Page 58 of Suddenly Mine
They ordered champagne to start. Even though Trudy and Alice chatted freely about work, and their lives outside the store, Merry found it difficult to keep up. The entirety of her mind was taken up by Christian — his smile, his warm eyes, his infectious laugh, his strong arms, not to mention those hands . . . Every time she found herself thinking of him she had to catch herself before her cheeks exploded.
“. . . reminds me,” Alice was saying when Merry tuned into the conversation again. “There might not even be a job to go back to next year.”
“What do you mean?” Trudy asked.
“The store, haven’t you heard?” Alice leaned in and they all crowded around her. “It’s going under. Poor Lewis Carroll is ill. I heard he’s dying. The store won’t go on without him.”
“It has to,” said Merry. “I need this job.”
“At least we won’t have to answer to Cradley anymore,” laughed Alice.
“That’s true,” said Merry.
“Anyway, I heard that Carroll’s son is back in town,” said Trudy. “That he’s going to take over.”
“I didn’t know he had a son,” said Merry.
Trudy nodded, taking a sip of her drink. “Yeah, he used to work here, apparently, in the head office. He left, some disagreement or other. But anyway, I heard he’s back, and I heard he’s gorgeous.”
“Rich and gorgeous,” said Alice, purring. “I wonder if he’ll be there tonight?”
“I can think of a certain somebody who needs a rich boyfriend,” said Trudy, looking at Merry.
Merry squirmed uncomfortably, remembering the conversation that Christian had overheard a couple of days ago. “I don’t care how rich he is,” she said. “You can’t fall in love with notes and coins.”
“That’s true enough.” Alice checked her phone. “Anyway, it’s nearly five. It’s time to go and get ready.”
The snow had doubled in strength and they ran through it back to Carroll’s, bursting into the store like kids at Christmas. The absence of customers made the space look so much bigger, and the enormous Christmas tree rose majestically through the open levels. Everywhere Merry looked there were lights and ribbons, holly and mistletoe, baubles and tinsel. It made her heart feel light with happiness to see such festive joy.
They made their way up to the locker room together. Even though so many people had left the store recently, the place was still busy as people changed out of their uniforms and into their formal dresses. Merry marvelled at the beautiful fabrics and striking colours, the sparkle of silver and the glint of gold. Everybody was chatting and laughing, the atmosphere positively electric, but when Merry opened her locker door and pulled out her dress, the room fell eerily quiet.
“Oh my God,” said Trudy. “That’s a Storm dress.”
Merry turned around, holding the dress protectively against her chest. It clung to her, as though it wanted to be worn, the tiny, bejewelled snowflakes flashing like diamonds.
Trudy walked up, her eyes wide with sheer astonishment. “I saw that dress inVogue,” she said. “It was supposed to be for that actress, the Oscar winner. You know the one. It was custom designed by Devlin Storm himself, but then they fell out and she never wore it. How . . . how on earth have you got it?”
Merry almost felt embarrassed, and she wondered if maybe it was too much, if maybe the sight of an ordinary girl like her in such a glorious and expensive dress would make people laugh — or make them angry. But she refused to let anything stop her from enjoying this moment. This was Christian’s gift to her, and that’s all that mattered.
“It was a present,” she said. “A very generous one.”
“It can’t have been a gift from your cleaner boyfriend,” Trudy said. “So who?”
Alice smiled kindly. “It doesn’t matter who. You’re very lucky. It’s beautiful. Go on, put it on!”
Merry grinned, stripping out of her uniform and slipping into the dress. She turned around and Alice zipped it up.
“Oh, wow,” Trudy said with a hint of envy. “That’s . . . that’s just something else.”
“Oh, Merry, you look incredible!” shouted Alice, hugging her. She grabbed Merry’s shoes from the locker. “Sit there, let me do your hair.”
Merry did as she was told, feeling like royalty as Alice started brushing her hair. Even though Trudy rolled her eyes, she joined in, expertly twisting Merry’s stubborn red locks into elegant braids. Merry sat there like a blushing bride as the two girls did her makeup, trying not to laugh as they tickled her cheeks with brushes and her lips with gloss. She had no idea how long they worked on her, but after a while they stood back in awe.
“Whoa, mamma,” said Trudy.
Alice grinned. “You look like a movie star.”
Merry looked into the mirror, studying her reflection the way that somebody might watch a movie. And the person she saw therebelongedin a movie, a movie where a girl made a Christmas wish to become a princess, where she fell in love with her prince and waltzed with him into the sunset. Merry grinned at herself, wondering if this was too good to be real life, if maybe this movie was about to end. But what if it didn’t?