Turn Back the Dawn (20 page)

But the first step, in any case, was to talk ta her.

Kate had to let the phone ring six times, and then Kurt answered. At first it was difficult to get Kurt even to hand the phone over to Alexandra. But when he finally did, Alexandra made Kate's decision even more difficult; for she was wildly apologetic, nearly in tears and quite concerned over how much she had inconvenienced Kate and the campaign. And she promised with apparently deep sincerity that she would be on her best behavior from now on.

The next day, however, as Kate waited with Pierce for Alexandra in "The Sporting Life," I and S's sporting- goods department, her doubts bloomed anew. The two models were scheduled to demonstrate exercise equipment from twelve o'clock to one, and Kate had told Alexandra

to be there at eleven, thinking that even if she were a bit late, it still wouldn't interfere with the demonstration. But it was now eleven forty-five; Kate had called Alexandra's and Kurt's apartments several times over the past hour; and Alexandra was nowhere to be found.

Kate looked at Pierce, calm and serene as usual as he lounged on a weight-lifting bench. "This is going to be a wonderful promotion," Kate said sarcastically. "Most of the equipment we planned to demonstrate is pretty much geared to women. And no offense, Pierce, but two models are more than twice as good as one."

He smiled and looked at his watch. "Don't worry, Kate. I'll handle it if I have to. Do you want me to change?"

"Oh, you can wait a bit," she said. She looked at Pierce carefully. "What do you think of Alexandra, by the way? You must know her better than any of us by now."

He shook his head, his handsome pale blue eyes placid as he said, "I really hardly know her. Kurt keeps her on a very tight emotional rein." He shrugged. "I've seen it happen dozens of times, though—in acting, mostly. Maybe she'll get out from under his control. But if she does, she'll just go looking for another one."

"Mm," Kate said, thinking for a moment about herself. Surely she had been only a pale version of Alexandra when she had been with Kurt. He had dominated her in only a very few areas. But what Pierce had said was disturbing nevertheless. For she didn't like to think she resembled Alexandra in any way; and she knew that, in the past, she had.

And the heartbreak of it was that she had had to break away from a man she truly did love in order to save herself from repeating the pattern.

Kate tried to bring her thoughts back to the promotion. She looked at her watch: ten to twelve. People were starting to come to the area, glancing at the
twelve o'clock demonstration
sign and moving on a bit. They were waiting, Kate recognized, interested in the demonstration but unwilling to waste time waiting for something when there was a whole store to look at. And if the demonstration didn't begin soon, they would leave, either drifting away without giving it much thought or stalking off in annoyance.
-I

And then, just as Kate was about to go over and talk with Gloria Lennox, the woman who was going to narrate I the demonstration, Alexandra came running in—alone.

"I'm sorry," she said breathlessly. "Really sorry. I'll explain later. Where do I change?"

"Go in there," Kate said, pointing to the women's try- on room. "Your things are at the front. And, Pierce, you know where to go."

"Right," he said, saluting.

Kate stayed at the exercise area with Gloria Lennox and the salespeople, and a few minutes later Alexandra and Pierce came racing out of their changing areas, both looking appropriately young and fit and attractive in their very expensive maroon workout clothes.

And the promotion began. The newest best-selling exercise record—music only, with an accompanying aerobics booklet—began pulling customers in with its quiet but steady rhythm, and Gloria Lennox began her talk as Alexandra and Pierce warmed up to the beat.

People came, drifting in from the Trattoria down the floor, "Best Toys for Best Kids" in the other direction, from "Active Swimwear" across the hall. And as Alexan- dra and Pierce worked together and apart, demonstrating the newest, in weight-training for women, aerobics for men, and tandem exercises for both, the crowd grew. It was made up of both men and women—some interested in the equipment, most interested in Alexandra or Pierce, all certain at some level to be inspired by their youth and energy.

Kate noticed a familiar-looking man in the crowd; she was certain she had seen him somewhere recently, but she couldn't place him. And then her attention shifted back to Alexandra. She was eyeing a man in the crowd—handsome, gray-haired, obviously wealthy—with a look of such frank sexuality that even in a promotion such as the rather physical one going on, it was out of place. She was supposed to be spotting for Pierce as he demonstrated the weight-lifting bench and its properties, but she had eyes only for this man. And then, as suddenly as the flirting had begun, it shifted. Alexandra had a new target—this one younger, very casually dressed, at the front of the crowd. He smiled at her, and she shifted again as the exercise ended for a moment and Pierce moved the weights back to the edge of the demonstration area. Alexandra had a peculiar gleam in her eye as she picked up two three-kilo weights and brought them to the edge of the crowd.

"These are specially designed to be handled easily," she said in a soft, seductive voice. "And even if you're the strongest of men," she said breathily, her eyes roving the crowd, "they can make you strong in places you never even thought to exercise." She walked up to a man across from where Kate stood, at the edge of the crowd. He was in his late thirties, tall, fair, classically handsome, dressed in a beautifully tailored suit. "How would you like to try?" she cooed, coming up so close to the man that she was nearly touching him.

At first he was a bit taken aback by having been singled out this way. But then the light of surprise in his eyes turned to one of interest as he smiled. "Anything to please a beautiful young woman," he said, taking the weights from her hands. "Now, just what did you have in mind?

Alexandra turned crimson, as if she had been sleepwalking and just awakened in the middle of some embarrassing act. "I, uh, they're very light," she stammered, and a ripple of laughter swept through the crowd.

Kate was completely puzzled. What on earth had Alexandra just been up to?

The rest of the demonstration was uneventful in terms of Alexandra; and in terms of sales, it was excellent. People bought weights, books, exercise mats, workout suits, virtually everything the department stocked.

And so the promotion had been a hit, even if parts had been a bit mysterious.

Later on, after Alexandra and Pierce had changed and Pierce had gone off for the afternoon, Kate took Alexandra to II Trattoria for a talk.

After they were seated and had ordered, Kate looked at Alexandra carefully. "I want you to understand," she began slowly, "that I'm talking to you both as an employer and as a friend. Both are important. You obviously know, Alexandra, that we aren't going to be able to keep you on if you keep being late and not quite right for the in-person promotions."

"I have a contract," she said in the naturally small voice she used when not in public.

Kate shook her head. "Your contract demands a lot of things, Alexandra, and one of them is that you be on time."

"But my uncle—"

"Listen to me," Kate said gently but firmly. "Fm not going to argue because it's not worth arguing about. There's nothing
to
argue about. Alexandra, I don't have to tell you that what you've been doing lately would be completely unacceptable to anyone who hired you. If you want to get ahead, you're going to have to make a lot of changes. It has nothing to do with me, it's just a fact. What I don't understand is why you're doing what you're doing. Why are you late when you could be on time? Isn't it important for you to do well?"

Alexandra was looking down into her lap. When she raised her head, her eyes were brimming with tears. "It's more important than anything. And it's more important to Kurt than anything."

"Forget about Kurt for a minute, Alexandra, and—"

"Why?" she demanded. "Just because you might be jealous or—"

"I'm not jealous," Kate said calmly.

Alexandra looked skeptical. "Well, I don't want to forget about him even for a minute. He has everything to do with my success."

"Then why are you on the brink of getting fired?"

"You wouldn't do that. My uncle—"

"Your uncle," Kate interrupted, "isn't so hot on this campaign himself. He wants you in it, but he's not going to want you in it any more than I will if you keep showing up cranky and late. And what was that all about today, anyway?"

Alexandra flushed. "Kurt thought it would be a good idea." She sighed. "I didn't. We had a really big fight and that's why I was late. But when I came I decided he was probably right. He told me to make a big splash, and I did."

Kate sighed and shook her head. "Don't you understand? He's pushing you in directions that aren't even right. He pushes you so hard that you're a nervous wreck. Then he tells you something that isn't even valid."

Alexandra raised her chin. "
You
don't know. He's getting me into the papers. I'm going to be a personality in my own right. There was a man from the gossip column of the
Post
there today, even. Kurt called him and he came."

The
Post.
So that was where Kate had seen the man at the demonstration; he had been at Xenon the other night. "Kurt had no right to do that," Kate said, looking intently at Alexandra. "And what was the exact purpose, anyway?"

"I told you," Alexandra said. "Maybe you don't know that certain models get written about all the time. They're not just in ads."

Kate sighed. Alexandra was so naive she was almost impossible to deal with. Clearly it would be impossible to make her see the light; all she could do was convince her to shape up for the campaign.

And finally, by the end of lunch, she had extracted a grudging promise from Alexandra that she would clear all "plans" of Kurt's, and that she wouldn't be late for any more of the promotions. On this there was not even a gray area; if she was late, she would be fired.

The next day Alexandra was on time
—
without Kurt
—
when she arrived for a promotion in the men's wear de- partment with Pierce. But almost as soon as the session began, she was up to yesterday's tricks, flirting with the men in the audience and again approaching them. At first Kate was furious. She had talked with Alexandra only yesterday! But interest took the place of annoyance as she saw the effect of Alexandra's moves. She was more confident today, much more sure of herself, and her performance worked where it hadn't the day before. She was less a young girl's misguided interpretation of a siren, more an attractive young woman as she helped one man on with a tie, seductively helped another on with a vest. She talked to the women, too, charming a few, and then Pierce joined in in an obvious approving and good-humored manner. And as Kate put the fact that the whole scheme was Kurt's idea out of her mind, she saw that it was in fact a beautiful addition to the campaign. They had been featuring the Ivorsen and Shaw couple in ads. Why not let people get to know them in the store? If people came to see them, there was absolutely nothing wrong with letting them talk.

She almost laughed at the idea's simplicity. And she watched the rest of the session in relaxed enjoyment.

That afternoon the success of Kurt's plan was obvious in another corner as well. When Kate returned to her office, Linda rushed in after her, waving a copy of the New York
Post.
"You're not going to believe this!" she cried. "Turn to page six."

Kate opened to page six of the tabloid—one of the three or more daily gossip pages the paper usually carried. And there, in the middle of the page, was a glowing account of the audience-participation demonstration.

"This is fantastic," Kate said. "I don't believe it!"

But there was more. Most of the major dailies and fashion newspapers contained similar articles to the
Post
's, insuring that I and S had truly reestablished itself in the fashion world.

Kate left the store that day smiling, wondering at the fact that the promotion was exceeding her most optimistic hopes. There was a cloud of disappointment at the thought that Ben wasn't there to share her news. But she had developed a self-protective shell of skepticism over the past couple of days, and she looked at Ben's absence as something she could and should have expected. He was like the others; just more subtle in his faults.

Yet, at certain moments—at night as she lay in bed, recalling his feverish touch, in the morning right after dreams—she was more vulnerable, less guarded against her old feelings. And at those times she missed him deeply, remembering the Ben she loved.

Irrationally, she blamed him for having left her behind, resented him for not having been trustworthy; he had run off as all the others always had in their own ways, if only emotionally. And when part of her protested and said,
You drove him away; he asked you to go with him
_t
it meant little. He had obviously decided that she was right, and had gone off in search of another, more perfect, love.