The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,25
just walked out of as if staring at it would somehow make her materialize there again. “You just had another model cancel.”
She backed away as if she thought I was going to self-combust. I sucked in a deep breath and then exhaled it fully as I rubbed my temple and shook my head.
“Okay, here’s what I need you to do.”
She pulled out her notepad and pencil to jot down what I was about to say.
“Call Kerynne and tell her that I will pay all of them double salary if they can find me, two female replacement models. Then send a dozen pink roses over to Hensley’s workshop at F.I.T.”
“Are you sure you want pink ones? Red ones are so much more romantic,” she suggested.
“Hensley is a friend that I am trying to bridge a disagreement with so she doesn’t walk out on this runway show like all the models seem to be doing.”
“Okay,” she said.
I could tell by her “okay” that she didn’t believe a word of it. She could tell there was something more than friendship in my eyes.
“Make them pink,” I said. “Not red.”
“Okay,” she said again, this time in complete compliance.
I went back into my office to look at the samples that Hensley had dropped off. I unzipped the garment bags one at a time and laid them onto the desk. They were incredible. Even with how rushed she had been and how tired I was sure she must have been getting, the pieces were absolutely perfect in accordance with my vision. I couldn’t lose her, not as a designer or a friend. I had to fix this somehow.
“She has one model for you.”
Suddenly my secretary’s voice seemed to be able to project all the way through the office building.
“Okay, thank you,” I shouted back. “Not two?”
“Nope, just one. You’re still short one.”
Ugh, maybe I should have just agreed to let Hensley do it. It would have prevented the whole argument that we had just had, avoided her leaving here and thinking that I thought she was too hideous to be seen on stage, and filled the still remaining spot that I was short on a model for the show. The show was only a few days away. I needed to get my act together.
“Flowers are sent!” she shouted down the hallway again.
I placed all the samples back into their bags and zipped them all up. Then I left them inside my locked office and headed out. I let my secretary know I was leaving for the day and then headed back to my apartment to work on getting the show’s logistics organized and the plan made for the roll-out, which would follow. I would spend the rest of the evening working from home and text Hensley in a little while to see if she had gotten the flowers and was ready to talk to me again.
After I had everything in line, then the rest of it should be relatively on auto-pilot. In the morning, I would head back over to Hensley’s workshop to return the samples and give her the go-ahead to contact production and get things moving. The only problem that still remained was the one missing model and the one damaged dress; all things considered, that was pretty damn good. I knew Hensley would get the dress fixed, and then I would talk to her again about entertaining the idea of letting her model at the show. I still didn’t like it. I didn’t like how Cai kept trying to cozy up with her and how she seemed not to notice him weasel his way in. But that was Hensley; she never seemed to see when guys were into her.
Including me.
9
Chapter Nine (Hensley)
I went straight to F.I.T. after I had left Arlo’s office to work on fixing that dress. That way, I could be done and caught up with everything I needed to do until he had approved the samples. That way, I could go back out with Cai again tonight and wash away all my feelings about Arlo thinking I’m not pretty enough to model with a round of rainbow shots.
Fortunately, the blood had only spilled on one section of the skirt, so I removed it and replaced it without too much of a hassle. Once I was finished, I put it inside a new garment bag and headed back to drop it off at Arlo’s office. My hand was still throbbing from the cut the night before, but I really didn’t care.