Still, there was definitely something there when he had touched my back. Maybe it was just that he was blown away with the designs. Good, that was what I was hoping for. Speaking of the designs, I needed to keep working.
I had brought all ten pieces home with me, and I had all the supplies and materials that I needed in the workshop area of my small apartment to continue working on making the final versions of them. The rest of the line would have more time to be completed, but the upcoming show's runway pieces needed to be done at a record pace. Meaning, I would have to put in some work hours at home. I didn’t mind, honestly, not with this project. It was everything I had always wanted to design, and it was my chance to break into the industry's upper echelons. There was no way that I wouldn’t put my absolute all into this.
I took one of the designs out of the garment bag, a piece made for Cai to wear, with deep cerulean velvet that would make the audience want to reach out and touch him just to feel the color of what he had on. I gathered all the supplies around me that I would need to construct it and got to work. I worked for hours and hours, moving from one piece to the next. By the time I looked over to press my cell phone on and see how late it had gotten, I was shocked to see that it was already four in the morning.
I needed to get some sleep. Arlo had called the models in for tomorrow to try on the pieces. There would be more than just Kerynne and Cai this time. Everyone involved in the runway show would be there. The downside to being the only designer meant that I would have to dress them all, mark adjustments on them all, and hope to get they didn’t tear the clothes by trying to slide then on or off to quickly. Arlo told me that there would be five models—two males and three females—and that each would wear two pieces during the show. The most important designs would go to Kerynne and Cai as the opening and closing pieces on the runway. I was hoping that the other models weren’t quite as difficult to deal with as those two were, but I knew that they probably would be.
I finished up a few last things and then headed over to plop down in my bed. I hadn’t finished and could stay up longer to keep working, but that would have been an awful idea. Tomorrow wasn’t a day that I could show up being overly tired. I’d make mistakes if I did. So, I curled up in my bed and pulled the blanket over me as I shut my eyes. It took less than a second before I had drifted off to sleep.
The banging on my apartment door was what woke me up and immediately made me realize that I had forgotten to set the alarm before passing out last night.
Shit.
I looked at the time on my cell phone and realized that I was already over an hour late to Arlo’s office. If it had just been a meeting with him alone, I would have felt bad but not been in such a panic. But this meeting was with all five models for their fittings in the designs. That was a lot of people to piss off before this thing had even gotten off the ground.
The banging on my door became louder with the crash of someone’s fist against the wood. No one had ever banged on my door aside from the landlord; but seeing as though I knew I had remembered to pay my rent this month, I had no idea why he would be bothering me on a weekday morning. I did know that I didn’t have time to deal with whoever was outside of my door, though. I was already hopelessly late.
I scrambled out of bed and raced to go answer the door in my pajamas, which consisted of only a loose T-shirt and a pair of pajama shorts that I hadn’t gotten around to washing in a few days. My hair was a tangled mess that was falling into my face, so I quickly used the hair tie on my wrist to knot it up on my head as I went to answer the door. I couldn’t have been more surprised to see who was standing there when I peered through the peephole.
“Arlo?” I said in shock while I opened the door.
“God, Hensley, you scared me half to death,” he said with an anxious voice as he pushed into my apartment.
I stood in front of the open door and turned around to look at him in confusion. “Wait, I scared you?” I asked. “But you’re the one who showed up and banged on my door as if the place was on fire.”
“You didn’t show up to work,” he said as he stood there staring at me in my less-than-desirable outfit.
I looked like a yeti with my hair already falling down, thanks to the stretched-out hair tie.
“And then you didn’t answer any of my calls or texts.”
I closed the door to my apartment and went over to pick up my phone to look at it again. Yep, sure enough, there were at least a dozen missed calls and unopened messages.
“Geez, I’m really, really sorry,” I said. “I was up late last night, working on finishing the clothes for today, and I fell asleep without remembering to set my alarm. I’m so sorry that I overslept and am late to the model fitting this morning, Arlo. I won’t let it happen again; I swear.”
He took a deep breath and sighed. “I’m not mad at you about the fitting or about running late,” he said as he finally started to look calmed down. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Thanks,” I said. I wasn’t really sure what to make of this.
Not only was Arlo not mad at me for being irresponsibly late to an important meeting with the models, but he had driven all the way from Manhattan to Astoria in order to check on me when I didn’t answer my phone. I mean, I knew that he was a good friend and all...but to leave his office in the middle of a work morning and leave the models standing there waiting on him, just in order to push through traffic to make sure I was okay in person? That sounded like something your boyfriend would do, not your boss or your buddy. Again, I told myself that I was entirely overthinking things. Of course, it was something a buddy would do, or even a well-meaning and decent boss. I was just stupid.
“I’ll get dressed, and I’ll be at your office as fast as I can,” I said as I went to go open the door back up for him so that I could hurry to get ready and not delay the meeting any longer.
“I’ll wait,” he said as he went to go sit down on my narrow sofa. “I’ll drive you in since I’m already here anyway.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Don’t you need to hurry to get back to the models before all hell breaks loose?”
He laughed. “Trust me, hell is already loose. Take your time; we’ll leave when you’re ready.”
“Okay,” I said as I shrugged and smiled.
Nice, now I got a ride into the city as well. Maybe I should be late more often—kidding, of course.
I hurried to put on clothes and brush my hair and teeth. I didn’t really ever wear much makeup anyway, so at least there wouldn’t be more time wasted on that.
“Hey, do you have any coffee?” Arlo called from the kitchen.
“Uh, kind of. It’s not made yet, but there’s a bag of coffee in the cupboard above the coffee pot.”
After a couple of minutes, I could hear the sound of coffee percolating from inside my bedroom. How funny that he was taking the time to make coffee while he waited on me. Surely, he had already had several cups of a much better brew than the crappy beans I had. When I walked out of the bedroom, ready to go, he handed me one of my travel mugs that he must have found in a cabinet somewhere. He had one in his other hand for himself, too.
“I promise I’ll wash it and give it back,” he said.