by Lucy Hepburn
“Oh, nothing. Was that it?”
“She says ‘I’m looking for a cab but they’re all taken.’”
“Too right they are,” Christy moaned.
“Um, am I missing something here?”
“I’m sorry.” Christy sat up a little to explain. “Believe it or not, Ms. H is walking along the sidewalk right by my cab, right now.”
“What? No way!” Will shouted down the phone.
“Shh! She’ll hear you!”
“Sorry,” he whispered.
“It’s okay,” Christy whispered back. “She’s, like, surrounded by photographers taking pictures of her every move.”
“Shouldn’t she have a limo or something?” Will asked.
“Who knows what’s going on,” Christy sighed. “All I know is I can’t let her see me—I’m meant to have returned her tiara to her apartment hours ago.” Christy risked another glance at the sidewalk. “Uh-oh, she’s coming over! Gotta go, Will, bye.”
She hung up and sank back almost to the floor of the cab until she was almost completely hidden by the rug, just as Ms. H crouched down, saw Toni, and tapped gently on the glass.
“Don’t…” Christy began, but it was too late. Toni was winding down the window.
“Hey, handsome!” Ms. H’s familiar teasing voice filled the air. “I don’t suppose you could do a favor for a damsel in distress and let me share your ride, could you?”
Nooooo!
Christy knew that Toni wouldn’t be able to understand much of what he had just been asked. She also knew Ms. H. The prospect of not getting her own way would never enter her head.
“Never seen you looking so lovely as you did tonight,” Toni replied, though Christy could hear the uncertainty in his singing voice.
An idea came to her. It could be rubbish, but it was the best she had. Fumblingly she began to text a question to Will.
“Easy, tiger!” Ms. H purred. “You’re really cute! So, what do you say? Can I share your cab?”
Christy swiftly typed out a text to Will: How do you say ‘take the long way round’ in Spanish? Quick plz, then pressed ‘send,’ knowing she was going to have to get herself out of the cab, along with the tiara and the rug and preferably Toni, without Ms. H recognizing her.
If only that rug were a magic carpet, she groaned to herself. Somebody, beam me up out of here!
Toni, clearly playing for time, reached out his hand toward Ms. H’s lustrous, platinum blonde hair.
“Maybe she’s born with it,” he said, his voice low and sexy. “You just stepped out of the salon?” Christy felt a sharp sensation on her arm and realized he had given her a prod, pleading for help.
“Oh,” Ms. H gushed, “it’s mostly natural, you know? Say, are you French?”
Christy had to make a decision, and fast. She took a deep breath.
“Sure thing, missy,” she called in her best worst Texan accent, “you can have our li’l ol’ cab! We’re just gettin’ outta here anyhow!” The voice that squeaked the words was ultra high-pitched with just a hint of manic desperation. Desperate to avoid recognition, it was the best she could do. “Stop here, please.”
“Oh, there’s someone else in here!” Ms. H seemed to be leaning in the window.
Christy turned her head away and squeaked again, “We need to get out here, now! Come on, Toni! Have a nice day, Ms. Spears!”
“Huh? I am most definitely NOT Ms. Spears!”
That should confuse her for a moment, Christy thought slyly, edging herself out of the cab, all the while keeping her back to Ms. H. The driver’s face was a picture of confusion, but luckily he kept quiet.
And just then, in the nick of time, Christy’s phone bleeped. Will’s reply!
Crouching the whole way, Christy shuffled awkwardly up to the driver’s window, and then, shielding her face, she tapped furtively on the glass.
“Lady…this very strange…”
But Christy silenced him with a pleading look.
“Fifteen bucks,” the driver monotoned.
Christy pressed some notes into his outstretched hand. “Here—take forty. Please take the lady back to her apartment.” And then, before he could respond, she swiftly read from Will’s text. “El largo camino ronda, por favor.”
He shot her a sideways look that was filled with suspicion.
“Por favor?” she repeated. “I’m paying for the trip; this lady doesn’t have to pay, okay? El largo camino ronda, por favor?” She knew from experience that it would never occur to Ms. H to pay her way—this was the only hope the driver had of getting any money. The thought gave her some comfort as she put her sneaky plan into action.
The driver glanced down at her midriff, full and round with the concealed tiara box lurking beneath, then up again at her anxious, pleading face. Eventually he sighed, nodded once, and pulled back out into the traffic with Ms. H, oblivious to the subterfuge, texting in the back as the paparazzi began packing up their equipment and dispersing.
Toni, meanwhile, had manhandled the rug onto the sidewalk.
“Game on,” Christy said resolutely. “We can still do this.”
Toni grinned at her. Whatever he thought privately about the day he was having, she knew he was with her all the way.
They had to outpace Ms. H back to her apartment. The rug would have to wait. “Three blocks,” Christy panted, “only three, then an elevator ride to the penthouse on, like, the sixteen hundredth floor, and we’re done with the diamonds. Come on, Toni!”
Her arms ached. Her feet ached. Her brain throbbed from tension and exhaustion. But they were almost there. Even the lights at the crosswalks went their way, for once, and they didn’t have to break stride to cross the bustling streets. Again they found their rhythm, until the bleep of her phone made them reel to a halt in front of a boutique with clothing in the window priced roughly the same as Christy’s mom’s car.
H just tweeted that her Spanish cab driver taking her the long way round – what you up to??
Christy laughed. It was working. Swiftly she replied:
;-)
And they were back on their way—nearly there, just around the corner…
But just as they rounded the bend, Christy had to swerve abruptly to avoid cannoning into an elderly gentleman driving a motorized scooter. Her foot caught the lower sill of the vehicle, knocking her off balance, and she staggered sideways, dislodging the tiara box from under her top and sending it crashing onto the sidewalk.
“No!” she screamed, dropping the rug and diving for the precious cargo. She practically hurled herself on top of it, just as the lid burst open and the tiara bounced out into the street and began rolling away.
“Help—Toni!” Christy shrieked.
His reactions were like lightning. He, too, dropped the rug, leapt to one side, and stopped the tiara’s progress with a deft flick of his foot. Christy, right behind him, fell upon it and scooped it close as the two of them dived into the relative safety of a doorway to regain their composure.
“Oh. My. Goodness. That was close,” Christy gasped, turning the tiara over and over to make sure it was all right. Toni stepped back onto the sidewalk to roll the rug to the side. All around them, New York carried on as before. Christy could hardly believe their luck. She turned to Toni. “Thank you so much—great soccer skills!” She mimed an approximation of Toni’s fancy footwork.
“AC Milano,” he grinned, returning to join her. “We go?”
“Yup, just let me pack this…oh! Nooooo!”
She was just about to close the lid on the tiara box when she saw it: a gaping hole in the side of the tiara, round and black, where there ought to have been a sparkling diamond.
“One has come out,” she moaned, showing the gap like an extracted tooth, to Toni. He exhaled noisily, put an arm around her, and gave her a comforting squeeze. Then he stepped back onto the sidewalk, dropped onto all fours, and commenced a fingertip search of the dusty, grimy
paving stones. Christy, feeling sick with terror, replaced the damaged tiara in its box, pushed it back up under her top, and gingerly followed suit.
“You two lost something?” a kindly woman asked.
Christy looked at her in dismay. She could think of nothing but the truth…and perhaps what would happen to her if she didn’t find this diamond. “A diamond, about this big.” Christy held up her fingers at a pea’s width apart.
“We’ll help you. Come on, girls!” A moment later, a troupe of about thirty girl guides rounded the corner and Christy noticed that the woman was wearing a uniform. Every single one of them, the woman included, started searching for the missing diamond.
“This is so kind of you all!” Christy was amazed at how nice people could be, and she tried desperately to think of the line from Streetcar Named Desire.
But after a few minutes of searching, apologizing to passersby who almost tripped over them, and whipping their hands out of the way before they got stepped on, Christy straightened up. “It’s hopeless. Thanks for your help, ladies, but I think it’s gone for good.”
As the girl guides picked themselves up, the woman nodded an apology and got her troupe back into line. “All the best,” she called as they walked away.
Christy, whose heart had momentarily been lifted by their efforts, looked skyward, completely at a loss for what to do.
Toni was still on the ground, twenty, thirty feet away, combing the dusty streets with his bare hands, turning over leaves and pieces of garbage, not giving up.
Christy walked over to her friend and laid a hand between his shoulder blades. “Come on, Toni, let’s go. I need to buy a diamond. How much do you think diamonds cost? Couple thousand?”
Reluctantly Toni stood up.
Christy sighed. Her head was swimming. “Well, right now I’m glad I don’t have my phone—it’d give me the latest diamond prices in seconds and I’d probably have heart failure. Right now I’m more worried about holding on to my sanity.”
She called Will.
“Hey,” she began, “I don’t suppose you know a good diamond store in this area?”
Will laughed softly. “Well, Christy, you know I like you and all, but we have only just met…”
“Oh, funny!” Color whooshed into Christy’s face at the sweet comment, but it still didn’t manage to cheer her up. “It’s an emergency—I dropped the tiara and a diamond’s come out.”
“No way—were you wearing it?”
“Will, do I seem like the sort of girl who wears diamond tiaras in the street?”
The pause made Christy’s heart beat faster. She could scarcely believe she was flirting with a stranger on the phone when her day was still busily unraveling before her eyes.
“I think I might need more time to get to know you before answering that.”
“I know! Where’s the day gone—time, huh? Who knew it could be so short?” Christy suddenly felt the need to cover up any more pauses with as many words as possible; who cared if they made hardly any sense when they were strung together? “It’ll be dark soon—why is it that the days you want to last a long time never do, and some go on and on and on and they’re, like, three days rolled into one, and, and…”
“Christy?”
“Yes, Will.”
“Have you seen the time? Even if I did know of a diamond store around there, it’ll have closed by now.”
“Oh. Good point.” She bit her lip, stroking the mound of the tiara box beneath her top. Then, “Are you sure? Mightn’t there be some sort of diamond hypermarket that’s open twenty-four hours? It’s New York, Will! City of opportunity!”
He laughed. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but we’re talking a million-dollar antique heirloom here?”
“I guess,” Christy faltered.
“And you want to jump into a store with a name like Drive-Thru Clearance Rocks or something, and expect the teenager at the checkout to match up the missing diamond with something from their stock, and then expertly fit it while you wait outside with your…your supermodel?”
“Okay, when you put it like that…” Christy didn’t appreciate the way he spat out the word ‘supermodel.’ Toni was her friend. The supermodel tag was purely incidental; surely Will could understand that?
“And anyhow, most of the really good stores are appointment only.”
“They are?” She felt suddenly all out of ideas.
“Yup.”
“And you would know this, why, precisely?” The moment she’d said it, she could have kicked herself. “I’m sorry, Will, your private life is none of my business.”
“That’s okay,” he replied, his voice low and unreadable.
“I’m hallucinating or losing my mind. You’re absolutely right. There’s no way I can get the tiara fixed in time or do anything about it at all without clearing it with Ms. H. I was being stupid.”
“No, you weren’t. You were trying to do the right thing. That’s never stupid.”
“Well, thanks, I guess.”
“What’s next on the list?”
Christy sighed. “I’m going to have to schlep the rug, which I may have ruined, and the tiara, which I broke, all the way up to Ms. H’s penthouse and explain myself.”
“Right.”
“Then, if she’s there, I’m going to have to stand and take it on the chin while she fires me.”
“She may not. You did your best.”
“And after that, I’m going to wake up tomorrow to find she’s Tweeted my reputation into oblivion. I will have no clients, my business will be destroyed, and I shall be back where I started. Apart from the lawsuits, which both she and Mrs. Dallaglio will commence against me, for huge sums of money that I don’t possess, to compensate them for my ineptitude. And you know what?”
“What?” he said gently.
“I wouldn’t blame them.”
“Hey, any girl who, under pressure, can pull the word ‘ineptitude’ out of the bag can’t be all bad, surely?”
“You think?”
“I do. Lighten up, and move on out. Go face the music, then call me. I’ll be waiting.”
That provided some consolation. Small consolation, but consolation all the same.
Chapter Eighteen
WILL
5:25 p.m.
“I’ve tried, like, three times, and I still can’t get through,” Nina sighed as she crossed the room back to where Will and Shorey were sitting. Will had just finished talking to Christy and was replacing her phone in his pocket.
“Just as well,” Shorey replied, nudging her gently. “I know you, Nina; it would have been too embarrassing for words. How precisely would the call go? ‘Say, sis, I’m just ringing up to let you know that I know what’s best for you regarding your entire future.’”
Nina snorted. “Huh, that’s only the sort of thing I’ve been hearing from her all my life. Nah, I’d be far more tactful. Anyhow, what happened to the new, bigger, bolder Shorey? Faint heart never won fair maid and all that—where’s that quote from?”
“Dad would know,” Will said without thinking.
“That’s true,” Nina agreed. “The walking quote generator.”
“Is he still here?”
Nina nodded.
Will said nothing.
“Try Shakespeare,” Shorey suggested before getting up to leave them. “It’s usually Shakespeare, isn’t it?”
“Or Bette Midler,” Will pointed out.
“Don’t you mean Bette Davies?” Nina corrected.
“Oh, perhaps I do…no, wait—Mae West.”
Shorey pointed delightedly at Will. “That’s the one. Thank goodness you’re here. Anyhow, I need to press on—got a party to mastermind. The guys out back have got the best part of a thousand crayfish to shuck.”
Nina gave him a little wave as he departed, then turned to Will. “Will, I wasn’t just calling my sister to talk about Shorey. I had to make sure she was going to
be somewhere for me—and I can’t get hold of her, so now I’m not sure. So, um, I kind of need a favor. A huge one, actually.”
Immediately Will thought of his vow to be there every step of the way for Christy. “Nina, I’m a little overcommitted today…” he began before tailing off. Nina would never believe that—for all she would be able to tell, he was doing nothing whatsoever today apart from following her around and spending an inordinate amount of time on the phone. “Never mind. What is it?” he asked.
“We-ell,” Nina answered carefully, “first up, before I ask, I need to tell you something. Your dad’s agreed to sign the papers.”
“He has?” Will looked at her in astonishment. “When? Why? What happened?”
“I talked to him a little,” Nina admitted, “but I wasn’t the reason he changed his mind. I think that was you.”
Will nearly choked. “I doubt that very much, Nina.”
Nina shrugged. “Anyhow, I’ve had kind of a brainwave that might just help all three of us out.”
“I’m listening.”
Impulsively Nina leaned over and clutched his arm. “Will, do you think you and your dad could go to the airport and pick my fiancé up from his flight? Like, um, right now?”
“Right now?” Will echoed doubtfully.
Nina nodded. “His flight’s due in an hour or so, and I’ve got a million things to do, and I really don’t know where my sister is, and she said she’d do it, and—”
“What, go out to Newark?”
Nina nodded.
Will looked away, thinking furiously. Christy would be in the thick of things right now—she needed him on standby…but then, this way, she was headed out that way, too, so he could see her in the flesh sooner than he’d expected. “Oh, Nina, I don’t know. This might sound a little strange, but I’ve got to be available to help someone today.”
“That girl you’ve been talking with?”
“Yes.” His face felt hot all of a sudden.
“Well, didn’t you say she’s the one who’s got the papers?”
“Yes again.”
“That’s what I thought! Do you think she’d be able to get out to Newark? You could get the papers from her and get your dad to sign them before he changes his mind. And…” From the face Nina pulled, Will knew he wasn’t going to like the next part of her sentence.