As Annie stepped out of the building"s front door, her hand in Ed"s, the great burst of energy that was New York at night took hold of her.
Lights were bright; cars were honking, sirens still blaring up and down the nearest avenue. People were out and dressed up big even though this was Sunday, the very last gasp of the weekend.
"How tired are you?" she asked Ed.
"Hardly tired at all," he replied, although when he turned to grin at her, his eye bags told an entirely different story.
"Shall we go out? You know, just go out without a plan like we used to. Well, no," she remembered, "we never used to because I"ve always had children, but do you remember, way back, going out and not knowing where you were going or how long you"d be out for? Can we do that? Just for once?"
"Yes!" Ed agreed with a grin, "that"s what we"ll do. Go have a New York adventure!"
First of all, they bar-hopped in the streets off Union Square. Sipping long, icy c.o.c.ktails, they chatted but also could not help listening in on the loud and totally New York conversations going on all around them.
"Poor Morty, I kept telling him to go to the dawcta"s. I"d say "go to the dawcta"s Morty, it might be serious." But no, he just kept taking the tablets, hoping it would go away. And he"s dead now. Let that be a lesson to us all. If something"s not right, you"ve got to go to the dawcta"s."
"What kind of a wedding is this going to be, already? They"re not going to use Schwartz"s for the flowers? Why not? Everybody knows if you want the best flowers, you gotta go to Schwartz"s. And have you seen the size of her ring? Microscopic. Really. Barely half a carat. She"s throwing herself away."
"My date? My date was terrible. Truly. He had alopecia and eczema and, oh my G.o.d, he grew up in Queens!"
"Yeah, well my therapist wants me to think about Freddie and how this is affecting him. But I"m thirty-seven, it"s time to think about me and ask: whaddo I want?"
Ed drained the last of his drink and leaned back in his chair: "He"s dead now, let that be a lesson to us all," he repeated, making Annie laugh.
"What would you like to do tonight?" he asked, "what"s your idea of New York big night out heaven? Do you want to go and queue for a nightclub? Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge?"
Before Annie could answer, a small, sharp-faced man in a pinstriped waistcoat and vibrant red, ruffled shirt appeared at their table.
"You are a very beeeeeauwtiful couple," he said in a heavy accent Annie couldn"t place. "Famous? I think I know your faces from somewhere."
Ed shook his head and laughed.
"Yeeeeees. I think you both movieee starrrrs, but trying to keep it quiet, no?"
"No," Annie a.s.sured him.
As if by magic a large bunch of roses was revealed.
"Ah, roses for sale." Ed understood the flattery now.
"It has been so long since we were offered roses for sale!" Annie exclaimed.
"I"ll take three red ones," Ed volunteered without hesitation.
"Thirty dollar," the man said, without blinking.
"Fifteen," Annie offered.
"Twenty," the man agreed.
"The romance," said Ed, extracting a $20 note from his pocket.
Annie took the three roses and unpeeled them from their tragic cellophane wrappers. "Thank you, you"re very sweet," she told Ed, holding the slightly droopy flowers up to her face.
"So where would you like to go?" he asked again.
"What do you think about a ride round Central Park in one of those horse-drawn carriages? Do you think that"s just tooooo cheesy?"
"Your wish, my darling, is my command," Ed promised. He led her out of the bar and into the street, where they hailed a cab for Central Park.
There was a queue at the rank for the horse-drawn cabs, but it didn"t take much longer than half an hour to get to the front.
In the back of the carriage, it was a little breezier and b.u.mpier than Annie had expected. But she snuggled up against Ed for warmth and watched the glittering lights of the buildings on Fifth Avenue go by.
"Is this as romantic as you were hoping?" Ed asked.
"Yes, definitely," she insisted. Although really, she hadn"t expected the horses to break quite so much wind. Then there was the whole business of the rubber sheet at the back of the horse which caught the droppings noisily. That wasn"t quite so picturesque or romantic either.
But still, she snuggled up under Ed"s arm and told him: "This is beautiful. I think I"m falling in love."
"Well, that"s good, what with us being married and everything."
"I"m in love with you already, babes. But I"m falling in love with this city. Deep, deep, deeply in love."
Chapter Twenty-One.
The Bloomingdale"s secretary: Black and white wrap dress (Diane von Furstenberg)
Purple suede heeled pumps (Cole Haan)
Diamond engagement ring (Tiffany"s)
Total est. cost: $2,750
"She only has a few minutes."
"Hi, I"m Annie Valentine, I"m calling you from Perfect Dress ..."
"h.e.l.lo, my name is Lana, I"m a representative with Perfect Dress ..."
"This is Elena Wisneski I wish to speak with you about your Perfect Dress order ..."
Monday morning and the Perfect Dress team were back in business at the tiny apartment table, using every available phone.
Everyone who"d already placed a dress order needed to know when those dresses were arriving, and that there were going to be some changes in the fabric and the design for the initial consignment of dresses.
"Just the first fifty dresses will be like this. We wanted to do something especially fresh and now for the first consignment, and you are going to love it, absolutely love it. I"ve worked in fashion for a long time and I am 100 per cent confident you will not be disappointed." Annie was trying to sound breezy with the p.r.i.c.kly woman on the other end of her line.
Annie glanced over at Lana, who seemed to be doing fine on her phone call. Annie wanted Lana to stay busy because when Lana was busy she didn"t sob, which was definitely a positive.
They were in New York for another two weeks and Annie needed to make sure all was absolutely fine with Perfect Dress before she left.
Part of her was desperate to go home, because saying goodbye to Ed as he"d boarded the bus to the airport had felt very hard. He was going back to their lovely home and all the people she missed very much: Owen, Micky and Min, her sister, her mum.
"No! You can"t cancel, please don"t cancel the order." Elena was clearly dealing with a tricky customer. Annie and Lana exchanged a worried glance. Quickly, Lana scribbled something down on a piece of paper and slid it over to Elena. "Pa.s.s her on to your style consultant!"
Elena looked at the paper and frowned.
Lana pointed at herself.
"I"m just going to pa.s.s you on to our style consultant," Elena said obediently.
"Hi," Lana took the phone with a burst of confidence, "would you like me to send you over some images? We have photos of our in-house model in the grey dress. I"ll get those over to you right now and I think you"re going to love it."
When she hung up, both Elena and Annie stared at her in surprise.
"That was good," Annie said, "but we don"t have any photos."
"No worries, we"ll get Elena to put the dress on and we"ll take some."
"No," Elena said, "you put on dress Lana, I take your picture. You"re going to look vonderful in this dress."
This made them all laugh as "vonderrrrrful" had always been Svetlana"s catchphrase.
Lana slipped into the sample dress, and then Annie couldn"t help styling her a little. She added high brown boots and a shiny blue belt, borrowed from Elena"s beautifully reorganized wardrobe. Then she brushed out Lana"s long dark hair, tied it into a "very now" messy plait, and added a chic blue beret. A slick of berry-coloured lip gloss, and Annie p.r.o.nounced Lana camera ready.
"I"ll take the pictures," Annie said, getting out the camera she"d brought for this trip but had not used once since the very first day at the top of the Empire State, "but really, we should have some professional shots ... Maybe you should speak to that very, very nice photographer you know, Elena ..."
Elena gave her trademark "tscha" and immediately turned back to her laptop.
"Elena, you can"t break up with him just because he"s a photographer who happens to take pictures of beautiful girls!"
Quickly Elena picked up the phone to avoid any further conversation.
Annie sighed and redirected her attention to Lana. "C"mon my lovely model, let"s try and find a clear s.p.a.ce for you to be photographed in. Stand beside the cafe table there, with the light behind you perfect."
Once Annie had pictures she was happy with, she sat down at her computer and began to download them. She emailed them across to Elena, and she also sent one to Ed.
"What do you think of our model girl in our brand new dress? Hope you like. Call me when you get home, I want to hear how you coped with back to school and jet lag. A xx"
Elena was looking at her computer screen with intense concentration. A little furrow was biting deep between her eyebrows.
"What is it?" Annie asked.
Elena"s fingers pulled at her lip anxiously: "Email from Bloomingdale"s," she replied, "they cancel the whole order of dresses. Our biggest single order."
The doorbell and Annie"s mobile began to ring at the same time, before they could even react to this disaster.
"Connor!" Annie exclaimed, seeing his name on the screen, "now"s not exactly the perfect moment."
"Oh yes it is, my princess. I have found the Gawain!" Connor announced joyfully, "I am coming to New York to train with Gawain."
"Really? You"re coming here?" Annie asked in total surprise, as Lana went to open the door. "When?"
"Very soon," Connor replied.
"It"s like Piccadilly bloomin" circus. Lana"s here, Elena"s here, Ed"s been over and now you!"
"But I have found Gawain," Connor repeated.
"Who?"
"Gawain my green knight. I have found him. He"s living in Williamsburg and working in a SoHo gym."
"Who is this Gawain? Is he a boyfriend I don"t know about?"
"No! I wish. I told you he"s the personal trainer. The one and only. The body shaper. He"s not known as Mr Spanx for nothing."
"You are flying to New York for some personal training sessions?"
"Yes. It"s cheaper over there anyway. Plus, I"m going to beg him to come back to London. Plus, have I told you, I"m going to be on Strictly!"
"Strictly Come Dancing?"
"Yes! Is that not the most career-revitalizing news you have heard in a long time? Connor is back, this time in dancing pants and very, very shiny shoes."