by K. A. Linde
She sighed heavily and then took a seat next to Rowe. “Just sit down, Penn.”
“Let him brood,” Katherine said with a hand wave. “It’s what he’s best at.”
Rowe snorted. “So true.”
“Mmm,” Katherine said, raising her glass to Lewis. “Excellent bartender.”
“Pleased to be of service.” He shot her a mocking smile and then sank into the couch, kicking his feet up on the coffee table.
“Uh, no,” Rowe said. He pointed at Lewis’s feet.
Lewis snickered and then dropped them back down to the floor.
“Penn, sit,” Lark said again, “so we can get started.”
“God, Penn, listen to the woman,” Katherine groaned. She shifted in her seat, wincing slightly as she slid from her hip to her backside. “We’re not going to bite you. Not unless you ask us to.”
I casually took a seat, and said, “Didn’t get enough biting from Percy the last month?”
Katherine narrowed her eyes as she adjusted her seat again. “Let’s not.”
“You can give it but can’t take it?”
Lewis rolled his eyes across from me. “Look who’s talking.”
“You’re perfectly aware that I take as good as I give,” Katherine said with a note of pure seduction to her voice.
“Good lord,” Lark groaned.
I heard her words, meant to remind me of times we had been together, but that all seemed like a lifetime ago. Why I’d ever played her games, I had no clue.
“Or did you already forget, love?” Katherine asked. She sat up and then hissed, jumping off of her ass and then slowly settling back down.
“Having issues sitting?” I asked with a shake of my head.
What exactly had she and Camden done during their month in the Maldives?
Lewis snickered.
“I’m fine,” she bit out.
But my eyes were trained on Lewis. Anger flared in my blood.
“Have something to say?” Lewis asked. He grinned like a fool and leaned back on the couch as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He was enjoying this. Enjoying my anger.
“We’ll see,” I said, masking my irritation behind a blank expression. He’d know it for what it was, but I hardly even cared at this point.
“Look,” Lark began, “I don’t like calling a meeting, but our crew has been shit for the last year. And I’m tired of feeling like I’m choosing sides whenever I hang out with any of you. Can we get everything out in the open and learn to move on?”
Everyone was silent at Lark’s admission. Because none of us wanted to say no to her. We all hated it. She was the conciliatory member. The one who always brought us back together, who always managed to mediate our bullshit. But even Lark couldn’t do it this time.
“We’ve been through worse than this,” Lark continued with a note of disgust in her voice. “Don’t you all remember junior year when Hanna left? That was our lowest low. If we can get over her committing suicide, then don’t you think we can stick it out through this? I knew this bet was a bad idea. I tried to tell you. And now, look at us.”
“It’s not the bet,” Katherine said. “It’s Natalie. If these idiots can agree to stop fighting over her, then we’ll probably be fine.”
“Natalie is not the issue,” I said at the same time Lewis said, “That’s not happening.”
“I like Natalie,” Lark said with a sigh. “She’s a sweet girl, and the bet was cruel. But I think the real issue is that we took the damn bet too fucking far again. Again. So can you stop fighting for a minute to get us back together?”
“We’re not The Beatles, Larkin dear,” Katherine said, swirling her martini. “We’ll be fine. Plus, after I crushed little Natalie, she’s not going to be a further problem.”
Lark glanced over at Katherine. “You haven’t seen Page Six the last couple of weeks, huh?”
“What did I miss?” Katherine asked.
“Natalie is here to stay. She’s becoming like…an it girl,” Lark admitted.
Katherine actually cackled. “Well, good luck with that. I’m back now. Things will go back to the way they’re supposed to be. No one will care about her when I’m done with her.”
“Stay away from her,” I snarled. “Both of you.”
“Oh, please tell me that you’re not trying to get in her good graces again,” Katherine said, bored and disappointed.
“Natalie is going to come around to me again anyway,” Lewis said with such utter confidence. It was amazing to me that he was deluded enough to even say it.
“You ruined her career.” I rose to my feet, glaring at him.
“And then put it back together,” he said with a shrug.
“It doesn’t work that way after you stalked her.”
“She doesn’t even believe that. It’ll be fine.”
Katherine gagged. “You two are seriously disgusting. Why her?”
Rowe cleared his throat to keep anyone else from responding. All our eyes turned to him in surprise. He hadn’t said anything since the meeting started. Lark was relieved that someone else was going to jump in.
“Just wanted to let you all know that I’m dating someone new,” Rowe said, looking up from his computer and meeting our gaze. “His name is Nicholas. Thought I’d let you know before I bring him to Fashion Week.”
We all stared at him for a heartbeat before everyone else joined me on my feet.
“That’s great,” I said at once.
Katherine’s eyes were enormous as she gushed all over Rowe. “A boyfriend? Oh my god, finally! I’m so excited.”
“So cool, bro,” Lewis said.
Lark just smiled as if she had already known. Which she probably had and it was part of the reason that we’d all been called together.
Getting details about Nicholas out of Rowe was basically impossible. He hated the spotlight, and talking about himself was a foreign concept. But it kept the heat off of everyone else, and so he endured it. Telling us how they’d met, when it had started, and how serious it was.
And somehow, something changed in the room.
Did we have problems? Yes.
Were we utterly fucked up because of that damn bet? Yes.
But here, in this moment, we were something else. Something more than just a group of fucked up, entitled, poor little rich kids. We were together again.
I might hate Katherine and Lewis for what they’d done to Natalie. I had every intention of stopping them from ever doing it again. But I also fucking loved them in some strange way. Like they were a part of me. And I was a part of them. Like family.
We were tangled up together more than I’d ever even realized.
For the first time, my loyalties felt conflicted. And I was glad I hadn’t told Natalie I was coming here.
Part III
Revenge Is A Dish
Chapter 15
Natalie
“Welcome to the Cunningham Couture event,” a lithe woman said at the VIP entrance to the runway show. “Let me assist you to your seat.”
“Thank you,” I said with a smile, handing her my invitation.
“Ah, Miss Bishop, wonderful. You’re seated in the front row, next to Harmony Cunningham and Jane Devney, who are both already in attendance. Do you need help to locate your spot?”
I leaned in and saw Jane and Harmony chatting it up like old friends in the first row. My heart pounded. First row! Elizabeth had given me first row. Of course, we’d talked about setting me up with one of the few reserved spots, but I hadn’t thought that it meant sitting with her daughter of all people. That was sure to make an impression.
“No, I see them,” I told the woman and then entered the large room.
I was halfway to Harmony and Jane when they noticed me approaching and waved.
Jane stood and kissed each of my cheeks. “You made it. Look at our seats. Perfect, no?”
“The best seats in the house,” I agreed.
Harmony pulled me into a hug next. “So
good to see you again, Natalie. My mother has been raving about you since New Year’s Eve.”
“It’s so good to see you. Your mom is so kind.”
Harmony giggled. “She likes to invest in the right people. And I have to gush over your outfit. So, so cute.”
I ran my hand down the black cigarette pants that I’d paired with a white blouse and a forest-green jacket. “Thank you. Jane was the one who said I should get these pants. She has incredible taste.”
“Doesn’t she?” Harmony said with a grin as I took a seat. “Should be almost time to go. Do you all have plans to see more runway shows or shop the boutique pop-ups?”
Jane dished out all the invites that she’d received for Fashion Week and which boutiques she had to see before they left. It felt surreal that I was even here right now. I knew I wasn’t supposed to take pictures while the show was going on, but I snapped a few shots now, including one or two of the incredibly famous celebrity couple seated across the runway from me. Then I texted the whole lot of them to Melanie, who I knew would be green with envy.
My phone immediately pinged with a slew of texts from her. Most of them calling me horrible names for being there when she wasn’t. Of course, I didn’t point out that I had invited her to live with me, and she’d declined because of her boyfriend. She was talented enough to get into design school in the city, but she’d turned them down for him.
“This is Natalie’s first Fashion Week,” Jane said, pulling me from my phone.
“What?” Harmony gasped. “I can’t believe it. This is my, oh, who even knows how many anymore? Hundreds, I swear. But the first year that I’m not walking in any of them.”
I remembered all of Penn’s lessons about how to act and look and appear to other people. Always confident. Never letting them see my nerves. Careful to keep myself under control. Haughty if everything else failed. This was my first real test of the lessons that we’d had up to this point. I knew the gala would be something else altogether. And this was more like a test run.
I shrugged one shoulder. “Yes. This is a whole new experience for me. Not my typical area of art.”
“Right. You’re an author,” Harmony remembered.
I nodded. “Why aren’t you walking this year?”
Harmony wrinkled her nose. “It was time, I think. I’m going to take up the mantle of Cunningham Couture with mother for the spring/summer 2020 line show in September. We’ll start on it after this event.”
“That’s going to be so good for you,” I said.
“The brand is expanding so rapidly. It’ll be great to have another Cunningham on board.”
“Thanks for your confidence,” Harmony said, brushing back her sheet of blonde hair. “Oh god, what is she doing here?”
I followed her gaze and saw none other than Katherine Van Pelt striding into the now-full room. The poor woman who had told me where my seat was frantically rushed after her. As if Katherine wasn’t supposed to be in here.
“Ma’am, please, all of the VIP seats were assigned weeks ago. Mrs. Cunningham put them in place herself. You are not supposed to be seated here.”
Katherine whipped around and said something low to the woman. I assumed it had to be vicious because the woman blanched and then retreated to where she had been standing. She had made a big enough scene to draw attention, but when the woman walked away, everyone went back to what they had been doing.
Except my trio. We all stared at Katherine, waiting.
“She is not welcome,” Harmony muttered under her breath.
“It looks like she has an invitation though,” Jane pointed out.
“Maybe it was a mix-up,” I offered, keeping my face neutral. A perfect blank mask taken straight out of the Upper East Side.
That was the moment that Katherine found me seated in the front row of Elizabeth Cunningham’s New York Fashion Week runway show. Her eyes narrowed. Her perfect cherry-red lips pursed in disapproval. Her entire stance snapped into predator mode. And then she was walking toward me about to take me head-on.
I was ready for her. I, unlike her, had anticipated her presence. I’d prepared for what I would do and how I would act if and when I ran into her again. Because I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t been waiting for this moment since I stepped back onto the scene.
Now, she was here. And I was sitting in her place. The only thing that would hold her back was the crowd. I had to keep from smirking at her as I stayed one step in front of her.
“Natalie,” she hissed when she reached where I was seated with Harmony and Jane.
“Oh my goodness, Katherine,” I said with faux excitement. I rose to my feet and wrapped my arms around her thin shoulders. “You’re back from your honeymoon. Did you and Camden just have the best time? I cannot imagine how wonderful it was to have a whole month alone with him in the Maldives. Nowhere else to go. Nothing else to do.” I secretively lowered my voice and winked. “Except each other, of course.”
Katherine took a step back from me, as if surprised by my enthusiasm. As if I’d thrown her by not digging my claws into her back like she deserved.
Jane stood, too, with a real smile for Katherine. “Tell us everything. How was it? Look at how tan you are.”
“It was…perfect,” she said with the passion of a slug baking in the sun. “I am just so glad to be back now though. Get back to my city. And there seems to have been some error.” She held up her invitation. “It looks like you’re in my seat, Natalie.”
I put a hand to my chest. “I’m sorry you think so. But no, when Elizabeth and I spoke after the children’s art foundation charity event, she assured me that I’d be seated with Jane.”
Katherine tilted her head in confusion. “The…children’s art foundation event?”
“Oh yes, very important work,” I said with a smile.
“You were at the charity function?”
“Of course.” I fluttered my eyelashes at her for good measure.
“Look, you need to go sit somewhere else. I always sit in the front row. Elizabeth has been dressing me for the last two years. She assured me I’d have this seat.”
“Can’t do that,” I said with a smile. “But maybe there’s room in the general seating if you hurry.”
Katherine glared at me. Her brown orbs turning almost black as she looked like she wanted to do anything to cut me down. “That…is not possible.”
“Maybe next year,” I said with cheer. I patted her shoulder twice and then sat next to Harmony.
I turned to Harmony as if we were best friends and ignored Katherine standing there like a fish out of water in the very place she had always considered her own element.
“So, tell me more about this design work you’re planning on,” I said to Harmony.
Katherine reached out and grasped my shoulder. Her voice was low. “Natalie, what the fuck are you thinking?”
I brushed her hand off of my shoulder like she was a fly. “Thinking? I don’t know what you mean, Katherine. I can’t help that you don’t have a reserved seat. Take it up with Elizabeth, I guess.”
Harmony finally looked up at Katherine with complete apathy. “Better luck next year, Katherine.”
Katherine balked at us both, straightening to her considerable height. I could see the emotions roiling through. Everything she wanted to do and say. But there were too many people. Katherine liked to hide her destruction. She didn’t want people to see it in the light of day. She was too perfect to do anything else. Only her friends and the line of people she’d taken down knew her true self. If she wasn’t careful, someone might come along and make her pay for what she’d done.
Finally, Katherine stomped away, not admitting defeat as she railed at the person with the seating chart. But she was gone. And I’d won that round.
As soon as Katherine was out of sight, Harmony burst into laughter. “Oh. My. God. Natalie, that was brilliant. I have never seen anyone handle Katherine like that before.”
Even Jane was giggling. �
�Seriously, how did you do that?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t do anything,” I lied. “She didn’t have a seat. It wasn’t my fault that she attacked me when she thought I’d taken her place for the show. That’s delusional on her part.”
“Yes. But I’ve seen a lot of people fold to her demands. And you actually turned your back on her. Genius,” Harmony said. She grasped my hand and squeezed. “Katherine and I have a fraught history. She’s a horrible person, and she did everything she could to make my life miserable for so many years. Anyone who can stand up to her like that is a friend of mine.”
“I’m so sorry that she made you feel like less than you are. I’ve had that same experience with Katherine. And I decided I wouldn’t take it any longer. Maybe you should do the same.”
“You’re so right. She’s just so intimidating. I usually try to avoid her.”
“Well, no more avoiding. If you avoid, she wins. We should stick together. And then maybe she can stop intimidating every person she thinks is in her way.”
Harmony smiled broadly as the lights flickered overhead, announcing the start of the show. “I like the way you think. What are you doing after this? I have a few boutique pop-ups that I have scheduled. You should come with me. I can tell you some crazy things about Katherine Van Pelt.”
“That sounds like a plan,” I agreed.
And like my plan was finally beginning.
Chapter 16
Natalie
The applause was deafening. Everyone in the entire room was on their feet, applauding Elizabeth’s latest collection of fall and winter apparel. The line of waifish models stood onstage, looking like a row of dolls on display. Elizabeth was stunning in her own right as she bowed for the crowd and took credit for the works of art before us.
Cheers died down, the models returned backstage, and soon, everyone was milling around or rushing off to their next show or meeting or boutique event. I’d learned before showing up that Fashion Week was essentially a mayhem for anyone in the industry. It was a make-it-or-break-it experience for careers.