Free DESIGN FOR LOVE by Bryan Murray Page A

special red dress had been ready, she would indeed have had her big finale right there, whether or not it would have knocked them dead in the aisles was another matter. Keeping a straight, interested face, she put a friendly hand on his arm, lowered her voice a little further. “Thanks, Chris, I’ll work on it. See you on the Riviera, then?”
    He gave a half-smile and mumbled the words. “You bet!” before he wandered off into the crowd, scribbling in a small note pad as he went.
    ‘Whew! That wasn’t so bad!’ she mused, only to be immediately besieged by a blowsy woman from the Chicago Tribune who apparently didn’t like a single item in her line!

CHAPTER 14
    And so, almost an hour after the show had ended, the reporters had their headlines and all the movers and shakers had moved on to one elegant party or another. Francine and Vince finished packing the clothes they brought and were ready to leave.
    Up to this point, Francine had looked in vain to see if Gerard was heading in her direction, but he had been nowhere in sight. She also looked for Jeri who had seemed quite enthused earlier when Francine had walked past her on the catwalk.
    So, where was the self-assured Mr. Cinclare? Just as she was about to leave the Auditorium, she heard a familiar voice behind her. It was Jeri.
    “Francine, hang on a second?”
    Francine stopped to let the elegant blonde catch up. “Hi, Jeri.” was all she could manage, still looking around for signs of her protector/tormentor, but he was still nowhere in sight.
    Jeri approached and gave her a big hug. “Everything looked great, Francine, just great!”
    “Well, thanks, Jeri,” she managed perhaps a little too stiffly. “And Mr. Cinclare’s opinion, since he doesn’t seem to be around?” she could have bitten off her tongue for asking the question, but there it was out and beyond retraction.
    Jeri’s lovely face suddenly clouded over. “Oh, he liked it all right, Francine, but when it was over he had to rush to another meeting.”
    Francine took it in stride. “Oh, I see.”
    Jeri sounded almost apologetic. “I’m heading over there now to join him, then some dinner party or other later. I stayed on to place his orders and now I’ve got a cab waiting. Just wanted to tell you it looked great. Bye.”
    Francine gave a lame wave of her hand. “Bye.” was all she mumbled as Jeri disappeared. Now she felt totally deflated. He had instructed Jeri to place his orders, but none of them were with
    ‘Classique’! ‘ Damn it !’ was all she could manage to herself as Vince walked up, pleasantly tipsy, an almost empty glass in his hand.
    “Guess what?” he cooed.
    “What?”
    “We’ve already had three orders for the pant suit!”
    Somehow, the normally good news left her totally cold, unenthused, and empty. “Yes, but we didn’t get a bean from Cinclare!” she pouted.
    He put his arm around her reassuringly. “So what, Princess?
    That’s his loss. So, come on, snap out of it. You know, I really think we made a start tonight!”
    She managed a brave smile. “I think you may be right. Now, how about another drink?”
    “That’s my girl.” he purred as he ushered her towards the bar. When they reached the bar, Francine looked around suddenly realizing that she had not seen her erstwhile boyfriend until she spotted him in the far corner in polite, laughing conversation with the two well-endowed, older women, both elegantly dressed and almost jumping out of their cleavage to get at Roger.
    Vince also noticed the scene and whispered a little venomously in Francine’s ear. “Looks like our boy has him an audience!”
    Francine had also noticed the body language going on between the two women and Roger as the latter looked up and saw Francine and Vince watching him. He flashed his beaming smile, excused himself from the two women and came over.
    “Just a couple of new acquaintances, darling,” he hastily mentioned in response to Francine’s tired, inquisitive