His Drama Queen

Nicole Vargas

“Minha filha, you look so gorgeous. Que beleza, ela não é Santiago?” My mother squealed as she took me into a warm embrace. Her perfume was so strong, I had to sneeze.

“She is.” My dad agreed as he smiled at me. His face was beaming with pride. “We have made the most beautiful feijão in the world.”

“I’m not a bean anymore, Papai.” I laughed as I hugged my mom back. She looked incredible in her white long sleeve dress. She even had her hair done. “Olá mãe, how was the flight?”

“It was horrendous. I told your dad to book us in business class, but he accidentally booked us in economy class.” She huffed as she crossed her arms around her chest. She narrowed her eyes at my dad who just shrugged his shoulders in response.

“You could have upgraded to business class and what happened to the private jet?” I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

“Business class was full.” My dad said. “Our airport is under construction. We cannot use it until next month.”

“That sucks, but I’m glad you made it tonight.” I was so happy that they could make it to my very first fashion show. Today my mom had an art exhibition and dad needed to go to Thailand for a meeting, but they all canceled it for me. I couldn’t be more grateful.

“Of course.” My dad laughed. “I would cancel anything for you only to see your successes.”

My mom looked around the room, her eyes analyzing each and everything. “It’s amazing what you have achieved in less than a year. I’m so proud of you. Where’s Ethan bytheway?”

The smile on my face disappeared and the pain in my heart welled up again. “He uhm… he can’t make it tonight.” I lied to her. There was no other thing I could say right now without me breaking down. It took a solid hour to redo my makeup after Ethan left. Mom looked at me suspiciously. “That’s weird.” She mumbled as she looked at my dad. “Don’t you think, Santiago?”

“No, not at all.” My dad answered casually as he straightened his tie. “He’s a busy man, meu amor.”Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“I know, but he could have at least cleared his schedule for Nicole.” my mom huffed out.

I took a deep breath before I spoke up again. “Mom, it is fine. Go take a seat, the fashion show will start in a couple of minutes.”

After my parents walked away to find their seats, Rose came up to me. She looked stunning in a red cashmere dress and louboutin heels. If it wasn’t because of the wrinkles on her face, one would still think she is in her late forties or so.

“Have you seen, Ethan?” She asked as she stopped in front of me. “You look absolutely beautiful.” she gushed as she spun me around. “Hot even.”

I laughed. “Thank you.” I answered, smiling. “And as for Ethan, he is not coming.”

“What?” She stared bewildered at me. “You invited him didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” I said quietly, hoping she would not interrogate me any further.

“I thought you guys were doing great.”

“Well I may have said some things today that uhm might have hurt him?” My answer came out more as a question. But it wasn’t a question, it was a statement. He did got hurt by what I said.

“Oh goodness. Nicole.” Rose pinched the bridge of her nose. She looked at me with pity in her eyes. “What did you say to him? I hope you can fix it after the fashion show.”

“We are on a break.” I blurted out. There was no reason to hide this from her. Might as well just spill it right her, right now

“You suggested that?” she asked, knitting her eyebrows in confusion.

“Yeah.”

“Why would you do that?” Rose wailed and gave me a playful slap on my shoulder. “Why Nicole, you two look so great and I already had the wedding planned in the back of my head and—,”

“I–oh, the fashion show is about to start. I have to go backstage to the models.” I hurriedly walked away from Rose and her rambling. She will eventually know the truth, Ethan will tell her. And talking about fixing it. I don’t even know if it’s a possibility anymore.

I will just leave it up to fate.

Backstage was a disaster. Models, makeup artists, seamstresses were running from one side to the other.

“Miss Vargas, you’re finally here. How do you tie this strap? I have tried so many ways, but the model looks funnily in it.” She pushed a blonde haired girl towards me who looked totally uncomfortable in the dress. Poor girl.

I let out a deep sigh and untied the dress. I carefully then tied it again, following the steps I wrote down in my sketch book. “There. Does it feel right now?” I asked her as I spun her around to face me.

The blonde nodded her head and smiled at me. “Thank you.”

“Now, go stand in line. You will follow after the girl in the blue dress.” I pushed her towards the stage as I continued to look around for models who needed my help.

I helped as many models I could as possible and when I was finally done, Rose ran towards me. “Nicole, it’s your turn to walk on stage!” she yelled out of breath.

“My turn?”

“Yes, yes. You need to walk with the models. You are the designer after all. Hurry up.” She dragged me towards the stage.

Before I could climb the stairs to the stage she held my hands and looked adoringly at me. “I’m so proud of you, Nicole.”