Christmas at Tiffany's

by Karen Swan

  Chapter Seventeen

  The doorbell buzzed insistently. Both Cassie and Luke wriggled further beneath the duvet rather than face the insolent morning that was trying to wake them so early, like a toddler wanting a five a.m. breakfast.

  It buzzed again.

  ‘Urgh, what time is it?’ Cassie moaned, her slender arm reaching out from under the goose-down and patting the bedside table for the clock. They’d been up – down, all around – till four, and, having both booked the day as holiday, had no plans to stir before noon. She was vaguely aware of using Luke’s torso as her pillow.

  8.42 a.m.

  ‘Tell me this is a dream. A really, really bad dream . . .’ His voice faded back into sleep.

  The buzzer again.

  ‘Oh, for God’s sake!’ she muttered, sitting up crossly and throwing the duvet back so that they were both uncovered.

  Luke shielded his face from the sudden brightness of the overcast November morning, but made no other attempts to move. ‘Ignore it. They’ll go.’

  Again.

  ‘That’s it!’ she said through gritted teeth, focusing enough to see the door and make her way over to it.

  ‘Who the fuck is it?’ she shouted angrily. Working for Bebe had taught her a few choice words.

  ‘You swear now?’ came back the startled voice.

  There was a stunned pause on both ends of the speaker system.

  ‘Suzy?’

  ‘Not just . . .’ purred another voice.

  ‘Nooks!’

  ‘So are you gonna buzz us up or what? Because I could kill for a coffee and it’s bloody freezing out here.’

  Cassie pushed the entry button in a daze. Luke was sitting up in bed, his hair one entire matted mess, woken at last by Cassie’s flabbergasted tone.

  ‘It’s the girls! They’re here!’ she said in a panic, looking at the state of the two of them. Both nude, hungover and reeking of sex. Quickly she sprinted across the floor and pulled on the first clothes she came to – his blue boxers and the grey cashmere jumper she’d so coveted the night before. Suzy was right. It was a cold morning. She was just pulling on his socks when the heavy steel door swung open and she found herself staring at her two supposed-to-be-far-flung best friends.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she screeched, skittering over to them, slipping on the floor slightly.

  ‘You buzzed us in, remember?’ Suzy smiled, hugging her hard. Anouk, in a grey rabbit-fur jacket, was especially cuddly.

  ‘I mean, what are you doing in New York?’ she laughed.

  ‘Sweetie, do you not know what today is?’

  ‘A write off? It was Thanksgiving last night.’

  ‘Precisely. And today is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year,’ Anouk said, pulling off her fawn leather gloves.

  ‘We’re on official Christmas business,’ Suzy beamed. ‘That’s what I told Archie, anyway!’

  Cassie stared at them both in shocked delight, still scarcely able to believe that she was awake after so little sleep, much less chatting in person with Suze and Nooks.

  ‘I just can’t believe it!’ she kept repeating.

  ‘And are you going to introduce us?’ Anouk asked, motioning towards the equally dazed, naked man sitting up in bed, watching the reunion.

  ‘Oh God, yes, this is Luke, my boyfriend.’ She clapped a hand over her mouth. ‘Sorry, honey,’ she said quickly. ‘I mean he’s my—’

  ‘I’m her boyfriend,’ Luke smiled.

  ‘I’m Suzy,’ Suzy said, waving from afar. ‘I’d shake your hand, but you’re . . . naked. Husband probably wouldn’t approve of that.’

  ‘Probably not.’

  ‘I don’t care if you don’t,’ Anouk said, walking forward and offering her teeny hand. ‘Anouk Montparneil.’

  ‘Luke Laidlaw.’ He looked at Cassie. ‘I don’t suppose you could pass me a dressing gown?’ he asked, grinning boyishly. ‘I’m feeling rather . . . vulnerable.’

  Cassie threw him the navy waffle robe from the bathroom door.

  ‘I’ll go take a shower, let you girls get reacquainted,’ he said, happy to escape.

  The girls watched him in silence as he disappeared into the bathroom.

  ‘Oh my God, he’s gorgeous!’ Suzy stage-whispered, eyes wide, as the door shut.

  ‘Very sexy,’ Anouk drawled. ‘Your taste in men has improved immeasurably. As has the way you dress,’ she said approvingly, looking at Cassie’s borrowed get-up. ‘I like it.’

  Cassie looked down sheepishly. ‘Yuh, well, we were – you know, sleeping.’

  Suzy chuckled and started walking around the huge open-plan loft. Steel beams ran across the ceilings, the stripped wood floors were dusty and unvarnished, exposed brick walls were hung with galleries of black-and-white prints – some Luke’s, others by Herb Ritts, Bruce Weber, Man Ray and Annie Leibovitz. The kitchen was just a stainless steel preparation counter and a jumble of plain white cups and crockery stacked on industrial shelves. A very expensive Italian coffee machine took pride of place on the polished concrete worktop.

  ‘Ah, just what I was looking for,’ Suzy said, walking up to it and looking at it from all directions. She looked back at Cassie. ‘Any idea how to work this thing?’

  Cassie smiled. ‘Sure. You too, Nooks?’

  ‘Bien sûr.’

  Cassie made them all coffee – it had taken a week of living in the loft almost full-time before she’d mastered the damn thing – and they collapsed on the black suede sofa, the arm of which Anouk instantly began stroking like a pet.

  ‘So how did you find me here?’

  ‘Kelly gave us Luke’s address when we told her of our plans. She said you were here almost all the time now.’

  Cassie smiled shyly. ‘Yeah, things are going well, so . . .’ She felt rather embarrassed to be so evidently happy, so soon after everything that had happened with Gil.

  ‘We’re all really pleased for you,’ Anouk said, guessing her state of mind. ‘It is absolument the best thing for you right now. Some fun. Some flattery to rebuild your confidence.’

  Cassie nodded. Fun. That was all it was.

  Then she remembered what had happened last night. ‘Uh . . . when did you speak to Kelly last?’

  Anouk and Suzy looked at each other. ‘Two days ago? Something like that.’

  Cassie nodded. ‘And is she . . . going to join us today?’

  ‘Yup. Brunch at Sant Ambroeus at eleven. You know where that is?’

  ‘Sure, coffee shop on Madison.’ Good. She wouldn’t have to keep the secret for long.

  ‘Look at you – knowing your way around Manhattan and living in a trendy loft with a sexy photographer,’ Suzy said. ‘Dare I say it, you could pass for an urban animal.’

  ‘Who, me?’ Cassie laughed. ‘Nah. I’ll always be a square, the nerdy one.’

  Anouk shook her head. ‘Not from where I’m sitting.’ She lowered her eyelids. ‘Paris is going to love you, chérie.’

  ‘Shhh,’ Cassie said, looking behind her to make sure the bathroom door was still shut. ‘You’re not allowed to mention Paris in front of the boys. They get upset.’

  ‘Boys?’

  ‘Bas too. It’s the big unmentionable.’

  They nodded in unison, both wondering how she was going to move on to their cities when she was so clearly setting up a new life in this one.

  ‘Well, come along. Let’s get going. We can’t sit around here all morning,’ Anouk said briskly, clapping her hands. ‘There’s shopping to be done.’

  ‘Will Luke be okay about us kidnapping you?’ Suzy asked as she shrugged her coat back on.

  Cassie looked towards the shut bathroom door. Tendrils of steam were escaping beneath it.

  ‘Oh, he’ll be fine. I’ll leave him a note,’ she said, getting up and hunting for her discarded dress on the floor. ‘He’s a big boy.’

  Ten minutes later, the cab stopped outside the telltale red awning.

  ‘Hang on a second,’ Cassie proteste
d as the cab stopped. ‘You said we were meeting Kelly at Sant Ambroeus. What are we doing at the apartment?’

  ‘Well, we are going to be having brunch with Kell there, but there’s something we all have to do first,’ Suzy replied.

  Anouk raised an eyebrow. ‘When she says we, what she means is you.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Come on. Upstairs,’ Suzy commanded. ‘All will be revealed in a moment.’

  Chapter Eighteen

  ‘You’re telling me you’ve flown all the way from London and Paris to watch me do this?’

  ‘Hell, yeah,’ Suzy laughed, looking down at Cassie from her camera phone. ‘I have to record you doing this. I promised.’

  ‘This is not funny.’

  ‘It really is,’ Anouk said as one of the horses nudged Cassie, just about knocking her over. Her balance hadn’t fully recovered yet.

  ‘Do you have any idea how hungover I am?’ she said, eyeing the horse warily. ‘We got through half a case last night.’

  ‘Yeah, but there were five of you, lightweight,’ Suzy riposted.

  ‘Well, Brett doesn’t count. He’s teetotal.’ Cassie sighed and watched Fifth Avenue disappear out of sight. She was going to have to run that, then over the top, back down the other side and along the bottom. Six-point-three miles in total. She wasn’t ready. She wasn’t anywhere near ready. She’d been shirking her training for the past few weeks, her sessions between the sheets with Luke providing more than enough exercise.

  ‘Anyway, Henry never said anything about there being a time limit on when I had to do this, just so long as it was before I left.’ She turned to face them all, hands planted crossly on her hips. ‘And who said I had to do everything on the list, anyway? They were just supposed to be suggestions, ideas, you know? Not a flipping diktat.’

  ‘The sooner you start, the sooner we can all get some brunch,’ Kelly called, keeping her hands firmly hidden below the blanket and not just because of the cold. She’d greeted them at the apartment with her coat and gloves already on. Her news could wait a little longer.

  ‘Tch, bloody bossy, the bloody lot of you,’ Cassie moaned, breaking into a prolonged stumble that gradually became recognizable as a jog.

  The girls cheered from the comfort of the horse-drawn carriage as Cassie ran ahead, her ponytail bouncing from side to side, her legs stronger than she’d given them credit for.

  Kelly gave a commentary along the way. ‘. . . See the Waldorf over there? That’s where Brett took me for our first date . . . And here’s where the marathon ended, it was like being homecoming queen. I managed to run a PB of three hours eleven . . . That street cart there sells the best burgers in Manhattan . . . and over by that bin, that’s where Cassie mugged Henry . . .’

  ‘I did not mug Henry,’ Cassie called back. ‘I can hear you, you know!’

  Kelly winked at them. ‘She totally mugged him.’

  The coffee shop was heaving by the time they got over there. Most of the shops had been open since six that morning – a few had even opened their doors at midnight – and the crowds made the marathon’s supporters look straggly by comparison. All the windows had been dressed for this official start to the festive season, and – overnight – heavily garlanded Christmas trees had appeared inside every doorway, and tinsel and baubles across every ceiling.

  Cassie had run a good time – one hour four – and after a hot shower and quick change back home was eagerly anticipating the coffee and Danishes that she would flagrantly eat in front of Kelly. After all, those gloves couldn’t stay on for ever. As soon as they came off, she’d get the pastries in. No one would be paying any attention to her by then.

  Sure enough, Kelly had only got one glove off when Suzy caught the glint. As someone who spent all her days around brides, she had an automatic scanning ability with rings – usually because they gave her a good indication of the wedding budget – and this was no exception.

  She gave a gasp, holding Kelly’s hand up for closer scrutiny for a split second before crushing Kelly in an exuberant hug. ‘I knew it! I knew he was the one for you.’

  ‘He’s the one for me too with that ring, ’Anouk said drily before blowing her a delicate kiss across the table. ‘How could you bear not to say anything before now?’ she scolded. ‘We’ve been together for nearly two hours.’

  ‘Well, I’ve been ready to burst, I have to say,’ Kelly smiled. ‘But it was important to get Cassie’s challenge –’ she pronounced it in French – ‘out of the way first. And don’t think I haven’t noticed you ODing on carbs over there, Cass.’

  Cass stopped chewing. ‘I’ve got the munchies,’ she protested, her mouth as full as a hamster’s.

  ‘So, how did he propose?’ Suzy asked, desperate for all the details. One of the things she loved most about her job was hearing the engagement stories – the things people did for love. Archie had been particularly inventive, having arranged for ‘Will you marry me, Suzy?’ to be written in shells at the bottom of the Indian Ocean before they went on a scuba dive together. It had nearly ended in tragedy, of course, when he couldn’t find the exact spot, and they’d used up almost all their air circling over the same thirty-yard patch – forcing Suzy into an underwater tantrum – but it had come right in the end. It always did.

  Kelly relayed how Brett had asked for Cassie’s advice on the ring, and she’d come up with the idea of hiding it inside the five-bird roast, whilst Anouk, who had fished a loupe out of her bag – inspected the ring with a professional eye.

  ‘Mmmmm. He has good taste, your boy,’ she said when Kelly had stopped telling and Suzy had stopped cooing, both with tears in their eyes and their hands over their hearts. Cassie was still eating. ‘Cushion cut, four point . . . three carats, I would say; D colour, no?’

  Kelly sighed in amazement. ‘I will never know how you can tell all that just by looking at it,’ she said, staring at her hand again like Cinderella waiting for the clock to strike twelve and everything to return to how it had been before.

  ‘It’s my job,’ said Anouk. ‘And I have some diamonds back in Paris that would make beautiful earrings to go with it. I shall let him know when I meet him, no?’

  ‘Lose no time,’ Kelly beamed.

  ‘And when shall we meet him?’ Suzy asked. ‘We’ve already met Cassie’s man. And by the way, you never said he was all that, Kell. No wonder she couldn’t keep away from him.’ She patted Cassie’s hand.

  ‘You’ll meet him tonight. He’s working today, but I’ve made reservations for us all to go to dinner at Landseer’s and then on to Mischka. Bas too. You’ve got to meet everyone.’

  ‘I can’t wait. Honestly, you all sound like a proper little family out here,’ Suzy said. She turned to look at Cassie with something almost approaching concern. ‘It’s going to be difficult for you to leave, isn’t it?’

  ‘Oh, well . . . I mean, I haven’t really . . . well, I’m trying not to think about it too much,’ she blustered, taken by surprise. It was true, it was going to be hard. She was putting down roots – something she hadn’t expected to happen here – and every time she tried to imagine saying goodbye to Kelly and Bas and Luke, her brain just froze and wouldn’t go there. She could no sooner imagine starting up in Paris all over again than she could being on an expedition to the North Pole.

  ‘But look around you – you have a career here,’ Anouk said.

  ‘A very shaky one,’ Cassie snorted, shooting an anxious glance at Kelly.

  ‘And a new relationship. Plus Kelly and Bas are here.’ Anouk shrugged. ‘It is a lot to give up again.’

  ‘You sound like you don’t want me to come and stay with you,’ Cassie protested, laughing feebly.

  ‘Not at all,’ Anouk replied. ‘If I have my way, you’ll settle in Paris for good. But you seem happy here. I just wonder how many times you can rebuild your life from scratch?’

  There was a long silence as Cassie took in her words. Anouk was right – the ingredients for a full life were falling into
place, and her happiness with Luke was beginning to spill out of the neat little box she’d created for ‘them’ in her life.

  ‘Well, me staying here isn’t on Henry’s list, for one thing,’ she said, reverting to jokiness. ‘It says I have to get to Paris no matter what.’

  ‘That thing? That’s just a fatuous list of dares. God almighty, don’t listen to Henry!’ Suzy cried, almost falling off the chair. ‘Honestly, why would you put any store by what he says?’

  ‘Excuse me! You’ve just flown across the Atlantic to referee me doing something on that list. You’re the ones putting store by it. And anyway, Henry’s seen a lot of the world.’ She shrugged. ‘I trust his judgement.’

  ‘His ju—!’ Suzy spluttered on her coffee. ‘Sweetie, you have clearly forgotten what he did to our clothes that time we went for the midnight swim in my parents’ lake when they threw their twentieth wedding anniversary party. That boy’s not to be trusted, ever.’

  Anouk, Kelly and Cassie burst into sudden laughter at the memory – tiptoeing past the terrace, teeth chattering, modesty protected only by the cushion pads on the steamer chairs.

  ‘God, you’re absolutely right,’ Cassie giggled, slapping her forehead in despair. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking.’

  ‘He’s the devil in disguise,’ Anouk drawled.

  They all tinkled with laughter at the shared memory.

  ‘How is he, anyway?’

  Suzy took a bite of her peach Danish. ‘Well, hmmm . . . things haven’t been so great for him, since you ask. He’s been a bit stressed recently.’

  Kelly frowned. ‘Anything to do with the expedition? Can I help at all?’ She seemed to have forgotten that she was no longer running the Breitling account.

  ‘Oh no, I’m sure he’s fine, just a bit too much going on, you know. I think it’s just a combination of the trip and the wedding. He’s got to get everything sorted before he leaves in April, and we all know organization’s not his strong point.’

  ‘I take it you’re sorting the wedding for them?’ Kelly asked.