A New York Love Story (5 page)

“And, if we had
you
as a manager, Clover, all the merchandise would be broken or destroyed within one hour!” Liberty said, saving a little statue placed dangerously on the edge of a glass shelf.

“Sorry,
Mom
,” Clover mumbled.

“Mom! I am just two years older than you… and thirty isn't old!”

Liberty looked at her, with an ironic smile, then handed her some papers.

“Here's your agenda for today. The first client will wait for you in front of Saks. He needs to find something original, as a gift for a couple that will marry on Christmas Day.”

“Why do people decide to marry on Christmas Day? It doesn't make sense to me to combine two celebrations – one day less to celebrate!” Clover was protesting.

“I regret that I wasn't born on any kind of holiday. I would happily miss some of these damn celebrations!” Zoe didn't agree.

Clover grimaced at her. “Zoe, you're the usual
Grinch
! But I want to remind you that even
he
eventually recovered the Christmas spirit…”

“Well, no girl with funny hair has come to save me yet… and this year I will spend Christmas by myself again, since I don't have a boyfriend.” Zoe came over to them, perfectly balanced on five-inch heels that made her sculpted legs look even more slender. “Christmas is a family and religious holiday. I don't observe traditions. I'm not the family type and I don't even go to church! Also, I'm too busy with work to enjoy the holiday spirit.”

“Tell me about it! I not only have to look for gifts for relatives and friends, I must do it also for half of New York! You can add to this the terrible relationship I have with my family and my fluctuating faith, and you get the whole picture.”

“Exactly! You too shouldn't go into such a frenzy during the holidays.”

“But I adore Christmas! It's not only a holiday…”

When Eric turned on the colorful lights in the window, Clover brightened up. “See, Christmas is magical! Everything becomes glittering, vibrant, enchanting…”

“Jesus, Clover! It's also the busiest and most chaotic period of the year…” Zoe exploded. “You can see it yourself! Everyone is running around for weeks, searching for gifts that will be unwrapped and forgotten after ten minutes. Not to mention the hours spent cooking lunches and dinners that will make everyone fat for months.”

“Yes, that is something I would happily avoid.” Liberty mumbled. “The post holiday sense of guilt always makes me go jogging in Central Park – torture!”

“You can't convince me: I love Christmas!” Clover twirled under a branch of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling.

“Hmm, maybe we should take that down,” Eric was pointing at the mistletoe branch. “I wouldn't want fanatic traditionalists forcing us to kiss them under the mistletoe.”

“Clover, why don't you bring Cade Harrison to visit the store? I will wait for him right under the branch!” Zoe was giggling.

“I thought you just said you don't observe traditions…” Eric raised his eyebrows.

“Well, sometimes it's worth making an exception…”

“And sculpted biceps are worth it, right?”

“Yes!” Zoe laughed, giving him a pat on the ass. “Boy! It's very firm… congratulations!”

“He's blushing… poor Eric!” Clover came over to her friend.

“No, Eric! Look how your glasses get fogged…” Liberty joined the teasing.

Eric huffed, “I ask myself, more and more, why am I working with three unbearable women like you.”

“Because your scientific stuff doesn't pay enough.” Zoe smiled.

“And because, in spite of us three, your videos are selling well!” said Clover.

“You're more useful here than at NASA.” Liberty handed a list to him. “Today you have two clients. First, a little family that will inundate you with pictures of children. They want a video that will be a gift for the grandparents. Then a young woman who wants a romantic video for her boyfriend. I suspect she will have a lot of material too.”

Zoe nudged Eric. “You know how it works, right? When you get photos or videos from couples, you must show me everything…”

“Do you know the word
privacy
?”

“If you look at the material, I can do it too! We work together. I'm a business associate here, therefore I can decide to check on what the clients bring us – just to be sure everything is ok.” Zoe laughed.

“You're a damn busy body, Zoe!” Liberty shook her head.

“Are you really thinking that clients bring us porno or sexy material to be put together for a Christmas video?” Eric sighed.

Zoe shook her dark bob. “What you may consider
too much
, can be absolutely normal for others. And anyway, sex is part of a couple's life. So why not? If I had to make a video about my best moments with a boyfriend, I would include…”

“Ok – I get it! If I get porno material, I will call you.”

Zoe followed Eric with her eyes, “I adore this guy.”

“We adore him too. So, please Zoe, leave him alone, otherwise one day he may end up resigning. Today you have to deal with two children, and then with the bridal couple, the friends of Clover's client. So, if you hear anything that could help her find the right gift, call her. Have a good work day, girls!”

As soon as Liberty left, Zoe stared at her list with all the appointments of the day, “I hate working with children. They can't sit still, not even for a moment!”

“Well, you can always cheer yourself up by inventing some hard sexy pose for the couple…” Clover replied.

Eric shouted from the other room. “Don't give her any ideas!”

Clover left the store giggling and began to walk briskly along Madison Avenue. She loved working there. It put her in a good mood.

Giftland
was a two story shop that Liberty inherited and had managed for the last three years. Originally it was an old office supplies store that her maternal grandparents owned and ran for many years. Liberty had spent lots of summers there, helping them during school vacations. She still remembered with a certain nostalgia the smell of paper and old wooden floors. After graduation, she started to work there full time, bringing new ideas and helping them with improvements. The clientele began to become more eclectic, and eventually Liberty became the owner, after her grandparents retired. At that point she renovated the space and changed the sign. She worked hard to update the store's image, to make it more unique and trendy.

Zoe Mathison was her first employee. She was a talented young photographer looking for a job. Zoe was able to transform a simple photo shoot into something special; a great personalized gift for any kind of event. Liberty had immediately sensed her potential: her talent and her good looks attracted clientele.

Eric Morgan had arrived a few months later, to give to Zoe technical support. He created short films based upon various given themes. He was Zoe's friend from college, and – although they were incredibly different – they were very close. Zoe had strongly recommended him because of his conscientiousness, maturity and intelligence. He was discreet and shy, but he was indispensable in the store. There wasn't a client that he couldn't please with his work.

Liberty was not only the store manager, she also offered something unique to her clients. She wrote customized short poems, sometimes adding beautiful drawings. Clover liked to describe Liberty's work as a way
to capture those unique moments in time
. It wasn't easy to describe the intense emotions and memories of her clients on paper. Yet Lib could do it, in spite of her serious and staid attitude that made her look anything but romantic.

The typical client question,
what would you recommend as a gift for
… is what had brought Clover in. She was indispensable for this. She had worked for three years as a sales person at a mall in Maine, and when she had arrived in New York she was ready for a change. An unusual ad in The New York Times had led her directly to an interview with Liberty. Selecting the
perfect gift
was almost a vocation for Clover. She loved to see someone unwrapping a gift. She loved seeing the expression of surprise and joy when the gift was exactly right. For her it was an easy way to make people happy. She was intuitively able to understand dreams, tastes and expectations. She listened carefully to her clients and to their stories. She encouraged them to talk about the person for whom the gift was intended. It wasn't always easy to find exactly the right thing, especially when the people who asked for her help didn't have a clue… but she tried. There was always an important detail – hidden somewhere in a corner of their memory. Her task was to find it. Her ability to listen attentively was the secret.

But in her own life, even though she talked and talked a lot, no one seemed to pay much attention. They never really listened to her to know what she might like as a gift. In fact, she had started to make a
wish list
– a sort of letter to Santa Claus – to give to anybody who asked her, “What would you like for Christmas?”

Clover was crazy about surprises, and yet no one had figured this out. So, every year she sent an email to her mother with a couple of gift suggestions for both her and her brother. This way, she received
two gifts
, since her birthday also happened to be in December. Her brilliant strategy saved her from having to show fake smiles and to hide her disappointment in front of another anonymous and boring gift.

This gift problem was something that she would never let happen to her clients. She had promised this to herself ever since she started this job. That afternoon three people were waiting for her advice on how to make someone happy. One of them was a girl who hoped to impress her inattentive relatives with irresistible gifts. Clover was especially interested in this young woman, since she had found herself in a similar situation. Although, in her experience, not even the most compelling gift had conquered her mother and brother! She hoped her client might have better luck.

While waiting for the green light at a crossroad, she looked around with the same amazement she had felt the first time she had arrived in New York City. She loved its rhythm, the sounds, the variety of people and the immense skyscrapers looming over her. During the Christmas period, the level of chaos increased dramatically, yet Clover enjoyed this energy. It made her feel a part of something bigger, and she felt less lonely.

Shop windows were especially alluring: full of lights and colors, and so imaginative! She couldn't help but stop and look at them, even though her mission was to get in and out of the best shops in the city. But suddenly something else caught her attention. On the side of a bus that had stopped at a red light, she saw a large ad. Cade Harrison was staring at her: the gaze that took your breath away, his sculpted body able to provoke hot thoughts even in a convent girl, and that charismatic smile that could knock you down… Exactly the same effect his smile had on Mrs Kendall three days ago.

She recalled the episode in detail. She understood that someone like him had to be kind and charming – sometimes she had to do the same for work. Yet Mr Harrison had an exceptional talent. He was able to go from a serious, diffident and bored expression to a warm smile full of empathy in a second. That ability had to be one of his main strengths as an actor worthy of an Oscar nomination. But Clover found this characteristic repulsive! She had noticed his initial expression of irritation when Martha Kendall recognized him. Yet a moment later, he was making her swoon with his charm and kind words. He gave the impression that being in
that
place with
that
person was the best thing that could happen to him. Shit! He had almost fooled her too… how
could
you trust anyone like him?

Being by the side of a handsome and successful man had to be very challenging, but to be with someone who faked for a living had to be a nightmare! It wasn't surprising that most of the women abandoned by movie stars fell into depression.

The ex-fiancée of Harrison was a striking example of this. Beautiful, rich and famous, she was now crying bitter tears because he deluded her with love promises and then rejected her in front of millions of viewers.

After watching the talk show about the couple, she couldn't help looking for more news about them. What had emerged – among thousands of contradictory rumors on the web – was that after six months of an apparently harmonious relationship, Alice Brown had made a challenging move. She had asked him – on live TV – to marry her. Harrison practically fell off the face of the earth – he looked totally distraught. Then he stalled and asked if they could postpone the discussion for another time, preferably in private.

Clover could imagine that woman's humiliation at being so openly rejected… and in front of so many people!

Alice Brown had turned red with fury and began to accuse Harrison of deluding her all along. Then she stood up, slapped his face, and rushed out of the studio in tears. Cade was left shocked and embarrassed, but eventually he recovered some of his dignity. With elegance, he apologized to the delighted anchormen and the viewers, and then made his exit.

After this episode things between them went downhill. Alice Brown – because of a broken heart or because of pride and resentment – had started to give interviews in which she depicted Harrison as being the meanest of men. She described him as a cold and insensitive monster who had used her and then broken her heart, humiliating her in front of everybody, as if she counted for nothing.

Harrison had tried to answer with
no comment
, except for an interview that went viral:
This kind of argument should definitely remain private. But perhaps because of her lack of talent, Ms Brown has to use these inelegant strategies to get ahead and to obtain publicity
.