The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,9

was okay in person? That sounded like something your boyfriend would do, not your boss or your buddy. Again, I told myself that I was entirely overthinking things. Of course, it was something a buddy would do, or even a well-meaning and decent boss. I was just stupid.

“I’ll get dressed, and I’ll be at your office as fast as I can,” I said as I went to go open the door back up for him so that I could hurry to get ready and not delay the meeting any longer.

“I’ll wait,” he said as he went to go sit down on my narrow sofa. “I’ll drive you in since I’m already here anyway.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “Don’t you need to hurry to get back to the models before all hell breaks loose?”

He laughed. “Trust me, hell is already loose. Take your time; we’ll leave when you’re ready.”

“Okay,” I said as I shrugged and smiled.

Nice, now I got a ride into the city as well. Maybe I should be late more often—kidding, of course.

I hurried to put on clothes and brush my hair and teeth. I didn’t really ever wear much makeup anyway, so at least there wouldn’t be more time wasted on that.

“Hey, do you have any coffee?” Arlo called from the kitchen.

“Uh, kind of. It’s not made yet, but there’s a bag of coffee in the cupboard above the coffee pot.”

After a couple of minutes, I could hear the sound of coffee percolating from inside my bedroom. How funny that he was taking the time to make coffee while he waited on me. Surely, he had already had several cups of a much better brew than the crappy beans I had. When I walked out of the bedroom, ready to go, he handed me one of my travel mugs that he must have found in a cabinet somewhere. He had one in his other hand for himself, too.

“I promise I’ll wash it and give it back,” he said.

“After costing you a few hours of work time today, I think the least I can do is let you have my coffee cup,” I joked.

He laughed and then helped me carry the portable clothing rack and all the garment bags filled with incredible pieces out to his car.

“How in the world did you get all this done so fast?” he asked in amazement.

“I work fast when I’m inspired,” I answered.

“You must be pretty damn inspired,” Arlo said under his breath.

After we had gotten everything into the car, I slid into the passenger seat, and Arlo stopped to look at me before starting up the car.

“What?” I asked when I saw that he clearly wanted to ask me something.

“How were you going to get all that stuff into Manhattan on the subway?” he asked. He was looking at me as if I were some sort of alien with my nose in the wrong spot on my face.

“How do you think I got it all back to my apartment to begin with?” I said. “I drove the garment rack carrying all the clothes in garment bags straight onto the train. Trust me, it wasn’t the strangest thing most people have seen on the New York City subway.”

Arlo laughed as he started the car and then glanced at me with a look of astonishment. “You really are a lot more ingenious than even I gave you credit for,” he said. “Or crazy.”

4

Chapter Four (Arlo)

Driving to work with Hensley was more of a treat than an inconvenience. Now that I knew she was all right, my stress level had knocked down several notches, and I was able to relax. I didn’t know why I had flown into such a panic when I hadn’t heard from her. It was just so unlike Hensley to not show up at work, and I couldn’t concentrate on anything at all until I knew that she was okay. I wasn’t at all upset about the fitting running late. Honestly, it would probably be good for those models to have to wait on someone besides themselves for a change. They could all use for their egos to get knocked down a few notches, too.

During the drive into Manhattan, Hensley and I talked about the runway show for a while, and then our conversation got sidetracked into a million other random whims, as it frequently did between the two of us. The drive over the bridge was my favorite part of the commute because she stared out at the water for