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“I have to catch him.” I chucked my coffee cup into a trash can and streaked around the corner and into the posh department store. I walked along the wall to my right which faced the street. After trailing my hand along two full walls and corners, I found what I was looking for.
The back of the display was a raised platform—all plywood and wooden supports. It was encased in a partial wall that was the same color as the interior store wall. To the left of it was a dark little hallway with two doors, one that appeared to offer access to the display window and another across the hall from it. I stepped closer. The door on the left was open and revealed what looked like a storage prop room. Big bolts of fabric, backdrops, and cutout standees were stacked vertically in orderly rows.
The door on the right was closed. It was definitely the door to the display window. For one thing, it had a set of three blocky black theater-like steps leading up to the door. For another, there was space above the door and a partial wall where the top part of the mountains and mini-ski lift could be seen. I climbed the steps and tried the door, but it was locked. He wasn’t there.
The full force of my disappointment barreled over me. No doubt my beautiful live male mannequin had already gone to lunch—probably with an equally beautiful and equally live female mannequin. There was someone for everyone, apparently, just never for me.
“Can I help you?”
I started and turned toward the voice. Below me, standing at the bottom of the chunky block of steps, stood an elegant-looking woman with a store name badge that read “Faye” pinned below her Peter Pan collar. Faye was beautiful in a timeless kind of way. I’d have confidently guessed her age to be fifty-five, but then I’d also just as confidently have guessed her to be thirty-five. Plus or minus ten years in both directions. Faye was wearing a powder-blue dress with a sharply tailored bodice that gave way to a full circle skirt that shimmered faintly when she moved.
I paled, suddenly cognizant of my situation. Whatever I said to this woman was going to make me sound like a stalker. Because I was actually kinda one.
Unless I didn’t mention I was hunting the mannequin. “I’m looking for the bathroom.”
Faye tilted her head and stared at me as if she could see right through to my soul. “Are you sure that’s what you’re looking for?”
All at once I was reminded of my second-grade teacher who had her doubts that I needed to sharpen my pencil seven times a day. The teacher was right. I’d really wanted to chat with my best friend, Isla, who sat next to the sharpener.
When I hesitated to answer, Faye produced a ring of keys from an unseen pocket. “I only ask because it would be very odd for one to want to go to the bathroom in a department store display window. But if you must, you must. Though it’s against public decency, of course, so I’d be forced to call the police, and it would be vandalism depending on where and how much you peed, so believe me when I tell you that the store would press charges as well as seek recompense in a civil suit, no doubt. But if you’re sure—”
I held up a hand, horrified. “No! No, I’m sorry. No. I have no intention of peeing in your department store window.” I hesitated with embarrassment, wondering how to explain myself. The woman looked friendly and clearly had a sense of humor. Maybe she wouldn’t immediately kick me out if I confessed. “I was looking for the model.”
“The model?” Faye’s beautifully drawn-in eyebrows went up.
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “The male model who was on display before the curtain closed?”
“Ah! Of course!” Faye put a finger to the side of her nose in a knowing gesture. “Tanner is a handsome one, isn’t he?”
Tanner. His name was Tanner. Knowing his name made my crush more real. I leaned around her to see if I could glimpse him.
She caught me looking, and I straightened. Her eyes twinkled. At the expression on my face, she patted my hand. “Oh, now, don’t you worry, love. I’ll help you catch up with him. Something tells me you two were made for each other.”
Electricity zinged up my spine, and I edged eagerly toward the kind woman. “Really? You think so too?”
“Definitely!” Her smile shone bright. She turned her massive key ring around in her hands. “But then again, we make our own destiny, right? With the choices we make?”
“Um…yes,” I agreed, even though it was the complete opposite of what I’d started out saying. Although whatever answer would get me access to him was the right one. The guy who—with one wink—had my heart tripping, my ears hearing wedding bells, and my mind racing ahead with visions of the future we’d share.
Even Faye thought we were made for each other. And she obviously knew him since she was his coworker. We were destined for each other. That’s what we were. Even if Tanner and I forged our own destinies together. Whatever. Destiny was destiny. We were meant to be.
“Faye, where is he? Did he go to lunch already?”
Faye laughed. “I guess you could say that. He’s off from window duty until tomorrow morning.”
My shoulders fell. If he was done with work for the day, it was unlikely he’d stick around.
“Oh, not to worry, dear!” Faye made a clucking sound that was oddly reassuring. “He didn’t go far. He’s just across the hall here.”
My excitement boiled over, and I took a deep breath as my heart refilled with hope.
Apparently deciding that she’d left me in suspense long enough, Faye took my hand and with a conspiratorial smile led me across the hall to the storage room I’d glimpsed on my way.
Inside were the half walls of extra background scene pieces, bolts of fabric and curtains, and there, just to the left of an evergreen tree standee, stood my man—
My mannequin.
He was dressed in the ski outfit he’d been wearing in the window, but under the harsh glare of the fluorescent bulbs in this room, his plastic “skin” reflected light off the perfectly smooth, man-made material.
