She wanted Holly to herself, at least for as long as she could have her.
“I thought today was never going to end!” Emma exclaimed as she rushed up to her locker on Friday after school.
Holly popped the pale-pink bubble she’d just blown. “Me too! I swear world history class lasted like forty-two zillion hours. Which is only like a zillion hours more than usual, but still.”
Emma yanked open her locker and tossed her books inside. “At least it’s over now. Come on, let’s find Charlie and get out of here. I’m dying to get a look at the pop-up shop!”
She’d spent the entire day fidgeting and wishing she was at the pop-up shop. She’d asked her parents if she could call in sick, just this once, so she could be there when it opened. But that had been a big “no.” Her mom might be acting supportive, but school would always be first. Not that Emma heard a single thing any of her teachers had said that day anyway.
“Paige texted me first thing this morning and said the press thing last night was a big hit,” she told Holly as they rushed toward the front door. “But she didn’t give many details.”
“We’ll see it for ourselves soon.” Holly pointed to the school lobby just ahead. “There’s Charlie.”
It only took the three friends ten minutes to walk to the pop-up shop, which was located just a few blocks from their school on the first floor of an old industrial building that had once been an art gallery. A sign out front featured the Madison logo and the title Choice New Designers’ Showcase.
“That’s you!” Holly squealed as they waited to cross the street. “Emma, you’re a choice new designer!”
“Not so loud.” Charlie tried to stick his hand over her mouth, though Holly giggled and pushed him away. “Allegra here is supposed to be incognito, remember?”
“Oops. Don’t worry, I’m over it. I’ll play it cool,” Holly promised.
Emma stepped off the curb. “Come on,” she said.
When they entered the shop, Emma wasn’t sure where to look first. The large, high-ceilinged space had been divided into several sections, each decorated in a different color and style to indicate the different designers. Emma’s gaze went immediately to her section, which was located halfway down the left-hand side of the room.
The cement wall had been painted the pale blue of a winter sky, and the headless mannequins were arranged into active poses: one running playfully, one stretched upward holding a fuchsia helium balloon, another walking an invisible dog on a stiff leather leash. A large sign at the front of the section held the Allegra Biscotti name and logo, while a smaller one painted in bright-blue script letters read Young at Heart. Tons of people were wandering around looking at the clothes, both there and in the other designers’ sections.
“Wow!” Holly hurried forward and spun in a circle, trying to take in everything at once. “This is really cool!”
Emma just nodded. She gazed up at the nearest mannequin. It was dressed in the smock-front dress based on Holly’s old birthday favorite. The dress looked larger than life and impossibly fabulous, just as she’d imagined it when it had been nothing more than a few pencil lines sketched onto a sheet of heavy white paper. Were these really her clothes on display for the whole world to see? Could this really be happening to her?
NOT-SO-READY-TO-WEAR
O oh, check out this one!” a woman who looked to be in her early thirties pushed past Emma without noticing her. Her gaze was fixed on the babydoll dress and leggings. Her friend, a stylish redhead in knee-high crinkled leather boots, followed and nodded.
“Nice,” she said. “You know, Chloe, you could wear it to the launch party next month.”
“Definitely,” Chloe agreed. “That would get me noticed if anything could!”
The women didn’t even glance at Emma, Holly, or Charlie. Emma traded a glance with her friends. They were both grinning. She smiled back, bursting with happiness. People liked her designs! They actually wanted to buy them and wear them!
“There she is! Emma! Emma!” a familiar voice cried from across the room.
Emma glanced over and saw her mother waving vigorously at her. Her father was with her. Both of them hurried over, beaming from ear to ear.
“Cookie, we’re so proud of you!” her father exclaimed.
Her mother gave her a hug. “You worked hard, and the results show,” she said. “Everyone has just been raving about how beautiful your clothes are.”
“Keep your voice down.” Noah shot an anxious look around. “We’ve got to keep a lid on the parental pride thing in public.”
“Oh, whatever.” Emma’s mom rolled her eyes.
Emma giggled. “No, he’s right, Mom,” she said. “You can tell me how wonderful I am as loudly as you like when we get home. For now, hush.” She glanced around. “Where is Paige, anyway? I should probably say hi.”
“Last I noticed, she was over by the section with the dark-red background wall,” her mother replied.
“I see her.” Charlie pointed. “Follow me.”
Paige and Francesca stood near a black metal mannequin dressed in a red leather catsuit. Francesca was chatting in Italian with a hopelessly stylish and slickly handsome young man in a gorgeous, ridiculously soft cashmere tweed jacket. Emma wondered if he was one of her fellow designers.
Meanwhile, Paige spotted her. “You’re here,” she said. She looked stunning in a moss-green wool skirt suit and pointy-toed slingbacks. “What do you think?”
“It’s amazing,” Emma replied. “People seem to like Allegra’s clothes.”
“You’re not kidding.” Paige smiled, looking pleased. “The reaction’s been stupendous. This could be just the splash of publicity it takes to really launch Allegra’s line.”
“Do you really think so?” Emma said.
Before Paige could reply, a tiny, bald man in what appeared to be a flowing burgundy silk robe and black silk pants rushed toward them. “Paige, my darling!” he exclaimed loudly. “Another fabulous affair. And the fête last evening was to die for!”
Paige turned to greet him, and Emma moved away and rejoined her friends. “Come on,” Holly said, grabbing Emma’s hand. “Let’s wander around and eavesdrop on people raving about you.”
Emma smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”
She, Holly, and Charlie headed back toward her section. Her parents had disappeared somewhere into the growing crowd, and within seconds Emma couldn’t see Paige or Francesca anymore either.
“Wow, a lot of people come to these fashion things, huh?” Charlie said as he got elbowed aside by a woman making a beeline for one of the other designers’ sections.
“Isn’t it cool?” Emma replied. “I—”
Whatever she’d been about to say next died in her throat. The crowd had just parted, revealing a young woman standing in front of the princess dress. She stared up at the mannequin, a puzzled frown on her face.
“Oh, man, it’s Nidhi!” Emma whispered in a panic. “I forgot she said she was coming.”
“Who?” Holly turned to stare.
“Who’s Ninny?” Charlie asked, his voice way too loud.
Nidhi turned her head and spotted Emma. Emma froze, staring back at her. Right away she knew that Nidhi knew.
Nidhi didn’t need a paint-by-numbers set to complete the picture. She’d recognized the distinctive fabrics that “Allegra Biscotti” used in her collection. All of them.
“Emma,” Nidhi said, walking over. A little more dressed up than usual in tall leather boots, a wine-red tube dress, and gold-filigree chandelier earrings, she looked as beautiful as ever. “I suddenly had a strange feeling that I might see you here, yeah?”
“H-hi,” Emma stammered.
“Hey, guys!” A girl bounded over, as if they were all best friends.
“Hi, Val,” Holly replied, clueing Emma in that the girl was friends with Jen and Rylan.
“You’re Allegra’s interns, right? Jen told me. So is she here?” The tiny girl stood on the toes of her shearling-lined
boots and peered over their shoulders. “I’m dying to see who’s making Rylan’s dress.”
Emma cast a desperate look at Nidhi. Please don’t call me out, she pleaded silently. Not here. Not now.
Nidhi looked perplexed but said nothing.
“Um, no,” Emma told Val, though her gaze stayed locked on Nidhi. “She’s not here.”
“She got held up in Europe,” Charlie added. “You can check it out on her blog. Total bummer, but she told us to take lots of pictures and send them to her.” He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and started snapping photos.
“That’s too bad.” Val looked disappointed. “Oh well, love the clothes anyway. Bye, Holly.” She stepped toward the next outfit, pulling out her own phone to take a picture.
Nidhi reached over and touched Emma lightly on the arm. “Sorry to interrupt, cutie, but I’ve got to go,” she said. “It was good to see you, though. We’ll have to catch up next time you stop into the store. Really catch up. In the meantime, have fun tonight, yeah?” She winked, then turned and walked toward the door.
Emma felt herself go limp as Nidhi disappeared into the crowd.
“Who was that?” Holly asked. “I liked her jacket.”
“She works at Allure,” Emma said quietly. “She’s kind of a friend.”
“Kind of?” Charlie asked.
“No, definitely a friend. An even better one than I realized, actually.”
An hour later, the pop-up shop was still hopping. Emma’s parents had left, but she, Charlie, and Holly stayed to enjoy the atmosphere. Emma was sure she’d never get tired of watching people ooh and aah over her clothes. She was so proud, and it was an awesome feeling.
“I could really get used to this,” she whispered to Holly as the two of them watched an older woman in a charcoal gray, chalk-stripe fitted suit with piles of pearls around her neck wander off after spending a good ten minutes in front of the smock-front dress. She tapped notes into a handheld computer and snapped digital photos. Paige had casually walked by to whisper that the woman was a reporter for the city’s most important fashion daily. Emma crossed her fingers that the reporter liked what she saw.
Charlie hurried over. “You’ll never guess who just walked in.”
Emma followed his gaze. Rylan entered the shop, trailed by Jen and a few more of the see-and-be-seen high-school girls. Emma stood behind a column and tracked them as they wandered about, making loud comments about their favorite clothes and designers. Then they reached the Allegra Biscotti section.
“No wonder you wanted Allegra to design your Sweet Sixteen dress, Rylan!” one of the girls exclaimed.
“Yeah. I can’t wait to see it tomorrow night,” Jen added. The first girl nodded. “I almost wish I didn’t already have a dress for the party,” she said. “Because I’d look amazing in this one.” She reached out and caressed the hem of the smock dress. “It’s super-adorable!”
Jen headed over to a sleek black kimono dress in the next designer’s section. She was so focused on the clothes that she’d passed within a few feet of her sister, Emma, and Charlie without noticing them. “This one’s hot!” she said.
“What do you think? Is it me?”
“Totally,” the first girl said. The girls followed Jen into the other section.
All except Rylan. She hung back in Allegra’s section, staring up at the black and sapphire party dress with a look Emma couldn’t quite place.
With a jolt, Emma realized it was the dress she’d originally planned to make for her. Did Rylan recognize it from the sketches? Or was she just thinking about how different it was from the dress she was going to have to wear tomorrow night? Emma felt her heart break a little as she watched the older girl. “Let’s go say hi,” she said impulsively.
She reached Rylan just as Rylan’s friends wandered back to find her. “Um, hi, Rylan,” Emma said, suddenly self-conscious beneath the curious gazes of the other high-schoolers. Aside from Jen, she doubted that any of them had any idea who she was or why in the world she was talking to Rylan.
Rylan turned and blinked at her. “Oh, hi,” she said. “I should’ve known you’d be here.” She glanced over to include Charlie in her comment.
“Come on, Ry,” Jen complained. She shot Holly a sour look, as if irritated by her younger sister’s very existence. “Are we going to stand around here making small talk, or are we going to shop?”
“Chill, Jen,” Rylan ordered. “I’m just saying hi, okay?” She glanced at Emma again. “You’re still coming tomorrow night, right?”
“Um, yeah,” Emma said. “Thanks. I mean, we’ll be there.”
Rylan nodded, looked one last time at her almost-party dress, and then turned away. “Come on,” she told her friends. “I’m over this place. Let’s go get some lattes or something.”
She walked out of the shop, never checking to make sure her friends were following. They were, of course, though Emma heard Jen muttering to one of the others about how moody Rylan was today.
But Emma wasn’t concerned about that. She just stared after Rylan.
Holly glanced over at her. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just still not sure I did the right thing,” Emma said with a sigh.
“You heard Paige,” Charlie reminded her. “She told you like fifty times that you had to do what Mama Sinclare said.”
“Yeah. But maybe Paige isn’t always right. She also made me swear not to tell anyone about Allegra.” Emma caught Holly’s eye. “And that was kind of a disaster, at least as far as one particular person was concerned.”
“But that worked out in the end,” Holly assured her.
“I know.” Emma smiled at her. Then her gaze drifted back to the doorway. Rylan had already disappeared, but Emma kept staring that way anyway, replaying what she’d just seen. “But still...Should I have fought harder to get Rylan the dress she really wanted? Or at least a compromise, like the version with the ribbons? It just doesn’t seem right that she’s going to be upset with her party dress at her own party. I want people to be happy in my clothes.”
“Not much you can do about it now, so why worry?” Charlie said.
“I guess.” Emma bit her lip and started to turn away from the doorway. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar figure tentatively enter the shop. Not Rylan this time. It was...Jackson!
Charlie noticed him, too. “What’s he doing here?” he said. “I never took that guy for the red-hot catwalk type. Maybe he’s looking for the gym and got lost.”
Meanwhile Holly’s blue eyes had gone round and excited. “Maybe you’d better go give him directions to the gym then, Em,” she said, giving her a shove.
Emma gulped. What was Jackson doing here? Only one way to find out...
She willed herself to walk toward him slowly. She didn’t want to seem too excited. He saw her coming and lifted one hand in a casual wave.
“Hi,” she said, finding it a little hard to breathe.
“Hey,” he greeted her with that cute little half-smile of his. He tossed his hair out of his face and looked around. “Wow, this place is wild.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Emma paused, not sure what else to say. “Um, are you looking for Lexie?” she blurted out. “Because I don’t think she’s been here.”
Jackson cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable but sort of intense at the same time. “Um, actually, Lexie and I broke up,” he said. “We, uh, didn’t really have that much in common.” He shrugged. “You know.”
Whoa! Now Emma really didn’t know what to say. “Oh,” she replied carefully. “That’s...too bad.”
“I guess. Sort of.” Jackson half-smiled and shifted his weight from foot to foot.
Emma waited, but he stood there silent. “So why are you—?” she started, not sure exactly how to complete the sentence.
“I heard your friend Holly telling Lexie about this thing this morning, and I figured you might be here, so...”
His voice trailed off. Emma held her breath. It
seemed as if he wanted to say something else. Had he actually come here looking for her? Why? Suddenly the answer to that question seemed more important than anything else in the world.
“Emma!” Paige raced toward her. “Thank goodness you’re still here!”
“Um, what?” Emma said. Jackson took a step backward.
Paige didn’t seem to notice him there. She inserted herself between them, grabbing Emma by the shoulder. “Some grubby little rug rat just yanked on the hem of one of the dresses and loosened the lining. I need you to come tack it in place, pronto.”
“Later,” Jackson mumbled.
“Wait! I’ll be back in a sec,” Emma called to him as Paige dragged her away, though she wasn’t sure he heard her over the din of the crowd all around them.
By the time Emma finished fixing the dress, he was nowhere in sight.
“So this is what trendy hotels look like, huh?” Charlie titled his head up at the polished gray-stone skyscraper they were approaching. “Tres fancy.”
“Your accent could use some work,” Holly teased.
Emma didn’t say a word. She was too nervous. It was seven thirty on Saturday night, half an hour before the party was to start. Rylan had texted Emma earlier that day, asking her to come a little earlier to help accessorize the dress.
“Rylan said we should go right in and ask for her,” Emma told her friends. She checked her watch. “Francesca’s supposed to meet us here soon.”
Holly hugged her black wool coat closer around her as a chilly breeze whipped down the street. The skirt of her magenta taffeta dress stuck out beneath the coat and danced in the wind.
“What are we waiting for, then?” she said. “Let’s go. It’s freezing out here!” She shivered dramatically.
Inside the modern, elegant lobby, a sleek-haired young man in a midnight-blue suit glided toward them. “Sinclare affair?” he inquired with a touch of a French accent.
Emma could see Charlie racking his brain for the perfect witty response. “Yes, that’s right,” she said quickly before he could come up with one. “Thanks.”
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