Miss Scarlet's School of Patternless Sewing (34 page)

“Stay here, Scarlet,” Johnny ordered. “I’m going to the men’s room. Don’t move.”

“Sure. Wow, that was nutsola!” She laughed. She inhaled to catch her breath and watched as the theater doors opened again. Her stomach tightened when she saw Eva Alegria and her crew enter.

“That goddamn Johnny Scissors made me another piece-of-shit dress!” she shouted from inside her entourage circle. “Where the hell is he? My gown ripped in the same spot as last time.”

Scarlet moved left and then right to try to sneak a peek of the little woman with the big voice. “He’s in the bathroom, but maybe I can help?” she offered. Eva’s main bodyguard blocked Scarlet, and another just about pounced on her. “Seriously, I can help. I even brought my sewing kit!” Scarlet opened her mini drawstring bag and held up a mini satin pouch.

“But some of these little beads came off too,” Eva said, scratching the bodice of her gown. Scarlet eyeballed the hole in Eva’s waistband.

“Easy. I have my EmergiSew fast-bonding adhesive! I can fix it right here, or we can meet in the ladies’ room,” Scarlet said. “That is, if your guards will allow it.”

Eva signaled for her crew to stay put, and she followed Scarlet.

*   *   *

Scarlet stayed calm as the petite Eva Alegria shouted obscenities about Johnny and paced in the bathroom in her black body shaper, diamonds, and skinny slide-on stilettos. “Johnny sucks, his designs are outdated, and he must have blind monkeys stitching his stuff because every time I wear something of his, it fails. I only wear it because he’s related to Daisy. This is the
last time!” She paused in her pacing. “So what do you do for Johnny?” she asked as Scarlet stitched the dress on the copper bathroom counter.

“I’m a new student in his Emerging Designers Program.”

“And for that you got your dress? I’ve been begging Johnny to let me wear a Daisy gown!”

“It was kind of a fluke,” Scarlet said humbly, trying to focus on her handiwork. “I run a website called DaisyForever.com, and the head of the program thought it would be cute for me to wear the gown to create buzz for the Met gala next week.”

Eva covered her cheeks with her long hands and practically floated to Scarlet. “You are Scarlet Santana? Oh my God, I love your site. I read it all the time with my staff! I’m a big Daisy fan too, a collector. I have a whole wall filled with her bags. I sure hope she comes to the event. I heard she is really ill, though.”

Scarlet paused and gulped. “What do you mean ill?”

Eva hopped up on the sink counter. “Aw, probably nothing. In this industry people say stuff like that to get out of a public obligation. She’s such a private person. I don’t think she’d want to come out in the crowd. They say her whole demeanor changed when her sisters died in that crash. Plus, what is she, like a hundred years old now?”

Scarlet trembled as she turned to get back to work.

“Hey, I loved your recent post about Little Victories. Except I didn’t want to burn them, so I made them into papier-mâché,” Eva said, dangling her legs over the counter.

“That’s great, thanks! But business first,” Scarlet said calmly. “Come here and step into your dress; let me button it up and then tell me what you think. If you don’t like it, I’ll change it back.”

Eva put it on, faced the full-length mirror, raised one arm up like a flapper, twirled, and kicked up her spiky heel. “Wow, it looks like a new dress! What did you do?”

“I reworked the sash, see? I brought it up and draped it over your shoulder, stitched it in place at your hip at a forty-five-degree angle. Now it elongates your torso, adds curvature to your chest, and makes your waist appear even smaller. I repaired the hole, but I couldn’t resist the makeover. I’ll probably get fired for it.”

“Oh, I’ll make sure you don’t get fired. I feel like I got a boob job! Gorgeous work. But what about the beads?”

“Easy. This is my special EmergiSew adhesive I developed back in Arizona.” Scarlet uncapped a small tube and got to work affixing the beads. “I’ll have it fixed in a jiffy.”

Eva stood still as a statue while Scarlet worked. “I loved your patternless sewing idea. I’m a sassy stitcher myself.”

Scarlet still couldn’t fathom she was discussing sewing, glue, and Daisy de la Flora with a million-dollar movie star. “I know. I read it in
Latina
magazine. I’d love to see what you make.”

“Nothing like this.” Eva laughed. “But I do want to make one of those duct-tape dress forms.”

“You know who to call,” Scarlet said, patting the beads to make sure the glue worked. “OK, the beads are secured.”

Eva squeezed her waist. “I’m astonished. Scarlet, you saved my night. Johnny is very fortunate to have found you. But girlfriend to girlfriend—be careful. He’s a cheater and a stealer.”

Scarlet flinched. “Oh, no… I’m not involved with him; I kind of have a boyfriend back home.”

Eva playfully slapped her arm. “No, comadre, Johnny’s gayer than faux fur on hiking boots. I mean businesswise. Don’t tell him any of your secrets. I’ve seen what you can do from your site, and now meeting you in person—you’re the entire package. Don’t sell out to Johnny, Daisy wouldn’t want you to.”

Someone opened the bathroom door. “Everything OK in there?”

“Everything is perfect.” Eva snapped her fingers on either
side of her head and slid her arm in Scarlet’s. “Now—time to get back out there. Thanks, girl.”

Right before they turned the corner to the dimly lit ladies’ room seating area, the women hugged. Eva no longer felt like a movie star to Scarlet. She felt like a new friend.

Scarlet exited the room first to clear space for Eva’s grand re-entrance. The paparazzi had made their way inside and bombarded her with photos. Scarlet stepped aside and watched adoringly until she felt an iron grip on her elbow. She turned to see Johnny, flames of fury dancing in his eyes as he tugged Scarlet away to a quiet corner.

“You broke
every
rule. The car is waiting for you out back. Leave immediately.” He shut up when he heard Eva Alegria talking about House of Tijeras to TV cameras.

“And I owe it all to Scarlet Santana, founder of the site DaisyForever.com and new student from the Johnny Scissors Emerging Designers Program!” Eva announced to the press. She rose to her tiptoes and waved for Scarlet to come over. Scarlet looked to Johnny as to what to do.

Johnny blew a kiss to Eva and then placed his hand on Scarlet’s back and whisked her in Eva’s direction.

“Smile, but don’t speak,” he whisper-shouted as they breezed across the theater’s atrium.

Eva elbowed herself away from her bodyguard and pulled Scarlet into the frenzied circle.

“I accidentally ripped my Johnny Scissors dress crawling out of my limo—I’m a klutz!” Eva lied. “Scarlet repaired it and made it even better using her mad design skills and her EmergiSew adhesive! Visit her website, it’s fabulous—DaisyForever.com!”

The reporters then turned to Scarlet for a response. There was only one thing she could think of to say.

“Hi, Mom and Dad!” She waved. “I love you!”

J
ohnny’s eye twitched in anger at the Sunday-morning fashion headlines.

MISS SCARLET SHALL NEVER GO HUNGRY AGAIN
: Arizona designer becomes a fashion hero to Eva Alegria at NYC movie premiere.

He immediately called upon an escort to pick Scarlet up from her dorm and bring her to his place for a business breakfast. The man could not contain himself. The morning papers had arrived on his desk, all of them with photos of Scarlet and Eva, arm in arm, heads tossed back, laughing and posing. Every image lacked the most important aspect to Johnny. Him.

How dare they crop him out! Not only in the picture, but in the copy of the articles. Even worse, some fashion pages showed the before and after photos of Eva’s dress. Damn that Scarlet! If he didn’t need her, he would have paid her to go hide in Siberia right about now.

Instead he sent his fleet of worker bees out in full force. He had the publicity department call all the fashion reporters to spin the story. Scarlet didn’t design the makeover—he did in a previous dress; Scarlet just used the design and took credit. It sounded good to him.

He had to rein Scarlet in before she did any more damage. He needed to get her locked under contract. Not just her website, but the stupid glue, the dresses she sold online—which he learned were completely sold out since yesterday morning’s presentation—the unspeakable duct-tape dress form, the patternless workshop, and, most of all, the girl herself as a media personality and spokesperson.

Johnny’s lawyers worked all night drawing up the papers. At breakfast he would make her a golden offer she would be stupid to refuse.

*   *   *

Scarlet woke up shocked that she had fallen asleep still wearing Daisy’s dress. The night’s events exhausted her, and all her rational thinking. She ever so carefully climbed out of the gown, replaced it on the hanger, and zipped it back up in its cozy home.

A series of knocks came from her door.
Ronnie…
she thought. She guessed correctly, except that next to Ronnie stood a man in a dark suit. Forget the fashion police; this guy looked like he belonged to the fashion FBI. They informed Scarlet that Johnny wanted to meet with her and didn’t even give her a chance to dress appropriately. After all of the excitement from the previous night, the only appetite Scarlet had was for researching Daisy’s car crash. But it would have to wait if she wanted to keep her potential career with House of Tijeras. Eva had certainly upped her value with the media.

Scarlet itched to check her web stats after the awesome plug Eva had given the site. Maybe somewhere out there, Daisy in her hidden bungalow, or wherever she lived, read the papers and found Scarlet’s site.

Scarlet tugged on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, twisted her
hair in a bun, and transferred her wallet from last evening’s drawstring bag into a large Daisy-decorated burlap tote sporting a parrot across the front. When she grabbed the bag, she noticed an overlooked stack of mail. On top was a small package with Vega’s Vicious Vinyl as the return address. Scarlet shoved it in her bag too, and went to leave.

“The dress?” Suit Man asked before Scarlet closed the door. She removed the dress from her closet and gingerly handed it to him.

Fifteen minutes later she was sitting with eight members of the Tijeras team, sipping coffee and making polite conversation about Arizona weather. Yes, Scarlet told them, it does sometimes reach 122 degrees in the summer. Thankfully the maid interrupted to let them know Johnny would be out in a few minutes.

Scarlet used the time to pull Marco’s package from her purse and open it. It was a CD with the handwritten title “Miss Scarlet’s Revue” across the top. Along the bottom it read
“Listen to this to know I’ll always be nearby. Nothing can change this love. Love, M.”

Johnny clapped his hands twice when he entered the room and sat at the lacquered dining table.

The maid set out a tray of scrambled eggs laced with strips of cheddar cheese, a bowl of cubed sausage (Johnny liked them that way), a pastry tray, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

“Scarlet, what would you say if I told you we want to make your dreams come true?” Johnny said.

“You already have,” she said, wondering if they were about to offer her a job in production, or maybe even as a design assistant!

“Scarlet,” Johnny’s manager said, “we’re highly impressed with all you’ve done to keep Daisy’s brand relevant in today’s
competitive industry. You achieved a status with a target market that House of Tijeras has strived to hit, but has not been able to.”

“Uh-huh.” Scarlet listened, taking a sip from her champagne glass filled with juice.

“Daisy is about to sign her complete empire over to Johnny, any time now; we’re waiting for the final word.”

Scarlet gulped and remembered what Eva had mentioned about Daisy being ill. “Why?”

“Well, she’s at a point in her life where the business has become a burden to her,” the man said in a flat lawyerly voice. “Anyway, we have a plan to relaunch her famous de la Flora line of accessories and handbags in her honor—for the now generation.”

Scarlet almost choked on her eggs. “The
now
generation?”

“Yes, the cool crowd—people who read your blog,” Johnny stated as his phone buzzed with a text. He read it and grinned. “We would like to hire you as the new face of Casa de la Flora.”