The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,56

I had done several retail launches together before, and her store was again on the top of my list for this new line release. But since this shop was so exceptionally beautiful, I had a special purpose in mind for it. I explained my idea to her, and by the time I finished, she had one hand clasped over her heart and the other over her mouth.

“You okay, Meg?” I asked her when she looked like she might be having some kind of episode.

“Yes, sorry,” she said, taking her hand away from covering her mouth. “It’s just such a really beautiful idea. In all my years of running this store, I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure of being part of something so magical.”

“So you’ll help me then?” I asked.

“Absolutely!” she answered enthusiastically. “Thank you for letting Closet Magic and me be a part of this special moment.”

I stood up and shook Meg’s hand. I had a lot of work to do now, even more than what I first had on my plate. But that was okay because this would be more worth it than all the other things combined. I raced back to my office to enlist the help of my design team, which I didn’t think Hensley even needed anymore since she had all of her friends helping from F.I.T. As expected, they were all too eager to jump in. I threw in an monetary bonus to show my gratitude. Then I texted Hensley to let her know that Closet Magic was being withdrawn from the display list and that she and her friends didn’t need to go to that store anymore to set up the merchandising.

“Aww, that’s a bummer,” she texted back. “Closet Magic is one of my favorite stores. What made them back out?”

“They had a conflict with another designer that they had already booked,” I lied. Well, it was kind of a lie but partially true.

“That sucks,” she said. “Surely, the conflict couldn’t be as exciting and important a display like the ones for our line.”

Oh, you’d be surprised, I grinned to myself.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it, so just stay the course on the ones you’re already doing.”

“Okay,” she texted back.

I gathered my little team and the supplies we needed, and the five of us headed back to Closet Magic together. When we got there, Meg had already had the previous display cleared, so we essentially had a blank canvas. We would be using the main storefront window, which was just large enough, but not too big to be overwhelming. It was the perfect space to turn into a magical fantasyland forest. My crew of designers had brought me the trees and sparkling light strings and even a carpet of faux moss that they unrolled and trimmed to fit the space of the window’s ledge. One of the designers had used deep, rich shades of crepe paper to make fanciful flower buds to stick into the trees and little crafted mushrooms that surrounded the entire area. When the area was all set up and ready, I stepped back to look at it and thought that it was perfect. None of my designers knew what this would be used for; the only person who knew was Meg, and she was great with keeping secrets.

“Okay, so the launch is on Monday,” I said to Meg as we got ready to leave. “We’ll be here right after the launch.”

“I’ll make sure that everything remains just as you left it,” she said as she roped off the area from regular mall shoppers. “And I’ll have all the sparkling lights turned on as soon as you text me and say that you’re on your way.”

“Thanks, Meg,” I said as I hugged her.

After we had left and were heading back to the office, one of my crew asked me why I was keeping this particular display a secret from Hensley.

“It’s more than just a display,” I answered. “I guess I would say that it’s interactive.

Now there was only one more thing left to do, and it was something that I had to do alone.

“Hey, are you still busy working?” I texted Hensley.

“Yeah, probably going to be working on this stuff pretty late tonight,” she answered right away. “How about you?”

As much as I wanted to see her and have her lay all curled up in my arms, I had to do this other thing. “Yeah, same here,” I said. “Guess I won’t be seeing you tonight?”

I watched