Free Under An English Moon by Bess McBride

Phoebe urged. “You know very well that these jeans are my favorite pair, and I wear jeans everywhere.” She turned to Annie. “He’s just teasing, Annie, really.”
    “Yes, of course, I jest.” Reggie’s serious expression didn’t look like he had been jesting, but short of tickling him, Phoebe didn’t know what else she could do to put a smile on his face to soften the moment.
    Poor Annie, she thought. The sooner she headed off to Hawaii, the better off they would all be. Phoebe regretted that Annie had invited herself along on the shopping expedition, but there was nothing she could do. Had Reggie not appeared, Phoebe would have set herself to pampering and soothing Annie’s broken heart, but she simply had her hands full with Reggie.
    “Well, I’m sorry if I sounded like I was insulting your clothing. Why are you wearing it, by the way?”
    Annie never could leave well enough alone, Phoebe sighed inwardly. She improvised.
    “That’s what he’s going to wear on his photo shoot today, which he has to do before we go shopping. I forgot about that.” She checked her watch for no reason at all other than it helped her focus on her lame story. “So, I’ve got to run him over to my office this morning fairly early. In fact, I wonder if we shouldn’t head over there now so we’re not late. We could meet you for breakfast after the shoot? Say in about an hour?”
    Annie wasn’t buying the story, and Phoebe didn’t blame her. Reggie watched them but said nothing.
    “A photo shoot at the publishing house? Do they do that? I thought that would be done in a studio? Uploaded online?”
    “Special deal with this cover. The author wants to approve it, has that written into her contract, so the photographer is coming over to our place. Really complicated, too complicated to explain.” Phoebe put a hand behind Reggie’s back as if to urge him to the door. “Where do you want to meet? Charlie’s Place down the street?”
    She took Reggie’s hand to pull him toward the door, grabbing her bag along the way. Reggie picked up his top hat from the hall table and settled it on his head. Phoebe rolled her eyes. He would definitely stand out in the top hat. Well, maybe someone would think he was a doorman or something.
    “Okay, see you in about an hour then!” Phoebe called out without turning around. She opened the door and pulled Reggie through, not an easy task given his much larger size.
    She pulled the door shut and turned with a finger to her lips when Reggie opened his mouth to speak.
    “Wait till we get downstairs,” she whispered. She dragged him down the hall toward the elevator, with Reggie lagging somewhat as he turned this way and that to study the hall. Right! He’d never even been outside of the apartment.
    Phoebe stopped in front of the elevator. “Okay, Reggie,” she said, keeping her voice low. “I’m sorry about all that. I don’t think Annie believed me one bit, but I couldn’t come up with anything else at the moment. Hello?” She looked up at him. Reggie seemed not to hear her as he ran his fingers along the shining steel of the elevator doors and over the lighted button she had pushed.
    “This is the elevator I mentioned last night. We’re in a tall building, and this carries us up and down the floors. By a cable,” Phoebe added.
    “There are no stairs?” Reggie asked.
    “Well, yes, but we’re on the fifteenth floor. That’s a lot of climbing everyday.”
    “Fifteen floors?” he murmured with a shake of his head.
    “The elevator is slow,” Phoebe added with a sigh as she looked beyond him to assure herself that Annie wasn’t following or setting out from the apartment herself at the same time.
    A ding announced the arrival of the elevator, and the doors slid open. Reggie jumped back, startled.
    Phoebe grabbed his hand again. “Come on. You’ll get used to all of this, you really will, Reggie.”
    Reggie allowed himself to be led inside the elevator, keeping one eye on