Chapter Nineteen
A few days later, Jamie and I were standing outside the new Vogue offices at One World Trade. The lookbook must have met Ms. Wintour’s approval because Jordana let us know Anna didn’t feel the need to personally meet with us and was comfortable with the shoot moving forward as planned.
An immaculately dressed assistant brought us into a gorgeous office with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the Hudson River. She offered us our choice of tea or coffee and told us Liza Lambert, one of the Senior Creative Directors, would be joining us momentarily. After she left the room, I looked down at my phone and read a text from Gemma, letting me know she and Victoria had landed at JFK about an hour ago and was on her way to the office.
I looked over at Jamie. He was pale and uncharacteristically quiet.
“You doing okay?” I asked.
“I’ve been dreaming of this moment since I was about ten years old.”
I put one hand over Jamie’s and used my other to skim through the latest issue of the magazine on the table. A few minutes later, Liza Lambert came through the door, trailed by a few assistants and other Vogue staffers. Liza was the magazine’s creative director and a well-known Manhattan socialite. My mother knew her a bit socially. They traveled in similar circles.
Liza introduced herself and took a seat at the far end of the table. She opened up a large leather portfolio and passed down a packet of glossy photos.
“Anna reviewed the lookbook and loved it,” Liza said as she put on an incredibly chic pair of bejeweled reading glasses that only someone in her position could pull off. “The wedding gown was obviously designed to invoke an Elizabethan feel, but we just did that spread with Perry Gillman and the cast of Elizabeth. Even though it was one of our most popular issues to date, Anna doesn’t want us to go down that road again.”
Jamie cleared his throat. “Makes sense.”
“We decided to shoot Victoria in the armor gallery of the Met. What you’re looking at are renderings and test shots of the space.”
Jamie’s hands were trembling too much to look through the packet, so he slid it over to me, and I flipped through the pages for us both. As I was getting ready to turn to the last photo, Victoria and Gemma joined us in the conference room.
“So sorry we’re a bit late,” Victoria said, taking a seat. “Between the wedding and now this story about my sister and Perry Gillman, the press has been out in droves. We flew private, and reporters were still waiting for us right outside of customs.”
“Not at all, we were just getting started.” Liza leaned into the table. “Annabelle looked gorgeous at the Olivier Awards, by the way. She wore Dior, right? Perfection. How long have the two of them been dating?”
“A while. It’s actually a really sweet story. He was camped out at the Victoria and Albert Museum doing research for Elizabeth, and Annabelle was there playing tourist on a rainy Saturday. They started talking and one thing led to another.”
I sat upright. “When…when was that?”
Jamie shot me a look. He knew exactly what I was getting at.
“Oh, gosh, that had to have been at least a year and a half ago. I know. Isn’t it crazy they managed to keep it under wraps as long as they did?”
A year and a half ago. Things between Perry and I had already begun going south, but technically, we were together when he started talking to Annabelle Ellicott.
“Crazy,” I repeated.
“How are they handling the spotlight?” Liza asked.
“Annabelle’s built differently than me. She wanted to keep the relationship quiet until after my wedding, but Perry really wanted her at the Oliviers with him. It’s the only reason she agreed to go public.”
He wanted Annabelle at the Oliviers with him? Last year when he was invited, he told me he was better off going on his own.
Jamie leaned close to my ear and whispered, “Breathe, Gigi, breathe.”
“No chance of getting Annabelle into your shoot, is there? Anna suggested it this morning, but I wasn’t sure how either of you would feel.”
“No, she won’t want to be a part of it. As you know, not her thing.” Victoria answered.
Liza gave a half-smile. “Couldn’t hurt to ask.”
One of the Vogue staffers got up and handed Victoria and Gemma the same packet of photographs Jamie and I had in front of us.
Victoria held up the first photo. “Who did you book for the shoot?”
“Mario Testino,” Liza answered.
A huge grin crept across Victoria’s face. “He’s the best.”
“Absolutely. The concept of the shoot is the juxtaposition of the whimsical Spring Collection of G. Malone with the starkness of the Met’s armor gallery. Since the wedding collection is a completely different direction, we aren’t giving anything away, just playing off some themes.”
“I love it,” Victoria said. “Gigi, Jamie…what do you think?”
I was still reeling from Victoria’s earlier revelation. Thankfully, Jamie took the reins.
“Sounds divine,” he answered.
Liza made a few notes in her small leather notebook and then looked over at Jamie and I. “One of our feature’s writers will be doing the accompanying piece about your rise to fame. We’re thinking of calling the piece ‘Non-S-TOP Designers,’ a play on the fact you were both on Top Designer. Clever, right?” Liza flipped through a few pages of her notebook. “Jordana confirmed the interview for Friday. I think that’s everything. Any questions?”
“Think now is the right time to ask to see the accessories closet?” Jamie muttered under his breath.
“I need to get out of here,” I whispered back.
Jamie nodded in understanding.
“Wonderful. Victoria, we’ll need you back here tomorrow for some fittings and a hair and makeup test. Gigi and Jamie, thank you again for your time. The spread’s going to be fabulous,” Liza said, rising from her chair.
I tried to make a dash for the door, but Gemma stopped me. She wanted to let me know she and Victoria were planning to come by the studio later in the day. They wanted to review the fabric swatches and the final sketch of the wedding gown. Liza pulled me aside after Gemma was out of earshot to tell me Anna absolutely loved the wedding gown and was going to make personal calls to Cartier and Harry Winston to see if they’d be willing to lend jewels for the dress’s cuffs and collar. I let her know it wasn’t necessary and we’d likely use semi-precious stones, but she insisted Anna wanted to be involved. I thanked her, grabbed Jamie by the hand, and headed directly to the elevator bank.
Jamie pressed the elevator’s down button. “Don’t do this, Gigi,”
“Do what?”
“Keep pushing on the bruise. What does it matter when Perry met Annabelle?”
“How could it not matter?”
“If anything, it’s confirmation things were as over as you thought they were when you sent him back the ring,” he said.
The elevator came, and we stepped onto it.
Jamie lowered his voice so the other riders wouldn’t hear. “If you keep down this road, this whole thing isn’t going to work. We have almost six months until the wedding. Six more months of fittings and meetings with Victoria and Annabelle. I never should have let you talk me into keeping quiet about you and Perry. Jesus, Gigi, can you imagine what will happen if it ever comes out that you and Perry were engaged and carried on all this time as if you were strangers? On top of it you’re with Gideon now, right? What would your new boyfriend think of this obsession with your old one?”
“I’m not obsessed, I’m just in shock. I didn’t know Annabelle entered the equation that early on.”
The elevator doors opened, and we spilled out into the busy lobby. Jamie turned to me as the door closed behind us.
“Wake up, Gigi. She’s not the reason you and Perry didn’t work out. He chose Elizabeth over you. Not Annabelle.”
“Georgica! Jamie!” A panicked British accented voice called over the crowd.
We turned around and spotted Victoria huddled by the security desk. We walked back over to meet her.
Jamie looked around the lobby. “What’s wrong? Where’s Gemma?”
“She stayed upstairs to go over a few more things for the shoot. I’m tired and wanted to check in and freshen up. She said our driver and security would be waiting for me downstairs, but I don’t see anyone. I was about to go catch a cab, but then I was worried about the press waiting outside the hotel. Gemma was supposed to coordinate which entrance to use so I’m not sure what to do. She isn’t answering her phone.”
“The car probably couldn’t stop and had to circle around. How about you come with us? We can drop Jamie at the studio and then I’ll bring you back to my apartment. You can freshen up there.”
She sighed. “That sounds wonderful. Thank you. I’ll let Gemma know,” she said shooting off a text.
Jamie ran outside the building and hailed a taxi. We rushed Victoria into it and gave the address for G. Malone. The cab dropped Jamie off so he could get a head start on organizing Victoria’s preview and then I directed the driver to my apartment building a few blocks away. As we pulled up, Victoria rolled down her window to look in each direction.
I came around to her side of the car to help her out. “I promise you, there’s no paparazzi here.”
“I’ve unfortunately become accustomed to them hiding in the bushes or trees. Although the closer the wedding gets, the less they bother concealing themselves.”
I rummaged through my bag for my keys. “I don’t know how you handle it. Honestly.”
“Some days I don’t either, but then I remember this is Alexander’s life. It’s just as much a part of him as his smile. If I want him, I have to accept all of him, right?”
I smiled warmly and pressed for the elevator. When it came, we squeezed on with all of Victoria’s luggage.
“My apartment isn’t much bigger than this I’m afraid,” I said.
“As long as you have a cup of tea and a loo, it’s perfect.”
We stepped inside and I directed her to the bathroom and then put a kettle on the stove for tea. I did a quick check of the apartment to make sure there wasn’t anything of Perry’s lying around. There wasn’t a single item. Whatever he hadn’t taken with him when he first left for London, I cleaned out after Gideon and I reconciled.
The kettle whistled and I pulled a small tray out from the cupboard above the sink. I set out two cups, the creamer, and sugar, and carried it out to my coffee table. I sat on the couch and a few minutes later, Victoria came out to join me. I offered her a piece of Entemann’s coffee cake with her tea. It was the best I could scrounge up on such short notice.
Victoria took a small sip of tea. “This is lovely. I’m just glad to have a few minutes of quiet and a chance at some normal conversation that isn’t centered on me or the wedding.”
“If I knew you were coming I would’ve put out a better spread.”
“No, it feels like old times. Like I’m back at university sitting with a good girlfriend,” she said, looking more solemn.
“Are you okay?”
Victoria set her cup down on the table. “I was just thinking of a friend of mine. You remind me a bit of her. We haven’t spoken in quite some time.”
“I’m sorry, that must be hard.”
Victoria shook her head. “So many of the girls in my circle treated dating Alexander as some sort of sport—capture the prince. This friend had real feelings for him though. They went out a few times, but he wasn’t interested in her, not romantically anyway. When we got together she pretty much stopped speaking to me.”
“Give her time to get used to the idea. She may come around.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I went through something similar with my closest friend, Alicia. I had a childhood crush on her boyfriend, Joshua. She didn’t know or, if she did, she didn’t acknowledge it. They broke up for a bit and I started seeing him. It almost destroyed our friendship.”
Her eyes grew wide. “What happened?”
“It wasn’t easy, but we worked through it. It’s different than what it was before but better in some ways. More honest.” I took a few forkfuls of the coffee cake and set my plate in my lap. “If you miss your friend, you should reach out to her. I know she’d be happy to hear from you.”
Victoria picked up her teacup. “Maybe I will.”
Victoria’s phone rang and she reached into her bag to answer it. “It’s Gemma. Finally.”
“I’ll give you some privacy.” I picked up the tray and carried it into the kitchen. I rinsed out the teacups and placed them back into the cabinet. A few minutes later, Victoria popped her head into the doorway.
“Gemma’s swinging by with the car to bring me over to the hotel.”
I opened up a canister to pour back the unused sugar. “Great. We aren’t meeting at the studio ’til later so you’ll have plenty of time to unwind.”
“Thank you for this.”
“It was tea and some store-bought cake. Really, it was nothing.”
“Getting to feel normal for a few minutes isn’t nothing. Not to me.”
I smiled and poured the sugar back into the jar.
“Really Gigi, I hope we can be friends. I’d really like that.”
“I’d like that too.”
Jordana was waiting for me back at the studio. Before I could even throw my purse down on my chair, she grabbed my arm and dragged me into her office.
“What the fuck, Gigi? How long have you known about Annabelle and Perry seeing each other?”
I could’ve lied and said I found out on Page Six like everyone else, but I owed Jordana the truth. I scrunched up my nose and sank down into the blue crushed-velvet chair in the corner of the room. “A few weeks now.”
“A few weeks? A few weeks? This is literally a nightmare. I am having a nightmare.” Jordana closed her eyes and laid her head down on her desk. A few seconds later she lifted it back up. “If I’m dreaming, I want to wake up now, please.”
“I found out after Victoria had already chosen us for the dress, and at that point, I wasn’t really sure what Perry had told Annabelle about our past. It turns out, not much. I told Perry we should tell Annabelle, but he thought it was already too late.”
“Isn’t this the same crap you pulled with your friend Alicia and that guy you came to Chinooka to get over?”
I sat up, shook my head. “No, no, that was totally different.”
Jordana shot me a look of disapproval. “Well, my job is to clean up these messes. So, pray tell, how do you suppose we keep the press from finding out you and Perry were once engaged?”
“How would they? We never put an announcement in the Times—even though my mother pleaded with me to submit one about a zillion times. We never registered. We never looked at any venues. I sent him back the ring. There’s no record that Ms. Georgica Goldstein was ever going to be Mrs. Perry Gillman.”
“What about the Vogue article?”
“What about it?”
“You can’t talk about Camp Chinooka or how you and Jamie decided to start your own line after collaborating on costumes there.”
“Why not?”
“Don’t you remember Perry’s article in the New York Times? The one where he talks about his lost years and the summers he spent at Chinooka? Don’t you think someone might make the connection? Or at the very least, figure out that you two know each other?”
“Georgica, is there anybody else outside of your close friends and family who knows about you and Perry?”
“Gideon knows, but he won’t say anything.”
Jordana threw her head back dramatically. I put my hands on her shoulders. “Once all this wedding hoopla dies down, nobody is going to care about me. They’ll only care about Victoria Ellicott, future Queen of England in a gown designed by G. Malone. We have too much riding on this now. I don’t see another way. It’ll be fine.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I turned away from Jordana and felt a sharp tightening in my chest. I rubbed my hands up and down the soft velvet arms of the chair and laid them in my lap.
I exhaled deeply. “Of course I am.”