“Of course,” Kevin said without hesitation. “I don’t mind coming to you at all. What time suits you?”
“How about just before lunch?” Maggie told him. “That will give me time to finish off this sketch.”
“That works perfectly for me, too,” Kevin agreed.
Of course it does.Maggie thought with a smile. “I’ll see you just before lunch.”
“Yes, I’m looking forward to it,” Kevin told her. “And maybe we can finally get this divorce over with.”
Here’s hoping,Maggie thought. “Yes, then you can finally have your engagement party.”
They hung up, and Maggie sat back. “Trap set,” she mumbled with a smile.
Maggie called her client and then Michael to confirm the time, then went to the shop floor, picked out one of the new outfits that she had her staff put on the racks last night. No one had even seen them yet. Called a courier company before carefully boxing the outfit, getting it ready.
Once the outfit was sent, Maggie went to her files and pulled out the design she and her client had agreed she could use. She went back to her desk and started to make it look like it was being worked on.
MAGGIE
Maggie was bent over the real design with her softest pencil between her fingers when the small chime above her drafting table went.
She looked up.
The security monitor on the wall over the door showed the front of the boutique in five neat squares. Front counter. Sales floor. Window display. Side path. Parking lot.
Kevin's car was pulling into the parking lot.
The car had barely stopped when Vanessa was already out of the passenger seat, smoothing her skirt down and checking her reflection in the side mirror.
"Showtime," Maggie murmured to herself.
She moved fast.
Maggie carefully rolled the real design, slid it into its protective sleeve, walked it to the closet, opened the safe, set it inside on top of the patterns, closed the safe, spun the dial, closed the closet, and pulled the decoy sketch out from where she'd left it.She set the decoy on the drafting table at an angle that would make Vanessa's mouth water. She rolled her shoulders, lifted her chin, smoothed her blouse, and sat back down with the pencil in her hand as if she had been there all morning.
It wasn’t long before there was a soft knock at the design room door.
"Maggie?" Brianna called, popping her head around the door.
"Yes?" Maggie answered.
Brianna pushed the door open.
"Your guests are here," Brianna told her.
"Send them in, please," Maggie requested.
"Right away," Brianna replied with a quick nod.
She stepped aside, and Kevin came through first, and Vanessa trailed behind him, her eyes sweeping the room, taking everything in before they landed on the sketch on the drafting table.
"Hello, Kevin, Vanessa," Maggie greeted them coolly.
"Maggie," Kevin replied, smiling. "You look well."
"Maggie," Vanessa cooed, gliding forward with both hands extended. "I’ve never been in here before. Your workshop is incredible.”
"Thank you, Vanessa," Maggie answered, neatly stepping back so that Vanessa's hands met air rather than Maggie's arms. "Have a seat, please." She indicated toward the chairs in front of her desk. Making a show of hiding the decoy sketched beneath the desk pad on her drawing table.
