Chapter 1
Avery
I had waited my whole life to live in this moment. I had been invited to show at New York Fashion Week in June and I was about to sign a contract with Nordstrom for an exclusive line. My stuff was right where I wanted it to be, hip, mind-expanding, and socially conscious at a price point people could afford. I was in it! I thought nothing in the world was going to feel better than this until I watched my ex-roommate and best friend Kylie and her little son walk into the fundraiser with her dashing husband Alec the Billionaire. At least that’s what I liked to call him. I loved throwing that name around whenever I was with him because he hated it so much. Haha, payback for stealing our girl out from under us. Madison and I, the two roomies left standing in our Manhattan loft, often missed our beautiful former supermodel third Musketeer.
It was nice to see Kylie happy, but her happiness only reminded me that while I had a budding fashion brand and was finally getting noticed, it wasn’t much fun without someone to share it. Of course, I had a pile of friends, but they didn’t go home with me at night, well most didn’t, I had made a few mistakes. I wasn’t promiscuous, but I’d dabbled in a dashing guy here and there. We’d meet, become fast friends, eventually end up in bed and blah… that was it. Yeah, I finally learned my lesson when my ‘friend’ with benefits started taking liberties, like never going home, never doing the dishes when he loitered around our kitchen and drinking beer all day in his boxers. It was like we’d skipped the romance, wedding, honeymoon, and nesting, and went straight for the ‘I hate you, but I’m stuck with you phase.’ After I kicked my friend with benefits out the door I decided to give up on having sex with buddies.
I didn’t have much time for online dating, but when I did it was also hit or miss, mostly misses and the hits… well it was almost as hard to score a decent man as it was a good apartment on the Lower East Side. If he had all the perks and things you’d want in a human, non-battery powered date, you’d have to get in line with a hundred other maybes the guy would never choose. I had my fashion line and that was fun, but a lover who I could share my success with seemed to be avoiding me like I was a virus. So, when I saw Kylie waltz in wearing baby Elijah in a sling I had designed for her, I was both enamored and enraged, but I’d never let her know.
The evening’s event was one of our many fundraising functions for Every Dream, a foundation we’d created to help foster and homeless youth get off the streets and into a safe living space. We also set them up with mentors and dream makers who could help them accomplish the goals they wanted to achieve. We’d been up and running for over a year and the foundation was a success. Many of those we served were getting their lives together and some even found homes and families. It was rewarding work. The foundation had always been paired with my fashion brand, Flower Street. Some of the kids were models, others helped design the fashions; it was a great collaboration and the only time I got to see Kylie. This particular event was all mine. I was the one who had decided to hold it and orchestrate it to launch with my new Summer Collection. The color pallet was a mix of different greens and so everyone at the event was in some variation of green, as per the request on their invitation.
Kylie had practically ditched me and didn’t help much with the event, but I couldn’t fault her. She had just gotten married and only recently came back from her honeymoon. I was just happy to see her show up with her family all wearing green. I missed her. Madison, my roommate who worked on Wall Street as a trader was equally as busy, so she didn’t come. At least I lived with her, so we had our weekend routine. The St. Patrick’s Day party at Bar Dome was poppin’. Everyone who was anyone was there, including the Prince of Ireland, which made me laugh. Since when did Ireland have a prince? Maralis Gutierrez, Kylie’s former manager and our business partner, had arranged that he came to the event. Apparently, he and a posse of people were there as were several other notables and I gave myself a high five proud for pulling the party off.
“Ave!” Kylie yelled from across the room, shaking her arms. “Sorry we’re late,” she apologized with both Alec and Elijah glued to her as always; Alec on her arm and Elijah in his baby sling. “Elijah barfed all over me just as we got here, had to go back to the car and change.”