AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 1
Raven
“Is that coffee?” Michelle asks, climbing out from behind a clothes rack with pins between her teeth.
I nod and hold out the carton with Starbucks cups.
“Oh, God, just what the doctor ordered. I swear I’m sleepwalking at this point.”
I take my cup and sip the scalding liquid. It’s Heaven on Earth.
“How are things going?” I ask.
“I think we’re getting there. I know it’s always this crazy before we do Fashion Week, but every time I can’t believe how bad it gets.” She grins at me. “I love it, though.”
I smile at her. I love it, too. After studying fashion design in New York, I moved to Paris and started my own label. It’s been five years. The first year, I was sure I was going to fail on my ass and run back home with my tail between my legs. I barely sold anything, I got further and further into debt, and I was just about ready to give up.
When I met Michelle, everything changed. She saw my vision, understood my style, and she ran with it. The cash injection she offered as my partner didn’t hurt either.
And now, five years later, we’re representing Ruby Blue at the New York Fashion week. I’ve done two Paris Fashion Weeks in the past two years, and it was incredible. We’re here because it’s time to expand. If someone here likes my designs enough, I’m considering another branch of my fashion house right here in New York.
But I’m not going to get ahead of myself. I know what it’s like to get my hopes up, only to have my dreams dashed. My main focus is making this the most successful fashion week, and we’ll take whatever comes from it in our stride.
“You’re worrying again,” Michelle says.
I laugh and shake my head. “It’s not so bad.”
“No, it’s not. I know it looks like chaos now…” she glances at the pile of clothing on the table, the racks of outfits that the models will wear, and the paper patterns we’ve brought along in case we need to make changes to anything. “But there’s method in our madness.”
Michelle is my voice of reason when I start to doubt myself. I don’t know what made her decide to attach herself to me and my label. She always tells me destiny brought her to me. She’s everything I’m not—tall and skinny where I’m shorter with an hour-glass shape, auburn hair where mine is pitch black, freckles to my porcelain skin, and most of all, she’s charming when I’m shy and don’t always know the right words to say.
Maybe that’s why we get along like a house on fire. Since the moment we started working together, we haven’t only been business partners; we’ve been friends.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Michelle says. She puts her empty coffee cup down and claps her hands, rubbing them together. “Amy’s popping in later today.”
“Why?” I ask. Our casting agent’s job is done—she got me the models I needed to secure my spot. I didn’t get all the models I wanted. Some of them are so highly sought-after it’s a catfight just to get our hands on them. But Amy Greer arranged a handful of women who will make my outfits shine. She doesn’t need to be here now that everything is taken care of.
“I think she’s curious,” Michelle says. “And why not? Your designs this year are spectacular.”
I smile. Iknowthe designs are fantastic. Something happened this year that’s never happened before. The designs flowed out of me as if a faucet had been turned on, and the outfits I came up with are bigger, more dramatic, more extravagant than ever. I like to design the type of clothes women can wear every day—what’s the point of fashion if it can only be a part of the elite parties the upper class attends? I want women to feel glamorous while they’re shopping, seeing their friends, picking up their children from school.
Maybe it’s because I’ve designed outfits for so long that it came so easy this year. Or maybe, it’s because this is my year—the year everything will change.
I try not to hope too hard.
We walk to our workstations and get started. Michelle has been here since the crack of dawn. I worked until the early hours of the morning yesterday, so I took some time to sleep in a little.
Tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow, it all starts.
“How’s Ava?” Michelle asks from behind the rack of clothing, her words flattened against the pins she pinches between her lips again.
“She’s doing okay. Maria says she’s having a blast; she’s not missing me too much.”
“Nothing like hearing your daughter doesn’t want her mom all the time, huh?”
I chuckle. “Yeah, I guess it sets me at ease that she’s so comfortable with Maria. But this is the longest I’ve been away from her. I worry.”
“Of course, you do,” Michelle says. “That’s what mothers do. And she’s still so young.”
