“What?” Hallie demanded, glaring at them. “You think this is funny? Do you?”
Grace tugged on her arm again. “Please,” she whispered. “Hallie —”
Hallie shook her off, whirling back to Mohawk guy. “All I want is an address! One tiny, stupid, little address, and you’re acting like I’m a crazy person. Well, I’m not!” she screamed, banging the desk. “Do you hear me? I’m not crazy!”
Silence.
Hallie looked around. Even the rapper guys blinked at her, wide-eyed. She exhaled, all her anger suddenly draining away.
“Come on.” Grace nudged her gently toward the elevator. “Let’s go.”
“OK,” she agreed tiredly, following Grace back to the exit as her sister murmured apologies to everyone. She didn’t care. This was it: her last route to Dakota, and it had turned out to be nothing but a dead end.
“Maybe this is for the best,” Grace said softly as they headed back down to street level. “I mean, what could he say, to make it better?”
Hallie stared at her in disbelief. “Everything! That he still loves me, that all this was a mistake, that he wants to be with me again!”
“But wouldn’t he be with you already, if he wanted to?”
Hallie’s body felt like ice. “It’s not that simple,” she snapped, striding out of the elevator. “You’re too young. You don’t understand. Love is . . . Love is complicated sometimes, OK?”
She was almost at the door when she noticed the flyers, pasted haphazardly on the bare brick wall. Guitar lessons, amps for sale, session singers wanted . . . and live shows. Take Fountain — their name leaping out from the mess as if it were printed in three-foot-tall lettering.
Hallie gasped, tearing the blue xeroxed page down. “Look!” She waved it at Grace excitedly. “They’re playing a showcase, at a club in the city next week. Monday!”
Grace said nothing.
“We can go, meet Dakota there!” Hallie clasped it to her chest. Of course! This was the reunion they were meant to have: a single spotlight on the stage, Dakota’s eyes meeting hers, in the middle of the darkened crowd . . . “I told you.” She linked her arm through Grace’s and strode happily back out into the cold. “Everything’s going to work out. It’s a sign!”
Their date with destiny set, Hallie was finally able to relax and enjoy New York, swept up in Amber’s giddy whirl for the rest of the weekend as they reenacted all her favorite on-screen holiday moments: ice-skating in Rockefeller Center; hot cocoa and cake in the Serendipity 3 café; taking photos up in the Empire State Building in what Amber swore was the exact same spot where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks had rendezvoused in Sleepless in Seattle — Hallie smiled serenely through it all. Even when Amber met up with one of her bobble-headed L.A. friends, Missy, and spent three hours camped out in the lingerie section at Bergdorf’s, her good mood didn’t slip. Dakota was safely scheduled for Monday night, and nothing in the world was going to stand between them this time around.
“Oh, this is darling, don’t you think?”
Hallie looked up to find Missy’s nanny, Lucy, stroking a silk negligee, five inches from Hallie’s head. She ducked out of the way. “I guess.”
“What do you think, Grace?” Lucy turned, holding it up. “Men love blue. At least, some guys do. . . .”
Grace gave a sharp shrug and sat on another of the lounge chairs with Missy’s gurgling baby.
“Or maybe I’ll get something in black.” Lucy wandered over to another rack, wispy bra and panties hung like tree decorations on thin silver wire. “It’s sexier. And it’s always better to be sexy. Especially since we won’t have seen each other in a while.”
Lucy was talking so meaningfully, it was clear she wanted someone to ask more. “Do you have a boyfriend?” Hallie asked obligingly. The girl seemed sweet enough — upbeat even though she worked for a woman who dressed her baby in head-to-toe leopard print.
“Yes!” Lucy beamed. “It’s soooo romantic. We’re dating in secret, because his family wouldn’t approve.”
“Scandalous,” Hallie teased.
“He’s in town, too, visiting his family for the holidays. I couldn’t bear to be away from him, so I suggested Missy come hit the shops.” Lucy winked.
“Smart,” Hallie agreed.
“Isn’t it? Now we can slip away and get together for some alone time.” Lucy waggled the negligee suggestively. “What do you think, Grace?” she asked again. “Should I get the blue or the black?”
“Whatever you want.” Grace suddenly leaped up, grabbing her coat. “I’m going back to the hotel. I want to take a nap before dinner.”
“Me too.” Hallie yawned. “I didn’t think it was possible to do too much shopping, but this is it. Just let me pay for this stuff.” She turned to Lucy. “Good luck with your secret meeting,” she said, pulling on her jacket. “And I say go with the black. It’s a classic.”
Lucy looked between them. “We’ll come too!” she quickly declared. “It’s time for Angelina’s nap, and the apartment is in your direction. We can split a cab.”
“OK,” Hallie agreed. “Grace?”
“Sure.” She sighed, impatient. “I’ll see you guys out front.” Grace hurried ahead, leaving Hallie to find a register and pay for her motley assortment of gifts. It had been hard to find anything on her budget — let alone in Amber’s kind of store, where even a pair of gloves seemed to cost three figures — but Hallie had prevailed. So what if Uncle Auggie might not want another pair of golfing socks: it was the thought that counted!
“So what’s the story with your sister?” Lucy asked, waiting alongside her in line for a register. There was only one salesclerk on the floor, and he was busy flirting with the Ivy League guy in front of them: studying engraved business-card cases like they were the Holy Grail.
Lucy bounced baby Angelina in her arms and fixed Hallie with an eager gaze. “Is she, you know, seeing anyone?”
“You think she tells me anything?” Hallie snorted.
“Come on, there must be someone. A crush, someone from back in San Francisco, maybe?” Lucy’s expression was sharp for a moment, then it smoothed into a sunny smile again. “I was just thinking, you know, maybe I could fix her up!”