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7
Nina flippedthrough the clearance section at the Nordstrom outlet in Union Square, her mind only half on what Karen was saying as she half-heartedly perused a nearby rack. It had been hard to think about anything but Liam since she’d run into him at Whistler, since she’d agreed to go to dinner with him. This despite the fact that Karen had returned from the bathroom soon afterward, her conversation with Liam ending with a chaste hug before she hustled Karen out of the place. She’d already finished her drink, and she definitely didn’t trust herself with another one aroundLiam.
“You’re not paying attention, are you?” Karen’s voice broke through herthoughts.
“I am,” Nina said, scrambling past her thoughts of Liam for the words that had only sporadically been making their way into her consciousness. “First-class tickets to the Maldives, Doug’s oral sex technique, analstimulation.”
“How do you do that?” Karen asked. “I know you weren’t payingattention.”
“It’s agift.”
“Ha! I knew it,” Karen said. She sighed. “I don’t know why we couldn’t just go to Bergdorf. Julia said they just got a bunch of stuff in forspring.”
“First of all, it’s barely March,” Nina said. “Second, I do not currently have a Bergdorf budget. There’s some really nice stuff here, and it’s a lotcheaper.”
Karen remained Nina’s biggest challenge when it came to keeping her spending lean. After decades building her career, Karen made enough money to spend however she wanted, and that wasn’t counting the gifts that seemed to come in a steady stream from Douglas Shaw and all her other lovers beforehim.
Nina, on the other hand, had burned through a lot of her divorce settlement savings due to various emergencies and routine medical expenses now that she was no longer covered on Peter’sinsurance.
“You get what you pay for,” Karenmuttered.
“Exactly, and right now I’m willing to pay clearanceprices.”
“This is hot.” Karen held up a slinky black cocktail dress with a cross-top halter and a plungingback.
Nina looked at it. “It’s allright.”
Karen lifted her eyebrows. “All right? Wow, tough customer. Liam would want to eat you in this, and it’s perfect for the RiverCafe.”
Liam had chosen the restaurant, a well-known spot on Water Street with sweeping river views that included the city skyline across the water. Nina had been surprised when she’d looked it up. The last time they dated their meals out had been centered around funky Brooklyn hot spots, places only locals knew about with great food and atmospheres that ranged from interesting toseedy.
Knowing their date was at the River Cafe somehow lent more weight to their date, like Liam thought it wasimportant.
“I don’t know,” Nina said. “It’s not what I had inmind.”
“What did you have inmind?”
“I’ll know it when I see it,” Ninasaid.
“Great. Reallyhelpful.”
When Nina first moved to the city, she’d been one big fashion Don’t. Trapped in the suburbs, she’d adopted a uniform that in hindsight involved a weird and inappropriate mix of boring middle-aged cubicle drone and harried working mother, in spite of the fact that she had neither job norchild.
She’d needed Karen’s help in the fashion department, and Karen had helped her build a wardrobe of high-end foundation pieces — boots crafted of soft-as-butter leather, tailored trousers that showed off Nina’s now-toned legs (thanks to hours at the gym and a newfound love of yoga), silk blouses cut to perfection, sheer or plunging enough to avoid being frumpy — that ensured Nina never looked weird, boring, or worst of all,sexless.
Over time she’d added other pieces, things that caught her eye in vintage stores or on sale, pieces that spoke to her for reasons she couldn’t always define. Nina had been as taken aback as Karen the first time Karen held something up for Nina’s consideration only to have her say, “It’s notme.”
Karen had blinked in surprise, taken another look at the jumpsuit with a plunging neckline, and said, “You know what? You’re right. It isn’t you. Not the you you are right nowanyway.”
Somewhere along the way, Nina had developed her own style, a blend of Karen’s elegance and what Karen referred to as “rocker funk,” which was different than what Karen called Robin’s “bohemianfunk.”
“So are you nervous?” Karen asked. “Excited?”
Nina laughed. “Yes.”
“I’m surprised you resisted him that long,” Karen said. “I’d forgotten how hot he is, and cute, in an endearingly nerdyway.”
Before Nina ever met Liam, Karen had worked with him, editing a book about Africa written by Vincent Reynolds, a billionaire philanthropist, with accompanying photographs taken byLiam.
