The Best Friend Scandal (Bad News Billionaires Book 2)

by Lucia Jordan

  “Come,” he said. “Let’s have wine, and I promise I’ll ice my hand.”

  We sat down on the floor of his apartment together in front of the large window that overlooked the city. Since it was still daytime, the streets were bustling with commuters and the backdrop of city noises. The day was calmly overcast, so a nice dim and hazy light filled the apartment.

  “Let me help you,” I said as I pulled away the corkscrew he was struggling to hold along with the wine bottle. “You ice your hand.”

  He finally put the bag of frozen peas onto his knuckles as he sat and watched me successfully remove the cork and pour us both a glass of late-afternoon wine. The day seemed to have sped by, and suddenly it was an early happy hour.

  “That looks like it hurts,” I said as I handed him his glass and stared at his discolored and bulging knuckles.

  “Yeah, it turns out that Cai’s face is actually pretty hard for such a pretty boy,” he joked. “I do hope that I didn’t permanently damage his nose,” he said. “As much as I dislike the guy, I would never want to take someone’s career or future away from them.”

  I nodded in agreement with that sentiment as I sipped my wine. I had been trying to think about a solution to the model’s all walking out, and I was pretty sure I had come up with one now.

  “Okay,” I said. “I have an idea. How about window displays?”

  “Huh?” he looked confused, and I couldn’t blame him because I hadn’t actually explained anything yet.

  “Well, since we don’t have any models to work with, and there’s only so much online and print media advertising that we can do, what about doing some incredible window displays? It’s New York City; most everyone walks the streets here at any given time, and most all of them are looking at the storefronts as they go. What if we did some amazing displays inside the stores that will be premiering the new lines?”

  I waited for his response. I could never really tell if my ideas only sounded great inside my crazy head, or if they had merit with other people as well.

  “That is a brilliant idea!” Arlo said.

  “Really?” I asked. “You’re not just saying that to make me happy, right?”

  “I’m saying it because I think it is an incredible and genius idea that is going to save the impact and reach of this launch. It’s perfect,” he said.

  Arlo held his wine glass up in a cheer and clinked it against the side of mine.

  “Only foreseeable problem,” he said after he had taken a nice, long sip, “is who is going to do all the window displays? I mean, I have a small design crew that can, but they won’t be able to do all the stores we’re releasing in. There just isn’t enough time for them to get it all done,” he said.

  “I’ll help,” I said. “You’ve seen how fast I can work. It will be the same for this. I’ll sketch out ideas and go over them with your team. I’ll tell them the fastest ways to achieve each aesthetic, and then I’ll head out and help, too.”

  “Do you think you can get it all done in time?” he asked.

  I raised my eyebrows at him. “You have seen me work before,” I reminded him.

  He laughed. “Yes, this is true. You’ll get it all done; I have no doubt.”

  “Just as long as you can get the stores’ permission for me to start it in the morning?”

  “Absolutely,” he said, “the gig will be yours to run. I’ll just be there if you need me.”

  I reached for the notepad and pencil sitting over on the coffee table. I started to sketch out ideas for impressive and innovative window displays that would play into the whole fantasy theme while also promoting the new clothing line.

  20

  Chapter Eighteen (Arlo)

  After a night of drinking wine, watching Hensley sketch out ideas, and then making love until the stars were jealous, I once again was able to wake up with Hensley in my arms. That was when I knew for sure, the moment that my eyes opened, and I felt her there beside me. That was the moment that I knew I was madly in love with Hensley.

  It was the kind of love that couldn’t be apart, couldn’t wait, and couldn’t hold back. I knew, of course, that I couldn’t tell her that, not yet anyway. It was too soon. We’d been friends for years, but lovers for less than a week. Even so, it felt so much as though we should have been lovers all along, that it felt too right not to acknowledge.

  After my outburst of violence against Cai, Hensley’s idea of doing the window displays was a lifesaver since we didn’t have any models. But I still thought it was way too much work for her to get done in a matter of a few days. My team only consisted of four people, and there were at least a dozen stores in the city to adorn with an enticing window display. Some of the stores had even requested to have multiple windows dressed when I had called to ask for their blessing on the idea. The only way this was going to work was if the displays were visually stunning, and for that, I thought that Hensley was going to need more time and more workforce than we had.

  When it was time to leave for work, Hensley headed toward her F.I.T. workshop for some “surprise idea” that she had, while I drove into the office at Luscious. It seemed like she never had any shortage of surprise ideas.

  I was immensely distracted by thoughts of making love to Henley all morning, but when my secretary came into my office with news that Cai had accepted my deal, I refocused myself on the tasks at hand for the day. I shot Hensley a quick text to let her know about Cai because I knew that would ease her mind, and then I got to work handling things on my end for the launch. After a couple of hours, Hensley texted me back and asked me to meet her at the store site for the first window. I asked her if she wanted me to bring my design team along to help, and she said it wasn’t necessary yet. Was she planning to do this whole thing by herself? There was just no way; that would be physically impossible. Regardless, I went to see what she was up to and met her at one of the high-end department stores in upper Manhattan. When I pulled up, I was amazed to see the crowd of people gathered around her outside the store window.

  “Hey,” I said as I walked over and kissed Hensley on the cheek. “Who are all these people?”

  “These,” she said with a beaming smile that indicated she was proud of herself. “Are all the students who were in my design cohort at F.I.T. when I did my undergrad work. And they have all graciously offered to come to help us with the windows. No charge, no contracts; they just want the experience.”

  I looked around; there were at least a dozen designers. “Are you serious?” I asked. “This is great!”

  It wasn’t the cost that I cared about, but just the manpower that Hensley would need in order to pull it off and get it all done before the first shipment of fashions arrived at each store. She would certainly have enough hands on deck now. I stood back and watched as she and the designers went inside the store and climbed into the giant display area. I could see her talking rapidly with her hands moving as she spoke to the other designers on the other side of the glass. She looked as if she was completely in her element. And then, all of a sudden, I had a great idea, one that I would keep to myself until the time was exactly right.

  I spent the rest of the day watching as Hensley and her team went from store to store and window to window, laying out ideas and dispersing the information to the other designers who then engaged in verbal collaboration about what they would do. A few of them even offered to be live mannequins, the kind of faux model that would stand perfectly still in the window, making everyone believe they were just a mannequin until they suddenly moved and changed position. It was almost like performance art, and it would add an edge of intrigue to some of the displays.

  Hensley spent the next few days working on the launch, and although I was working on my end of things for it, too, I was also working on a bit of a side-project.

  “Mr. Pratt, how lovely to see you again,” the manager of Closet Magic said to me as I walked into her store.

  It was one of the most prestigious shops in the city, and the sto
re was already well-known for its elaborate window displays year-round. The building itself had a historic brick-stone façade that was partially covered in crawling ivy, and it was located on one of the most beautiful corners near Soho.

  “Actually,” I said. “I have a rather unusual favor to ask of you.”

  Fortunately, I knew the manager well. We were even on a first name basis once we got behind closed doors and could drop all the pretentious formalities. Meg and I had done several retail launches together before, and her store was again on the top of my list for this new line release. But since this shop was so exceptionally beautiful, I had a special purpose in mind for it. I explained my idea to her, and by the time I finished, she had one hand clasped over her heart and the other over her mouth.

  “You okay, Meg?” I asked her when she looked like she might be having some kind of episode.

  “Yes, sorry,” she said, taking her hand away from covering her mouth. “It’s just such a really beautiful idea. In all my years of running this store, I don’t think I’ve ever had the pleasure of being part of something so magical.”

  “So you’ll help me then?” I asked.

  “Absolutely!” she answered enthusiastically. “Thank you for letting Closet Magic and me be a part of this special moment.”

  I stood up and shook Meg’s hand. I had a lot of work to do now, even more than what I first had on my plate. But that was okay because this would be more worth it than all the other things combined. I raced back to my office to enlist the help of my design team, which I didn’t think Hensley even needed anymore since she had all of her friends helping from F.I.T. As expected, they were all too eager to jump in. I threw in an monetary bonus to show my gratitude. Then I texted Hensley to let her know that Closet Magic was being withdrawn from the display list and that she and her friends didn’t need to go to that store anymore to set up the merchandising.

  “Aww, that’s a bummer,” she texted back. “Closet Magic is one of my favorite stores. What made them back out?”

  “They had a conflict with another designer that they had already booked,” I lied. Well, it was kind of a lie but partially true.

  “That sucks,” she said. “Surely, the conflict couldn’t be as exciting and important a display like the ones for our line.”

  Oh, you’d be surprised, I grinned to myself.

  “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it, so just stay the course on the ones you’re already doing.”

  “Okay,” she texted back.

  I gathered my little team and the supplies we needed, and the five of us headed back to Closet Magic together. When we got there, Meg had already had the previous display cleared, so we essentially had a blank canvas. We would be using the main storefront window, which was just large enough, but not too big to be overwhelming. It was the perfect space to turn into a magical fantasyland forest. My crew of designers had brought me the trees and sparkling light strings and even a carpet of faux moss that they unrolled and trimmed to fit the space of the window’s ledge. One of the designers had used deep, rich shades of crepe paper to make fanciful flower buds to stick into the trees and little crafted mushrooms that surrounded the entire area. When the area was all set up and ready, I stepped back to look at it and thought that it was perfect. None of my designers knew what this would be used for; the only person who knew was Meg, and she was great with keeping secrets.

  “Okay, so the launch is on Monday,” I said to Meg as we got ready to leave. “We’ll be here right after the launch.”

  “I’ll make sure that everything remains just as you left it,” she said as she roped off the area from regular mall shoppers. “And I’ll have all the sparkling lights turned on as soon as you text me and say that you’re on your way.”

  “Thanks, Meg,” I said as I hugged her.

  After we had left and were heading back to the office, one of my crew asked me why I was keeping this particular display a secret from Hensley.

  “It’s more than just a display,” I answered. “I guess I would say that it’s interactive.

  Now there was only one more thing left to do, and it was something that I had to do alone.

  “Hey, are you still busy working?” I texted Hensley.

  “Yeah, probably going to be working on this stuff pretty late tonight,” she answered right away. “How about you?”

  As much as I wanted to see her and have her lay all curled up in my arms, I had to do this other thing. “Yeah, same here,” I said. “Guess I won’t be seeing you tonight?”

  I watched as the three little bouncing bubbles showed me that she was typing, but then stopped and restarted a couple of times, only to result in her scantily-worded answer eventually.

  “Oh, yeah, guess not. See you tomorrow morning, though?” she texted.

  “Sounds good,” I answered back.

  I wanted to see her tonight, badly. But this was going to make sure that we could be together every night, so it was necessary. I got into my car and drove several miles until I reached the exact store I was looking for. They didn’t know me here, so as soon as I got out of my car and opened the store’s door to go inside, the saleswoman looked immediately skeptical that I should even be there. What? Was I not following the appropriate billionaire dress code? The one of a kind outfit that made saleswomen swoon both for the commission they knew to expect off of the sale and the fit, male body that they would get a little visual treat of to break up the monotonous day of retail. This woman, however, seemed just snotty.

  “Yes,” I said to her. “I’m looking for something rather specific.

  I explained what I wanted, and she gave me a verbal warning about how expensive something like that would be. In order to take her down a notch, I had to come clean.

  “I don’t think you know who I am,” I said with a smile on my face. “I’m the owner of the brand Luscious.” For a moment, she got silent. I thought she was thinking it over and trying to decide whether she was going to believe me or not.

  “Wait right here for a minute,” she said as she went to grab another coworker.

  “Yep, that’s him all right,” the other girl said. “Arlo Pratt, most arrogant and rich man in the city.”

  Ouch. I didn’t think I was actually either of those things. But at least it was enough to make the saleslady believe that I was who I said I was. I spent a long time in that shop deliberating over a couple of choices until I found exactly what I wanted to get.

  “This better be a lucky girl,” she said.

  “Trust me,” I said just before I left the store. “I’m the lucky one in this equation.

  By the time I got back to my apartment, it was already dark, and I wondered whether I should still try to be productive tonight or just get some rest since tomorrow would be a busy day. I opted for rest and was so thrilled to be getting some sleep that when my head touched down onto my pillow, I squeezed my eyes closed and fell straight asleep.

  I dreamed that night, and it was a cool dream that I was happy. I still remembered it in the morning when I woke up. In my dream, Hensley and I were surrounded by forest, which perfectly fit the theme of things. She looked beautiful in my dream and shined with radiance. I seemed to be chasing her in my dreamscape, and it felt like I was trying to give her something. I tried to stay asleep even when my phone alarm went off. I tried to push my eyelids closed and stay asleep for every last minute that I had, but eventually, the beeping got too annoying to let it go on anymore, and I woke up. I was undoubtedly excited about today and for seeing Hensley again. I was excited to see what she had done so far.

  “Two more days!” I called to her as I walked up to a storefront that looked nearly finished.

  “I’m so excited!” she said.

  “How’s it coming along?” I asked.

  She didn’t need to say anything because I could see that it was coming along beautifully. I could also see something else in the reflection in the window—Kerynne.

  It was a public store, and it did
have the kind of fashion that I could see Kerynne would be interested in, so it wasn’t as if it was that weird to see her out and about in the streets of the city. I guess I had just forgotten—or hoped—that since they had all walked out, we wouldn’t need to deal with them anymore. Not that I had anything against them collectively. I just didn’t want any drama today.

  “Hey, Kerynne,” I said as I turned around.

  21

  Chapter Nineteen (Hensley)

  When I heard Arlo say her name, I turned around. I was surprised to see Kerynne. I didn’t know why, but I had just sort of figured that I wouldn’t be seeing any of them for a while, which was a stupid thought, considering we all worked in the same industry inside the same city. I guess I thought that New York City was bigger than it actually was.

  She looked up at me in the window and stared.

  “So this is what you’re doing now, Arlo?” she asked him. “You’ve traded live models for store mannequins and a girlfriend? That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?”

  “How’s Cai?” Arlo asked as he quickly changed the subject.

  I was sure he didn’t want to get into a heated discussion with her about how limited options were without any models. At this point, I was glad that the models had walked out. I was enjoying this new concept and felt the creativity and collaboration flowing with the display projects. I thought it was opening up a whole new avenue that we hadn’t thought of before. I bet that if Kerynne knew her quitting had actually helped us, it would probably piss her off.

  “He’s fine. Luckily, the doctor was able to set the broken bone in his nose so there won’t be any permanent damage.”

  “I’m very glad to hear that,” Arlo said genuinely.

  There was an awkward moment while Kerynne stood there, and neither knew what more to say before she finally just turned and walked away. I thought that she had been headed into Closet Magic, to begin with, but then changed her mind. Eventually, all of us would have to figure out how to navigate each other’s presence in the fashion industry, since none of us had plans to leave it anytime soon.