Clara laughed and covered her hand with her mouth. “I’m sorry, I know it’s not funny, but wow.”
“No, it’s kind of funny now,” I said, smiling. “But it forced me to change how I interact with people. It’s tough to trust someone when most people just want something from you. It got worse once I went pro and it hasn’t stopped since I’m still on TV.”
“That sounds terrible.”
The server brought our food over and we started eating. “It’s not easy,” I said. “But it’s the price of fame and I’ll be the last one to complain about my life. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”
She nodded. “The view from your penthouse is pretty nice.”
“Right?” I laughed. “Now you see why I don’t want crazy fans to run me out of this apartment. I really like it there.”
After breakfast, I got Clara another coffee to go and we took a cab to the huge department store I had checked out online. Shopping had never been my thing, and all my clothes these days were tailormade for me. I didn’t get out to many stores like this.
Clara looked through some of the racks and saleswomen trotted out their suggestions, but Clara seemed hesitant to pick anything out. I found it confusing. The clothes were on my dime.
I pulled her aside so we could talk just the two of us. “I know this stuff isn’t your style, but there has to be something you wouldn’t mind wearing. Or we can go somewhere else. I just heard the clothes here were phenomenal.”
“Do you bring all your fake girlfriends here?” she asked.
I laughed. “You’re the first.”
“None of this feels like me.” She glanced around. “I mean, it’s all nice, but I’ll end up looking like a little kid wearing her mother’s clothes if I get in any of this.”
I sighed. “You cannot wear those atrocious jeans to any of the functions on my calendar.”
“Let’s go look upstairs,” she said.
We took an escalator up, and her eyes caught the massive Christmas village clogging the entirety of the third floor. She squealed and ran toward it, and I knew I’d lost her.
Clara found a few elves manning the Christmas Village, and I watched in annoyance as she struck up a conversation with the ladies. They talked and laughed with her like they were old friends seeing each other after a few years apart.
Within moments, she had learned the elves were actors. They invited her to the play they were in, an off-Broadway show that was a modern retelling ofA Christmas Carol. Clara beamed and exchanged numbers with everyone. Did she realize how easily she just burrowed her way into new friendships and connections?
She had a talent for it, which was something I had never possessed. My talent and decent looks had gotten me far in life, but I always struggled to connect. Trusting people was difficult for me. I tended to push people away rather than let them in.
When she said her goodbyes to her new friends, she came over to where I lingered by a huge cardboard cutout of a gingerbread house. “I’m already meeting people in the business!”
“I’m glad,” I said.
“These remind me of the sets I made for the Christmas Spectacular back in high school,” she said, leaning in for a closer look at the details on the gingerbread house. “Talk about a blast from the past. Do you even remember that?”
“Oh, I remember you dressed as an elf,” I said. “Maybe that’s why you bonded so quickly with those actors. Elf blood runs in your veins.”
Clara smiled. “And you were a decent Santa, even though that costume did not fit you at all. You were way bigger than the rest of us, even back then.”
The way she saidbiggermade me wonder what else she remembered about the play, especially the part where she sat on my lap. Before she could walk down memory lane to that particular detail, I grabbed her hand and spun her to look at me.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “We can come back down and look around here, after you let one of the seamstresses here take your measurements. Then we can send them to my personal stylist and you two can figure out what to wear. Deal?”
Clara nodded, eyes bright like this was turning into a big adventure. “Deal.”
While she was getting her measurements, I got an email from my secretary. I wasn’t on air tonight, but there was an update to my calendar. A dinner at a fancy, exclusive Italian restauranton the west side with a group of investors and several board members.
I clenched my jaw, never a fan of plans changing last minute like this. “Slight change of plans, Clara. We’re going to have to buy at least one dress here. You and I have a date tonight.”
CHAPTER 12
CLARA
