Chasing Harry Winston

Emmy shook her head no. “I’m so humiliated. My god, I never thought I’d see him again. What happens abroad stays abroad, right? Or what doesn’t happen…”

“What is she talking about?” Adriana asked Leigh.

Leigh shrugged; damned if she knew.

“Is one of them a card-carrying member of the Tour de Whore? Or perhaps more than one?” Adriana asked with a wicked smile.

“God, I wish,” Emmy sighed. “One of them-the guy in the striped collared shirt-is Paul. I can’t believe he recognizes me. This is so embarrassing. What am I supposed to do?”

“Who’s Paul?” Leigh asked, scanning her brain to recall the names of Emmy’s conquests from the past year. “The Israeli?”

“Croc Dundee?” Adriana asked.

“The guy on the beach in Bonaire?”

“Someone else entirely we haven’t heard of and are therefore going to torture you for?”

“No!” Emmy hissed, looking very distressed. “I met Paul at the Costes in Paris, the first trip I took after the tour began. He’s the one I threw myself at, who completely rejected me. Had to go to his ex-girlfriend’s party. Any of this ringing a bell?”

Both girls nodded. “That was a year ago,” Leah said. “I’m sure he doesn’t even remember you inviting him to your room, just the great conversation you had.”

“Uh-huh, keep telling her your lies,” Adriana said.

“It doesn’t look like you have much choice,” Leigh whispered. “He’s coming over here. Three o’clock. Two. One…”

“Emmy?” he said, sounding endearingly nervous. “I’m not sure if you remember, but we met in Paris, at the worst hotel on earth. Paul? Paul Wyckoff?”

“Hi!” Emmy said with the perfect amount of enthusiasm. “Thanks for the champagne. These are my friends Leigh and Adriana. This is Paul.”

Everyone shook hands and smiled and made a minute or two of small talk before Paul dropped two back-to- back conversational bombs. It turned out that although Paul was in LA for the week to visit his newly born niece, he’d actually moved to New York six months earlier and was living in a great apartment on the Upper East Side. As if that wasn’t enough to digest, he managed to mention how upset he’d been when Emmy never responded to the note he’d left for her, how he was sorry for just ditching her like that, but he’d been hoping to hear from her so he could make it up to her.

“Note? What note?” Emmy asked, all pretense of playing it cool totally gone.

“How easily we forget!” Paul laughed, and Emmy thought she might have to stand up and nibble on his lips then and there. “The one where I wrote this whole apology for leaving so abruptly, and I gave you all my contact information and basically begged you to get in touch. I left it with the front desk at the Costes when I checked out the next…” His voice drifted off and he smiled as he realized what had happened. “You never got that, did you?”

Emmy shook her head. “Sure didn’t,” she said cheerfully. This was, quite possibly, the best news she’d heard in an entire year.

Paul sighed. “I should’ve known better.” He turned to the girls and, addressing Leigh and Adriana, asked if he might interrupt their dinner and steal their friend for a drink outside in the garden.

“She’s all yours,” Leigh said, waving her friend off, thrilled to see Emmy so happy.

“Only for a few minutes!” Adriana called after them. “We have plans after dinner.” Adriana turned to Leigh and shook her finger admonishingly. “Don’t make it so easy for him,” she reprimanded.

When Emmy returned twenty minutes later, she was flushed with excitement.

“So, how was it?” Leigh asked. “Judging by your face right now, I’m guessing it wasn’t utterly humiliating.”

Emmy laughed. “Not for me, at least. He said he had to work up the nerve to send over the champagne tonight because he was still embarrassed that I never called him. Can you believe it?”

“Unbelievable,” Leigh said, shaking her head. “And he lives in New York now? Are you kidding me?”

Emmy grinned happily, but there was barely a chance to celebrate. A minute later, Paul came back to the girls’ table. “Hey, I hate to do this again,” he said with a sheepish smile, “but I’ve got to run.”

Emmy was so stunned that it prevented her from saying what she was thinking, namely, that Paul could take his whole Oh, I’m so sorry you never got my note act and shove it. Just minutes earlier she’d been going through a mental checklist of what she needed to do before she went home with him that very night (write down Adriana’s address so she could get home the following morning, borrow an extra Tampax or two from Leigh, double-check that she was wearing the cute camisole she thought she was), and now she was about to be left…again.

“Going to another ex’s party?” Adriana asked sweetly.

“Actually, I’m, uh…Christ, it sounds stupid.”

Bring it on, Emmy thought to herself. Between the three of us, we’ve heard every stupid excuse in the book.

Paul checked his watch before jamming his hands into his pockets. He cleared his throat. “I’m doing the night shift for my brother and sister-in-law, and it starts right about now, so…”

“The night shift?” Emmy asked.

“Yeah, it’s only their fourth night at home after leaving the hospital and they’re sort of freaked out. Tired, too. I, uh, had some extra vacation time and figured I’m pretty good at staying up late, so I volunteered to take care of the baby at night.” He shook his head. “She’s a handful.”

Leigh and Adriana shot each other a look. This guy may as well have had THE FUTURE FATHER OF EMMY’S CHILDREN tattooed across his forehead.

“Oh, how sweet!” Emmy cooed, all anger and disappointment immediately forgotten. “Does your sister-in-law pump and then leave it for you in bottles? Is the baby good? I bet she’s a little colicky if she’s up all night. My sister just had a baby, too, and he’s a little scoundrel.”

“Yeah, she’s having a rough time with the nursing-said it’s the hardest thing she’s ever done-so it’s a combination of breast milk and bottles right now. But the baby-Stella, that’s her name-is really good. She’s just so new, you know? She’s up every two hours.”

“Awww,” Emmy cooed, gazing at Paul with unabashed adoration. “She sounds adorable.”

“Yeah, so I better run.” He paused and appeared to think about something. “Hey, so no pressure whatsoever-I know you’re here with your friends and all-but it’d be great to have some company if-”

Emmy didn’t wait for him to finish. “I’d love to,” she interrupted him. “I’m practically an expert now, and I can see you’re in dire need of help.”

Paul smiled, and even Adriana thought he looked absolutely delicious. “Excellent! I’m going to grab my coat and say good-bye to my friends. Meet you by the door in a couple of minutes?”

Emmy nodded and watched as he walked back toward the bar.

“You’re not really going, are you?” Adriana asked in such a way that indicated she already knew the answer was Of course not. “He can’t expect to run into you and have you follow him around like a puppy.”

Emmy took a long pull on her martini, set it down carefully, and smiled at Adriana. “I suppose I should woof right now.”

“Emmy!” Adriana started to say, “Have I taught you nothing about-”

She held up a hand, and Leigh found herself silently cheering her on. “Stop being the rules Nazi, Adriana. Save it for your younger, more inexperienced fans. We”-she motioned around the table and smiled hugely at her best friends-“are all experts now. And we did it the old-fashioned way.”

Adriana opened her mouth to argue, but appeared to reconsider. “All right,” she said with an understanding nod. “I’ll buy that.”

“To us,” Leigh said, her glass aloft.

The girls clinked and sipped and smiled. It might be the end of the pact, but somehow, they all knew it: The good stuff was just beginning.