Chapter 8

"Nic, do you think you could calm down for a second and I don't know, like breath?" Roman asked her leading her over to a bench in the Shopping centre they were in.
She sank down to the bench and dropped the shopping bags around her feet.
"Dad its been moved up its in 6 weeks!" She muttered.
"Nic, I still need you to take a deep breath. Yes, just like that. Now another one!" he instructed.
She gasped, realising that she had in fact stopped breathing, and her heart was hammering in her chest. So this is what a panic attack feels like, she thought.
"Now tell me what Geoff said" Roman instructed.
"He said that the Church was fully booked and we only have one chance and that's in six weeks."
Roman sighed.
"Right then. In priority lets think about venue and as soon as that is sorted then we can get the invites out. Come on!" He instructed picking up her bags and turning around and walking back where they came from into the stationery store.
Nicole had to mach to keep pace with him. Oh boy, she thought, she really did miss Ella as she stumbled in her high heels.
"Ok, I want you to pick your top three invites." He instructed her and she found herself looking more closely at them than before. She made her choice and showed him.
He took them over to the counter and showed them to the assistant.
"I need to know the costs for these invites to be printed up?" he asked in a tone of voice that Nicole had never heard before. The store assistant gave the prices.
"Ok, Now we've just been told that our date has moved up. I want to know when you can get the printing done." He asked again in the same tone of voice and waited for the store assistant to answer.
"What quantity of stock do you have for these?" he asked and Nicole went completely into shock as he indicated the one that she really really liked!
Now the store assistant was completely flustered and stammered her answer.
Roman turned round to Nic and smiled.
"We are going to take 100 of these ones. We will confirm the details for the printing by the end of the week and we will need the matching name cards for the table and the order of service." He confirmed pulling out his credit card.
The assistant pulled out her order book and started processing the order.
"We'll also like to take a sample of the stationery with us today, will that be a problem?" he asked giving the assistant his most devastating smile.
"No sir, will you and your fiancée want anything else?" she asked.
"Sorry to disappoint you but this is my daughter." Romans said. "Yes I know, I don't look old enough!" he said flirting with the store assistant.
She took another look at him and without taking a breath asked for his phone number.
"Perhaps you should have mine instead?" Nicole said finally, reciting her mobile number.
The assistant scowled at her as she completed the order and handed him back his card. She collected the various samples of stationery and placed them in a bag that they could take away with them.
They walked out of the shop and he steered them to a coffee bar and ordered drinks and a piece of chocolate cake. She was sitting opposite him and looking thoughtful.
"You're not a normal dad!" she said at length.
He just raised his eyebrows and waited for her to finish the sentence.
"I mean you just took that totally in your stride and nearly ended up with a date!" she said sipping her coffee. He just smiled and pushed the cake toward her. She took a forkful and sighed blissfully. "It's your training isn't it?" she asked after a significant pause in which half the cake disappeared.
"Nic," he began, "I've not been that good at all this dad stuff over the years. And I'm not going to like wearing a top hat and tails to your wedding but I will do everything in my power to give you the wedding you deserve. " He paused and smiled at her. "Aden wasn't the first one to call you Princess. I used to when you were a little girl. You had the curliest blonde hair when you were born and the bluest eyes. Everyone said that your eyes would change colour but they didn't. Every night, when I put you in your bed to go to sleep I called you my Princess and I had to read you the same fairytale book. But somehow, in one of those times I went away you decided that you didn't like to be called a Princess anymore and that was it."
Nic looked at him and blinked. She could just about remember the man who would tuck her in at night and read her stories. She'd thought it was her first Stepfather and when she'd asked her mother, Natalie, had said she was imagining things.
She gasped.
"It was you. I remember." She said finally, her voice soft, then. "But Dad I don't know a 100 people to ask to my wedding!" she eventually said the thing that was on the tip of her tongue.
"Bigger discount than if I'd ordered 50." He explained. "You can spend even more on the dress! Now if you've finished I need you to drive us home while I use my phone." He said.
She looked down to her cup and then his words sinking in exclaimed, "But you never let me drive your car."
Roman smiled.
"First time for everything!" was his only answer. He steered them through the crowds and to the parking garage where his care had been housed and handed over the car keys.
She started the car and headed towards home whilst he used his phone.
"Ok, " he said finally. "We have the Sands but they have a conference on that weekend so we'll have to use outside caterers or we can have the marina club." He said.
She took a quick look at him, before concentrating back on traffic and said the first one that came into her head.
"The Sands." Even though she knew that it would cost extra.
He rang them back and booked the Sands for the reception and then asked about the use of the honeymoon suite for the night. Nicole tried not to blush as she heard him booking them both on his credit card.
"Dad, Geoff and I haven't even discussed the honeymoon yet!" she gasped, still blushing.
"I'm sorry Nic, but who says that room is for you?" he grinned wickedly. "That shop assistant put her phone number on my copy of the order form!"
She reached over and hit him as she laughed.
"Ow" he cried.
"And that is nothing to what Ella will do to you when we get home!" she said still laughing.