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“I haven’t been here that long,” I told him, as I helped him untangle a sleeve. “Relax. So, any particular destination in mind?”
“That’s what I hoped you could help me with,” he said as we headed out of the building together. “I don’t shop all that much, so I wouldn’t begin to know where to look.”
“Well, maybe we should start with what you have in mind to buy for them.”
He looked utterly terrified. “I don’t have anything in mind.”
“What have you bought them in the past?”
“For a while, I ordered gift baskets from a catalog, and then when they told me I didn’t have to get them anything, I started making contributions to their favorite charities in their honor. I thought I’d go with something a little more personal this year.”
“You do realize that being a girl doesn’t make me an expert shopper, don’t you? Maybe I should have made an appointment for you with my roommate, Gemma.”
“Sorry. I guess this was a bad idea.”
“No, I’m glad to help. But don’t expect miracles. Why don’t you tell me a little about them, and that might help me decide?”
We entered the subway station, where we were blessedly out of the cold wind. “Well, let’s see, they’re both fairly old, in their eighties, at least. Very traditional, highly educated, quite independent. Gloria is elegant—I’ve never seen her when she wasn’t fully dressed and put together, even first thing in the morning. James is like a lifelong student. Even now, he’s constantly reading. Does that give you enough to go on?”
“I have some ideas.” A train approached, and as we boarded I said, “We should get off in SoHo. I’m thinking some nice jewelry for Gloria, then a book on a fascinating subject for James.”
“You are good,” he said, with a smile that did funny things to my insides.
“And you really must be a lousy shopper if you couldn’t come up with that on your own.” That surprised me, given that he always wore perfectly tailored suits. Either he conjured them up or he had a personal tailor, more for convenience than fashion.
We left the train at Prince Street. “I seem to recall that there’s an interesting little store a couple of blocks over in Nolita—not that I’ve actually ever bought any jewelry, mind you,” I said.
“Lead the way. And how do you know all this?”
“I have a roommate who works in fashion. She sometimes makes me come with her on her research expeditions.”
“See, I came to the right person.”
The jewelry store was where I’d remembered it, and it was still open. The saleslady greeted us with a friendly smile. “Hi! Can I help you find something?” she asked. “Let me guess, you’d like to see our selection of engagement rings.”
Owen clammed up, looked at the floor, and left everything to me. I decided where he really needed my help was in communicating with the salespeople, not in deciding what to buy. In this case, though, even I was embarrassed. I tried to pin the saleslady with a steely glare as I said, “Actually, we’re here to look for a gift for his mother. Maybe a brooch?”
It was her turn to blush. “Oops, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to embarrass you. Right over here we have a nice selection of brooches. We carry the works of some of the freshest designers around.” She led us over to a display case. “Let me know if you want to get a closer look at something.”
Only after she’d gone to greet some other new customers did I dare glance over at Owen. His eyes were firmly locked on the display case, but his cheeks were still a bright red that had nothing to do with the cold wind outside. My own face felt a little too warm for comfort. There weren’t too many situations more awkward than being mistaken for an engaged couple when you were just friends, especially if there was even the slightest undercurrent of more than just friends from either side. I felt like she’d pulled my deepest, most hidden feelings out for public display.
“See anything you like?” I asked.
He pointed toward a delicate brooch that looked almost like someone had taken a feather and dipped it in gold. “That’s it. It’s her.”
“Wow, that was easy,” I said, turning to get the saleslady’s attention. She was with another customer, and the moment I saw who that customer was, I ducked behind Owen.
“What is it?” he asked.
“That other customer—no, don’t look!—is my former boss. She’s evil. She’s worse than Gregor in ogre mode, except she doesn’t actually turn green and grow horns.”
In spite of my warning, he turned to look. “She doesn’t seem so bad.”
“That’s what’s so evil about her. She seems perfectly nice, totally rational. And then in the blink of an eye she turns into this monster. You never know what might set her off. With any luck, she’ll get out of here before she recognizes me.”
Of course, that pretty much jinxed me right away. It was as good as saying a magic spell to make her notice me. “Katie, is that you?” Mimi said, crossing the store to give me an insincere air kiss.
“Yeah, it’s me,” I said.
