Impossible Things

by Alexandra McBrayer

  She looked down at the table and she felt the heat in her cheeks as she said, “It wasn’t all him. But he does make me feel good about myself. He makes me feel like I’m someone.”

  She heard his chair scrape back and the next thing she knew he was kneeling next to her. He grabbed her hand and she looked into his warm, brown eyes. “Lucy you are someone. You’re so smart and special, you are someone and I love that Lucas has helped you find some of that, but I want you to find some of it on your own as well. I want you to be sure of yourself, to be confident on your own, and not because of a man.”

  She looked down and blinked back tears. “Rodrigo” she said softly.

  “Yes?”

  She looked up at him. “I love you. Thank you for being my grandfather but most of all thank you for being my friend when I needed one.”

  His eyes filled with tears and she leaned forward and hugged him.

  “Rodrigo! Do I have to be jealous of my own granddaughter?”

  They both laughed and looked over to see Isabella standing in the doorway. She smiled at them and came over to them. Rodrigo stood and when she was close enough he pulled her to him. “You never, ever, have to be jealous of anyone. Sei il grande amore della mia vita.”

  They kissed and Lucy felt a bubble of warmth and love in her chest, and she felt a giggle rise up in her throat and explode out of her. Rodrigo and Isabella stopped kissing long enough and looked down at her but Lucy couldn’t stop laughing.

  Rodrigo looked at Isabella and said, “Our granddaughter thinks we’re funny.”

  Isabella smiled and leaned down to kiss Lucy on her cheek. She went to pull away but Lucy grabbed her and hugged her. Isabella’s arms went around her and then Lucy felt Rodrigo’s longer, stronger, arms go around the both of them.

  This time it was Rosaline who found them. “What’s wrong?” she asked as she came in the room and Lucy looked up and said, “Nothing. Everything is good.”

  Rodrigo pulled back and said, “Rosaline come over right this minute and hug your family.”

  Rosaline laughed and came across the room and the four of them hugged.

  The little girl in Lucy, the one who had been buried for so long, emerged from the darkness and stepped into the light. For the first time in a long time she felt loved and safe and home. They were an unconventional family but she was starting to understand that was the best kind of family there was.

  They each pulled away and Rodrigo got Isabella and Rosaline tea as they waited for food.

  Isabella was complaining about eating so early and asking what they should do about Christmas when Lucy interrupted. “I’m sorry Nana but I have to ask…Rodrigo were you serious about the job?”

  He sat down his coffee cup and folded his hands. “I was serious but it’s not a job. You won’t be working for me. You’ll be working with me and my sister, and we’ll pay you a fee for helping to design the line and let us sell it, but you’ll be independent and your own boss. It will be a collaboration.”

  She was quiet while she tried to absorb what he was saying. To be her own boss would be a dream come true, but she knew nothing at all about designing jewelry. Rodrigo must have seen that on her face because he said, “If you want to try it what would it hurt? If you like it then we’ll continue and if you don’t then you can walk away at any time.”

  She looked u, met his eyes and stood. She walked around to his side of the table and held out her hand. He shook it and she said, “It’s a deal.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  When Rodrigo went to work the next morning Lucy went with him. His office, or actually offices, was located in the building that housed his store in Kensington. He and Lucy went in through a locked door to the right of the store and took an elevator up to the fifth floor. When the elevator opened Lucy was shocked to see a mass of people talking and moving in what seemed like super speed. Most nodded at Rodrigo as he pushed past them and he and Lucy approached a desk.

  The woman behind it smiled and said, “Hello boss. It’s been crazy here this morning.”

  Rodrigo nodded, “I can see that. What’s happened?”

  The woman stood up, handed him a stack of mail and came around the desk. Lucy followed behind as the woman Rodrigo went down a hallway. Lucy only heard a few words of their conversation; she was too busy looking into each of the rooms that they passed. Each of them seemed to be filled with clothes and people and the hustle and bustle of all of it made her heart speed up.

  They got to a tall, wooded door and Rodrigo pushed the door opened and gestured for Lucy to go ahead of him. Lucy stepped through and stopped cold. There, seated at a huge glass desk, was the woman in white that she had seen in the street a few days before.

  Lucy gaped at her and the woman smiled and stood up.

  Lucy closed her mouth but couldn’t help but stare. The woman was as beautiful as she had been on the street but even more so if that was possible. Today she was wearing a striped sweater dress in autumn colors.

  Rodrigo stepped up behind Lucy and said, “Lucy I’d like to present my sister Chiara. Chiara meet my granddaughter Lucy.”

  His sister laughed and shook Lucy’s hand. “He loves to say that. Does he say it to you as well?”

  Lucy smiled and nodded and his sister smacked Rodrigo’s arm. “Rigo you’re so silly.”

  Rodrigo laughed and went over and sat down behind the desk and started to go through his messages. Lucy looked at his sister and said, “Sorry what was your name?”

  His sister smiled and her teeth were white and perfect as she said, “Chiara. It’s pronounced Kee-r-a”

  “That’s beautiful,” Lucy said and Rodrigo’s sister put her hand on Lucy’s arm. “Thank you. I understand your name is actually Luciana?”

  Lucy nodded and Chiara laughed, it was a feminine version of her brother’s laugh and Lucy couldn’t help but smile back at her. Chiara led Lucy over to a small sitting area and after they sat down she asked, “So you’re going to help us?”

  Lucy shrugged. “I’ll try but I hope he told you that I’ve no idea what I’m doing. I’ve never designed jewelry before.”

  Chiara nodded. “Neither have we so don’t worry. We’re starting off at the same place. What I was going to suggest…if you don’t mind…what if we hire some students from the local college? They have a fantastic design department and their current class has over fifty jewelry design students. We could hire some of them to help us and in return they could put it on their resumes. I think it would be beneficial for both parties.”

  Lucy nodded. “That’s a great idea.”

  Chiara reached out and picked up a notebook and pen from the table and started writing. “I’ve already cleared out room in my office. Do you mind sharing with me?”

  Lucy shook her head. “No of course not.”

  Chiara finished making notes and looked up. “I don’t think we have time to do anything for the London shows but Milan is at the end of January maybe if we work hard enough we can do a few pieces for that.”

  Lucy gulped. “January?”

  Chiara nodded. “I know, I know. It’s short notice but let’s try if you’re willing. Just a piece or two for the runway show in Milan and then we’ll have loads of time to create pieces for the shows in September.”

  Lucy nodded and Rodrigo spoke up. “Chiara I don’t think we have time. Christmas is less than two weeks away. Why don’t we just start working on it after the holidays? You want to be home with the kids when they get out of school and I don’t want Diego flying here to kill me for keeping you away from him.”

  Chiara smiled. “The kids are going to come here next week when school gets out and Diego will be glad to have the house to himself for once.”

  She leaned towards Lucy and said, “My husband Diego is a writer and when the kids and I are home he never gets any work done.”

  Lucy nodded and Chiara reached down to her purse, which was sitting on the floor, and pulled out her phone. “Let me show you pictures of them.�
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  They were a gorgeous family. The kids, seven and ten were beautiful and her husband Diego was a tall, broad shouldered man with light brown hair and eyes that were a startling light blue in his tanned face.

  “He has beautiful hair and eyes,” Lucy said before she could stop herself and Chiara nodded. “It’s because he’s Brazilian. I still don’t know what it is but they make the best looking men in the world. They always have beautiful hair and the whitest teeth. They’re all gorgeous; it’s why so many of the world’s models are from Brazil.”

  “Hey!” Rodrigo said and they both looked up to see him pouting. “I’m not Brazilian and I’m gorgeous.”

  Chiara laughed and said, “You are gorgeous you big baby, but no one could ever say you’re lacking in confidence.”

  She turned to look at Lucy, “You will quickly learn that Italian men, all of them, like to be the center of attention, especially when it comes to their wives and mothers.”

  Rodrigo stuck his tongue out at his sister and Lucy laughed at the playfulness between the two of them. As a young girl she had wished many times that she had a brother or sister.

  She stayed the rest of the afternoon as Chiara and Rodrigo led her to another floor and showed her the autumn collection which was to premier in London in a few weeks and in Milan a week after that. The clothes were gorgeous and the more she saw the more worried she became about what she had gotten herself into.

  She was quiet as they looked at the pictures but when they came to the pieces that were already completed she couldn’t help the gasp that escaped. “Oh that’s gorgeous;” she said when she saw a silk blue jumpsuit.”

  Chiara stepped forward and touched the sapphire blue, “Rodrigo did that.”

  Lucy looked at her in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “He came in one morning with the idea for it. Since he can’t draw to save his life I drew it up for him.”

  Rodrigo stepped forward, “There’s a picture of your grandmother, she’s no more than twenty, and she’s wearing something like it. I wanted this one to be in silk, and fuller in the sleeves.”

  Lucy reached out and touched his arm. “It’s beautiful. She’ll love it. I can see her in something like it.”

  Chiara looked at Lucy, “I can see you in it Lucy. It would be perfect with your eyes. They’re the same shade as the blue silk-”

  She stopped and then laughed. “Let me guess, you have your grandmother’s eyes?”

  Lucy nodded and Chiara laughed again and reached up to kiss her brother on the cheek. “You big softie. I love you so much.”

  He blushed and looked away and Lucy and Chiara shared a smile. It made her feel part of something and she glowed with the feeling of belonging. She had expected to be nervous and uncomfortable around someone who looked like Chiara but she found it impossible to be that way. Chiara was too nice, too warm and caring for Lucy to stay nervous.

  Lucy looked back at the jumpsuit. “You know it reminds me of the forties but also of the seventies. If we made a bunch of chains, silver or platinum, maybe five or six in different lengths and paired then with it, it would be even more beautiful.”

  Rodrigo made a noise and she looked up at him.

  “What?” she asked and he smiled, “Didn’t I tell you she’d be a natural at this Chi?”

  Lucy looked at Chiara as the other woman said, “He did say that. I hate to admit he’s right, but he did say you’d be a natural.”

  They spent the rest of the afternoon talking, planning and drawing and by six o’clock that night they had seventeen pieces designed.

  None of them had expected that and they all seemed stunned at what they had accomplished together. Rodrigo promised to call the University in the morning and to contact the company that was going to produce the pieces.

  If all went well, they would actually have pieces ready to show at London Fashion Week.

  Chiara kissed and hugged Lucy goodbye and Rodrigo tried to talk her into coming back to the house with them for dinner but she declined. “Thank you but all I want is a hot bubble bath, room service and to talk to the kids and Diego. I miss them.”

  They said their goodbyes and Chiara got into a black cab as Rodrigo and Lucy got into his car which was waiting at the curb for them. They were silent on the way home and it wasn’t until they pulled up in front of the house that Lucy turned to look at him. She put her hand out on his arm and said, “Thank you. I loved every minute of it and I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that.”

  Rodrigo shook his head, “You don’t have to thank me. You’re the one with the talent. You have an imagination and vision like nothing I’ve ever seen. My dad would have loved you. He was like you, quick with ideas and passionate. You came alive today. You always remind me of your grandmother but today I felt like I saw the true Lucy and she is an amazing woman.”

  Lucy swallowed back the tears that threatened. Her instinct was to deny his compliment but she didn’t. Instead she simply said, “Thank you.”

  They walked in the front door and Isabella and Rosaline came out of the sitting room. Both were eager for news.

  “Well?” Isabella asked, “How did it go?”

  Rodrigo smiled, “You’re granddaughter is a natural. She was born to design. She created seventeen pieces in just a few hours today. We might actually have them ready for the London show in a few weeks.”

  Isabella clapped her hands and Rosaline grabbed Lucy and hugged her. “I’m so proud of you,” she said.

  Isabella hugged her when Rosaline let go and then said, “I think this calls for a celebration, how about dinner at the Ritz?”

  Rosaline smiled and Lucy was so happy to see it that no matter how tired she was she couldn’t have said no. She said she had to change and she was half way up the stairs when she stopped and turned, “Can I invite Lucas?” she asked.

  All three of them turned and looked at her but it was Isabella who answered, “Of course you can.”

  She started the shower and turned the water on to warm it up and then called him. He answered on the first ring, “Hello beautiful.”

  She laughed. It was so good to hear his voice. “I had a busy day I have a job now.”

  He laughed too and said, “I know. I called Rodrigo when I couldn’t get a hold of you earlier and he told me. Congratulations. He’s very proud of you.”

  Lucy smiled and thanked him and then asked, “Have you eaten?”

  He said no so she invited him out to dinner. He agreed to meet them at the Ritz in an hour and she hung up smiling.

  Chapter Thirty

  The next week went by in a blur, during the day she worked with Rodrigo and Chiara and at night she spent time with her family and Lucas, though she Lucas didn’t have sex again.

  She was serious when she said she wanted to get to know him and to find out how she felt about him, apart from the sex. He didn’t pressure her at all. Instead he had her over for dinner a few times, takeaway of course, and they walked and talked their way around London as they got to know one another.

  Two days before Christmas Lucy realized that she hadn’t bought a single present yet. Rodrigo and Chiara where in a board meeting so she decided to take a long lunch and do some shopping.

  She wandered down Sloane Street and passed store after store but couldn’t afford anything in most of them. She had a thousand dollars in her savings account but that was it, she would need that money to live on until she got paid. She and Rodrigo hadn’t discussed a salary and she was hesitant to ask. He had done so much for her that it seemed crass to ask about money.

  Further down the block she passed a few high end jewelry stores and she was surprised to find that she didn’t want to go in. She stopped to look in their windows but for some reason that she didn’t stop to think about, the beautiful jewelry in the windows didn’t produce the usual feelings of lust in her.

  At a world-famous French luxury store she went in and after careful deliberation she bought her mom a bottle of perfume. It
was warm and spicy and different from Rosaline’s usual fragrance. Lucy bought it because it better suited the woman that Lucy now knew her mom was.

  At an antique store she bought Rodrigo a small, leather lion. It was elegant, beautiful and simple like he was.

  Feeling happy with her purchases she wandered further down the high street smiling at the people hurrying by with their packages. For the first time she felt like she was in the Christmas spirit. The street was decorated simply and most stores had elegant bows in their windows. The day was crisp and cool, though Lucas had told her that snow was expected on Christmas day.

  She stopped for a coffee and stood inside the shop staring out. London was finally starting to feel like home and she knew that had nothing to do with the city and everything to do with the inner changes that were taking place.