And now my lips are falling open, surrendering to the onslaught of his. And he’s kissing me hard and long and sweet, and I’m clinging to him because my knees have given out entirely and his arms are the only thing holding me up. And his tongue is in my mouth, like he can’t taste me enough, and I can feel something hard pressing against me through the fabric of his trousers. And his hand, the hand he hit Andy with, is cupping my breast through the silk of my mandarin dress, and I want him to cup more of me, and I make a sound…

“Christ, Lizzie,” he says in a voice that doesn’t sound anything like the way it usually does.

And the next thing I know, he’s lifting me up and putting me down again on top of the closest wine cask, and somehow my legs have fallen open and he’s standing between them. The front of my dress is open, too. I don’t even know how he did that because those snaps are supposed to be hidden. And I can feel his fingers-and the hot sunlight streaming in through the high windows-on my bare breasts.

And I can’t stop kissing him, or running my fingers through his thick dark hair when his mouth starts traveling down my throat, then dips below to scorch the skin on my breasts. All the places where the sun is touching me, his lips are touching me, too.

Until suddenly he mutters, “Christ, Lizzie, you haven’t got on any underwear,” and I say, “I know, I didn’t want visible panty lines,” and he puts his lips there, too.

And on top of the cask I feel as if the sunlight is piercing me all over-but piercing me in a good way-and I look down through half-lidded eyes and think how bizarre it is that Luke de Villiers’s dark head is between my legs-but bizarre in a very good way-and then I don’t think about anything at all for a while except the sun, which seems to have turned into a supernova, right there inside Monsieur de Villiers’s cask room.

And then Luke straightens and wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me close against him and my legs wrap around him and I feel his naked chest beneath my fingers and wonder how. And then he’s inside me, thick and hard, and it feels even better than when his mouth was there, and we’re moving against each other in just the right rhythm, with him burying himself more and more deeply in me, and me trying to get closer and closer to him, and he’s kissing my neck and shoulders where the sun is hitting me, and suddenly there’s sun all over me, like I’m being showered in golden sun drops, and I cry out at how good it feels, and Luke does, too.

And then as he stands there, holding me slickly to him and panting in my hair, I realize that we just had sex on a wine cask.

And that it was fantastic. I didn’t even have to worry about taking care of my own good time! Luke totally made sure I had one. Or two, actually.

“Have I mentioned,” Luke wants to know when he’s caught his breath, “that I think I’m in love with you?”

I laugh. I can’t help it.

“Have I mentioned,” I ask, “that the feeling is mutual?”

“Well,” he says, “that’s a relief.” He doesn’t move, and neither do I. It feels good to stand like that. Or, in my case, sit.

“I should also probably tell you,” Luke says, “that I decided to go ahead and enter that program I got into at NYU.”

I wonder if he can see my heart leap inside my chest. Although I try to sound casual.

“Really?” I say. “That’s funny. I’m moving to New York, too.”

“Well,” Luke says, leaning his forehead against mine and smiling, “isn’t that a coincidence.”

“Isn’t it, though?” I say, smiling back.

A little while later, we slip hand in hand from the cask room just in time to see the bride and groom cutting the multitiered cake. Agnes, spotting us first, rushes over with a tray of champagne glasses, and we each take one and stand, side by side, as Vicky and Craig feed each other the first piece.

“I hope they don’t cram it into each other’s faces,” I say. “I hate when they do that.”

“Plus,” Luke says, “then you’ll have chocolate stains to get out.”

“Don’t even say that,” I say, shuddering, and hug his arm.

“Why, hello,” Shari says, appearing, with Chaz in tow, a minute later. “Where did you two disappear to?”

“Nowhere,” I say quickly, blushing to my hairline.

“Oh, right,” Shari says with a knowing smile. “I’ve been there.”

“What are you talking about?” Chaz, clueless, wants to know. “You’ve been here the whole time. I’m the one who had to take that freak to the train station. I’ve decided that from now on, Lizzie, I’ll be screening all your boyfriends. You can’t be trusted to choose your own.”

“Is that so?” I say, exchanging an amused glance with Luke, who puts his arm around me.

“I’ll give you a hand with that, Chaz,” Luke volunteers. “I think Lizzie is more than you can handle on your own.”

Chaz, spying Luke’s arm around my shoulders, narrows his eyes at us.

“Hey,” he says, “what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain it to you someday, baby,” Shari says, patting him on the arm.

“Nobody ever tells me anything.” Chaz pouts.

“That’s because you’ve got to go straight to the source,” Shari says.

“Which is?”

“The LBS. Who else?” Shari says, tipping her head in my direction.

Which is right when an extremely tipsy Ginny Thibodaux spies me and hurries over to plant a kiss on my cheek.

“Lizzie!” she exclaims. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I wanted to thank you for what you did for my Vicky. That dress-it’s beautiful! You know you’re a lifesaver, don’t you? I’ve never seen anything like it. Why, you ought to open your own business!”

“Maybe,” I say with a smile, “I will.”

In conclusion, we have seen the important role fashion has played in the development of world culture and history. Starting from strips of fur worn for warmth and protection by cavemen gathered round a fire, to Prada shoes worn for their beauty and cachet by the modern working woman at a cocktail party, fashion has, over the centuries, come to be one of man’s-and woman’s-greatest and most interesting accomplishments.

This author in particular looks forward to seeing what surprises and innovations await her in the world of fashion-and beyond-in the coming years.

History of Fashion

SENIOR THESIS BY ELIZABETH NICHOLS