by Marie Astor
“Thank you,” Janet mumbled. To her relief, Katie had already disappeared from sight, ushered into the depths of the salon by two other attendants.
Janet ducked into the fitting room and surveyed the dress on the hanger. It was pale violet in color with a fitted sleeveless silk bodice and a pleated skirt that hit right at the knee: very classy and functional. In the beginning Katie had toyed with the idea of cladding her bridesmaids into some corseted, long-trained contraptions, but Janet had convinced her to go with a simpler version, arguing that all the attention should be centered on the bride.
Janet unzipped the dress and stepped through the opening. She pulled up the zipper and surveyed her reflection in the mirror; the dress fit her like a glove. Katie had been right: the snug fit didn’t leave any room for error. She’d have to watch her diet until the wedding.
Janet poked her head outside the fitting room, wondering if Katie’s rage had subsided.
“Janet!” Janet turned in the direction of Katie’s voice and was rendered speechless. Katie was up on a pedestal, clad in her wedding gown.
“Katie! You look beautiful!” Janet gasped. She had never expected that the usually practical, no-nonsense Katie would opt for a sweeping gown with a crinoline skirt and five-foot long train, but she had, and the outcome was breathtaking, making all those fittings worthwhile.
“You really think so?” Katie tried to turn, but the gown wouldn’t budge. “It was Adam’s idea. He wanted a classical wedding gown, but I feel like it’s too much. I mean I can barely move!”
“There’s never such a thing as too much when it comes to a wedding!” came a voice though the opening door of the fitting room behind them. “Hello ladies!” Lisa Foley beamed at them. “Sorry it took me a while to get into my gown; these days everything I do takes me twice as long.” Lisa pointed at her pregnant belly. “Three more months to go and then I’m home free!”
“At least you got here on time,” Katie remarked. “Janet was stuck in traffic,” she added pointedly.
“Traffic can be really bad in the city this time of day,” Lisa came to Janet’s rescue.
Thank you, Janet mouthed, wondering how did it happen that her two friends had switched personalities. Up until recently, Lisa had always been the one to fuss about the details, while Katie was more of a go with the flow kind of girl. There had been a time when Katie did not feel that warmly towards Lisa, but the wedding seemed to have united them, as Katie kept asking Lisa for advice, making Janet feel like she was falling behind on her maid of honor duties.
“So, let’s see here.” Lisa waddled over to get a closer look at Katie’s dress. “Stunning, absolutely stunning!”
“Thank you, Lisa!” Katie smiled. “Now I just need to learn to walk in this thing.”
“Janet, you look great too,” Lisa remarked, giving her a peck on the cheek. “So good to see you! I feel like we haven’t seen each other in ages, but then I can’t blame you for it. It’s not exactly fun to hang out with someone who can’t drink and has to run to the bathroom almost every hour.”
“Nonsense, Lisa! I’ve just been busy working, that’s all.”
“That’s right, Janet’s too busy working to see her friends. Especially for all this superficial wedding stuff,” Katie chimed in.
“Are you guys ganging up on me? I never said anything about weddings being superficial.”
“Yes you did,” both Katie and Lisa replied in unison.
“I only meant that I think that elopements are so much simpler, but weddings are great too.”
“Huh! Fat chance!” Katie sighed. “Adam and I wanted to elope, but both of our families rebelled against the idea. At first I was really mad—”
“I remember that part,” Janet cut in.
“Now I know that they were right,” Katie continued. “You can’t keep your family out of such an important event.”
Janet had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. In her mind, the money spent on a wedding ceremony would be of much greater use if put towards a down payment on a house, but then she wasn’t the one getting ready to walk down the aisle. Perhaps she too would change her mind then and surrender gladly to the wedding frenzy.
“Don’t you worry, Janet, we’ll be there to help you plan your wedding when the time comes,” Lisa assured her, patting her belly absent-mindedly.
While she knew that Lisa didn’t mean anything by it, the comment jarred on Janet’s ears, unleashing a wave of irritation. Was there some kind of schedule she was supposed to be following: marriage then pregnancy? Clearly, she had fallen far behind.
“Ladies, how are the dresses fitting?” the sales attendant directed her attention to Janet and Lisa.
“Well, mine is fitting me perfectly now, which makes me worry that two months from now it may be too snug,” said Lisa. Her dress was of the same color as Janet’s, but of a looser cut to accommodate her belly.
“No worries. We will let out a few inches,” the sales attendant assured her, making notes in her pad. “How do you find your fit, Miss Maple?”
“It’s fine,” Janet assured her. She would just wear Spanx and suck in her breath during the entire reception.
After all the alterations were finished, the three of them filed out of Bloomingdales.
“Anyone up for a quick snack?” Katie asked. “I still have another forty minutes before I have to get back to the office.”
“I’m sorry guys, but I’m going to have to leave you,” Lisa said. “Doctor’s appointment. Being pregnant sucks.”
They exchanged goodbye kisses and ushered Lisa into a cab.
“Salad?” Katie suggested.
“Sure,” Janet agreed. Even the company of wedding-crazed Katie was better than the alternative of being alone and thinking about Dennis and Mila.
They found a salad bar nearby and went inside.
“So,” said Katie once they were seated with their no-dressing, no-bacon, no-avocado, no-cheese Cobb salads. “What’s going on between you and Dennis?”
“What? Why? Why does anything have to be going on?”
“Come on, Janet. I’m not that obsessed with all this wedding hoopla not to notice. You’re jumpy, you’re distracted, you’re not you, which means that something is going on.”
“Whoa! Wedding hoopla? Seems to me you were singing a different tune just now.”
Katie lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry. I know that sometimes I go overboard. It’s just that I want everything to be perfect for Adam, and I’m not very good at planning things.”
“Katie, you and Adam, that’s what matters. He loves you, and I’m sure that he couldn’t care less if a few things went off track; not that we’d let that happen,” Janet added hastily. “Everything will be perfect, trust me.”
“How can you promise me that if you’ve got other things on your mind? We’ve been friends for a long time and we tell each other everything. Now tell me what’s wrong.”
Janet sighed. It was useless to try to keep things from Katie. “It’s this case we’re working on.”
“That same case that you told me about before?”
“Yeah.”
“Is Dennis still showing off? Is that what you’re moping about?”
“Not exactly. He went undercover—”
“Well, he’s done that before.”
“He’s never asked out a woman as part of an assignment. You should see this girl, Katie. She looks like a super model. Of course he told me that it was only to get information out of her, but how am I supposed to just sit back and believe it? I mean, am I crazy to be jealous?”
“Don’t you trust him?”
“I trust him, but it doesn’t make it any easier.”
“I know. Of course you’re upset about it. Otherwise it would mean that you don’t love him. A few months ago Adam had this really sexy client; this woman was gorgeous and filthy rich, a recent widow who’d received a sizeable fortune from a much older husband. She kept requesting appointments with Adam for things t
hat could be easily discussed over the phone, asking him out to lunches. I’d get really annoyed, but he would just laugh it off, saying that he was billing her handsomely. In the end, the woman did try to make a pass at him, and Adam terminated the client relationship immediately. Adam made this decision on his own. You have to trust Dennis to make the same decision.”
“I know.” Janet nodded.
“I’m sure there had to be a very good reason for Dennis to go for this lead. After all, it’s not as though he’d used flirtation to get a lead before—there had to be good reasons for him to do this.” Katie checked her watch. “I’m sorry, honey, I have to run. I already took a super long lunch, and in order for us to afford this wedding, Adam and I both need to be working.”
“See you later Katie. I’m sorry to be such a drag.”
“That’s what friends are for, to be drags to each other and not mind.”
After Katie had gone, Janet pushed away her unfinished salad. Suddenly, it dawned on her; Dennis had used flirtation to get a case lead before. In fact, that was how the two of them had met. At the time, Dennis had been working for the Treasury on an undercover assignment at Bostoff Securities, a brokerage securities firm where Janet had had the misfortune of working as an assistant general counsel. She remembered how charming he had been, always chatting her up in the hallways, his dazzling blue eyes and alluring smile tugging at her heart strings until he revealed that he was an investigator for the Treasury and her only option was to cooperate with him. Later on, he claimed that his attraction to her had been completely unplanned, had in fact almost derailed the entire investigation, and that he had never fallen for a woman on the job before. Janet had believed him, but now she was beginning to have doubts.
***
As they walked down an alley in Central Park, Dennis eyed Mila out of the corner of his eye. He knew the type well; women like her thought they were God’s gift to men. He was practically an expert on the subject; he almost married one. He smiled inwardly at Janet’s earlier reaction; the fact that she was worried over the possibility of him being interested in Mila was simply ridiculous. There was no denying that according to the beauty standards imposed by fashion magazines Mila was drop dead gorgeous, if one were to use such dubious sources as a measure of attractiveness, of course. Long legs, full lips, sultry eyes; Mila had the whole package going for her. There had been a time in his life when Dennis would have jumped at the bait, but not now, not since he’d fallen for Janet. Compared to Janet’s feminine curves, Mila’s overly thin frame seemed skeletal and angular, as though she were walking on stilts. Even worse was her demeanor: she carried herself as though she were the Queen of Sheba. Dennis reminded himself that he didn’t go out with Mila to criticize her looks and personality. He went out with her to get information, and in order to do that he had to convince her that he found her attractive. A task that shouldn’t prove too difficult, given the amount of practice that he’d had.
It wasn’t hard to get women to like you: charm, wit, and good manners could do wonders. Of course good looks didn’t hurt either. Dennis wasn’t vain, but knew that he had the looks department covered. There had been a period in his life, and he wasn’t proud of it, when he had been chasing skirt after skirt, using the cheap thrill of his conquests to chase away the pain and the shame of his past. He was a different person now; he had rebuilt his life, paid his dues, and finally, he found the woman he loved, and who he knew loved him. Ever since he’d been with Janet, he’d never strayed, and he wasn’t about to start now. This was purely professional, not that he was all that happy about the prospect of pimping himself out for a case lead. He would have much rather preferred to use his brains rather than his charms, but time was ticking on the Libby case, and they were so far behind that desperate measures were needed.
“It’s beautiful here,” Dennis remarked casually.
“Yes, it’s a wonderful day.”
“I must say that I’m very grateful for your taking the time to show me around.”
“Oh, it’s my pleasure,” Mila replied. “I simply love New York! Central Park is my favorite spot. Whenever I have time, I love coming here for a run.”
“Do you work a lot?”
“A girl’s got to make a living.”
“Have you always worked in the restaurant business?”
“Not always. I have a finance degree from a university in Prague, but it’s not of much value here. So I’ve got to take what I can get.”
This was news; girls like Mila usually thought that working for a living was beneath them. “I think you should be a model or an actress,” Dennis went for the flattery bit.
Mila smiled, playing around with her hair, which was arranged in intricate waves around her shoulders. “Enough about me. Tell me about yourself, Dennis from Chicago. What’s it like being a private investigator?”
“Oh, it’s like any other job really, except for the stability part of it. I get a case, and I do my best to get it solved. If I succeed, I get paid; if not, better luck next time.”
“What kind of cases?”
“It varies from background checks to jealous wives wanting to nail their cheating husbands.”
“So you’re out trailing people, like Hercule Poirot or James Bond?”
Dennis shook his head, laughing. “Not really. You’d be surprised how much information you can get from electronic records. Most of my work is behind the desk.”
“So you must be really good with computers?” Mila asked.
“Not bad,” Dennis admitted.
“Do you know how to hack a computer password? Or break into a safe?”
“Now you are asking me for my professional secrets,” Dennis jeered. “Seriously, why do you ask?”
“Oh, just curious.” Mila shrugged. “Must be so exciting to be living on the edge.”
“Trust me my job is nothing like living on the edge.”
“Okay, Dennis, I’ll take your word for it.”
Dennis sensed Mila’s hand brush against his, but pretended not to notice.
“Look, it’s the Metropolitan Museum,” Mila remarked. “I didn’t realize that we were walking towards it.”
Sure, Dennis thought. He doubted that anything Mila did was unplanned; from the choice of her attire, mini dress and high heels, to the route Mila had selected (instead of the usual tourist staples, like elbowing their way through Times Square and going up the Empire State Building they had spent the afternoon meandering through Central Park), it was clear that she had planned their outing with a purpose in mind. The question was why? Dennis was too sharp to attribute Mila’s interest in him to pure physical attraction; women like Mila didn’t chase after men, and now that Mila had shown such keen interest in his job, he suspected that he had been right. The question was: what was it that she was after and why?
“Should we go inside?” Mila asked. “This time of the year the rooftop garden is open. They serve cocktails up there, and the view is incredible.”
“Cocktails at a museum? That sounds wonderful. I’d been to the Metropolitan before, but I had no idea that you could go up on the roof,” Dennis lied. He knew the spot well; in fact, it had been one of the first places he’d taken Janet to when they began dating.
“Well then, let’s go.”
They made their way up the massive front stairs. Dennis bought the tickets and grabbed the museum map to reinforce the tourist image.
“Oh, you won’t need the map,” said Mila. “I know this place by heart. My cousin drags me in here all the time.”
“You have family in New York?”
“Just my cousin.” Mila’s face hardened. “She used to be a tour guide in Prague. Of course she doesn’t need to do that anymore now that she’s married, but she loves museums.”
“What does her husband do?”
“He’s a documentary producer. It’s just a hobby of his. He’s very wealthy, so he doesn’t really need to work and neither does my cousin. She volunteers at the museum twice
a week. Some people have it too good.”
From the sour expression on Mila’s face, Dennis surmised that she thought she had been cheated out of her destiny. It was a good thing that she didn’t know that both Janet and he had contributed to putting her ex-boyfriend in jail.
“Shall we?” Mila asked. “I’ll be your personal tour guide.”
“Sounds like a real treat,” Dennis obliged her.
They passed through the galleries, with Mila making occasional remarks that were just deep enough to create an illusion of well-roundedness. However to Dennis, who had at one point in his life aspired to be an art collector and had later on furthered his expertise in the subject due to the nature of his work, Mila’s comments were glaringly superficial. Of course he acted impressed each time, diligently complimenting Mila.
“Here’s the elevator that goes to the roof garden,” Mila announced with palpable relief.
“I must say, this was a very special tour,” said Dennis. “You are the best guide I’ve ever had.”
Mila preened. “Come on then, you haven’t seen the best part yet.”
After a quick elevator ride, the doors opened, revealing the magnificent view of the Metropolitan Museum roof garden.
“How magnificent,” said Dennis with genuine awe. He had seen this view countless times, but it never failed to impress him.
“It is gorgeous,” Mila confirmed.
“Now how about that cocktail?” Dennis asked. “Now, don’t laugh, but I’ve been told that I have a gift for guessing a woman’s favorite drink.”
“Oh do you, now? And just how often do you exercise this gift?”
“I only use it on the most special occasions. If you’ll permit me, I’d like to try it now.”
Mila threw her head back with a laugh. “By all means!”
“A Cosmopolitan.”
“How did you know that?”
“I told you, I have a gift.” Dennis grinned. His other choice had been apple martini, but he went with Cosmopolitan because Janet had mentioned that Mila was a fan of Sex and the City. “I see the perfect spot right over there.” Dennis motioned to an opening in the cluster of people by the balustrade with the perfect view of the park. “Why don’t you hold it for us while I get the drinks?”