Chapter 9 #2
I straightened. Just because I didn’t understand the machinations didn’t mean that I wanted to upset Clementine.
Lynvidia breezed right back out of the back room, holding two terra cotta boxes tied with black ribbon. “Here we are.”
Clementine leaned over the transparent desk and practically snatched the boxes out of her arms. “I’m so sorry that we don’t have time to stay for coffee today, Lynvidia.
I’m sure you can see how this is a bit of a haute couture emergency.
I lent Lexi my Bottega Veneta clutch for tonight, but we simply must find proper gowns for the entire next week. I’m sure you understand.”
Lynvidia’s mauve-lipsticked mouth dropped open at, I assumed, Clementine’s lack of decorum. “If that’s the way you want to do it, I guess.”
Clementine spun on one of her stiletto heels and barreled straight at Nicolai and myself.
We bustled toward the door before she ran us over.
Clementine half-turned her chin over her shoulder and said, “I’ll send you a plane ticket for August, my sweetheart.
Thank you again and again, bisous-bisous! ”
I could only imagine the stunned silence in that office after we escaped.
“Was that okay?” I asked Clementine as she led us back through the rabbit warren of hallways. “That doesn’t seem like it was okay.”
“It’s fine. I’ll send Lynvidia a plane ticket this summer and chaperone her around my friends for an evening. She’ll be wasted after three hours again, and I’ll shove her into one of the cabins to sleep it off until the next morning. It’s so boring when she does that.”
“I don’t mean to impose. I don’t want to obligate you to do things if you don’t want to.”
Clementine shoved the cubic orange boxes at Nicolai and then fluttered her fingers in the air.
“I was going to offer to take her to Monaco this summer anyway. Birkin is rumored to be releasing a new colorway this fall. I want to make sure I have one before any of those bitches who think they’re my friends lay their hands on them. ”
“You make it sound like she might refuse to sell it to you. Can’t you just walk in and buy the purse?”
Clementine twisted her hips and stopped like she was doing a hockey stop in ice skating. “One cannot, and it’s morbidly gauche to ask to buy a Birkin. You wait until one is offered by a Birkin rep with whom you have formed a relationship.”
I turned to face her and tried not to look like a two-bit country hick with my drooling jaw hanging down my chest. “You are kidding me.”
She rocked to her back foot and held up two fingers as if she were smoking a cigarette and letting the ash dangle over there.
“I would never joke about a Birkin. While we are yachting, I will offhandedly mention to Lynvidia that I would appreciate being offered one of the new fall bags, once and only once. I wouldn’t want her to feel pressured by an unmannered client, and I would not want her to misunderstand that she held any sway over me by her control of the dispensation of these ugly, boxy, overpriced bags. ”
I gawked. All this maneuvering to buy a purse seemed ridiculous.
But I was supposed to be acting like I belonged to this world of rich people, even though Clementine knew I didn’t.
“Besides, it’s no trouble for her. She makes a good commission off of them.
Those purses cost Nico thirty-two thousand dollars, plus taxes and fees, for the two of them because we were in such a rush, which means she made at least nine thousand dollars today.
I’ve heard that’s decent for a day’s labor. ”
Shock.
Utter shock.
“Why would—Why would anyone ever—I didn’t make anywhere near half that in a month when I worked at Johnson Construction!”
Oops, I wasn’t acting, I wasn’t belonging, I was being the wrong person in the wrong place.
“I mean, that seems sufficient,” I noted.
Offhandedly. I noted, offhandedly.
Hopefully, that would fix it, and Clementine wouldn’t see me as an outsider.
She shrugged without a change in expression. “Well, supply and demand, or something, I guess. Nicolai, say some finance terms that would explain it.”
Nicolai passed the two boxes off to another of his henchmen who’d been trailing us, one of the smaller, leaner guys whose name I didn’t know yet, who seemed less obtrusive than the giant bulky dudes. “Perceived scarcity of luxury goods and costly in-group status signaling.”
I bit my lip and wished I understood.
Clementine huffed at him and pushed past me to continue walking down the hallway. “So obtuse, Nico. I didn’t tell you to purposely confuse poor Lexi with jargon.”
She took my hand in her slim, cool fingers.
Okay, that was a signal that she didn’t disdain me for being so different than her. That was good.
The quivering trepidation behind my sternum eased a little.
Clementine tossed her moonlit-blond hair behind her shoulder.
“Come, we have an appointment to buy enough dresses for you to last the week, and then other appointments for the rest of the day. Nico, why don’t you go Monday-morning quarterback with Ueli about whatever the fuck happened earlier and stay out of our way for a bit? ”