Maggie watched her go. She turned back to the boutique. Maggie counted to thirty before she walked into the design room. Kevin and Vanessa were standing by the drafting table. The tissue paper she had laid over the decoy had been moved. Maggie pretended she didn’t notice.
"Sorry about that," Maggie apologized. "She is a force of nature. Right. Where were we?"
She crossed to her desk. Kevin reclaimed his chair opposite. Vanessa drifted, very casually, toward the door of the design room, then toward the corner shelves, then back toward the drafting table.
Kevin set his phone face up on the desk, as he always did, so he would see any message that came through. Just then, Michael came back into the design room.
"That was awesome," Michael said. "Your client is one of my favorite actresses at the moment."
“I think the entire world thinks the same,” Kevin agreed.
Michael sat beside Kevin, put his fake phone right next to Kevin’s, and opened the folder. "I want to ask you about a few things in your demands I’d like you to walk me through.”
"Sure," Kevin said, sitting forward, his eyes coming up off the desk and onto Michael's face.
“While you’re doing that, I’ll go show Vanessa some silk she’s been asking about.” Maggie stood.
She walked around her desk on Kevin’s side, and her hand hit the pot plant on her desk. It wobbled and then crashed. Dirt scattered. The ceramic chipped. Vanessa shrieked in fright at the noise. Kevin jerked back from his chair.
And that’s when Michael moved fast. In the half-second of distraction, Michael's hand swept across the desk for "his" phone, and what came up in his palm was Kevin’s phone while his fake one had moved into its place. Maggie distracted Kevin by brushing dirt from his shirt as Vanessa stared at the dirt that hit her fake designer shoes.
“My shoes!” Vanessa hissed. “My beautiful shoes.”
It happened in less than two seconds.
"Oh, no," Maggie hissed. "I am so sorry. Let me get Brianna in here to clean this up."
She picked up the desk phone and pressed the intercom.
"Brianna, could you bring the dustpan, please?" Maggie called into the device. “And bring a broom.”
"Coming," Brianna answered through the speaker.
Michael glanced at his wristwatch. The motion was so natural that Maggie almost missed it.
"Maggie," Michael said. "We’re going to be late for our lunch reservation with Linda if we don’t leave in the next few minutes."
"Right," Maggie answered, brushing dirt off her skirt. "Goodness. I forgot the time entirely."
She turned to Kevin.
"Kevin," Maggie said, lifting the folder off her desk. "Let me take this with me. I would like to read it properly this afternoon. Could I come back to you by the end of the day with my answer?"
"Of course you can, Maggie," Kevin agreed, smiling like a cat who had been left alone in a dairy and was working out which pail to start with. "Take your time."
"Thank you, Kevin," Maggie said sweetly.
"I knew you would come around, Maggie." Kevin gave her a victorious smile.
"Mm," Maggie murmured.
Kevin reached forward and picked up the phone in front of him. He glanced at the screen, then pocketed it.
"Vanessa," Kevin called. "We need to go. I, too, have a busy day, and I know Vanessa does too. She is launching a brand new line this afternoon." A gleam shone in his eyes. “One that’s about to explode, it’s going to be so good.”
“Oh, yes,” Vanessa said, grinning. “I’m so excited about it. Wait until you see it, Maggie. You’re going to be so pleased we’re merging our businesses.”
That hit Maggie like a sledgehammer. “Who said we were…”
