a lovely girl," Tea said with an uneven smile.
"I can't stand the type," Lara muttered under her breath.
The four women took their seats on the couch, elegantly sipping on the fizzy pink champagne. Lara sat on the ottoman, looking at the empty dress rail. She wondered how many dresses would eventually be hanging on it when they were done. A buzzing in her pocket interrupted her thoughts and upon pulling out her phone, he saw that it was from Germany. That was a surprise to her as it would be the early hours of the morning there.
"Excuse me girls, I have to take this." She stood up and quickly answered the call, walking towards the far end of the room. "Hi Stefan."
"Lara, I thought we were friends. Why did you not give me a heads up at least?" He sounded annoyed but Lara had no idea what he was talking about. If he stayed up just to talk to her, she knew it could not be good.
"Hello to you too. How are you doing?" she asked sweetly.
"Don't give me that." His voice grew low.
"Stefan I have no idea what you're talking about."
The others watched Lara pace back and forth with a furrowed brow.
"Really? You know white hat is a bit of a grey area for us."
"What, hacking?! Yeah I know that. Wait, Stefan I think you better tell me what happened from the start."
"The security team noticed some unusual activity and tried to shut it down, we assumed the worst and reported in to HQ and ended up speaking to the dev team."
"The Domino or Munich dev team?" She ran her hand through her hair.
"Both. We were then informed that it was white hat and the report would be sent to Kaiba Corp."
"Stefan, I had no idea. You know my power does not extend over other departments but I will speak to Kaiba and get back to you. Can I just ask, who was in on the meeting from the Domino office?"
"Takeo Yamamoto and a few others."
Her jaw clenched. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"I'll get to the bottom of this." She was determined to find out what was going on. "Thanks for telling me. Just by the way, I know Kaiba, the fact that someone was able to get in is going to piss him off. You guys will need to strengthen security around the platform."
"Already on it Lara," Stefan replied. His tone had calmed down considerably.
"Get some sleep," she ordered.
"Yeah. Bye." He hung up and Lara heaved a deep sigh trying to control her anger. She regarded the phone in her hands, toying with the idea of calling Kaiba immediately but this was probably not a conversation to have on the phone, so she pocketed the device and rejoined the group.
"That didn't look good," Rebecca said.
"It wasn't. I'll have to take care of it later." They could hear the anger in her voice but the undercurrent of the threat took them by surprise.
"Are you okay Lara?" Serenity asked with sweet concern.
"Fine. Shall we find this magical dress?"
"Hun, don't let whatever that was get to you." Mai sat back, regarding Lara.
"Mai's right." Tea poured the smallest amount of champagne into an empty flute glass and handed it to Lara. "You're marrying the man of your dreams and you should enjoy this."
She raised her glass and everyone followed suit. They lifted the glasses to their lips, taking a sip. Lara's was barely enough to wet her palate, but she appreciated the gesture.
"Miss Von Schroeder." A pleasant voice greeted. Asami walked towards Lara with her assistant right behind.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Matsubara." Lara shook the middle-aged woman's hand.
"Asami, please. Congratulations on your engagement to Seto Kaiba. There are a lot of broken hearts in Domino right now." She chuckled. Lara could not help but smile. Asami Matsubara was not what she was expecting.
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of," Lara joked.
"I wouldn't worry. I'm so honoured you chose me to design your dress. Do you have any idea what you're looking for?"
"Kind of. I don't want anything big and poofy, and nothing overly lacey either. Just something that would look good with my complete lack of curves."
"Oh come on Lara! You have a great body." Tea shook her head.
"You four don't get to say anything about great bodies, look at you. I'm just tall."
"And I think I know the perfect dress for you." Asami smiled. "I think you should try on some of the off the-the-rack dresses we have hanging up and once we are set on a style we can get you to try on the sample dress and take it from there."
"Sounds good to me," Lara said pleasantly. Asami took her assistant aside and spoke to her quietly. She disappeared to the front and returned a while later with an armful of dresses in varying shades of white.
Asami took a seat while the assistant hung up the dresses on the rail and handed one over to Lara who carried it into the fitting room and pulled the curtains closed behind her. She examined the ivory mermaid dress hanging up on the wall and with no real feeling of excitement or dread, began peeling off her clothes.
She was thankful that this dress seemed easy to get into. She flattened the fabric against her stomach and twisted around, glimpsing her back in the mirror.
The curtain was pulled aside and she stepped out to mixed reactions. Serenity gasped in awe while the other three scrunched up their faces and shook their heads. Lara laughed at the responses she got but Asami had no reaction at all. She merely instructed Lara to turn around and made some notes.
"You have a very nice back, I think we could bring some attention to it. Would you like that?" Asami asked. Lara had never in her life expected to be talking about her back. The whole situation seemed ludicrous to her.
"I'm fine with it but maybe not something as plunging as this."
Asami nodded and Lara was handed another dress. If she thought the first dress showed off a little too much, it was nothing on the second. She did not even bother looking at herself in the mirror before stepping out. All four girls' jaws dropped. Between the copious amounts of mesh and high slits, there was nothing to love about it.
"Not this one," Lara said with finality. Tea and Mai exchanged smirks when they noticed the reddish mark on her shoulder. Rebecca glanced away, seemingly uncomfortable by the sight of what caught the other's attention. Lara looked at the point on her body that they were staring at and with a huffed giggle, she went back into the change room.
This went on for longer than Lara would have liked. She would try on a dress, get a reaction from the girls which often was not unanimous, and then she would try on another. Eventually, Asami fetched a dress she thought would be perfect and when Lara walked out of the fitting room, all four of her friends were clearly blown away.
"I like it too." She smiled.
"Anything on this you don't like?" Asami asked.
"Just the lace," Lara answered as she inspected the details on the dress.
"Fetch the sheath sample," she said addressing her assistant who nodded and walked off. "I think we have our style." She smiled confidently at Lara.
Soon, Lara found herself in a basic dress used purely for the silhouette of the design. She stood on a low stool in front of an ornate mirror while Asami and her assistant made rough sketches and notes, all the while asking Lara her opinion on the various choices she had.
"I like the idea of silk satin underneath with a thin layer over that would have all the bead work and both will extend for a dramatic train." Asami pinched and tucked the dress while she explained her idea.
"I like that. The train shouldn't be too long. It's going to be a garden wedding," Lara informed her.
"Good to know." She placed a long plain cathedral veil on Lara's head which the assistant pinned in place.
"What do you think?"
"Aww Lara! You look beautiful!" Tea gushed.
"I love it." And Lara really did. For the first time everything around her wedding seemed very real.
"We'll bead the edge to match the dress. Nothing more," Asami said.
"Perfect."
Lara was helped out of the dress and quickly put her jeans back on. Asami informed her of when she could expect the final design and of her first fitting. She thanked the two women and the group left the store, heading for the café. Lara was buoyant.
She drove them to the café that Serenity had picked out. It was a cute, colourful little place. As was habit, Lara led them to a booth at the back of the shop and waited for the waitress to hand them their menus.
"Why do you always choose a table at the back of the store?" Tea asked as she slid next to her.
"I can see everyone in the shop and I know where my exits are," she said simply. Tea immediately regretted her decision to ask. It seemed obvious now. The waitress approached their table handing out menus before she had the opportunity to apologize, and once she left, Lara steered the conversation away from her thoughts.
"How did you find this place Serenity?"
"Joey and I come here sometimes."
"That knucklehead is really sweet." Mai smiled down at her menu but Lara could see her features soften. She enjoyed witnessing the various relationships of the gang of friends Mokuba had introduced her to. They made the world seem a little more normal.
"What?" Lara asked when she caught Serenity staring.
"Oh I was just admiring your lips. Are you wearing a plumping gloss?"
Tea and Mai looked at each other, very obviously trying not to laugh.
Lara's fingers moved to lightly touch her lips at the question.
"No. Just the same one as usual."
"You should tell Kaiba to take it easy on you when you're going to step out in public," Mai teased and Tea snickered.
"Are you two quite done?" Lara laughed.
"No," they said together. She shook her head and glanced down at the menu, feeling the heat rise up her neck and for the second time that morning, felt her phone buzz. Without taking her eyes off the card in front of her, she pulled it out of her pocket and unlocked the screen. Finally looking at the device in her hand, she saw that it was a text from Kaiba. It was just a single word.
Surviving?
Tea glanced at the screen over Lara's shoulder and did well to hide her chuckle. Lara sent back a quick response.
Barely XD
Actually already done. Just grabbing coffee with the girls.
She placed the phone on the table and noticed the others looking at her.
"What?" she asked.
"We always know when you're texting Kaiba; you smile at your phone. It's cute." Serenity giggled.
Lara shrugged, hoping to hide her blush. "Shall we order?"
Once everyone knew what they wanted, the waitress was called over who quickly scribbled it all down on her tiny notepad. She took the menus and left only to return a few minutes later with a tray bearing their warm drinks and cakes.
The sound of forks scraping on plates filled the space of their booth as they all savoured their little treats. Surprising even to her, Lara was enjoying her time out, but her mind was still preoccupied with the call she received earlier. In fact, she was so distracted that she did not realize that she had been asked a question until she saw four pointed stares fixed on her.
"What? Sorry I missed that," she said with her fork hanging in the air.
Tea chuckled. "Mai asked you about The Afternoon show. How was it?"
"Yeah. We saw it yesterday," Serenity added.
"It was good. Kei was very pleasant. She didn't stray too far into dangerous topics," Lara answered.
"We saw that, the audience questions were rather invasive," Tea said.
"They were but people are always curious about high-profile individuals."
"That's true," Tea agreed.
"You did a great job, though. Even my brother went online to check what Kaiba Corp. has planned," Serenity said.
"You must be pretty popular at the office right now. What did Kaiba think of it?" Rebecca asked.
"Seto was happy with the way I handled things. His concern is always the image of the company, I mean it sells our products. I think it came at the right time though because last night we saw a real spike in site traffic. You can always expect that after a bit of publicity but it was higher than we anticipated."
"People are always curious when it comes to Kaiba corp.," Tea said.
"Not just that, I think they want to know more about Lara and Kaiba," Rebecca said as she took a sip of her drink.
"No Beck, they want to know more about Kaiba. He's ridiculously popular around here and if I want to have an easy time living in Domino, I have to win over everyone in the city. That takes a lot of calculated steps."
"I'm sure it does hun, but you can't control everything."
"Mai's right." Tea took a little sip of her drink and placed the cup down on the saucer with soft clink.
"She is, but it doesn't stop me from trying," Lara said. "The thing is that it's my job to make sure the publicity is good and that the marketing works, but beyond that, I need to show everyone, the board included, that Seto didn't make a bad decision hiring me. And personally, I need to show the world that Seto and I are solid."
"I take it things are still bad with Yamamoto." Tea turned to face Lara, curious to know more.
"You have no idea. The stressful thing is I don't know how far this thing goes." The others could hear the exasperation in her voice.
"Because of Pegasus' message," Tea stated.
"That amongst other things," Lara replied.
"Why can't things ever be easy?" Serenity asked softly as she picked at her cake.
"Believe me, I've been asking myself that very same question."
"Here's the thing, Kaiba doesn't give you any special treatment." Tea said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Of course not." Lara was indignant.
"So what's the gripe about then?" Mai asked.
"I think I'm in the way of whatever the actual plan is," Lara said lowly.
"That doesn't bode well for you." Tea knew exactly how dangerous things could get at Kaiba Corp. After all, she and her group of friends had helped Mokuba many years ago when Kaiba was in trouble.
"No, but I'm certain I can handle it."
"Oh we're pretty sure about that." Tea laughed.
The women enjoyed their coffees and chatted for only a little while longer. Lara was anxious to get back to the house and talk to Kaiba about the phone call she had received earlier. It was troubling and even though she enjoyed her time out, the thought was constantly on her mind.
Lara bid the others goodbye when she dropped them off at the game shop once more. She did not go up to greet Yugi even though would have liked to. There was only one goal right now.
The conversation with Stefan was on repeat in her mind the entire drive back. In fact, she only realized that she was home when she was switching the car off.
She entered the house heading towards the stairs, anticipating that Kaiba would be in his study but she could hear his voice coming from the kitchen. She found him and Mokuba talking as he busied himself with the coffee machine.
"Lara, you're back," Mokuba said brightly. "How was your shopping trip?"
"Okay, but we can talk about that later. I got an interesting call today."
"From whom?" Kaiba turned around to face her while the machine buzzed and whirred as dark, rich coffee streamed from its spout.
"Stefan at Schroeder, he was pretty upset. Did either of you okay a white hat hack?"
"What?" Irritation flashed across Kaiba's face.
"No. Neither of us did." Mokuba looked to his brother then at Lara. Like a flash of lightning, realization struck all three of them.
"Then we have a problem," Lara said.