Babes Stripping For Love

It was the day when Erin had Oakley, the wedding planner arranged for Charlotte and her bridesmaid to find dresses for the wedding day. Time was limited, but Oakley handled everything like the professional that he was. The man was sure that they will have their dresses picked out before their second appointment of the day. Charlotte was not worried, she knew Erin would only hire the best and she knew money was never going to be a problem with her future in-laws.

Dee, Bree, Cassidy, and Lexie were there two hours ago patiently waiting for Charlotte to pick her wedding dress all while they were shown their pick of their bridesmaids’ dresses.

It was an easy pick for the women since Oakley has excellent taste. He had chosen several racks of dresses that might be to their liking. All had color schemes that would mix perfectly with the flowers, decoration, and theme of the wedding. The bridesmaids all settled on the matching French blue-colored ones with different styles of necklines.

But then all of their attention was back to Charlotte where she was stepping out of the spacious changing room to let her best friends see the dress.

“Okay, ladies, give us your best review for this dress. Though seeing the bride-to-be megawatt smile I’d assume she had found the one.” Oakley beamed at Charlotte, the cute pristinely dressed wedding planner smiling extra wide showing off his pearly whites at the bridesmaids. Dee, Cassidy, Bree, and also Lexie were all looking at her like the beautiful bride that she was. The dress fit her perfectly.

“Oh. My. God. I’m so jealous! You look so beautiful in it!” Dee practically screamed when she saw Charlotte in her fifth choice of wedding dress. The rest of the women gasped, followed by big smiles on their faces. All nodding and telling her that it was the perfect dress.

It has been two weeks since her first meeting with the wedding planner and Charlotte had been working on getting her healthy weight back. She was feeling better mentally and still helping out with Gabby and Walter regularly. She was happy and really looking forward to her wedding day. Also, she was glad that Seamus’s mom insisted that they do the traditional wedding.

“Okay, now… quick, let me Facetime Erin and see her reaction.” Oakley went to Charlotte’s side after helping her with the dress making sure it was falling perfectly for the dramatic effect, just like everything that depict the wedding planner.

“Oh, my! Charlotte honey, you are so beautiful! You will give me beautiful grandbabies! Oakley darling, superb as always!”

Charlotte blushed as Seamus’s mom practically cooed and praised her in front of her friends. She could already hear them giggling in the background.

“Thank you, Erin. I believe we have the one. I’ll be seeing you in two hours with the ladies for the cake tasting. My assistant already provide you with the address, right?”

“Yes. Yes. Thank you, Oakley, oh my god Charlotte is going to be the most beautiful bride.” Erin’s eyes were teary and that made Charlotte teary too, then her besties were handing out tissues to one another before Oakley smiled and ended the call a few minutes later.

There were happy tears as they look at Charlotte. She was smiling and feeling extra happy with her best friends surrounding her on one of the happiest days of her life. Lately, there have been many of those. But then their moment of happiness was distracted by Lexie who was looking very pale when she was back after she excused herself to take a call just minutes before.

“Lexie? Is it Harley? Is everything okay?” Dee was the first one to notice and naturally, she asks about Lexie’s son while Charlotte was still busy getting fussed over by Oakley and one of the ladies who was attending to the fitting of her perfect dress.

“I… I need to go back. My son,” She stuttered but tried hard to calm herself down. “Oakley, you have my measurements, right?”

Oakley looked at Lexie with a concerned face but nodded regardless. “Yes, dear, they have already taken everyone’s including yours. It’s okay if you need to leave early. I’ll text you what you missed later. But, is everything okay?”

“It’s… it’s okay, I just need to go, right now.”

“Lexie? What’s wrong.” Now, Charlotte was getting worried seeing the panic set on her new best friend’s face. Yes, Charlotte and Lexie have been getting closer and she had invited her into the mix of her besties from Babes. And though sometimes Lexie couldn’t make their coffee dates, Charlotte would still meet her at the library and they’d talk.

Charlotte knew something was bothering her and she knew Lexie had a dark past behind her. Though she respect her privacy and never ask about it, now Charlotte wished she had so she’d know what had bothered Lexie.

“Are you sure? Do you need to call someone? You can take Burke, I’ll get Keegan to pick us up later.”

“N-no I’ll be fine,” Lexie didn’t look fine, she looked like she was about to break down. Bree hurriedly came forward and hugged her, then within seconds Lexie just fell apart.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry… this is your day, and I’ve ruined it.”

Charlotte didn’t reply to her, but she called Burke to come and get Lexie before she gathered her dress and told Oakley to help her out of it. “This is the one, I want this dress. Get one of the ladies from the store to get this off me I need to do something about Lexie.” She half-whispered while Lexie looked like she was about to have a panic attack.

Oakley was quick to help her and Charlotte was back in her clothes within minutes while he carried her wedding dress carefully and arranged everything with the boutique staff to get the dress altered to Charlotte’s size before it is delivered to Seamus’s residence.

The girls huddled around Lexie while they wait. But instead of Burke, Keegan was there in less than ten minutes since strangely he said that he was around the neighborhood.

“Keegan, thank you for getting here so soon.” Charlotte pulled Keegan aside before she continued. “It’s about one of my best friends, Lexie. I think something bad is happening. I need you to protect her, I don’t know if it’s her husband, boyfriend, or some crazy neighbor. She never tells me anything. But she worries about her kid. He’s at school and she needs to pick him up. Can you please help her?” Keegan didn’t say anything as he absorbed everything that Charlotte was telling him.

He looked at the red-haired woman, who seemed like she was about to fall apart while the rest of the women tried to calm her down, assuring her that everything was going to be okay.

“You need to stay here until I say otherwise. Burke is not your guard. He’s your driver. I’ll get another guy to cover for me. Promised me.” Keegan looked Charlotte in the eyes and she huffed before nodding quickly agreeing to anything as long as it was Keegan who was going to take care of Lexie. Charlotte wanted the best man for the job and Keegan was it. She felt better if Keegan was looking out for Lexie.

“I’ll wait here, promised. I’ll call Seamus myself, but please… take care of her.”

Keegan nodded quickly and let Charlotte introduce him to her best friend the second the three women around her parted. By then he realized that he knew her. A long long time ago. It took all his got to school his face and look unfazed.

Her eyes. He could never forget her sad eyes. Even when they were kids she would look at him the same.

But she was not Lexie to him. She was the one that he failed to protect. She was the one that he left behind.

“Keegan?”

He nodded not revealing her true identity since Charlotte knew her as Lexie. Whatever mess she was in, he was determined to let himself in. He was not a kid anymore. This time he can save her. This time he will save her.

“You know him?” Charlotte was a bit taken aback but Lexie stuttered her reply.

“I… um… we…”

“We dated, a while back.” Keegan lied easily and her face let out an awkward smile, filling the strange tension between them. “Give me a minute then I’ll escort you to where you needed to. I’m going to call Burke and Seamus to arrange someone to fill my post.”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Charlotte knows that Seamus always had someone watching over her every time she left the house, though she thought it was always Burke. But Seamus had been extra cautious since Gannon was arrested telling her that he might retaliate. Charlotte also knew the kind of business his family was in and she assumed that he had enemies that might want to hurt him and people around him.

“Alright then, ladies, let’s continue our day and onto our next appointment,” Oakley herded all of them once Keegan was out the door with Lexie and Charlotte had ended her call to Seamus.