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Teddy saw Diana coming. She was walking fast and her face showed the stress Teddy felt. Something else had obviously gone wrong.
“I’m going to check the stage one more time,” Renee said. There was a full crew taking care of it, but Renee was a detail person and she would make sure everything was fine before she returned to be the dresser for Teddy and three other models.
“Ready?” Teddy asked Diana.
“I need the train pulled up,” she said.
Diana turned around. Teddy found the loop in the middle of the train and pulled it up to the third button on the back. She looped it twice to secure it.
“There,” Teddy said.
“Now I can turn around without tripping or kicking the dress.”
Teddy knew she was teasing. The dress was one of Teddy’s designs. It was a new one. Diana always wore a new design for the show.
“Time to start,” Diana said.
Teddy turned for one last check in the mirror. She was the third gown out.
“There’s one more thing I think you should know,” Diana said.
“What’s that?” This was the real reason her friend had come over.
“Remember on the drive here, when you asked if anything else could go wrong today?”
Teddy nodded. Her breath suddenly died, and then she was heaving for air.
“He’s in the audience. Last row on the right.”
* * *
Teddy stepped onto the runway. Bright lights blinded her, but she didn’t squint and didn’t look to the last row on the right. With a smile on her face, she concentrated on Diana’s voice as she described the gown. Teddy pivoted and turned on cue at the end of the extrawide runway. Using her hand, she swirled the train up and around to the unexpected gasp of appreciation from the audience.
She displayed the dress for about a minute before she headed to the back and exited through the curtain that raised as she approached it. Teddy went left. The next model entered from the right.
Teddy exhaled with a hand on her breasts as her knees grew weak. Adam was indeed in the house. Renee rushed over to help her down the three steps and into the dressing area.
“What’s he doing here?” she muttered to herself.
While she hadn’t looked directly at him, Teddy noticed Adam and his brother. She wasn’t sure if it was Quinn or Galen.
Renee immediately started releasing the buttons on the gown and getting the next dress she was to model.
“Do we have any financial investment companies in the trade show?” Teddy asked.
“We have some financial planners from big firms. So yes.”
That must be why he was here, Teddy thought. But why didn’t he tell her he was coming?
She stepped out of the gown and someone whisked it away to rehang it in the numbered bag that corresponded to its order number. Teddy stepped into the next gown and Renee zipped and buttoned her in. Another associate wrapped the veil around the crown of her head. Teddy could have been a robot. She raised her arms when told, lifted her feet and stepped into shoes, bowed her head for veils, and closed her eyes or opened them for makeup. Her mind wasn’t on dressing.
It was on Adam.
Adam was president of his investment firm. Someone else could be in charge of sales and not mentioned this particular trade show. Or not mentioned it by name. She looked for excuses for him, for a reason he’d be here.
And Thanksgiving, that disastrous day, had provided such an unexpected turn of events that thinking about a trade show couldn’t have been on the top of his mind.
Twelve other models had gone up the steps and back in the time it took for Teddy to change. She went to the edge of the curtain and waited. Then she moved into the center space. Her train was adjusted so it would drag behind her in a perfectly straight line. Her veil covered her face giving her a small sense of invisibility and allowing her to look in Adam’s direction.
The curtain rose. She stood there a second. The audience applauded. Teddy stole a glance at Adam. His smile had her heart lurching. Clinging more tightly to the fresh flowers in her hands and mentally counted the steps she went through before returning to the dressing room.
“Teddy, don’t crush the flowers,” Renee admonished as she took the bouquet. “We want to use them more than once.”
