when he was not with Hazel. This morning, he was lying curled up in a ball with his back to the world, his snout in the corner of the kitchen.
Her other depressed pup was Victor. June had called Saturday morning and asked Carly to come to the studio and help her try and talk some sense into her son. Carly was beginning to hate that damned brown couch in his studio, because Victor had taken to lying on it, and did so almost all of Saturday. He had fallen into a funk and hardly spoke, and when he did, it was to tear himself down. He questioned his talent. “There wasn’t that much competition on Project Runway, not really.” He would not listen to arguments to the contrary.
He stared off into space with his sad puppy dog eyes. At least Baxter closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
Carly and June had tried to give Victor a pep talk. Or rather, Carly did. Like any mother would be, June was both alarmed and disappointed, and in her helplessness, she couldn’t help snapping at him. Carly couldn’t imagine what it was like to watch an insanely talented son piss away all that he’d accomplished.
When rational talk didn’t work, June turned to shouting. “Get up off that couch, Victor Daniel Allen! You don’t know how lucky you are, you don’t appreciate the opportunity God has given you! You ought to be on your knees right now, thanking the Good Lord for steering you to this point.”
“Don’t shout at me,” Victor said. “I’m sorry, Mom, I really am. I know you sacrificed so much for me, but I just can’t do this right now.” He covered his head with a pillow until his mother yanked it out of his hand.
Carly tried a more positive approach. “All great artists have moments of self-doubt, Victor, and you’re a great artist, and you’re having your moment. You just need to give yourself a little time to refill the well. Take a break if that’s what you need,” she’d urged him, ignoring June’s murderous stare. “Just a couple of days. I know that if you take a couple of days and think it through, you’ll come out of that break stronger and more motivated than ever before.”
Honestly, Carly didn’t know what she was saying. She was throwing out platitudes and words of encouragement hoping that something would stick. In all her years at public relations, no one had ever told her what to do with a client who didn’t want his work to be promoted. No one had ever told her how to deal with someone who was depressed.
“You’re the one who keeps saying I don’t have time,” Victor said accusingly to Carly, and he was not wrong about that. “You keep saying that I have to come up with something because we’re going to lose opportunities.”
“Yes,” Carly agreed. “I did say that. But now I have a better idea! That’s what I do.” She said that brightly, as if she were confident in what she was doing. She was not confident—she could see everything crumbling before her. She’d already screwed things up with Couture. Ramona was not going to give her another chance if she flunked this one.
She desperately sought her memory banks for any motivating gems she’d picked up from Big Girl Panties.
“You guys don’t get it,” Victor said, and rolled onto his back, staring up at the water-stained ceiling and exposed ductwork. “All it takes is one bad design, one bad moment, and that’s it. No one will want my designs then. I’ve seen it happen. So, like, it doesn’t matter how much time I take. What matters is what I put out there, and I keep thinking about that, and I keep thinking that these looks are not the right thing.”
“But, Victor, you loved these pieces,” his mother said. “You can’t please everyone.”
“That’s right,” Carly agreed. “The only person you can truly please is yourself. That’s what you’ve been doing and look where it got you! So many people want your clothes. So many people follow you. Everyone wants to see what else you’ve got.”
“You have to at least try, Victor,” June said. “If you don’t at least try, you’re going to burn everything down.”
Carly winced. She was afraid June was right, and Victor would burn everything down, because he’d bought some shiny aquamarine fabric and at some point had made a signature blouse, complete with the oversized shoulders and long sleeves and