Who Wants to Marry a Billionaire? (5 page)

       Rita was
the only person that Nina had confided in about the situation with Daniel.  She
had to tell
someone
so her head wouldn’t explode.  She left out the part
about the big financial incentive, and just told Rita that she was taking one
for the DeVere team in order to help pull off a big deal.  Rita thought that if
it came with a new wardrobe and the loan of a Porsche, it couldn’t be too
bad—especially since she wore the same size clothes as Nina.

       Motoring slowly
over to Newbury Street, Nina realized she had no idea what to do with the
Porsche. Daniel had just sent her off to the dealer on her own to pick out the
color she wanted, and Rita begged to go along.   Now she was driving through
Back Bay Boston in a car worth half a million dollars. Just shoving it in a pay
parking lot somewhere seemed stupid, and she couldn’t imagine handing the keys
over to a valet. 

       “Rita…” Nina’s
voice still sounded froggy and her sudden bout of nerves over the car constricted
her voice, “Where the hell do I park it?”

       Pointing
at a rather ordinary sedan pulling out from a metered space on the street, Rita
said, “Look! There!  Can you believe we found a spot on Newbury Street?” 

       “Are you
insane?  I can’t park this on the street!  What if someone scratches it?”

       Rita
rolled her eyes at Nina, “If the DeVeres want you to drive this beast, they can
afford the insurance.”

       Rita had
a point, Nina thought, as she expertly parallel parked.  The sisters got out,
and Nina jabbed a finger in the air in the direction of an exclusive boutique. 
“My instructions are to start there.”

       The two
saleswomen regarded Nina and Rita condescendingly as they entered the shop.   Running
appraising eyes over their cheap jeans and discount store blouses, the
saleswomen immediately dismissed the possibility of a commission coming their
way.

       “May we…help
you?”  One of the saleswomen asked in a frosty voice.  “Are you sure you’re in
the right place?” the other added with a sneer.

       Nina
could feel her temper start to flare.  Nothing annoyed her more than
snobbishness, especially from someone who was a sales clerk!  They were
supposed to help you, not judge you.  She glanced around.  It was the kind of
store that only had a very few things hanging on the display racks, and
everything looked like it was a size 0 or 2.  She opened her very ordinary
purse and took out Daniel’s black American Express and waved it in the air.

       “Oh, I
might have been able to find what I was looking for, but…I don’t know….” She
looked at Rita with a feigned expression of confusion, “I seem to have lost
interest…you know, who wants to do business with…bitches?”  She smiled politely
at the two clerks as she fanned herself with the no limit credit card.

       The
clerks molded their faces into obsequious smiles and the one that had asked if
they were in the right place tittered a laugh like Nina was being funny.  “Come
dear, let me show you our latest arrivals from Milan and Paris.”

       Nina
looked at Rita, and jingled the car key fob in her hand so they could see the
Porsche logo.  “I don’t know, I’m just not feeling it. Let’s go down the street
to La Bella, Rita, I’m sure we can find most of what we need there.”  She
turned back to the clerks.  “Ta ta ladies.  Hope you enjoyed not making a big
fat commission.  It pays to be nice.”

       Out on
the sidewalk, Rita started to laugh, “I guess you showed them!”  But Nina
fumed,  “What gives them the right to act so high and mighty?”

       Rita swallowed
her laugh and pondered things for a moment.  “If that’s how the sales clerks
act, you better strap on your seatbelt for when you meet the
real
society
women.” 

       “I’ve met
Dominique DeVere, she’s not like that.”

       “Maybe…but
you haven’t met the women who wish
they
were marrying Daniel DeVere.”

       Nina
tried to shake it off.  “Com’on, let’s go down to La Bella.  I’ve always
thought their clothes were classier anyway…at least looking through the window.” 

       A young
woman was arranging clothing in the window display of La Bella as they skipped
up the steps to the front door.  She smiled and waved at them through the
glass.  Nina looked at Rita, “This will be better.”

       Inside,
the woman extricated herself from the window.  “Hi!  Are you looking for
anything particular today or did you just want to browse?”

       Nina
smiled back.  “I need a few outfits, a dress for a nice dinner, a dress for an
engagement party…”

       “Do you
have a friend getting married?”  The clerk looked at Nina to guess her size.

       “No, that
would be me.”

       “Wow,
congratulations.  You’re so…matter of fact about it.  Aren’t you excited?”  The
clerk gave her a smile over her shoulder as she started leafing through things on
the racks.

       Excited?
Nina thought driving the Porsche was exciting; getting some new clothes was...kind
of exciting.  Getting married to a virtual stranger?  Not so exciting.  She
forced a smile on her face, “Oh yeah, I guess I’ve got too many things on my
mind today.  So many lists.”

       The clerk
nodded knowingly, “Planning a wedding is like a full time job.  Is it going to
be big?”

       Was it going
to be big?  Nina had no idea.  “Oh, family and friends.  You know, the
usual.”   She realized she needed to get with Daniel so they could get their
stories straight. 

       The clerk
turned to them and held up some outfits, hangers dangling from each of her
hands.  Rita squealed, “Oh Nina—you’re going to look
amazing
in these. 
Nina shrugged, “I think you have to have a new dress for the party too,
right?”  Rita smiled, and then hesitated, “What about Mom?”

       Their
mother, crap, Nina thought.  It would be a little weird if the bride didn’t
have any family at the engagement party, and while Vicki was still a very
attractive woman, she didn’t always have the best taste.  In fact, Vicki kind
of dressed like a tramp.  And how was she going to explain that she was
marrying a billionaire only to get ‘divorced’ within the year?  Nina picked up
a sleeve of a blouse, fingering the silk.  “Let’s worry about Mom later.”

       Three
hours later Nina and Rita stumbled back down the steps from La Bella to the
sidewalk with so many bags they could barely carry them.  Nina unlocked the
Porsche and then it took a little time and some creativity to stuff everything
in.  Finally, after they managed to get everything in the car, Nina looked to
Rita and gestured to a nearby cafe, “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

       A few
minutes later they had secured a sidewalk table and watched as people on the
street passed by.  Their food arrived and Nina tore into a club sandwich,
ravenous.  Her blissful munching was interrupted, however, by a familiar and chilly
voice calling her name. Looking up, Nina became acutely aware of the fact that
a rather large piece of romaine lettuce was hanging out of her mouth.  It was
Elsa.

       Choking
the bit of green down, she tried to smile.  “Elsa!  Hello.  This is my sister,
Rita Alves.  Rita, this is my supervisor, Ms. Elsa Woodruff.”

       Elsa
looked dismissively at Rita, as Rita politely said, “So nice to meet you.” 
Nina wondered what she should do next, so she simply fell back on good manners,
“Would you care to sit down?”

       “No,
I
don’t have time to be
lollygagging
around.  I’m on my way to a
meeting with a foundation donor—the Pruitt's of the Pruitt Paints fortune. 
Seems they need a tax write-off.”  Elsa scanned up and down the street, “I
assume you are here doing something about that hideous wardrobe of yours?”

       Why did
Elsa always have to be so disagreeable? Nina wondered.  She realized Elsa’s
comment hurt her feelings, but she also realized that since she had a signed
contract with Daniel DeVere, she sort of had the upper hand, and couldn’t help
but answer sarcastically,  “Oh no, actually, we’re just out seeing how much we
could charge on Daniel’s AMEX before anyone notices.”

       Elsa
sniffed at Nina’s impertinence.  “Watch yourself Nina, or you’ll find yourself
back in Lowell doing temp work alongside that mother of yours.”

       Nina gave
Rita a concerned look as she bought a little time by taking a sip of water. 
How did Elsa know anything about their mother?

       “Don’t
think we haven’t been vetting your family.”  Elsa tapped her blood red
manicured fingers on the table by Rita.  “Like your little sister here—honors
French, works at a copy shop.  She looks like she’ll clean up enough.  But we
may have to hire some actresses to play the part of your bridesmaids.”

       Somehow, hiring
fake bridesmaids was just more than Nina could stomach.  “I don’t think that
will be necessary.  We can keep it…small, intimate.”

       Elsa
cackled like a hyena.  “Small?  You
are
an idiot.  You are marrying a
billionaire—
well the heir to one at any rate.  Small is not an option.”  She turned to
continue up the street, but stopped and turned back, “By the way, I’ll be
approving all your outfits before any major event.” 

       Nina
stared at her plate; her appetite had vanished.  Rita looked at her
sympathetically, “How do you stand working for that woman?”  Nina shrugged,
“Mostly she leaves me alone, but this thing with Daniel—I have the feeling that
it’s all her idea, so she feels responsible for making sure the scheme works. 
If it fails, I don’t know, maybe it’s all on her.”

       Nina’s
cell phone rang, and she dug it out of her purse.  The name on the caller ID
was becoming a familiar sight: DD, Daniel DeVere.  She let out a big sigh,
“It’s Daniel, I have to take this.”

       Rita
wiped her mouth with her napkin.  “I’ve got to get to class anyway, I’ll just
jump on the train.  Love ya sis.”  Rita gave Nina a little squeeze and then headed
off toward the “T,” Boston’s subway.

       “Hello…yes,
I know it’s you.”  She tried to joke, “There’s this thing called caller ID….” Nina
listened, “Yeah, I think we need to talk too.  Do you want me to come to the
office?

No, I’m on
Newbury Street, I’ve been shopping…change into something I just bought and meet
you where?  On Tremont St.?  Okay.”

       In the
old days, Nina would have changed in a car, but there was no way that was
happening in the Porsche.  The easiest thing would be to go back to La Bella
and ask to use their dressing room.  Considering how much she’d purchased, she
couldn’t imagine they’d say no.  She dug through the bags, chose the outfit
that she thought she would feel most like herself in, and went back to La
Bella.

       The clerk
greeted her at the door, “Did you forget something?”

       Nina held
up the bag, “I just got a call to meet someone for dinner, and I don’t have
time to go home and change.  Could I use the dressing room?”

       “Of
course, make yourself at home.  I have a steamer if we need to get out any
wrinkles.”

       A few
minutes later Nina emerged.  She was wearing electric blue, stretch denim jeans
cuffed over short black leather boots with three inch heels, a dark blue silk
blouse with the collar popped, and a lightweight black suede jacket that felt
like butter. 

       “You look
fabulous!”  The clerk smiled, “But let me finish you off.”  She handed Nina a skinny,
dark blue, leather belt.  As Nina threaded the belt through the loops on her
pants, the clerk grabbed a black and white, patterned silk scarf and a cerulean
crocodile bag.  “No worries— it's leather made to look like crocodile.”   She
tied the scarf around Nina’s neck and spun her around to look in the mirror.   “All
you need is a dab of fresh lipstick, and you are going to knock somebody’s
socks off.”

       It was
Mark Twain who said, “clothes make the man,” Nina remembered, but, apparently
they also made the woman.   She stood blinking at the stranger who stared back
at her from the mirror as she wordlessly handed Daniel’s credit card back to
the clerk.  Emerging from her daze, she dumped the contents of her dilapidated
handbag into the new, fashionable one and tossed her old bag in the garbage
can.  Retrieving her lipstick, she accented her full lips with a bit of subtle
color. 

       The clerk
scrunched up her mouth studying Nina.  “With this outfit—the boots, the
jacket—you really should let that gorgeous hair of yours go wild.  You know,
you have this exotic flair that you need to play up.”  She slipped the combs
out of Nina’s hair.  “Bend over and fluff it up from underneath.”

       Nina
obeyed and when she straightened up, her hair had the look of a runway model, a
lush, wavy mass framing her face.  “Wow, you’re really good at this!”

       The clerk
smiled modestly, “Oh I study at the School of Fashion and Design.”

       “What’s
your name?  I’m Nina, by the way.”

       “Kennedy. 
Nice to meet you Nina.” 

       “Kennedy,
how would you like a temporary, part-time job?”  Daniel had mentioned something
about a stylist, Nina thought, and Elsa didn’t have to get involved with the
choice if she made a preemptive strike.

       “Job? 
Doing what?”

       “I need a
stylist, well, my whole family needs a stylist to get through these upcoming pre-nuptial
events.”

       “That
sounds kind of fun, plus school is going to be finished for the semester next
week so I’ll have extra time.  Who are you marrying anyway?”  Kennedy absently
tapped the Amex on the counter by the cash register.

       Nina
sighed.  “Look at the name on the card in your hand.  I guess you were assuming
earlier that I was trustworthy.”