“Hi, I’m Robin, you must be Carrie.” Dumbstruck Carrie nodded.
“I am Nico’s assistant. He asked me to give you this”
She must think I am a complete idiot as Carrie could only nod again and took the envelope from her hand.
The envelope contained a large white card. A gold letter D embossed on the front which she opened to reveal the handwritten note.
“Carrie,
I would be delighted if you would join me this evening.
I have arranged with the help of Robin for your every whim to be taken care of today.
The team will help you select a dress, shoes, bag, everything that you may need and if it’s not there let Robin know. She will take care of it.
Robin has assured me the best team will be there for your hair and make-up too.
Terri is in full support of using the Inn for your day so don’t worry about that.
Enjoy every minute and call me if you need anything. Anything at all.
Nico X”
“Wow,” she said aloud. The first words that Robin heard her mutter. He put a X on his note. The first X in their communication. The she re-read the note again aware that Robin was waiting in the hallway.
“Sorry, let’s start again.” She apologised.
“That was very rude of me. I’m Carrie,” she said holding out a hand. “Nice to meet you Robin”
Robin summed her up in those few minutes and guessed her boss had made the right choice, this time.
“Hi” she returned, “I’m Robin, delighted to meet you.”
“Great, can you give me a minute just to get my phone? Come on into the room, excuse the mess, housekeeping haven’t been yet.”
Robin stepped into the room. What mess? Apart from an unmade bed the room was tidy. She had left her apartment that morning in a far worse condition.
“Oh look at the state of me. I’m surprised I didn’t scare you away!” She said as she caught sight of her reflection. She put the card from Nico securely away in a drawer out of sight.
“I’m just going to tidy myself up before I meet anyone, if that’s okay?”
“Carrie, this is your day, the clock isn’t running. We have until 7.45pm when Jay will be collecting you.”
“Thanks, I won’t be long.”
Within five minutes Carrie had changed into a long sleeve shirt over a pair of leggings and black ballet pumps. She tied her hair back in a pony and managed to brush her teeth. Phew.
“That’s me”
She picked up her phone, surprising Robin again. She had expected still to be in the room waiting on her boss’s new friend for a lot longer.
“Great, let’s get started.”
They walked downstairs to the parlour and Carrie passed one of the house keeping staff.
“Sorry, Rona, my room is ready whenever you are; I hope I haven’t kept you back today.”
“Hi Carrie, no problem, thanks for letting me know. Heading over there now.”
Surprise number three for Robin. Talking with the owner of the Inn earlier Robin had surmised that Carrie was well thought of for a guest and now Carrie was chatting away with the staff. She was very down to earth and her opinion was growing the more time she spent with her.
They stopped in front of the parlour.
Carrie held her breath and Robin found herself doing the same.
“Are you ready?”
Carrie nodded and Robin opened the double doors.
Carrie gasped. The room was transformed. Although it was still the parlour where she had enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies a few cosmetic changes had been made to alter the room to a salon. Yards and yards of white chiffon were draped across the doorway for privacy. The aroma of a beautiful large bouquet of white roses and gardenias greeted her along with several scented candles. White panels were positioned blocking off the room into separate areas. A large rack had a multitude of dresses hanging along with a table which had shoes and bags which normally she would be salivating over. There was a beauticians table set up with an assortment of nail varnish and equipment for a pedicure. The next table a mirror hung next to a hair dressing station. She counted five people excluding Robin.
“Oh My” Doris Day strikes again.
“This is amazing. Thank you everyone for taking the time to do this today.”
Robin sensing that Carrie was beginning to feel overwhelmed took over.
“As you know everyone, Carrie needs to be ready for 19.45hrs. Its 11.30am now. Let’s get started. We’ve a lot to get through. Carrie are you ready to shop?”
Carrie nodded her head.
“Let’s have a look at some of the dresses and we can work your hair and make-up around that.” Robin guided her over to the clothes rail.
“Okay, sounds great”
Beautiful dresses in a multitude of fabrics and colours greeted her. She ran her hand over the edge.
“I don’t know where to start” she confessed.
“That’s okay Carrie, that’s why everyone is here for you today.”
“Hi Carrie, I’m D’von, that’s D’von without an E,” he spelled, “And I will be showing off your best assets! Let’s look through what you like and what you don’t like on offer” Carries eyes followed the voice that boomed across the room.
“Hello D’von, nice to meet you”
D’von was very sharply dressed. Tailored trousers, a white shirt rolled up and bright red braces. His hair closely shaven to perfection along with his trimmed goatee beard. He shook her hand which felt tiny in his palm.
“We are going to make you look POW!”
With his help slowly Carrie began to relax and discarded the dresses that she felt were too short or that didn’t suit her body type.
“Mmm, I understand, you have a tiny waist, knock out legs but we don’t want your Ta-Ta’s out on show!”
Carrie began to laugh. Her Ta-Ta’s wobbled too as she laughed. It broke the ice in the room.
“No we can’t have that, it just wouldn’t do”
Thirty minutes later they were ready to start trying on some dresses. Carrie found it difficult to stick to the brief as most of the dresses she liked were less formal for the occasion but just as stunning. D’von joined by Robin and some of the team insisted she try them on. Egged on her confidence growing she tried on a beautiful silk Balmain designer halter neck dress in soft shades of grey and pink. The dress was fitted at the waist with a front split that made her legs go on forever. She picked up a pair of strappy black heels to try on with the dress. A curtained area had been sectioned from the room offering her the privacy to change. D’von helped her with the side zip. Pulled her hair from the pony tail and told her to shake her head to give the hair volume.
“Come on Carrie, show them what you got” He encouraged.
“Wow, that’s beautiful Carrie,”
“Yes it is a lovely dress Robin, even the Ta-Ta’s are hidden! But I don’t think its right for tonight”
“I agree, shame though!”
The dress was added to the reluctant discarded pile. Carrie pulled on a dressing robe and returned to reviewing the dresses with D’von.
Time for dress number two.
A Dolce and Gabbana gold lace mini dress. It was fabulous, sexy but for Carrie too short. This she tried on with black lace and suede pumps.
A wolf whistle sounded.
“I love it D’von but again it’s a bit short for me.”
“Carrie your legs look amazing in that dress” But sadly it too joined the discarded pile.
Dress number three had a similar response to number two. It was too short.
It was a vibrant fuchsia colour Marchesa mini dress with lots of embellished jewelled beads and crystals on the neckline.
“Hold it there Carrie, I have just the dress”
Carrie was beginning to panic none of the dresses seemed suitable enough although they were all lovely in their own unique way. She was tempted to buy them herself but didn’t think she would hav
e much use back home for them.
She stood in the little changing area waiting for D’von to return and overheard a couple of the team talking.
“She’s different, not like that Lea bitch ordering us all around! Dropping clothes everywhere, fix my hair, fix my make-up. Fix it or get fired! Where is my coffee? Get me my coffee. Ya ya ya. Enough already.”
“Yeah, glad that one’s been kicked to the curb. Who knows how long this one will last?”
“Yeah who knows? At least she isn’t bossing us around to get her some coffee!”
Their chat pierced through Carrie. So Nico had done this before? Was this part of his seduction routine? Send in the ‘Pretty Woman’ team? She had felt like a character in a movie. Transformed from plain to pretty well she wasn’t going to class herself as a prostitute if she was true to the story!
She discarded the robe and put on her clothes. Fury raging through her. She pulled aside the curtain to the back of the room and made a quick exit. Walked through the back of the parlour away from everyone behind the partition and out onto the veranda.
As Carrie marched into the gardens of the Inn, D’von pulled back the curtain at the changing area.
“I have found the most perfect dress for you Carrie. You are going to love it!.. What? Where are you?” He was still holding the dress when he returned to the open area.
“Where did Carrie go?”
Robin was working on her laptop and looked up. “What? I thought she was waiting for you in the changing room? She didn’t come back out here” They searched but Carrie was not in the room.
“What happened here? Nico will kill me! I’m trying to prove to him I can be the perfect assistant here in the East Coast. He will fire me at this rate.” Robin wailed.
Robin re-dialled Nico’s number. He had been calling discreetly wanting updates on how things were progressing and this would be a major problem.
“We have an issue, Carrie has disappeared” she confessed.
In the garden Carrie took out her mobile and dialled Nico’s number. It was busy. Great. A standard voicemail announcement prompting her to leave a message. She didn’t trust herself to remain civil and hung up. She checked the other office number that she had updated on her contact list from the business card he gave her.
They wouldn’t let her speak to him. She wasn’t on his approved list of callers. No ifs ands or buts despite trying to explain Robin was here with her now to validate her credentials as an approved person. All attempts were rebuffed.
“I’m sorry; I can’t connect your call. If you are not on the approved list of callers we have to terminate any nuisance calls trying to get through. Mr Devanti is a very busy man.”
“But I’m not a nuisance” Carrie was left with the buzzing of the dial tone. She had hung up on her.
Carrie was livid. The kind of blood boiling rage type of angry was coursing through her at that very moment. Somehow she had walked through the gardens in her temper and was now sitting on the bench that surrounded the large oak tree. She did what she always did when things got bad. She called her big sister. The phone was answered within a couple of rings.
“Hi Carrie, this is early for you, what’s up?”
Then she proceeded to promptly burst into tears of anger, frustration and disappointment. Through the tears she tried to explain what had happened this morning.
“So, tell me again. He sets you up with ‘let’s play at dressing up’ then you find out it’s a routine thing for him?”
“Uh uh,” Carrie agreed.
“Give me that creeps number and I will speak to him.”
“It’s okay Claire; they probably wouldn’t let you speak to him anyway! But you can’t fight my battles for me on this one. We aren’t back in the playground. This isn’t the same as Tommy Young pulling my pig tails until I cried!”
“Carrie, I will always be in your corner. You know that.”
“I’m going to go and wash my face. Then call his mobile again. I need to deal with this myself. Okay?”
“Okay but call me later”
Tansie was taking her break and on the phone to Monique discussing the dance that evening. “Monique you should see the parlour, it’s all been decked out for Carrie” Then she spotted a weeping Carrie. “Hold on, I’ve just seen Carrie and she doesn’t look very happy, I will call you back.”
She walked through the perfectly manicured grass that was cut without fail twice a week.
“Hi Carrie how are you?”
“Oh Hello Tansie”
Tansie saw the blotched marks on her friends face from crying.
“What the hell is going on? Who upset you?”
Carrie explained what she had overheard. Trying to contact Nico and her call being rebuffed. How foolish she felt.
“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.” She led Carrie back through the staff entrance. Carrie used the staff rest room to wash her very blotchy pink face.
When she returned to the staff break out area a mug of coffee was waiting for her.
“Think you need your caffeine fix”
“Thanks Tansie”
Tansies phone began to ring it was Monqiue.
“Hi I think we need reinforcements here, can you come up to the Inn? Yes, I know you are getting your hair done for tonight. Come up when you can.”
This time it was Carries phone that began to ring. An unknown number. She hit reject and returned to her coffee. The staff room door opened and Terri walked in.
“Hi Tansie, I thought you were going home? Oh Carrie?” She looked in surprise. “I thought you were in the parlour for your make over for tonight”
“Long story Terri, I’ve abandoned ship”
“I may as well keep busy and make some cookies.”
“Can I help Tansie? I love to bake.”
“Sure, let’s keep you busy too! Let me just check the pantry for the ingredients I think today is going to be a white chocolate and coconut day.”
Carrie was unaware that Tansie had signalled for Terri to join her. Whilst they collected the recipe ingredients Tansie updated Terri on this morning’s events. Armed with the butter, eggs, flour, coconut and chocolate chips they returned to Carrie. Terri now fully updated. Something had to be done as Carrie couldn’t avoid the parlour indefinitely. She was surprised when Nico had asked for her help he had appeared to be sincere in his request to give Carrie this experience. The present outcome wasn’t looking good.
Now Carries phone rang. The caller ID flashing Nico.
“Excuse me a moment ladies, I need to answer this and I don’t want to use colourful language in front of you”
Carrie was retreating back out the staff doorway into the garden once more.
“Thank god you are alright, Where are you?”
“Not that it is any of your concern but I am still at the Inn”
“What? I’ve had people looking for you. You had me worried sick Carrie. You can’t just walk away without telling anyone.”
“Listen, I tried to call you okay. But I’m not on your ‘list’ of approved people. So get those facts right before calling me out”
“That’s not right Carrie. I did give your details for approval. I will deal with that now and I’m not happy that you couldn’t speak to me when you called. What happened? I thought you were okay.”
“Mistakes happen. I tried your mobile too and it was busy. I didn’t just drop off the face of the earth.”
“Carrie, I live a public life. There are people out there who will try and exploit those close to me. I have to protect those people I care about and I care about you. When you left today I was worried something more sinister had happened”
“Nothing sinister happened. But answer me this. What you’ve done today for me. The dresses, makeover team etc. Have you done this before?”
There was silence on the line as he paused to answer,
“Not like this Carrie. The hair and makeup, yes for family and friends if the event needed it. But today was
for you.”
“Okay, I believe you. I got the impression this was a standard thing to do. It made me feel cheap.”
“That was not my intention. I want you to feel special today Carrie, never cheap. What was said to upset you so much?”
“I don’t want to discuss it any further, it won’t change things.”
“If that’s how you feel. But I would like to ensure it’s not repeated. Are you ready to go back and pick your dress?”
“I’m kind of busy right now, making cookies with Tansie.”
“I think Tansie can manage on her own but I still want you with me tonight Carrie. Why don’t I tell Robin to let everyone go for lunch and you can return in say 30 minutes?”
“Alright, I think I can do that”
“Great, now please call me if you decide to change your mind and this time your call will get through!”
Nico placed his phone on his desk. The call with Carrie finished. Thank God she was okay. She didn’t understand the risks of disappearing. He redialled Robin’s number.
“Robin, she’s in the kitchen. Been at the hotel the whole time. Your team didn’t look very far. I’m dealing this but Carrie called my office and didn’t get through. She wasn’t on the damn approved list. I gave you her details last week Robin. I am not happy about this.”
“I’m so sorry Nico. Let me check it out here. I’ve got access to the systems from my laptop. I will let you know what the error has been. Are we still going ahead? The team is all on standby here.”
“Yes, tell everyone to take a 30 minute break for lunch and Carrie will be back then.”
Carrie returned to the kitchen.
“I think it’s sorted now, he asked me to go back in about 30 minutes. Give me a chance to finish the cookies with you and get my head together.”
Tansie gave her a long look.
“You okay Carrie? If that’s what you want to do. Monique is coming soon and I think we will join you for a bit of moral support”
“Thanks Tansie, I think I’m having a wobble about facing those people again after I’ve just made a fool of myself.”
“Carrie you have nothing to feel foolish about. Now grab that spoon and get mixing, it will help you loosen up a bit!”
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