“I was wondering who he was,” Odette said.
“His name is Bryan Bachman. The story is that he spent his last euro on a raffle ticket for your charity and won that seat,” Lucie replied.
“Is it true?”
“The reporter says it is.” Lucie gave a very French shrug that communicated her doubt. “I am sure he has an ATM card somewhere in those jeans. It is all one needs these days.”
“What interest does he have in fashion? Does he want to be a model?”
Lucie shook her head. “I overheard the reporter from Bonjour Paris interviewing him in the lobby before the show. Apparently not. He has a degree in science from a California university and is known in his field. Her poor little slave of an assistant went wi-fi and confirmed everything he said on her laptop—I looked over her shoulder while she was doing it. The article will be online in a few hours if you want to look at it.”
Odette nodded. She didn’t want to wait to read it. “Is he in Paris by himself?”
“I think that is what he said—”
“Where is he staying?” Odette asked, not caring how shamelessly interested she sounded.
“He didn’t say, she didn’t ask, but I don’t think he will sleep on the streets,” Lucie said dryly. “Not with that face and that body. He could have his pick of the women here, don’t you think?”
“You ask too many rhetorical questions, Lucie. Let’s stick to the facts,” Odette said.
“I have told you what I know. I thought he looked like a cyclist or a climber, traveling through Europe before he returns to college.” Lucie paused to look at him again. “So I was surprised when he said he had a degree. He seems too old to be a student. But he is certainly an athlete.”
“I thought the same thing. And Marc did too.”
Lucie permitted herself a polite chuckle. “Marc can read the meaning of people’s clothes like a detective.”
Odette smiled. “Of course. He is a devotee of Hercule Poirot.”
“Who is that?” Lucie turned her head in response to a softly voiced call for her assistance. “Zut. I am needed. Excuse me.”
“Of course,” Odette murmured. Every seat was now full, and more people had squeezed in along the walls in back.
Her bouncers were examining invitations and steering a few people who proffered faked ones to the exits. Other assistants scrambled to find folding chairs but inevitably some onlookers would remain standing.
The crowding added to the excitement. So it went. This was her fifth show in as many years. Each one had been more popular than the last.
Odette sighed inwardly as the house lights went down. The walls reflected a deep blue that suggested an undersea realm. She felt at the moment as if she were looking into an aquarium filled with colorful fish, very chic fish with rolling eyes and mouths that opened and closed as they moved about, sometimes in unison and sometimes wriggling frantically when they found themselves alone.
Bryan Bachman seemed out of place among them, but not at a loss. He was self-assured and confident, studying everything he saw with interest. A scientist, hmm? She would not have taken him for one, but she supposed California intellectuals dressed differently.
The Arelquins were doing their best to make conversation with him. Marie Arelquin seemed to be explaining something. Bryan nodded as if he understood and looked up suddenly at the curtain.
At Odette.
She had fancied herself invisible. Apparently not. Odette took a step back. He had to have seen her, so penetrating was his look. Standing there staring, now that the house lights had gone down, she must be visible behind the curtain.
Not that it mattered. Would he even know who she was?
Most likely not. Of course, Lucie saw to it that the creative head of the firm got plenty of publicity, and Odette was photographed often. Still, Bryan Bachman didn’t look like someone who read Vogue or Details or W.
The models were lining up not far away behind the curtain, nervous and clumsy in their high heels. They had very little in the way of material to conceal any stumbles or awkward turns on the catwalk, adorned only in the scantiest bras and panties ever seen, and fanciful feather trains and headdresses, which Marc and his team had provided, that harked back to the show-girls of the Folies Bergère.
Ready or not, they had to step out. Two or three girls glanced her way, and Odette gave them an encouraging smile.
She let the gap in the curtain fall closed, and went to confer with her makeup people, attending to last-second details, feeling rather distracted.
As soon as the parade down the catwalk was underway, she could escape and watch most of the show from a distance, as she usually did. It was difficult to get a real feeling of the honest reaction to the new looks otherwise.
Then she would run backstage and emerge at the very end to take a bow.
Who was she?
Bryan had noticed someone behind the curtain from the moment he’d sat down, peeking through. When the house lights went down, he’d seen her in outline.
Fantastic shape, definitely female.
Just before the models stepped out, she’d moved away from there. But he remembered her eyes, intent and watchful as a cat’s, outlined with dark pencil. That was about all he could see, but he had a feeling those eyes belonged to someone beautiful.
Then again, everyone at a fashion show this exclusive was beautiful or acted like they were. But the two women on either side of him didn’t seem to notice that they were being watched.
The scene was a freakin’ zoo otherwise.
And he no longer had a place in the front row, not that he cared. He hadn’t expected to win the seat when he’d bought the raffle ticket, just wanted to use up the last of his euros before he flew back home.
He’d come to Paris purely for the hell of it, on his way back from hiking in the Alsace-Lorraine region, on the recommendation of a former roommate. Spectacular scenery, but too damn cold and slippery this time of year.
He somehow imagined that Paris would be warmer. Not in April. He’d stashed his stuff in an inexpensive hotel near the airport, taken the Métro into the heart of the city and wandered around. Brrr.
Bryan understood enough French to know that the French knew he was American, and left him alone. Tant pis, as they said. Tough luck.
The city was interesting, but he didn’t have enough money to enjoy much of it, outside of watching the Eiffel Tower light up at night, which was free and very cool.
Even romantic, if he’d had anyone to share it with.
And he’d thought the pretty girl selling raffle tickets was interested in him. Hah.
He’d handed over a couple of bills and jotted down his cell phone number when she’d said something about a charity and a fashion show in the same breath. Whatever.
The text message that he was a winner had surprised him, but he’d had nothing else to do that night. So here he was, making out okay in French, mostly because a lot of them spoke decent English.
Marie Arelquin looked at his tank top and smiled.
“Is that where you are from?” she asked.
He looked down, not remembering what he had on right away. “Uh—yeah. Newport Beach. I grew up there but I’ve lived all over California.”
Two really young women in the next row leaned over to take a look too. See and be seen, he thought. He was hardly God’s gift to fashion, but they eyed him appreciatively.
The