Page 110 of Winter With You

‘I mean I think you can love something without knowing exactly what it is yet, right?’

He nodded, the nervousness dissipating. ‘I think that’s definitely true because I feel exactly the same way.’

‘So, does that mean when I go back to the UK you might want to carry on with whatever this is between us? Like, over text or video call or something?’

‘Gabriella,’ he said. ‘I definitely want to do that. If you feel the same.’

She nodded, catching his hand in hers. ‘I do,’ she said, squeezing tight. ‘And, Luca, there’s something really important that I want you to add to my outfit for the fashion show.’

‘Tell me,’ he urged. ‘We can make it work.’

With her hand laced with his, he actually felt her take a breath. And then she answered.

‘Will you choose me a bracelet?’

She had told him. The whole story. Very late last night via a tear-filled phone call, and it had broken his heart to hear her that way. But after she had told him, after he had said he was coming over and she had insisted she was OK, he knew something had changed about the sadness of the memory, or, at least, about her interpretation of it. It was like she had discovered the path forward at long last.

He nodded, holding on to her hand. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I would love to do that.’

67

GOTHAM HALL, MIDTOWN

‘Gabriella, are you shaking, girl? I told you, I am not gonna stick a pin in you.’

‘I know, Errol.’

‘But if you keep shaking there might be a chance my professionalism will be overridden by whatever you’re tweaking about.’

She was nervous. More nervous about this walk down the runway for Pierre Bastion than any other event she had done before. It wasn’t because this was her last event in New York before she and Phoebe headed back to the UK, it wasn’t even because she was ‘modelling’ which really was not her vibe, it was because now she didn’t feel like this was a promotional moment like all her other engagements. Tonight she was going out there fully as Lulu Felix’s sister, dressed, yes, but feeling as raw and naked in public as she had ever been. But, really, it wasn’t about her at all…

‘Hey,’ Luca said, working on the opposite side of her to Errol. ‘Listen, everything is going to be fine. More than fine.’

She looked at him, a safety pin between those lips she got to kiss, making these unauthorised adjustments to a designer’s new work.

‘Maybe this is too much,’ Gabriella breathed. ‘Luca, you said you admired him. You’re a Pierre Bastion fan boy. Maybe we shouldn’t do⁠—’

‘Hush now!’ Errol ordered. ‘And I am not unpicking or unpinning any damn thing!’

‘But—’

‘Errol’s right,’ Luca said. He took the pin out of his mouth and held her hands. ‘Look at me. We all agreed to do this around a breakfast table of sausage and bacon, right?’

‘A pact made with patties,’ Errol said. ‘Is one that cannot be broken.’

‘But I don’t want to get you two in trouble. Especially you, Errol, when you’ve only just started with La Façon.’

‘Hey, girl, this dude can fight his own battles and⁠—’

‘And, I kinda told Sybille and she is all about making a statement. You want to see what she did in the eighties,’ Luca said. ‘And it’s important to you.’

‘But it’s someone else’s fashion show. It’s about his clothes and⁠—’

‘You’re wearing his clothes, Gabriella, just with a few adjustments for a couple of minutes,’ Luca said. ‘And, I told you, he likes an extraordinary collection. It’s going to make headlines.’

‘And if security come for you, Luca and I will⁠—’

‘No one is gonna do that, Errol,’ Luca said. ‘And, come on, Gabriella, if anyone comes for you just pull the move you made on Benoit Torres and remind everyone how many fucks you give. You’re Gabriella Felix.’