The Dress by Kate Kerrigan Read Free Book Online Page B

you?’
    â€˜Not on my own doorstep, dear. Oh God, he’s incorrigible – he’s still looking at you.’
    â€˜Don’t be silly.’ Lily found herself smiling. ‘Is he? Really?’
    She was trying to be dismissive but he really was extraordinarily handsome in an American celebrity type way. He was so not her type. Nonetheless, his efforts to catch her eye were quite flattering as well as amusing. She let her eyes flick over to him again for a second.
    â€˜His teeth are so white .’
    â€˜You are such a grubby Brit,’ Sally said. ‘ Everyone has teeth like that in America. It’s the law.’
    As the show started the house lights went down until it was pitch black in the windowless box, and deafeningly loud dance music travelled down the metal girders of the roof and up the hollow legs of the chairs they were sitting on. As the models pounded up and down the catwalk in their fluorescent sports gear, Lily had a mental flashback to her college show. She had been in her element that night, loving every moment from the hair and make-up marathon beforehand, with Sally helping to peel the models in and out of outfits, to the glorious walk down the catwalk with her girls when it was all over. She remembered looking down from the stage with the other graduates and feeling as if she was shining from the inside out. Lily had believed that night was the beginning of her life as a fashion designer, but then she had got that bad review. The journalist had called her collection ‘historically derivative’, which, as a selection of 1950s-inspired dresses Lily could see that it absolutely was. Disillusioned, Lily put down her pencil and sketchpad and started indulging her passion for genuine vintage instead. Blogging fame followed. Lily was happy with life the way it was but sometimes, when she was at a show like this, she couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if she had stuck with the designing.
    The show itself was average. Scott’s had obviously spent a fortune on the lighting and music, and the girls they sent down the runway were a good mixture of alluring and competent. The hair and make-up was superb – gothic, techni-coloured – but the clothes?
    â€˜They were rubbish,’ Sally said to Jack when they found themselves pressed up beside him in the single-exit crush to get out.
    But Jack was looking at Lily and Sally felt a frisson of annoyance as he said, ‘Lily Fitzpatrick, the vintage blogger? We’re honoured to have you.’
    Jack’s eyes were fixed on her as if she were the only woman there. Lily guessed it was the kind of thing rich, slick dreamboats like him did to everyone, though she was taken aback that he knew who she was.
    â€˜Don’t get excited,’ Sally butted in now, as if she could read her mind. ‘I told him who you were so he could put your name on the door for me. Thanks for the front row seat, buddy...’
    â€˜Ah, Sally, you do know how I like to keep my best girl happy but alas, there wasn’t room for you both.’
    â€˜The clothes were pure pants,’ said Sally. ‘Day-Glo? 80s slogans revisited? Yawn, that is so 2010. We want something different, you know? Not more retro crap. Lily’s a much better designer than any of the idiot kids coming out of college these days.’
    â€˜You’re a designer as well as a blogger?’
    â€˜Only the best damn designer of her generation,’ Sally said.
    â€˜Oh?’ said Jack. ‘What happened?’
    â€˜She got a bad review and gave up...’
    â€˜Actually, I discovered I preferred vintage,’ Lily said, glowering at Sally.
    â€˜I can see that,’ Jack said, fixing Lily again with his playboy blue eyes. ‘I like it. Do you think those old shoes will walk you across the road for a drink?’
    â€˜They are this season Kiely,’ Lily said, ‘and I’m afraid I have to go