“You can be independent?”
She nodded.
“You can see the most romantic city in the world on your own some of the time?”
She nodded.
“You can spend some nights alone if need be?”
She took her hands out of his to slam her fists down on the mattress in protest, but then nodded with a pout.
Alex shook his head as if unable to believe the words coming out of his mouth: “Come to Paris with me.”
Beth shrieked and threw her arms around him again.
“Come to Paris, Beth.” They kissed, and between kisses Alex spoke with some desperation. “Please, just don’t stop what you were doing before.”
Beth smiled. “No?”
“No.”
“No?” She started rocking back and forth on top of him.
“Never,” Alex said. “Never.”
They made a plan not to spend their own money for Paris.
“We’d do best hitting someone who can take a substantial cash advance,” Alex advised.
This involved knowing someone’s PIN, however, and there was only one person whose code either of them knew: Leah. She’d mentioned to Beth once that she used the last four digits of her childhood phone number, which Beth remembered. So Beth gave an Oscar-worthy performance-
Alex was impressed. “With friends like you, who needs thieves,” he said one night over dinner, contemplating Beth with what seemed like wistfulness. “You really are amazing. A quick study, I might add. A cut above the rest.”
Alex was handling the tickets, taking some of the cash to New York when he went on business and going through an old friend, a trusted travel agent. He’d get back on the 22nd or 23rd and they’d leave December 24th.
Beth had never been happier. She bought gifts for family and friends, including Leah, who was dealing with the headache of identity theft, and gifts for herself. More dresses, more shoes, even a cute fox-trimmed jacket from Jacques Ferber.
“Wow. Are you moonlighting to buy all these clothes?” Valerie joked on their last day at work before the holiday.
“Trunk sale,” Beth answered without looking up from her computer screen. But then she got scared. Police showed up at Morris, Kent, and Fleischer around noon and Beth had no idea what they were investigating. Valerie’s card? Gerald Mitchell’s? Someone else’s? At one point the cops questioned Beth and Valerie together. A young blue-eyed officer with a mustache leaned toward them with an air of confidentiality.
“Notice anyone around the office who’s been acting different lately? Dressing different?”
Beth’s chest tightened.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Valerie said, then looked intently at Beth.
The officer looked at Beth too, waiting for her to speak.
“Nothing unusual,” she confirmed, adding, “I’m famished. Could I go to lunch now?”
The cops left, but the bad news didn’t stop.
“I’m stuck in New York another day,” Alex said when he called. “Possibly two.”
“But we leave in two days!”
“There’s nothing I can do. Family stuff. I’ll explain later. In Paris,
That night Beth stole the show with her performance as Princess Kosmonopolis, in a state of nervous collapse when Chance threatened to leave her for his true love, the younger Heavenly. The acting teacher loved it. Everyone had drinks at Good Dog after and talked about local auditions Beth might consider come spring.
She couldn’t wait to tell Alex, but he wasn’t answering his phone then or the next day. It was December 23 and she walked around the neighborhood aimlessly, past the beautiful red doors of St. Mark’s Church on Locust Street, then up 17th Street past Little Pete’s, the Plaza-Warwick, and Sofitel. She strolled along Chestnut Street and looked at the windows of discount shoe and clothing stores, glad she never went there anymore.
That night she managed just a few hours of sleep, and the next morning saw she’d missed a text from Alex. He was still in New York but had both their tickets. He’d go directly to the Philadelphia International Airport from there and meet her by the counter at six-fifteen for the eight o’clock flight. Thrilled, Beth sprang into action. She started packing but her suitcases looked shabby, so she headed to Robinson Luggage on Broad. It was a cold day under a bright sun, and the streets were crowded with last-minute shoppers. When she finally arrived at the store, she heard a familiar voice and spotted a woman with blond hair.
“I’ll call as soon as I land,” the woman said into her cell phone. “Nothing more depressing than an airport Christmas morning.”
It was Chloe. Beth hadn’t seen her since their first meeting in August because Chloe was always out of town or wanted the apartment to herself. But Chloe was practically her sister-in-law. Shouldn’t they get to know each other?
Beth approached her. “Hi. It’s Beth. Remember, from the night with the sprinklers?”
“Of course,” she smiled warmly. “How are you?”
“Great. I’m going to Paris so I can’t complain, right?”
“Paris? I’m traveling there myself.”
“Really?”
They stood there a moment before Chloe continued: “My flight’s tonight and I have so much to do, I should be on my way.”
“I guess Alex and I might be on your flight.”
Chloe sucked in her breath. She looked at the ceiling, then seemed to cave in to the inevitability of doing something she didn’t want to do.
“That’s unlikely. Alex is already in Paris.”
Beth leaned for support on a glass case filled with wallets and passport holders. “But he’s got my ticket. He texted me to meet him at six-fifteen.”
“Let’s talk,” Chloe said.
They crossed the street and sat in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel near a fragrant gingerbread house display. Children ran around while weary grown-ups sat surrounded by shopping bags. Beth’s head was spinning.
“Alex is a sweetheart,” Chloe explained. “So sweet he has trouble saying no. He’s charming too, so he’s always got admirers. I’m used to it. It’s been this way ever since we declared our feelings for each other-”
Beth flinched. “How can you contemplate such a thing?”
“How do you mean?” Chloe asked, surprised.
“With your brother?”
“Stepbrother,” Chloe corrected. Now Beth was surprised. “You have to understand,” Chloe said. “Alex gets involved easily with people, but he always comes back to me. Always.”
Beth heard the blood whoosh through her veins, melding with the general din as Chloe kept talking.
“My uncle-our uncle-would like nothing more than to see us marry. It’s odd, but he’s very protective of me since my father died, and he knows I love Alex. This would be good for Alex, of course. He didn’t make it into our parents’ will, and his mother had so little…”
Chloe, her eyes downcast and her hair falling in perfect waves just below her shoulders, looked like an angel delivering the truth. Nausea washed over Beth.
“Thank you,” Beth whispered. “I should have known. It seemed complicated. Even getting the tickets-”
“The money,” Chloe interrupted. “I know how he is, how unfair he is. How much did you give him for tickets?”
Beth tried to recall what each one cost. Eight hundred dollars? Nine hundred? It was Leah’s money, but Chloe
