“A hundred thousand bucks to the cause of your choice?”
She gives me a look. “Deal.”
Chapter Seven
Evie
So I’ve got my boss’s black AmEx…and no idea where to go to rack up the big bucks he’s expecting me to spend.
It’s Saturday, and the auction is tonight. Yesterday I went to the malls and other shops I normally hit, but couldn’t find anything that would be acceptable at the kind of glitzy affair someone like Elizabeth hosts.
So it’s eleven a.m., and instead of scrolling down my Facebook feed in bed or watching something mindless on Netflix like a normal, well-adjusted adult, I’m frantically hyperventilating because where am I going find what I need for this evening? I’m pretty sure the denim shorts and loose Disneyland T-shirt I have on won’t cut it.
But Google isn’t telling me where I need to go. Why are you failing me now?
Kim laughs at something on TV, then glances at me. “What’s wrong? You’ve been on your computer for hours.”
I shake my head slowly, resisting an urge to tear my hair out by its roots. “I just…” I bite my lip as Google shows me a local store with hideous “haute couture” dresses. More like a haute mess.
“Need some help?” She sits up straight. She takes her self-imposed position as my mentor seriously. She said Hilary Pryce helped her when she first got started, and she’s paying it forward.
Although this isn’t PowerPoint or juggling a calendar, maybe she knows a decent store or two. Doesn’t she sometimes shop for her boss? And from what I’ve heard, her boss’s taste runs from really expensive to super-ultra-expensive. “Yeah, um… I told Nate I’d help him with the auction thing.”
“Hey, good for you!” She beams. “How come you didn’t tell me earlier?”
“Because I told him on Thursday, and you were working late again. And yesterday, I was out shopping until I wanted to cry.”
I don’t think she heard the “wanted to
cry” part. Excitement lights her eyes. “Ooh, ooh, what did you get?”
“Nothing! And I don’t have anything to wear.”
“Isn’t the auction, like, today?”
“Yes!”
She frowns for a moment. “Did he at least give you some money?”
I flash the black AmEx at her.
“Now we’re talking. Any limit?”
“No. He said I could buy whatever I wanted.”
Her expression says she doesn’t understand the problem. “So…?”
“Nobody has anything decent! This event is going to be super glitzy. And Nate specifically told me not to embarrass him.” About the bidding amount, but I’m pretty sure he wants me to be presentable as well. Security might block me if I’m dressed less than perfect, like those snooty New York restaurants that turn you away if you aren’t in your Sunday best.
“You can dress the man like a champion, but you can’t dress yourself?” Kim asks, both eyebrows arched.
“His closet’s full of prescreened clothes.” Except for a hideously ugly green flower-print shirt and set of pink pants with magenta tiger sharks, but Kim doesn’t need to know about that. “Mine does not. I have stuff that looks okay for work and all, but this?” I gesture in the general direction of the Aylster Hotel, where the auction’s taking place tonight.
“You should’ve said something earlier.”
“I tried every mall I could hit yesterday,” I say.
“The mall? No! Oh my God. You need help, girl.”