The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,58

I wouldn’t be seeing any of them for a while, which was a stupid thought, considering we all worked in the same industry inside the same city. I guess I thought that New York City was bigger than it actually was.

She looked up at me in the window and stared.

“So this is what you’re doing now, Arlo?” she asked him. “You’ve traded live models for store mannequins and a girlfriend? That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?”

“How’s Cai?” Arlo asked as he quickly changed the subject.

I was sure he didn’t want to get into a heated discussion with her about how limited options were without any models. At this point, I was glad that the models had walked out. I was enjoying this new concept and felt the creativity and collaboration flowing with the display projects. I thought it was opening up a whole new avenue that we hadn’t thought of before. I bet that if Kerynne knew her quitting had actually helped us, it would probably piss her off.

“He’s fine. Luckily, the doctor was able to set the broken bone in his nose so there won’t be any permanent damage.”

“I’m very glad to hear that,” Arlo said genuinely.

There was an awkward moment while Kerynne stood there, and neither knew what more to say before she finally just turned and walked away. I thought that she had been headed into Closet Magic, to begin with, but then changed her mind. Eventually, all of us would have to figure out how to navigate each other’s presence in the fashion industry, since none of us had plans to leave it anytime soon.

* * *

By the time the stores had received the retail shipments, the windows were ready, and they were already catching the eyes of city-goers. People stopped in the stores and asked where they could find the clothes in the windows, even before the boxes were unpacked. Arlo was getting calls at the office nearly from the first day. The designs were set on the racks, already ordering more shipments in anticipation of running out. I stopped by each and every one of the window displays each day that week to check up on them just to make sure they didn’t need any small tweaks and also just to have some fun. I took selfies in front of the displays and even crawled inside one or two and took backward selfies through the glass with onlookers on the sidewalks.

It was so much fun that, at times, I couldn’t believe this was my job. I was finally getting paid—and well, thanks to Arlo—to be doing exactly what made me happy. I took the pictures and threw them all up on social media outlets that I had created for myself as a freelance designer, and within hours, pictures and short video clips started to trend and then go viral. I was getting messages from designers and companies halfway around the world who were interested in my talent. I brought up some of the proposals with Arlo, as we sat and celebrated the successes with an intimate dinner at his apartment.

“You can’t tell me that you’re considering taking these offers, right?” he asked. “I mean, they’re amazing, and I’m so happy for you that you’re receiving so much notoriety, but you’re still hired by Luscious. You’re not leaving me, are you?”

“Of course not!” I said. “I was just sharing all of the proposals so we could see if any of them would be something you might be interested in getting Luscious involved in. That way, maybe we could bring in a few new international clients together.”

I took a sip of my wine and said something entirely without meaning to. Maybe it was the couple of glasses of wine that I had already, which clouded my judgment and made me bolder than I usually was, or maybe it was just the persistence of truth that had been waiting and was ready to come out. Either way, I soon regretted saying it.

“I couldn’t leave you,” I smiled. “I love you.” That was not at all how it was supposed to happen.

Arlo looked at me in shock as he held the wine glass to his lips in a frozen, reactionary stare. I hadn’t meant to say that then, it just sorts of fell out of my mouth, and I wasn’t sure why it chose that exact moment to do so. The truth was that I did love Arlo, so much that on most days, I had trouble concentrating