Where Beauty Lies (Sophia and Ava London) (13 page)

“Magical,” she whispered.

Jax smoothed his thumb over her lips. “Yes, you are. I’ve been wanting to kiss you all afternoon but I didn’t want to be too forward.”

She felt herself blush. Not knowing what to say, she gestured behind him with their twined hands. “What is that place? How did you make it appear like that?”

Jax grinned. “I can’t tell you all my secrets.” Ava gave him a pleading look. “Okay, I knew they turned up the lights at six, when they open, so I sort of tried to time it. That’s the Boathouse. What we’re standing on is a lake in the summer.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said with a sigh. Then, as if just hearing what he’d said, she turned to stare at him. “Did you say
six
o’clock?”

“Yeah, that’s when they open.”

And just like that, reality intruded. Ava had only gone out for a coffee and she’d been out for hours, leaving behind all her responsibility, all her work. The stress of her life—her real life—settled back over her like a familiar coat. “I’ve got to get back. I can’t believe I stayed away this long.” She was alarmed at the tremble in her voice.

“Let’s get you back,” Jax said and sprang into action. He bent down, lifted her into his arms, and carried her back up the snowy embankment, not setting her down until they were on the street.

She gazed at him, a little breathless. “I think you just swept me off my feet. Literally.”

“All part of the service,” he told her.

She shook her head. “You’re very strong.”

His eyes moved away from hers. “In some ways.” His voice had a serious note in it, but it was gone the next moment as he said, “The storm is going to make it hard to find a cab so we’d better hustle.”

He was right; it took almost fifteen minutes to find a taxi that was free and even that involved some arguing on Jax’s part. Since he had to get to a class on the other side of the city, he put Ava into the cab alone. As he was closing the door Ava heard herself say, “I liked kissing you.”

She held her breath. For a moment he just stared at her. Then he grinned enormously. “I’m really glad you said that because I liked kissing you too.”

“Maybe we could do it again sometime,” Ava went on, amazed at her brashness.

The smile got even wider. Instead of answering he leaned into the cab and kissed her. Really kissed her this time, the kind of kiss that curls your toes and makes you forget your name. When he pulled away, Ava could only stare at him.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the usual place, Duchess,” he said and shut the door.

The taxi had already pulled into traffic before Ava regained the ability to speak, and then what she said was, “Wow.”

She’d gotten a message from Sophia saying they’d all headed home, so she gave the taxi the address of the apartment rather than the studio and spent the drive smiling and hugging herself and looking out at the snow-covered city. It looked beautiful, she thought. Everything looked beautiful.

She floated giddily through the lobby of the building and up the elevator, unable to stop smiling. She kept replaying moments from her afternoon with Jax, the penguins, the peacock, his saying that he liked her smile, the Boathouse floating over the snow-covered lake.

His kisses.

She couldn’t wait to tell Popcorn about it on their walk. She wouldn’t have minded telling Sophia, too, but she doubted she’d be able to free her from Hunter long enough to complete a full sentence.

She was surprised when she got to the apartment. She’d expected Popcorn to be at the door, waiting for her to take him out, but instead it was Sophia who greeted her. And instead of jumping up and down and looking happy to see her, she was curled in a chair in the foyer with a book.

“What are you doing here? Where’s Popcorn?” Ava asked, peeling off her snow-covered boots and hanging up her coat.

Sophia carefully marked her place in the book and closed it crisply. “Sven took him for a walk a few hours ago. I suspect he’s in your room.”

Ava shook her head. “I think Popcorn slept for two days after the last time Sven took him out. I hope he didn’t tire him out too much.”

“Well, Ava,” Sophia said in a weird, cold voice. “When you’re not where you’re supposed to be, you forfeit your right to say how things go.”

“What are you talking about?” Ava froze with her coat halfway on the hanger.

“How you disappeared all afternoon without telling anyone where you were, or when you were coming back.”

Ava felt anger rising inside her. With great care she finished hanging up her coat and closed the closet door. Struggling to keep her voice even, she said, “I’m amazed you even noticed, given how busy you are with Hunter all the time.”

“I have no choice with Hunter,” Sophia told her. “Otherwise he worries and that’s not fair. Which is why I really don’t have the time or energy to be wondering where you are.”

“Then don’t,” Ava said, turning to Sophia. “No one told you that you had to wonder.”

Sophia looked at her incredulously. “This is New York City. You can’t just go off on your own with who knows what guys behind all our backs with no calls or texts for hours. You have to tell us where you are.”

The two of them stared at each other. Finally Ava said, “Breathing. That’s where I was. I didn’t realize it until just now, when you said that, but I’ve been suffocating.”

Sophia’s face registered displeasure. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you have any idea what it’s like to go through every day pretending to be someone else? Always second-guessing yourself? Worrying that with one wrong word you could let everyone else down?”

Sophia took longer to answer than Ava had expected. “Who are you pretending to be?”

“You,” Ava said, realizing the full extent of it for the first time. “I’ve been trying to be you.”

“Why would you do that?” Sophia asked and she sounded genuinely aghast.

“Because it’s what everyone wanted,” Ava answered. “I got us into this whole mess by being myself. You said so yourself. If I had been more like you in interviews with the press, we would still have credentials and a venue and models.”

Sophia shook her head slowly from side to side. “I never said you got us into this.”

“‘You were just being yourself,’
you told me after the interview broke.”

“I meant it in a good way,” Sophia said. “Not as an indictment.”

“But it was true. So the less like me I could be, I figured, the less likely we’d have any more mishaps. The more peaceful it would be. The happier everyone would be.”

“That makes no sense,” Sophia said. “The Christopher Wildwood fiasco would have happened no matter what you told the reporter. And no one ever said you should be like me.”

“Really?
Follow Sophia’s lead. Just watch Sophia. Be
a
serious girl, like your sister,
” Ava said, quoting the voices that chased one another inside her head like Popcorn chasing his tail. “And just now when I came in and you told me I needed to check in more. Tell you where I am going and with whom and when I’ll be back. That’s your way of wanting me to be like you. Like you with Hunter. Maybe you like it but I don’t.”

“It is—” Sophia began to protest, then stopped herself. She was staring into space, as though listening to a conversation only she could hear. Her hand came to her mouth and when she spoke it sounded like she was talking to herself. “It’s true,” she said. “I was doing what he does. I even used the same words.” Her eyes went to Ava. “I’m sorry. I never meant to transfer that to you. And I’m sorry you felt like you had to be someone else. I don’t understand how it happened but I hope you’ll stop now.”

“I felt trapped and miserable because I thought I had to be something other than myself, because it was safer, because I was afraid I would mess up. But the trap was all in my mind.”

Sophia looked at her, and Ava couldn’t read the expression on her face. “I don’t need to be trapped either. I can tell Hunter that he needs to trust our relationship. For both our sakes. Just because he’s trapped in this old hurt doesn’t mean our relationship has to be. And in fact, by acting the way he has been, he keeps that hurt alive.” She stood and hugged Ava. “You’re a genius.”

“You should see my sister,” Ava said. “I’m starving.”

“Me too. I was too worried to eat. There’s pizza in the fridge.”

When they were in the kitchen with pizza in front of them Sophia asked, “So where did you and Mr. Starbucks go?”

“How did you know I was with him?” Ava demanded.

“If I hadn’t known, the way you’re blushing right now would have let me know.”

Ava shook her head. “We went to Central Park. We walked around the park and went up to a castle and then he showed me this boathouse. It’s on a lake but now it’s frozen and it was beautiful.”

Sophia nodded, nibbling on a piece of crust. “I love the Boathouse. Hunter and I went there for a drink when we came on our date. He has a friend who rows tourists around the lake in a gondola and he took us out at sunset…” Her voice trailed off and a wistful expression spread over her face. “It’s one of the most beautiful restaurants in New York. The kind of place you can only make good memories.”

“Stop,” Ava said. “Go back.”

Sophia edged her chair backward.

“No,” Ava said. “Repeat what you just said.”

“It’s one of the most beautiful restaurants in New York?”

“That’s it!” Ava said. “I can’t believe we didn’t think of it sooner.”

Sophia eyed her with concern. “What are you talking about?”

“We couldn’t use restaurants for our show because we needed a place with high ceilings to accommodate the tall models.
But we’re not using models.
”

Sophia’s eyes lit up. “You’re right,” she said breathlessly. “And the Boathouse is—”

“The kind of place you can only make good memories,” Ava finished for her.

“It would be the perfect spot,” Sophia said. “But how could we book it on such late notice?”

“Lily!”
they yelled in unison.

LonDOs:

Central Park Zoo

Boys whose kisses are magical

Lily’s connections

Puppies who are so tired after their walk with Sven that they fall asleep with all four legs in the air

Falling asleep to a text that says, “Thanks for letting me be part of your fairy tale”

Waking up with an idea for a dress

LonDON’Ts

Letting yourself be trapped

Make your friends worry about you

Puppies who punish you for missing their walk by hogging the whole bed

Waking up on the floor of your room

11

uptown whirl

The Monday before their show, the Contessa scheduled their morning meeting at the apartment because she had a very special announcement.

It was preceded by the arrival of a very large object draped in black satin and guarded by a security guard who looked a lot like a ninja, presumably to keep them from peeking.

But it couldn’t keep them from gathering around it.

“Do you think it’s a sculpture of her?” Sophia asked.

“Of her, or her nephew,” Ava said.

“Personally, I hope it’s a punching bag,” Lily said. “Or something else to help the Contessa vent her inner rage.”

“I think we all do,” MM agreed.

“I would like it to be a robot piano,” Sven put in. “The kind where they play the music without the hands. I love those.”

“You are a treasure,” MM said to him.

The object had come with a note that said it would be unveiled at ten, which wasn’t for nearly an hour, so Ava decided to take Popcorn for a walk. Lily had arranged for both him and Charming to have pet-spa appointments that afternoon—“because they have been under stress too,”—and Ava tried to make sure he had enough exercise to take the edge off his boundless energy.

“You should make the most of this,” Ava said to Popcorn as he nosed from snow pile to snow pile down Riverside Drive. “Five days from today and it’s all over.”

Popcorn looked back at her with an expression of disbelief and Ava couldn’t blame him. She herself could hardly believe that they were in the final stretch. But ever since the fire at Graveswood pieces had been coming together easily, rather than falling apart.

The Central Park Boathouse had received a cancellation just fifteen minutes before Lily called to secure it as a venue, allowing them to hold their show exactly two hours after Christopher Wildwood’s show. The “AS you are” model contest had produced so much interest that the Contessa was already getting inquiries about the line from buyers even before they’d shown a single piece. And several celebrities had been quoted saying that they were just regular girls, too, and would give anything to walk in the show.

But for Ava the most exciting part was the new gown she and Sophia were working on. No one but them and Sam, the cameraman, had seen it yet, but she thought it was their best piece yet. It had come together almost effortlessly, as though it had been waiting inside them to come out. The Fashion Week opening-night party was that night, and they still hadn’t decided if one of them was going to wear it, as a hint about what they could do, or if they were going to wait and debut it at their show.

Ava’s phone buzzed in her pocket and she saw a text from Jax. “Sister still home sick from school. Not going to make it to Starbucks today. Miss you, Duchess.”

Ava typed back, “Miss you too. Tell her I hope she feels better,” and smiled to herself. She’d seen Jax at Starbucks the day after their trip to the zoo and even though it had started off a little awkwardly, with him pulling out her chair and jumping up every time she stood to do anything, it had ended with them joking and then kissing as he walked her to the door. The next day she’d been too busy even to break for coffee, and the day after, his sister had come down with the flu and he’d had to stay home with her. But they’d been texting regularly, and every time it made Ava smile.

“Do you think she knows she blushes every time she gets a text?” MM had leaned over to say to Sophia at dinner the night after Ava’s date with Jax.