She hung it next to the awful blue and green pieces he’d been making. When Victor saw it, he’d paused and had stepped back to study it, as if seeing it for the first time. He picked up a piece of the white fabric and fashioned a bandeau and held it up beneath the jacket.
“Looks great,” Carly had said instantly, although she couldn’t tell what he was doing.
“It does,” June had agreed, just as quickly. Carly looked at June. June looked at Carly. They knew what they had to do here.
“You can still do this, you know,” Carly had said softly.
Victor had stood for a long moment, rubbing his hand back and forth over his head. “Yeah,” he’d said at last. “But I cut up most of the white.” He dropped his hand. “I’ve ruined everything. I don’t know, Mom. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to ruin everything.”
“Oh, Victor,” June said, and put her arms around her son.
Carly laid her hand on his back. “We can fix this, you know. You work really well under pressure, Victor. And we can get more white fabric.”
“I’m still pretty handy with a sewing machine,” his mother added.
Victor sighed. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “Okay. Okay.”
He went to work immediately and removed the blue and green cabana wear and had begun to piece together what he could. With June on a sewing machine—the woman had mad skills—and Carly doing cleanup or whatever could be managed with a thread and needle, Victor worked around the clock to cobble as much of his original collection together as he could.
When Carly left for home very late Tuesday night, he had seven pieces. His original collection had ten, but seven would work. His models were all still booked. All he had to do was get on the plane for New York.
When he didn’t show up for the seven A.M. flight, Carly didn’t allow herself to panic. As long as he was in New York by four, in time for the photo shoot at Couture, all was well. It was quite possible he’d overslept—she nearly did. She kept telling herself that all the way to New York.
In New York, she made her way to Naomi’s, buzzed in with the code, and used the key Naomi had given her the last time she’d been in town. She called Victor. There was no answer. She thought that meant he was on a flight.
But Victor didn’t show up to New York by four. Carly canceled the Couture photo shoot and emailed Ramona her sincerest apologies.
Not surprisingly, she couldn’t get Victor on the phone after that, either. Or June, for that matter.
Carly looked at the cute green pants she’d brought to wear out tonight. She’d been looking forward to this girl’s night out for the last two weeks.
Naomi was late from work and flew in. “We have to do a quick change. Tandy and Juliette are already at this great new restaurant we discovered in Chelsea. Cuban and Japanese fusion. Isn’t that crazy? Anyway, it’s going to take us forever to get there.” She’d grabbed Carly in a bear hug. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she said. “We are going to have so much fun when you move to the city. I can’t wait.”
Carly tried to smile as Naomi peeled off her work clothes. “What?” Naomi asked as she shimmied into a skintight silver dress. “Why are you looking like that? Why aren’t you dressed?”
“I can’t go.”
“What? Why not?” Naomi cried. She rushed to the mirror in her room and began to fluff her dark hair. “You’re in New York, Carly. You have to come.”
“I want to come. You have no idea how much I want to come. But I can’t, Naomi. My client is . . . not cooperating.”
Naomi paused and glanced back. “What does that mean?”
“He hasn’t actually made it to the city yet.” Just saying it made her feel like a failure.
Naomi looked confused. “What, is he in Jersey or something?”
“No, he’s still in Austin,” Carly admitted. “I mean, I think. All I know is that he was supposed to be here today and he didn’t show.”
Naomi gasped. She shook her head. “I don’t know why you are keeping him around, honestly, Carly. It’s like one thing after another with him.”
“Well, for one, he is the only one who is paying me right now. And two, Victor Allen is truly a remarkable designer.” She still believed that. Watching him work like he had the last two days, and how quickly