The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,18

it than that.

“Hey,” I said to Hensley as I walked in and handed her the dress.

“Hey,” she smiled. “Thanks! I’m glad the dress survived in one piece. How did it go with getting Kerynne home last night?”

“Long and tedious,” I said. “I texted you when I got home.”

“Oh, did you?” she said as she reached into her pocket for her phone. “Sorry, I think I must have missed it. I hit the alarm this morning and then just came right in to get started on stuff.”

“It’s fine,” I said. I was feeling slightly miffed, and I didn’t know why. I was supposed to be apologizing to Hensley for making her stay and clean up last night, and not getting annoyed that she hadn’t responded to my late-night text. I felt like my mood was definitely off today, for a whole host of reasons, and I was trying not to let it get to me. “How’s the production going?”

“It’s good,” she said. “Everything will be done right on schedule.”

“Yeah, so about that,” I said. “The schedule has changed.”

“What do you mean?” Hensley asked as she looked up at me.

“Apparently, there was a mix-up at Madison Square, and they were double booked. So our show got bumped up.”

“How much did it get bumped up by?” she asked.

“Next week.”

“Next week?” she said in a panic. “This isn’t all going to be ready by next week. Not unless you want to just do the runway show and postpone the roll-out of the line for another week after that.”

“No, we can’t do that,” I said. “It all needs to be ready by next week—the runway show, the line roll-out, all of it.”

“But Arlo, that’s going to be impossible.”

“Yeah, I know, but I have faith in you,” I said as I tried to sound positive but was having a hard time with it today,

I stood there and waited as Hensley went to pull out some of the samples to show me. I could hear Cai talking to some of the other male models behind me. I wasn’t sure what the three of them were doing here at F.I.T. today.

“What did she say?” one of the other models asked Cai.

“She said she’d think about it,” he replied. I could hear the prowess lining his voice. “Which means that she’ll come. Hensley hasn’t even been to one of these parties before. Trust me; she won’t be able to resist the chance to go. When I asked her about it last night, her eyes lit up.”

“You always think girls’ eyes light up for you,” the other model said.

Cai laughed smugly. “That’s because they do.”

“So, what’s your excuse for showing up so late to the party last night then?”

“I was helping Hensley take down the photoshoot backdrop.”

The other model sounded shocked. “You helped clean up? Why would you want to do that?”

“It wasn’t planned,” Cai said. “I had no idea she would even still be there. But once I saw how pretty and alone she looked, I figured I would stay to help and try to get a date out of it in the process.”

“What are you guys doing here, anyway?” I asked as I flipped around to interrupt their conversation. “You shouldn’t be here, hassling my designer, or do I need to remind you of your contractual obligations?”

“Relax, Arlo,” Cai said as if we were somehow buddies instead of my being his boss at the moment. “We aren’t hassling Hensley. She invited me. Besides, if you’re that bent on adhering to contracts, you might want to look over Henley’s contract again because I’m pretty sure there’s nothing in a designer’s contract about breaking down photoshoot sets after hours, just saying.”

I was getting ready to put him in his place, but before I had the chance to say anything, Hensley came back with the samples, and Cai and his friends turned to leave.

“See you tomorrow, Hensley,” Cai called to her over his shoulder as he walked out.

“Why was he here?” I asked her.

“Who, Cai?”

“Yes, Cai and his friends.”

“I’m not sure why his friends were here; I think they just came along with him. I asked Cai to come to try on his red-satin suit again. I made the adjustment for him and needed to make sure it fit. It was the last alteration that needed to be done.”

“The crotch adjustment?” I asked.

“Yep,” she said as she started to hold up one of the samples for me to look at.”

“And how was it? How was Cai’s crotch?” I could feel myself