“Now talking about sexy men,” Sasha says. “Now’t much sexier than Forrest Faulkner here, hey, ladies?”
“I for one don’t engage in objectification,” Rani says, winking at Sasha.
“Well, thank you, Sasha,” Forrest says. “Honestly, I could do with a boost after wrangling that lot today. They are good kids at heart, but my God, it’s like herding very foulmouthed cats.”
“Salt of the earth though,” Sasha says. “Them kids, their families. Salt of the earth. Just ordinary people doing their best. That’s why you and me do our best to give them something new, right, Forrest? Fresh horizons and new possibilities. That’s what it’s all about, right?”
“That’s the idea,” Forrest says. I can’t tell if he’s looking at me, because I’ve sort of hidden my face in pink satin, but he sounds tired and perhaps a bit sad. I can’t help worrying that it’s my fault. “Well, I’m off to freshen up before dinner. I look forward to seeing you then in one of these dresses, Ava.”
“Me too,” Sasha says, following Forrest. “Got to keep up appearances!”
“What did he mean that he was looking forward to seeing me in one of these dresses?” I ask Rani as we stagger up the stairs.
“I’m guessing he meant that he is looking forward to seeing you in one of these bloody dresses,” Rani says, “at least ten of which I wish I’d left in the car. But oh no, Rani Shah has to do it all in one trip.”
“Er, no, he hates me. He thinks I’m stupid and heartless,” I say. “That shirt I ruined was a gift from his dead wife.”
“Ouch,” Rani says. “There’s no way you could have known that, and you apologised more than once. Has he?”
“Nope,” I say darkly.
“Ava, you’re here for your groundbreaking innovation. If he thinks you’re stupid, then that says everything about him and nothing about you.”
“There’s no ‘if’—he does. Not like book smart stupid, but just a stupid person, running into people, making crass comments about precious dead wives that you never knew existed...”
“What?” Rani asks as we collapse against the door to my bedroom.
“I think he means he can’t wait to have a good laugh at me looking tall and ginger in another inappropriate outfit,” I reply, my thought process already running at a million miles an hour. “I bet he can’t wait to take the piss out of me looking like a great big lumbering giant wearing satin.”
“I genuinely think that Forrest has got more important things to worry about than what you are wearing, like how to put off the competition when a life-changing prize is at stake.”
“You’re right!” I say. “He is trying to get in my head!”
“Well, he doesn’t have to try very hard to get in your head,” she says. “There’s only one thing that can save you now, Ava.”
“Showcasing my brilliant work,” I say, opening my bedroom door.
“No, fashion,” she says, collapsing onto the bed under an avalanche of gowns. “And by God I am going to find the right look for you tonight, if it kills me, you, or both of us.”
Chapter Eleven
No matter what Rani says, I still think the lilac silk dress that she insisted on my wearing might result in me getting confused with the ghost of the Blue Lady if she is having a slightly off-colour day. It’s not the dress’s fault, it’s lovely. From the late 1950s, according to Rani, with a slash neckline and sticky-out skirt that is kind of sort of short on me. Rani says that with legs like mine, that’s a good thing, but while my legs might be long, they are also as white as snow.
Never once in all my life have I ever had a tan. I am fatally pale, like imagine milk that has had a terrible shock pale, or a piece of paper in the Arctic pale. That’s how pale I am. Rani says the thing to do is to make a feature of my paleness. And I’m like, Dude, since when has it been fashion to make a feature of looking like a near-death experience? And she said, Well, it was quite big in the nineties and whatever was big in the nineties is in right now. Rani always has an answer for everything.
Anyway, here I am, following her out on the terrace for cocktails, wishing with all my heart I was in my terrible Care Bear T-shirt with FT. I will admit I like the feeling of the cool silk against mybare skin, and it’s pleasing to be wearing a tulle underskirt. It lends the evening a welcome sense of make-believe as if all of this isn’t perhaps the single most important moment of my life, and really we are all just playing dress-up.
“Rani!” Alex calls to her from across the patio, where he has a bottle of champagne chilling in an ice bucket.
“Shall we?” Rani asks, her eyes glittering in anticipation.
“I don’t think that invitation extends to me,” I say, noticing how LadyB is watching Alex like a hawk. “You go and have champagne. I’m going to find an out-of-the-way place to stand and wish I was at home.”
“Oh Ava, your social skills are not nearly as bad as you think they are,” Rani says. “Will you be okay if I go?”
“I will be okay,” I assure her.
“Just shout my name if you need assistance,” she says, blowing me a kiss as she sashays through the crowd towards where Alex is waiting for her. I watch him for a moment and notice the awe on his face at the sight of her beauty. He better realise that Rani might not be a literal princess, but she still is the most queenly person I have ever known, and almost certainly too good for him.
