"Madam, this dress really suits you well. You are going to be turning heads. Trust me!" Cassy's flattering voice filled the room, making Gloria, who had never worn such luxury, flush with shyness.
The day finally arrived for her to get the marriage certificate with Xander and she couldn't sleep well.
Never in a million years did she expect that she would get divorced and remarry again in just a week. It still felt like a dream and to make matters more unreal, her second husband was a million times better than the man she lived the majority of her life with.
How couldn't she think that it was all a dream, experiencing all that?
Nonetheless, as she looked at herself through the mirror, she was loving the image of the person she was seeing.
Cassy aroused her from sleeping early that morning. She had trouble sleeping last night because of this matter. By the time she finally fell asleep, it was already too late.
She probably slept around three hours if she wasn't mistaken.
With Cassy at her back, she drowsily bathed before having two stylists dolling her and that woke her up completely.
"Madam, you have great hair," the stylist doing her hair had complimented her about an hour ago, which brought a smile to her face.
"I take great care of it!" she earnestly responded, thinking about the natural hair products that she personally made and was using.
With her affinity for flora, she had a few tricks which worked perfectly fine.
Her hair was long, thanks to the great maintenance she had always done. It reached her midback, and it took her a while to grow it to that length. Perhaps she was influenced by Simon, who always praised her hair and she wanted to make him happy.
But with time, she fell for her long hair and had never wanted to see it short ever again.
The stylist did a chignon on her, which made her look elegant. She nearly failed to recognize that aura emitting from her. She was used to leaving her hair loose, or tying a messy bun and, at times, doing a ponytail.
When she wasn't playing with her naturally like that, she would plait it. Which would save her from the pain of styling.
Her face didn't need heavy makeup and the stylist who worked on her gave her lighter makeup, which didn't seem to be there, in fact. And she loved it. From what she heard from her; it was nude makeup. It made her feel comfortable.
Since it was her marriage day, they put on her a short-sleeved blue maxi dress, which exposed her beautiful neck where a reasonable diamond was hanging.
She looked ethereal. She still felt like she was looking at another person, but this side of hers she knew nothing about. She fell head over heels with it.
It made her feel confident. Way more confident than she had ever felt in her entire life.
"Thank you, Cassy!" Gloria smilingly said as she turned around to face her life assistant.
Cassy beamed at seeing the new spark in her mistress's eyes.
"Since you are ready. Let's go. You still need to have breakfast with the patriarch before leaving for the Bureau," Cassy naturally reported, holding onto her tablet as if her life depended on it.
After accepting the new life and reality, Gloria found Cassy very pleasing to the eyes. At least, she no longer felt that Cassy was a villain.
Gloria hummed in response, a smile still on her face before sauntering towards the door.
Cassy grinned sheepishly as she watched how confident Gloria was before picking the handbag from the bed and dashing towards Gloria to catch up to her.
On her way to the dining room, Gloria met several servants who greeted her respectfully. Something that had never happened in the Willow clan now that she thought about it.
Gloria wasn't one to easily ignore others. So, she responded in return, a smile on her face, and that made the servants like her more.
When she got downstairs, she swallowed her saliva as she licked her lips unconsciously after spotting Xander who sat at the table, looking like a sculpture. Even by just looking at his back, Gloria was finding herself to be more lustful than she thought.
Click. Click.
She calmed her messy thoughts and continued with her walk, her heels clicking against the floor. Making her presence fully well known.
There was someone to pull the chair for her, and she found herself sitting on the right side of Xander.
The man sized her up with a smile on his face, which made her feel shy, but she still opened her mouth and greeted, "Morning, Xander!" her voice crispy and pleasant to the ears.
"Morning, madam," he greeted teasingly, his eyes narrowing sly before adding, "You look ravishing!"
Gloria flushed when she heard that. She shyly looked at the man's broad chest and that gap exposed because of the two unbuttoned buttons and scolded inwardly.
'What a nymph!'
He was always trying to seduce and flirt with her left and right. How could she survive that?
However, Gloria understood that if she continued being shy all the time whenever he teased her like that. She might one day embarrass herself and Xander. The sooner she got used to it, the sooner she could face the numerous obstacles he talked to her about previously.
"Thank you," she said as she collected her calm and added, "You look handsome as well," her tone filled with earnestness, finding him particularly handsome that morning.
Xander seeing her adapting that fast, chuckled as he leaned back in his chair and said, "Let's eat. We have a journey waiting for us!"
And that was the clue the kitchen servants were waiting for.
Shortly after, there were several dishes laid in front of them and the delicious aroma was wafting towards her nose. She was literally salivating.
Minding the beautiful dress on her, Gloria didn't eat like a barbarian but ate accordingly while showing the manners that she at times forgot to keep because of being too relaxed, she might say.
Breakfast went particularly well without any mishap on her part. Once that was done, the two rose to their feet before leaving the dining room and they headed outside, where a black sedan was waiting for them.
Cassy and Rory followed suit but didn't sit in the same car as Xander and Gloria. There were other cars in the entourage.
Once they were inside, the driver closed the partition before pulling the car into the driveway.
Sitting next to Xander in such an enclosed space, Gloria was nervous. Her heart was racing wildly, and she felt her palms sweating. She could only take out the hanky from her handbag to hold. That way, she wouldn't wear the expensive dress that she was wearing.
Xander couldn't help but notice her nervousness and he didn't want his bride to be, to be in such a state.
So, he found topics to converse with her about.
"We will be attending the gala this week. Are you ready?"
Upon hearing that, Gloria, who at some point had forgotten about this matter, shed all her nervousness as she looked at Xander panickily.
"Damn! I nearly forgot about it. What do I need to prepare?" she asked anxiously, recalling that it would be her first time attending such a gala.
Xander chuckled when he saw her exaggerated reaction, but she kind of understood why she was like that. So, he didn't blame her.
"That depends on the kind of outcome you want," he responded teasingly, which somehow put her at ease.
"Phew~" she sighed relievedly before saying, "Um. I don't want to embarrass myself if I am attending," stating what she was mostly worried about, not realizing that for once, she thought about herself more than anyone else.
Xander who always kept a closer look at her, smiled when he noticed that.
"Then I won't let that happen. How about I hire an etiquette teacher for you? She will be very helpful as long as you are willing to learn," he suggested as he fixed the watch on his wrist.
Gloria's eyes lit up when she heard that. There was no problem that couldn't be solved with a teacher's help.
She looked gratefully at him, her eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings, and responded enthusiastically, "That will be very nice of you. As long as the teacher is there. I can learn."
"I will contact one for you. You don't mind starting tomorrow, right?"
"Nope. Even today. I can do it. Just find her as soon as possible! They say that the early bird catches the worm. I won't want to miss a single worm!" she urgently said, looking forward to the new her.
Xander was both happy and relieved, seeing that she was eager to learn and improve herself. He didn't like women who were too relaxed like she was previously. Now she was being proactive and learning to put herself first before others.
Now that's what he calls, 'His matriarch!'