Pippa grinned. ‘I get the shakes if I drink too much of it. Look at this.’ She slid a form towards Skye.
‘Are you getting a new phone?’ she asked.
‘Yeah. I looked at my phone bill last night and I’m paying stupid money each month. If I switch to this, I’ll get all sorts of benefits, like free texts.’
‘Well done, Pippa. You’re really getting yourself together.’
‘For the first time ever, I’m living to a set budget.’
‘Are you finding it awful?’ Skye asked.
‘Surprisingly not. Before, I just drifted from one thing to the next and flew by the seat of my pants. Now I know exactly what I have to spend and, more to the point, I’m fully aware of my outgoings. No more surprise phone calls from the bank, I hope.’
She couldn’t believe the response she’d had to her website. Not only had she people clicking on it constantly but she’d sold fifteen of her framed sketches in less than a week.
‘I can do you a deal if you buy fifty frames,’ Echo had said when she’d gone to buy a few more after the initial purchase.
Knowing she might be getting herself into more debt, Pippa had gone for it anyway. And she had already made back half of the money she owed Lainey.
There was one person Pippa knew she needed to talk to.
‘Hello.’ The phone was answered on the third ring.
‘Hi, Jay, it’s me,’ she said. She’d tried to sound chilled out and relaxed but failed.
‘How’s it going?’ he asked, in a businesslike manner.
‘I’d really appreciate it if you could meet me for a coffee,’ she said, cutting to the chase.
‘There’s no point in dragging this out, Pippa. Why don’t you just post the tickets to my office? That way I won’t take up any of your time.’
‘Jay, I’m really sorry about the way I behaved.’ There. She’d said it. ‘I’m not proud of myself and I know I was a complete bitch to you. I’d love to see you, if you can spare me the time.’
The silence that followed seemed to go on for ever.
‘Jay, are you there?’ she asked.
‘Yup.’ His voice still sounded tight but not quite as harsh as it had a few minutes before.
‘Please?’ she begged.
‘I don’t know, Pippa … It might be best to let sleeping dogs lie.’
‘Tell you what,’ she said, ‘I’ll be at the Tower pub at seven thirty this evening. If you feel like coming, I’d love to see you. If not, I’ll post you the tickets and leave you alone.’
‘Pippa …’
‘Just see how you feel later on. ’Bye.’ She might have set herself up for a fall, but Pippa didn’t care. She hoped Jay would come, but she would understand if he didn’t want anything more to do with her.
The emails were coming through to her site steadily. Sadly, due to the recession most of the people were only buying small gifts or single pieces, meaning Pippa wasn’t exactly in danger of becoming an overnight millionaire.
Still, Pippa knew she would need to put a lot more time and energy into her new venture before she could really reap the benefits. Most of her customers were Skye’s contacts, so she had decided to draw her a special picture to say thank you, using the Chanel jacket from Boutique Belle as inspiration. Her strokes were deft yet confident as the image took shape. It was as if her fingers were actually creating the garment from scratch.
‘Wow, Pippa,’ Skye said, coming up behind her. ‘I’ll be your first customer for one of those. I love it. Even the most alternative of us still harbour a longing for Chanel.’
‘I’m glad you like it,’ Pippa said. ‘It’s for you.’
‘No way! Thanks a million! I love it – but other people will too, so you have to make some copies.’
‘You’re seriously business-minded for a hippie child,’ Pippa said.
‘Just because I don’t care if my hair is perfect doesn’t mean I expect money to fall out of the sky via carrier pigeon.’
‘So it appears. I learn more from you every day.’ Surveying the sketch, Pippa wondered if she should add more to it. Then, deciding its simplicity spoke volumes, she tore the page from the pad.
‘I’m meeting Echo later for a bite to eat, so I’ll take the picture and get some copies if you like,’ Skye offered. ‘Will we photograph it and put it up online right now?’
‘Brilliant on all counts.’
Working together, they posted the picture on the site.
Once Skye had gone, Pippa went through her emails and came across one from a luxury department store. ‘Holy God in the sky above!’ A member of their PR team had investigated her site and, more to the point, her sketches. Could she call Briana at her leisure on this mobile-phone number?
‘Hello – Briana? This is Pippa Craig.’
‘That was quick! This is the type of enthusiasm we like to see.’
‘I know I should probably pretend I’m too busy to see or speak to anyone and that my diary is full until June twelve months but I was stoked to see an email with House of Fashion attached to it!’
‘I’m glad you know of us.’
‘I’d love to be locked in there overnight some time so I could try everything on!’
Briana laughed. ‘Would you like to come into the office on the top floor of our Grafton Street store for a chat?’
‘Does the Pope wear a funny-shaped hat? I can be there in an hour.’
‘No time like the present! See you then.’
Putting the phone down, Pippa dashed around the apartment and ended up back in the living room out of breath and wondering what the hell she needed to do next. She couldn’t wait to tell someone her news, and Joey was a captive audience. ‘Hey, dude, guess what’s happened?’ She blurted out the latest bulletin.
‘That’s so cool, Pippa,’ he said. ‘It sounds as if you’re on the cusp of really exciting stuff.’
‘I seriously hope so,’ she said. ‘For the first time in my life I feel like I could actually be heading down the right road. Scary monsters!’
‘Good luck today and don’t sign anything until you let me have a look first,’ he said.
‘I won’t. One other thing – I called Jay and asked him to meet me this evening for a drink.’
‘I thought you were so over him and he was a sap and you’d moved on and he was … How did you put it last week? I remember! “He’s a complete lamer.”’
‘Ugh!’ She cringed in shame. ‘I know he probably hates my guts but I asked him to meet me tonight so I can give him his tickets back.’
‘What tickets?’
‘I don’t want to tell you.’
‘Pippa, what have you done now?’ he said.
‘Jay bought us tickets to the Seychelles and I threw them back in his face. Well, not literally, because I still have them here. But he invited me and presented me with the holiday and I broke up with him.’
‘Jesus, Pippa. What were you thinking?’
‘It’s really bad, isn’t it?’
‘Well, all I can say is, you’ve no right to slag Sophia off. I thought she was in the clear for Bitch of the Year, but you’re a strong contender now.’
‘Thanks,’ she whispered.
‘Sorry, that was mean. And I can hear that you’ve had second thoughts. But don’t meet Jay and do the nicey-nicey thing now just to ease your conscience,’ he warned. ‘If you’re really not interested, be honest.’
‘I’m not even sure he’s going to show up. Quite honestly, I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t.’
‘Me neither,’ Joey agreed.
‘Cheers. Thanks for the family support and all that.’
‘Pippa, I’ve just been on the receiving end of having a girl I thought loved me do a drop-kick with my heart so I’m fresh out of sympathy for bitches right now.’
‘And I’m starting to think Sophia should be made a saint,’ Pippa snapped.
‘Touchy!’
‘I can hear you smiling, you horrible shit.’
; ‘I’m bored! Give me a break!’ Joey said. ‘But all jokes aside, remember Grandma saying it’s nice to be nice? It honestly is.’
‘I know,’ she admitted. ‘I’ll talk to you later.’
‘Fair enough. Good luck with the interview and I hope Jay turns up. If he liked the uppity-cow version of you, he’ll probably love the new improved Pippa.’
‘Piss off,’ she said good-naturedly as she hung up.
Going for a sleek all-black look, Pippa pulled on a pair of no-fuss black cigarette trousers, teamed with a fine-knit Karen Millen sweater. The little bit of black and white spotty chiffon at the neck and sleeves gave it a lift without killing the corporate look. She added a well-fitting black blazer and felt presentable enough to face Briana. She really believed in her new business venture, but Pippa was under no illusions that it could take a long time to build up and make serious money – if ever.
She drove the short distance to the city centre, parked the car, then went into House of Fashion and up the escalators to the office floor. She forced herself not to look at the racks of exquisite, blingy, Christmas clothing as she pressed on up – she’d save that for later, when she could enjoy it.
She found Briana’s door, took a deep breath, stood tall and knocked firmly.
A blonde, pencil-thin woman, with an elegant side-split bob and beautifully cut navy suit, answered the door.
‘Briana?’ Pippa asked.
‘Yes, and you must be Pippa. You look like a Pippa.’
‘At least you’re polite enough not to say I look like I should be called Mike Tyson!’
‘That does look sore. Poor you,’ Briana said, wincing.
‘I don’t make a habit of getting myself involved in fights, for the record,’ Pippa assured her. ‘I was caught up in an unfortunate incident which wasn’t my fault.’
‘I hope you’ll be okay.’
‘I’ll be fine, thank you. It was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ Pippa said, brushing it off.
‘Anyway, we’re not here to discuss bruises,’ Briana said brightly. ‘We’ve much more pleasant things to talk about.’
‘Fantastic,’ Pippa said, relaxing visibly.
‘Come in. I’m delighted to meet you! I love what you’re doing with the online personal shopping, but the real reason I wanted to talk to you is this,’ Briana said, swivelling her screen towards Pippa.
‘That’s my sketch!’ she said.
‘Yes, and as you can see, I’ve done a quick mock-up of the type of things we’d like you to produce in the future. We don’t actually stock Chanel but I used your sketch as an example to show you what I would like to do with our own labels.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Totally.’
‘Where do we go from here, then?’ Pippa couldn’t take her eyes off the image on screen, which showed her sketch of the Chanel jacket with the words ‘Chanel collection’ in black scrolling letters written across it.
‘We’d like to commission you to do all our in-store and online signage. You’d have to see the collections so you could sketch an image of, say, a Louboutin shoe to front that section, or a Tiffany necklace, and so on.’
‘OMG, this is amazing!’ Pippa squealed. ‘I know I’m meant to be all laidback and cool, and I should probably say that I need to consult my design team and talk to my lawyers and attempt to fit you in, but the team is me, I’ve never met a lawyer for so much as a cup of tea and I love-love-love the sound of this.’
‘Do you know what? I believe you!’ Briana joked. ‘Obviously you’re going to need a bit of advice now. You’ll want to work out some figures so we can do a proper deal with you.’
‘Sure.’ She’d call Joey and pick his brains. Lainey was really good with the fine detail of business matters too.
‘We have one immediate request,’ Briana said. ‘We work a year ahead of schedule and we want to invest in you to work on our store image for winter next year.’
‘Right.’
‘So we’d like to purchase the sketches you have left in order to keep our brand from being used by anyone else and also to keep it fresh.’
‘I see,’ Pippa said, thinking of Skye and Echo who were making copies right now of the Chanel drawing.
‘I can see that the idea is putting a kybosh on your current business plan, and I appreciate that asking a person to stop selling a lucrative product a few days before Christmas is a tall order. So we’d be prepared to buy all the rest of your stock at the recommended retail price and give you an extra thousand euro on top.’
The voice in Pippa’s head wanted her to leap across the desk, hug Briana and run around the office shaking her head like a rocker and wiggling her bum while clenching her fists and pretending to drive an imaginary wheel around in circles and shouting, ‘Oh yeah, oh yeah, Pippa rules, oh yeah.’
Instead she remembered what Joey had said and nodded, wearing an expression she hoped was appropriate to a canny businesswoman.
‘Do you want to think it over?’ Briana asked.
‘Yes. How about we meet again in a couple of days?’
‘That’s fine by me, Pippa. I’ll be here until the doors shut late on Christmas Eve,’ Briana said. ‘You have a think, and I’ll get a contract drawn up for you to look at. Here, I jotted a few notes on the kind of things we’ll be covering. Cool? Thanks for coming and I look forward to speaking to you soon.’
It wasn’t until Pippa was back in the underground car park, belted into her seat with the engine running, that she remembered she hadn’t walked round the fashion floors. No matter – she’d do it another day. She couldn’t have concentrated on what she was looking at anyway. Her mind was whirling, and she could hardly breathe for excitement.
‘Yee-haw!’ She stamped her feet so much the brake lights came on and off at a rate of noughts. She hugged herself with delight. Then she pulled out her phone and called Joey. ‘Who’s with you?’ she asked, hearing voices in the background.
‘Mum and Dad, with yummy cake from Sadie. Hang on, and I’ll put you on speakerphone,’ he said.
‘Hi, everyone!’ Pippa shrilled.
‘Hi, Pippa,’ they chorused.
‘Are you there to take Joey home?’ she asked.
‘Unfortunately not,’ Joey said. ‘I’ve to stay another night. The surgeon said my blood pressure is still a bit wonky so they want me to give it another twenty-four hours.’
‘Sorry to hear that.’
‘Yeah, it sucks,’ he said, trying to be positive. ‘Anyway, enough of that. Tell us what happened at the meeting.’
‘It was so exciting!’ she said. ‘I feel like I’m going to explode.’ She took a couple of deep breaths.
‘Were they positive about your stuff?’ Holly asked.
‘They loved it, Mum!’ Pippa said. ‘I can’t believe this is happening. I wanted to take stock of it all so I’m going back to see them in a couple of days, hopefully to sign a contract.’
‘Well, first things first,’ Joey instructed. ‘Get Skye to fly straight to Echo’s workplace and run off a few hundred copies of each picture.’
‘If I’d zero conscience I would,’ Pippa giggled, ‘but I’m too worried that Fate would step in and I’d end up broke and destitute. I want to make a go of this. Joey, she had my drawing on her computer screen! It was just brilliant.’
‘Good for you, sis.’
‘Yes, well done, love, we’re very proud of you,’ Paddy added.
‘Good girl yourself,’ Holly said.
‘I’ve to go back in and let them know if I’d like to work with them,’ Pippa said. ‘What do you think? I’d love to have this sewn up so I can relax over Christmas.’
‘It sounds like a wonderful opportunity for you. As long as it’s all contracted and above board,’ Joey advised. ‘Can you come in here for a few minutes and I’ll go through some stuff with you? It’d be good to have an idea of what to look out for in the contract.’
‘Are you sure you feel up to that?’ s
he asked.
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I’ve nothing else to do, have I?’
‘I’ll come straight over. Will you still be there, Mum and Dad?’
‘Sadly not, love,’ Paddy said. ‘We’ve to head back down to Wicklow. I’ve a guy coming to see about putting his horse in livery and we need to take all the opportunities we can get.’
‘Sure I’ll see you for Christmas anyway.’
‘Off you go now, and concentrate on the road,’ Holly instructed. ‘And well done again, love. You’re great.’
Pippa hung up and turned on the radio full blast, tapping the steering wheel in time to Katy Perry belting out ‘Firework’. The sky was grey and gloomy, but Pippa didn’t care. She was buzzing.
Her heart skipped as she thought of Jay. She hoped he wouldn’t stand her up this evening. It would be the icing on the cake if he came, but right now she wanted to enjoy her success.
It was a full hour later by the time she made it into the hospital ward.
‘Did you come via China?’ Joey asked.
‘It’s mental out there. The weather’s brutal so everyone’s driving. The festive season is well and truly under way,’ she said, helping herself to a corner of cake from the Tupperware box at Joey’s bedside.
‘Oi! That’s mine,’ he said.
‘It’s divine! I can’t wait to get back to Huntersbrook and spend a few days gorging on Mum and Sadie’s delights!’
‘I’m really looking forward to it,’ Joey agreed. ‘I was dreading Christmas when I thought I’d have to go to the Canaries.’
‘I can’t think of anything I’d hate more than spending Christmas in a hotel in the heat.’
‘It wasn’t even a hotel. It was some hostel with a training camp attached.’ He changed the subject, clearly wanting to avoid talking about anything that reminded him of Sophia. ‘Show me the stuff Briana gave you.’
‘Well there’s not a massive amount to go on until I see the proposed contract but this is what they’re thinking,’ Pippa explained, as they read through the points Briana had typed up. ‘I didn’t give her much time to prepare anything. It all happened so quickly.’
‘It’s a whirlwind all right,’ Joey said. ‘But they’ve such a reputable name it’ll be pretty cut and dried in many ways. Your drawings are your property, though, so it’s just a question of negotiating the rest.’
Driving Home for Christmas Page 25
