Author: Frosy
Beta: burning(.)x(.)impossibly(.)x(.)bright

The Choice

Chapter 4

Bridesmaids

The next few days passed with a lot of shopping. The girls were very helpful and I would have gone crazy without them. So many details that in the end no one would remember.

I just wanted to get married and only that mattered.

"What do you think about this one?" I said to Alec in a last attempt to make him at least consider the green linens.

"Clary we are not going to have green linens. We need something more serious. My boss is going to be there and a lot of my colleagues.

"What do you suggest? That black one? This is a wedding not a funeral!"I said frustrated to him.

"I need to impress them if I want to get that big case."

"What big case? It's another divorce."

"No, this case I am talking about is a case of murder."

"Oh my! Don't tell me you are serious about this?"

"Of course I am! I want this case so bad. And if I want to get this I need to impress my boss."

"Isn't the wedding in three months?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he said and went back on the brochure to write down the order for the linens.

"But this case is happening now."

"I know but I am helping a lot. I may not be in charge of it, but I help. And I want to do everything that I can to get him to see me with a good eye and give me cases like this one. I don't want to stay in divorces." I sighed.

I got up and went to the spare room.

It was my personal room. I had painted the walls a light green colour that made the room look bigger. I had my desk where I could paint, a small bookshelf with Alec's books and next to the window I had my keyboard. I ran my fingers along it and sighed. I hadn't played for 2 years.

I hadn't realised that it was such a long time since the last time I played.

I sat down and placed my fingers softly on the keys.

"So you decided to start playing?" he said and came closer and hugged me from the back.

"No, I am just standing here," I said and he came from behind me placing a kiss on my cheek and holding me.

"You know I think the green linens are formal enough. If that's what you want then I'm fine with it."

"Really?" I said and slightly turned my head towards him.

He nodded. "I know that I'm a bit crazy over my job and I don't want that to affect our wedding. You can always put me back on track if I get paranoid, right?" he laughed it off.

I stand up and hugged him. "Thank you." I whispered in his ear and kissed him running my hands through his messy black hair. He kissed me back deepening the kiss. I felt my body tingle as he ran his fingers down my back and rested them on my hips.

I broke off gasping for air, "You know the girls will be here in any minute."

"I don't care," he said and kissed me more, "they can wait." I laughed as he got me in his hands, and took me to the bedroom.

With Isabelle and Aline we had decided that afternoon to look for our dresses.

They had been arguing all the way to the shop for the bridesmaid dresses.

"It should be green, to match her eyes." Aline said to Isabelle.

"No they should be red to match her hair." Isabelle and I rolled my eyes.

"Girls! Can you stop it? We are almost there," I said as I turned left on the road and found a spot near the shop.

We entered the shop and an old lady came to greet us.

"Hello, how can I help you?" she asked politely.

"We are here to find..." I begun but Isabelle interrupted me.

"She's getting married!" she almost yelled at her.

"Congratulations!" she said to me, "so you're looking for the perfect dress. Ladies follow me." she said and we followed her inside the store.

As the time passed I tried on many dresses but I didn't like any of them. We decided to come back to look again for my dress, so we went through the bridesmaid dresses.

"I love this one!" Isabelle said from behind the curtain.

"Then come out so I can see you," I said sitting patiently on the sofa.

Both Aline and Isabelle had been through many dresses but they couldn't seem to make up their minds.

"I found one! It's gorgeous!" Aline yelled from the next curtain.

"Will you both come out now? I want to see them."

Aline stepped out and I was pleased. She had picked something simple and elegant. It was a one shoulder dress with a sweetheart neckline and it came to her knees. It was turquoise and there were crystals over the neckline. I loved it. It was perfect for Aline and her small body.

"I'm coming." Isabelle said and I took a deep breath. Knowing Isabelle's taste in clothing I hoped this piece was at least decent.

She slowly stepped out trying to make a dramatic entrance but her foot got caught between the curtain's layers and she almost fell.

Both I and Aline burst out laughing. Even the saleswoman tried to hide her laugh.

"That's not funny" Isabelle said and stood in front of the mirror to take a better look at the dress.

I stopped laughing and took a better look of the dress. I was relived. If I loved Aline's dress, I envied this one. It was a long red dress with thin stripes that went around her neck. It was tight around her waist with small white crystals and the rest of it flow around her hips down to the floor.

"Wow, Isabelle you are... gorgeous. This dress is..."

Aline interrupted, "beautiful. Do you have this dress in my size?" Aline turned to the lady pointing at Isabelle's dress.

The old lady dragged Aline to the next room to find the dress.

"I think we found your dress." I said coming closer to her.

"You think? I like it but it seems... I don't know, too much? I now you want a really simple wedding and this isn't the definition of simple, not yours at least because..."

"Because according to you this is simple. I know Isabelle but since Alec is doing the most picking in things for the wedding, I don't expect it to be simple." She smiled and gave me a hug.

Aline stepped into the room with the same dress. She came and stood next to Isabelle.

"I love it." Aline said making swirls around herself like a little girl. "Where did you find it? I didn't see any red dresses around."

Isabelle smirked, "I told you that we were getting red dresses," Aline's face darkened for a second only before turning to me.

"I still suggest going with the green but if you like them, then I'm fine. Besides I love it!" she looking at herself once more in the mirror.

They both then turned to me expecting me to say something about the dresses. I smiled.

"I think we found your dresses girls." They hugged me and I felt so good to be around my best friends.

On the way back Isabelle informed us of a photography exhibition that would be held tomorrow night by the gallery she worked at. She wanted us to come, she already had two free tickets and she was saving them for us.

"Oh, come on. I don't want to be alone. You know how much I hate those landscapes photos and Simon has a soccer game, not that he would come, but you Clary? You like these things."

"I don't know Isabelle. I was thinking of going with him to the soccer game but if I don't, I have so many things to do. The wedding is in 10 weeks. I have the invitations to finish and I only have till the end of the week. There are 200!" I said feeling tired just by thinking of the work I had to do.

"Oh, come on. I'll make Simon help you. He owes me for the... anyway he will help you since you got his place for tomorrow."

I thought of that for a while. Me and Simon. I thought of torturing him with all the wedding details that I knew he hated and I almost laughed.

"Fine. But I am going to his place. Tell him to expect me around 6." Isabelle smiled pleased. "Oh, and Isabelle?"

"Yes?"

"You're coming too."

"B-But..."

"You asked for it." She didn't say anything and turned to Aline.

"I can't come. Magnus wants to see his daddy playing." Aline said to Isabelle.

"How is little Magnus?" I asked her as I approached her house.

"Oh, he's fine. He can't wait for his birthday. Sebastian thought we should get him one of those little cars, you know, that kids drive but after yesterday..."

"What happened?" Isabelle joined in.

"He found him in my closet trying on his shoes and muttering about how he doesn't have any taste in shoes." Isabelle and I couldn't stop laughing, "It really freaked him out. That's why he wants me to bring him to the game.

"Oh, he's so cute!" Isabelle squealed.

"Yeah, tell that to Sebastian. Anyways see you girls."

We said goodbye and promised to meet soon to go out for drinks.

The sun was almost down as I drove through the roads to get Isabelle home. Thankfully Isabelle's apartment was two blocks away from ours and I wouldn't be late for supper.

"Now I have one ticket left. What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Give it to someone, it's not that hard." She narrowed her eyes towards me and I pretended I didn't see her, paying attention to the road.

She sighed, "I hope there are some good guys there."

"You know Simon won't be happy if he knows you go flirting with other men."

"Oh, I don't care. If he wanted to, he could come to make sure it won't happen. He deserves it."

"Did something happen between you two? Whenever you talk about Simon you sound..."

"Nothing is wrong," she snapped and I dropped the subject.

I arrived home to find it crowded with people. I had forgotten that the guys would be gathering to watch a soccer game.

I took in the scene I had in front of me. There were boxes of pizza and cans of beers all over the place. In the kitchen, in the living room I even found out later in the night that there were some in the bathroom. I didn't want to think about how those got there.

"You're back!" Alec said coming to kiss me and I turned away from him.

"You smell awful! I'm not kissing you if you don't have a bath." The guys from the living room laughed.

"Someone won't have his way tonight." Sebastian said holding a very sleepy Magnus in his arms.

"Sebastian, Magnus is already asleep. If Aline finds out that you had beer in front of him..."

"It's good for his education. He must learn how to be a proper man from this early age."

"How to be a drunk and smelly man? Not to mention a fat one after a little while. You know being a little less man won't hurt him." I said messing with him. His face darkened and he looked at Magnus.

"We're happy to see you too, Clary." Simon said with a smirk on his face.

I gave him a hug and sat down. I wanted to tell him about the deal I made with Isabelle but I thought Isabelle was the right person to deliver the news.

I began to clean the place up when the game ended. I said goodbye and kissed Magnus' little cheek. He was sleeping peacefully. He had his dad's black hair and the eyes of his mother. He would look at you with those brown eyes, and you would feel like they were seeing inside of you.

"Goodnight Clary," Simon said tiredly, "and sorry about the mess." He smiled apologetically.

"It's fine. I have someone to blame it on." I said and looked at Alec, who luckily, for him anyways, had started cleaning up.

I closed the door and turned to find Alec pinning me against the door and running his hands on my body.

"You know, you really look sexy tonight." He said giving me small kisses on my neck. I looked down at what I was wearing. I was wearing a pair of jeans and plain white t-shirt.

"You're drunk." I said as he kept kissing me, making it harder to focus.

I felt his smile forming on my neck and his hands kept traveling around my body.

He started placing more fierce kisses on my neck and collarbone as he tried to get my shirt off. I took his face in my hands and kissed him. I had forgotten all about the smell from the moment he had placed his fingers on me.

The next morning I woke up to find a very clean apartment. I found Alec wearing just his boxers in the kitchen making breakfast.

"You did this?" I said and looked again in the living room. The place was shining.

"Hmm..." he said and I went closer to him, smelling the aroma that was coming from the eggs.

Alec really knew how to cook. I knew how to cook, but Alec was a chef compared to me. Too bad that he didn't have time to cook.

I inhaled that sweet smell and gave him a peck kiss.

"Isabelle called," he said as he placed the eggs on our plates, "she wanted to know what time to come pick you up for tonight."

I grabbed the orange juice and poured some into our glasses. "I thought she was going to be there before the gallery opened." I sat down joining him.

The food was... mouth-watering.

"Oh yeah, she said she wasn't needed after all and something else about a ticket..." he ran his fingers through his messy black hair, "I'm not quite sure, I 'd just woken up when she called."

Alec wasn't a morning person and like me, he had probably forgotten some of the things from Isabelle's morning announcement, so I made a mental note to call her to find out what exactly was going on.

The rest of the day found us watching TV and generally enjoying ourselves before Isabelle called and interrupted.

We were lying on the sofa watching a comedy show when she called.

"Why didn't you call me?" Isabelle yelled in my ears.

"I was just about to call you." I said lying to her of course. I had totally forgotten about her.

"Anyway, I called to tell you that I will unfortunately be needed before the exhibition opens and wanted to make sure you have your ticket."

"I have it. You gave it to me yesterday."

"Good, then see you at 7 sharp."

"Oh, Isabelle? What did you do with that extra ticket? Did you find anyone to give it to?"

"Yeah, I gave it to my neighbour. She is such a bitch."

"Then why did you give it to her?"

"So I can get a break from her. Don't get me started. Anyway see you there. I'm going to need you with her there."

"By the way, so I can be prepared. Whose photographs are we going to see?"

"Valentine Morgenstern. He's the major attention but there's a new guy too. He'll have a small portion for his photos. I think he's a beginner; I don't know and don't care. I just hope he's hot and not gay. His name is Jace Herondale." She said and hung up the phone, but not before reminding me when the gallery opened.

I wondered if she was talking about the Jace I met the other day.