Turn Back the Dawn (18 page)

CHAPTER TEN

The discotheque was a bit dingy-looking from the outside; it was, after all, a converted old theater. For a second Kate had a moment of dread: no one would show up; the party would be a bust. But after she gave her card to the man outside the door, and was let inside, her mood lifted immediately.

The room was dazzling—dark with soft, pulsating lighting, music that seemed to be coming from everywhere, the smoky, electric excitement of a good party— and Kate was relieved to see that somehow she had missed that beginning-of-a-party stage that was usually particularly awkward at functions like this. But people had come, and come early. The dance floor—down a ramp from the front door—was fairly empty, filled with people talking rather than dancing. But the bar—along the near wall— was packed, and many of the small tables in the VIP area around the dance floor were filled. Kate recognized dozens of people—models, manufacturers, designers, people who worked at Ivorsen and Shaw—but most of the faces were unfamiliar.

Kate went to the bar and managed to get a drink in the

crush,
and then made her way over to one of the small
tables,
where she spotted -Alison.

"This place looks fabulous," Alison said, looking up as
Kate
sat next to her.

"That wall over there should have the slide show on at
any
moment," Kate said, pointing to the wall opposite the
entrance.
"And pretty soon Alexandra and Pierce should
be
circulating."

"Just
walking around, or what?"

"Well, modeling, for one thing. A whole series of outfits
we
put together
—
mostly by designers we knew would be
here.
And handing everyone little cards with different
things
written on them, like 'Good for one free massage
and
facial at Ivorsen and Shaw's new beauty and relax
ation
salon.' Things like that."

"Hey.
Sounds great. Drag that girl over here when she
comes
around."

Kate laughed. "We're not that generous. It all comes
out of
my paltry ad budget. Alexandra and Pierce are
supposed
to concentrate on the media people if they can."

"Hell.
She doesn't know me. I'll tell her I'm a gossip
columnist."

Kate
smiled. "Be my guest. But you'll probably fail be
cause
if everything is as it has been lately, she won't be
taking
a step without our dear Kurt."

"Whew.
He does turn heads, doesn't he?"

At
that moment the music picked up, getting louder
und
faster. And as Kate looked up, the slide show began.
Dramatically
spliced pictures of Alexandra and Pierce
were
flashing in rhythm to the music, and Kate noticed t
hat the
spectacle was attracting immediate attention.
Kate
finished her drink and stood up. "I'm going to circu-

late and try to find Alexandra, Ally. I'll see you later." She pushed through the now-thick crowd, glancing unobtrusively at everyone's nametag and smiling at people she knew.
Damn
, she thought. For she looked everywhere she could, moving through the crowd and covering the entire floor, and Alexandra was nowhere in sight. Pierce had arrived even before Kate had, and she had spotted him several times already, weaving gracefully through thd crowd and smiling his beautiful smile. But Alexandra was another quantity entirely.

At the bar Kate spent five minutes with Jessica Murphy, a woman who had a new fashion-and-beauty call-in show on WZKZ. "The store looks fabulous," Ms. Murphy gushed. "The salon was incredible. Just divine."

Kate smiled. "I'm glad. I'll have to try it myself one of these days."

"My dear, I'd do nothing
else
if I worked in that building every day." She nodded at the wall that was at that moment covered with a shot from the lingerie ad. "Where'd you get the girl?" she demanded. "Just gorgeous."

"Oh, we just . . . found her," Kate said vaguely, not wanting to go into the whole story.

"Tell her rep to give me a call," Ms. Murphy said. "I'd love to have her on sometime."

"I'll do that," Kate said, thinking she
would
do it if Alexandra were anywhere to be found. Where on earth was she? "But if you'll excuse me, I have to find someone," she said, and moved off into the crowd.

She bumped right into Joe Brennan, president of Essences, Limited, a cosmetics company that had been among the most enthusiastic supporters of the Ivorsen and

Shaw revitalization. Essences had just redesigned the packaging on their products, and the change had coincided with the redecoration of I and S's ground floor. Brennan—young, handsome, a maverick in the cosmetics field for years—had turned Essences, Limited, from a faltering concern to one of the country's leading cosmetics companies in less than a year, and Kate had read of his success with great admiration and pleasure. The few times she had met him, she had liked him enormously.

"Kate," he cried, smiling and extending a hand.

"Joe. I'm glad you could come."

"So am I. So are we, actually. Kate, I'd like you to meet my wife, Jennifer Preston Brennan."

"Oh, hello," Kate said, shaking hands with the pretty young woman at Brennan's side. "We've talked on the phone several times," she said. "I hadn't realized you two were married."

"Well, I use my maiden name, Preston, at work," Jennifer said, "since that's what I used before I began working at Essences. By the way, Kate, I looked in at the store yesterday, and I was amazed by the difference. And I love the ads, too. We're going to be doing something similar for the new premium we're marketing—a silk cosmetics purse for every ten-dollar purchase."

"Great," Kate said. "Maybe we can talk about it over lunch next week."

As Kate stayed and talked with Jennifer and Joe for several more minutes, she was intrigued and impressed by their relationship: they worked together, they seemed madly in love, and there was an optimism and contentment that seemed to underlie their whole approach to work and to each other.
This
was what she wished she could have with Ben.

Suddenly there was a commotion down near the entrance. Kate looked across the dance floor, and saw—for a moment only, as the crowd parted—Kurt leading Alexandra down the ramp.

Kate said a quick good-bye to the Brennans and made her way across the dance floor. Through the crowd she could just make the two out: Kurt had Alexandra firmly by the hand, and he was just leading her to one of the few empty VIP tables when Kate caught up to them.

She caught Kurt by the shoulder, and he turned around with a look of surprise that changed instantly to relief—as if, Kate guessed, he was thinking,
Oh,, it's only you.

"What time do you think it is?" Kate yelled. She noticed that Alexandra was now sitting down, apparently uninterested in the event going on around her.

Kurt looked blankly at Kate, saying nothing.

Kate was furious. "Alexandra was supposed to be here at nine o'clock," she blazed. "Before I arrived, and before
anyone
arrived, as a matter of fact. It's now ten o'clock. What the hell happened?"

Kurt smiled lazily. "We're fashionably late," he said.

Kate widened her eyes in anger. "Goddammit, Kurt, Alexandra is a paid model, not some sort of incidental guest. And she's paid to make an appearance—on time— at this party." Kate looked around to see if any attention was being paid to the argument. Luckily, with the crowds, the music, and the models Kate had invited from the Zoli and Ford agencies, no one seemed to be taking any interest in Kate's shouting match with Kurt.

But just as Kate was about to light into Kurt again, she
saw
Ben across the room. Her stomach contracted in a
knot
of tension and»she looked quickly away. God, what
was
going to happen? What approach was she supposed
to
take? What approach would Ben take?

Against her will she turned again—just to get a glance
at
him—and she saw he was coming straight toward her.
Her
heart would have lifted and she would have felt some
ray
of hope if she hadn't seen the expression on his face.
For
even at a distance she could see that he was angry.
And
he looked harried, too, with his dark hair hanging
over
his forehead and his five o'clock shadow darkly evi
dent.
.

As Ben approached, Kate searched his eyes for a clue:
How
did he feel about seeing her? Had anything changed?
Did
he want to argue, to soothe, to try to patch things up?

But he didn't even look her in the eye.

And when he spoke, it was to Kurt. Not even a hello
to
Kate. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"She
was late," Kate said, more to get Ben to look at
her
than to answer his
question.

But
when his gaze met hers, she wished she had said
nothing.
His eyes were blazing with anger, looking
through
her rather than at her. "Again? She hasn't done
anything
but hold people up since she began. What hap-
pened?
I thought you were sending a car for her."

"I
did," Kate said as calmly as she could. "Apparently
it was
held up. I don't know. Kurt?"

He
shrugged. "Sure we kept it waiting. I had to be sure
she
looked good."

"I've
heard
that
before," Kate said, and for a moment
Ben looked
at her almost thoughtfully.

Then
he turned his fury on Kurt. "You. Go somewhere

else. I don't want to see your face."Kurt's mouth dropped open. "You can't—"

"I can do whatever the hell
I
want," Ben warned.

He turned to Kate. "Kate. You get this little dream-girl into gear. If we're lucky no one will have noticed anything wrong."

And he stormed off into the crowd without giving Kate another glance.

Kate could hardly believe it; he hadn't even said hello. He wouldn't even have spoken to her if he hadn't seen her arguing with Kurt. And she realized, as she tried to blink back tears and watch Kurt head for the exit, that in the back of her mind, she had been expecting Ben to make everything right tonight. And it hadn't happened that way.

He could have tried to convince her to come to California after all; he could have said he was sorry for walking out. But he had obviously taken deep offense at what she had said, and he wanted to be away from her.

And now, as she recalled the look of cold hostility in Ben's eyes, she realized there was a very, very good possibility that Ben didn't just want to be away from her for a few days: there was a chance he wanted to be away from her forever.

Kate went up to the bar and got herself another Scotch and soda; she had a long night to get through, and she couldn't break down in tears in the middle of the party. She would have to bear up and forget about Ben for now— put him and his eyes and his cold, hard voice out of her mind for the moment.

And somehow she managed. She instructed Alexandra to pull herself together and start circulating. She then

forced
herself to talk to people she knew and people she
didn't
know, forced herself to smile and listen carefully
and
laugh and joke and make small talk. And, except for
Kate's
inner turmoil, the evening went smoothly.

Oscar Ivorsen, president of Ivorsen and Shaw, gave a
short,
impassioned speech that shocked Kate with its sin
cerity,
optimism, and enthusiasm. At the store Ivorsen
was
a figurehead more than anything else, a brass name-
plate
on the door of an office that was usually empty, its
occupant
on the golf courses of Westchester and Connecti
cut.
But the speech was actually inspiring, and the gener
ous
round of applause afterward showed that others had
been
caught up in Ivorsen's enthusiasm as well. And in
terms
of morale and the confidence of manufacturers and
consignment
outfits, the speech was priceless.

The
food was excellent,
too.
Kate got dozens of compli
ments
on the party from guests of all kinds, and she con
ducted
six or seven good, solid interviews with
representatives
of the media. It was a glittering night of
success.