“Oh.” A much happier heat washed through Vicki, almost bringing tears to her eyes. “Thank you. I…I don’t know, I guess I figured a couture fashion designer wouldn’t have much use for thrift shopping and sports wear.”
Zane sat back with a wry smile. “My lifeallowsme to wear bespoke suits and patent leather shoes. My sartorial choices would be terrible for a first grade teacher. You know what works for you in a way I can’t.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s not like I’m going to be wearing your dress to work,” Vicki pointed out before making a face and drinking more of her hot toddy as Robin stopped by the table again. “Ow. Oh, Robin, good. Can I just have the soup, I think? My dumb throat hurts too much to swallow anything else.” She smiled at the young waitress, who nodded and lifted her eyebrows at Zane.
He shook his head. “No, I just ate, but thank you. I wish this place had been here when I was growing up,” he added to Vicki. “It was a bar back then, and only the—” He broke off abruptly, looking distressed.
Vicki’s eyebrows rose. “Only the unsavory types hung out here? I didn’t think Virtue was big enough to have unsavory types.”
“Only a certain kind of people, yeah,” Zane said so slowly and carefully that Vicki’s eyebrows popped even higher.
“Good grief, was it a gay bar? I definitely didn’t think Virtue was big enough to have a gay bar, although I guess, I mean, if one in ten people are gay, that’s at least four or five hundred here in Virtue, but on the other hand, you left, what, twenty years ago, give or take? I don’t know if there would have been that many people out, that long ago…” She was talking too much and it made her throat hurt, but its ache suddenly closed around the words. No wonder Zane had left Virtue as soon as possible, if hewas, in fact, gay. A small town like this, without much in the way of an openly queer population, would drive a lot of people away.
Zane held his mouth like he was trying to stop a laugh. “No, not a gay bar, not as far as I know. Thedress, Vicki. What do you have in mind for the dress?”
“Blue?” Vicki smiled weakly. “I don’t know. I like blue. Cinderella? Elsa? Claire Danes’s starlight dress?”
“Oh,” Zane said with a bright flash of admiration, “oh, that was a lovely idea. They implemented it so well. Zac Posen. Beautiful work. All right, I’m hearing fitted bodices, full skirts here. In blue. What else speaks to you?”
“Flowy?” Vicki said uncertainly. “I do like the full skirts, but…can you have a full skirt that moves a lot? One that isn’t poofy? Like Lupita Nyong’o’s Storm dress?”
“Her what?” Zane blinked, and Vicki laughed.
“From the Oscars. I guess it was a long time ago now, but it was blue with an incredibly flowing skirt and there was an amazing picture of her swooshing it around, and somebody did a photo manipulation and changed her hair to Storm’s, from the X-Men, when she had a mohawk…”
Zane’s eyes sparkled. “I remember the dress. Prada. Beautiful. I don’t know anything about Storm, though. Except didn’t Halle Berry play her? But yes, that’s an example of a full, but not poofy skirt.”
“Oh good. I know something about what I’m talking about, then, maybe. Or yourgirl on firedress? I loved that so much…”
Zane said, “Oh!” again, pressing his hand over his heart. “Thank you. I’m sure I’m not supposed to have favorites, but that’s one of my favorites. She’s a dream to design for. All right, this is starting to shape up in my mind a little. I have to go back to LA in the morning, but—we could vone to talk about it?”
“…vone?”
“Video phone.” Zane waved a hand. “There are so many apps. I decided it was just easier to call it all voning.”
“That is an amazing idea. Down with branding. Except Zane Bellamy fashion branding,” Vicki said hastily.
“Right. Except that.” Zane smiled at her, and Vicki swore her toes curled. Why did he have to be soveryhandsome? His smile fell away a little, though. “I didn’t explain myself, about earlier. I really am sorry. It’s just…”
He hesitated, clearly trying to figure out how to say something, and after a moment Vicki shook her head. “We all have bad moments, right? It’s okay.”
“No, well, I mean, thank you, but—” Zane grimaced himself into silence as Robin returned with Vicki’s soup, and when she left again, said, “I’m not great with faces, is all. It’s not you. I just…am not great with faces.”
“Oh! Oh, you’ve got face blindness? Yeah, I know some other people who have that problem, and my hair’s different and I’m wearing a different coat and my voice is messed up. I must have seemed like a total stranger. Oh my god. No, that’sfine, that’s totally okay. Oh my God.” She reached across the table and seized his hand, nearly upsetting her soup in the process. “Is that justawfulfor your work? Like you’re supposed to be dressing, uh—” Her mind went totally blank for a second. Normally she could think of plenty of celebrities, but when she needed to? Of course not.
Zane grinned. “Benton Sinclair?”
Vicki laughed out loud. “Yeah, okay, good old Benton ‘my friends probably call me Ben’ Sinclair. No, I was thinking, I don’t know, more like, oh, you know, Nora Brusch. She’s fabulous, and dresses incredibly, but I bet she hates not being recognized. Because men usually wear such similar stuff, but yeah.”
“Well, Ben is pretty creative for a male client?—”
“Oh my god, do people really call him Ben?”
“…yes?”
“That’s ridiculous. Sorry, sorry, go on.”
It obviously took a moment for Zane to get himself back on track. “Um. Right. Right! Ben’s fashion tastes aside, sometimes it’s awful, yes. Nora—I’ve known Nora for years—she’s got a clothing profile she almost always wears, which makes it easier to know who she is, but I learn to look at other things, too. It’s just usually it’s hair or eye glasses style or something, and if those change, I’m doomed. Nora’s easy, but yes, she’s a good example of someone who feels it’s really important to be recognized. Others, though, sometimes they’re just really glad to be treated like just anybody off the street, which I’m very good at.”
