'Perfect,' Annie had to admit, 'but I thought you wanted to be an action hero?'

'Still on the cards, doll,' he a.s.sured her, 'and talking of career-reviving moves ... have you heard any-'

'Not a peep,' she interrupted him, 'not a whisper, not one iota of news of any kind at all.'

'Sit tight, baby. This too shall pa.s.s.'

'I would love to see you in New York. I'm in total love with New York. I'm trying to work out how I can get my family to move over here.'

'Really?'

'Well, sort of ... fantasy really.'

'TV is very, very hard to get into over there. Especially if you're carrying just a teeny little bit of excess ...'

She burst out laughing: 'You're very sweet. But I think what you are trying to say is if you're a thirty-something who's not had a brow-lift and zeroed down to a lollipop stick, we can probably forget it.'

'But you never know, baby, maybe they need a bit of reality TV. Maybe they need some Annie love. As soon as I get there, we will go out. Prepare to party. There are some people I met in a Florida sauna who I'm meeting up with again.'

'Just when I thought I'd heard all the lurid gay s.e.x tales I'd ever wanted to hear.'

'I've told Gawain about you. He can do crisis management too, baby. Crisis management. That's what you need.'

Annie glanced up to see a delivery man struggling in with the biggest pink and blue bouquet of loveliness she had ever seen. She saw Lana's face turn to the delivery man with just a glimmer of hope.

Annie hoped it too.

Maybe this was Taylor apologizing. Maybe Annie could call off the hit man ... well, not that she'd arranged one, but the thought, the thought was still well and truly there.

'Delivery for Wis-net-ski?' he stumbled over the name.

'Oh yeah, she's just here,' Lana said brightly.

But Annie had seen her face fall.

'So. Exciting, huh?' Connor asked. 'I'll be there very, very soon. Not telling you when. Surprise!'

Before Annie could ask another question, he hung up. Infuriating!

'Tscha!' Elena exclaimed, ripping open the card, then tossing it to the floor, 'Sye. So Annie, what we do about Bloomingdale's?'

'You'll just have to go, Elena. In person. Looking totally 'vonderrrrrrful' and carrying the beautiful, purple dress with you. If anyone can get Mrs Bloomingdale to change her mind it's you!'

Somehow, Annie had made it sound easy.

So Elena had, as calmly as she could, phoned Bloomingdale's and asked to speak to the head women's fashion buyer, Mrs Westhoven.

Although the thought of actually speaking to Mrs Westhoven had made Elena's heart hammer painfully, because Mrs Westhoven also happened to be Sye's mother.

Elena had told Mrs Westhoven's secretary that she would be coming to Bloomingdale's today, and would Mrs Westhoven be available for a very quick meeting? After a long and agonizing pause, the secretary had come back on the line to tell Elena that Mrs Westhoven would be delighted to meet with her at 4p.m.

This was why Elena was now surfacing from the subway station exit and making her way nervously towards the Bloomingdale's staff entrance.

There followed a long, nervous wait in a large, minimally furnished room, in which she busied herself nibbling at the skin around her nails.

Sye's mother and the first Bloomingdale's dress order had been crucial to the fledgling Perfect Dress business. The first release of dresses over Spring and Summer had sold well through Bloomingdale's and new orders had been placed almost immediately. Although Elena and Sye had been a couple for almost six months, somehow the opportunity to meet Mrs Westhoven had never come about. She was too busy, Sye was too nervous, Elena was too scared ... many reasons.

Had the dress order been cancelled because she'd broken off with Sye? Elena bit deep into the side of her nail at this thought.

She'd thought breaking off with Sye would bring her some sort of peace from the relentless jealousy, the constant worry about where he was, who he was with, whether he'd met someone he liked better than her. But, in fact, now that she'd told him it was over, she seemed to worry about him ten times more.

Yes, of course, when she and Sye had been together Elena had indulged in a little daydream of meeting his parents. But she'd never imagined it would happen like this, with Elena in a waiting room, expecting a formal summons any minute, and an argument about a cancelled dress order.

'Miss Wisneski?'

The secretary was at the door.

'She'll see you now, but she only has a few minutes.'

Elena picked up the briefcase, into which she'd carefully folded the tissue-wrapped purple Perfect Dress, and followed her down the corridor.

She was shown into a light, airy room with a small but magnificent, 100 per cent Manhattan view. But all of Elena's attention was focused on the woman sitting behind a tiny laptop at the otherwise empty desk.

h.e.l.lo Elena,' Mrs Westhoven said, standing up and leaning over to shake Elena's hand, 'it's lovely, just lovely to meet you. I've been dying to meet you, to tell the truth.'

'h.e.l.lo, nice to meet you too,' Elena said, smiling broadly and shaking hands.

Mrs Westhoven did not look nearly as 'fashion' as Elena had expected. But then Annie had warned her that buyers were like fashion editors they almost always wore very expensive black clothes in cla.s.sic shapes because they didn't like to risk getting caught out. Wearing something too high fashion the nanosecond it was 'over' was career suicide.

Mrs Westhoven was a small, sinewy lady in an expensive-looking navy blue jersey dress. Maybe Gucci, Elena guessed, taking in the golden touches. She had a highly blonde bob and eyes almost exactly like Sye's that looked piercingly acute.

'Sit down, tell me all your woes,' she began in a crisp, cultivated New York accent.

Elena felt at sea. Did she mean breaking up with Sye? Did she mean the dresses? What woes? Elena was not here to talk about her woes.

Because Elena hesitated, Mrs Westhoven went on: 'You've obviously had big production problems. You've had to change the fabric completely, you've had to change your factory, you've even messed around with delivery dates.'

Before Elena could open her mouth to defend herself, Mrs Westhoven was tapping at her computer. She called up a spreadsheet and turned it towards Elena so that she could take a look too.

'The last dresses we bought from you sold ... reasonably. Not so amazingly well that I'm desperate to buy them in again, especially if they're not going to be as well made as the first run. We've other lines that are doing better. So try not to take it too personally, but I think Bloomingdale's can live without the "Perfect Dress".'

She made little quote marks with her fingers in the air as she said Perfect Dress.

'There have been some small problems,' Elena said, finally finding her voice and taking extra care with her English 'but this has only led us to create a much, much better product.'

'Oh. Really?' Mrs Westhoven sounded entirely unconvinced.

'I've brought one of the new dresses with me, I'm sure you'd like to see it.'

'Well ... OK then.'

Elena leaned over to unzip her briefcase and realized that her hands were shaking slightly. Nevertheless, she took out the dress and stood up so she could spread it out over Mrs Westhoven's desk.

As she smoothed out the magenta jersey creation, she felt a rush of pride in it. It was beautifully cut, beautifully made, and it was a really clever idea. She pointed to the satin-covered b.u.t.tons and the gorgeous ribbon tie sleeves. She couldn't think of anyone who wouldn't want such a useful Autumn/Winter dress as this. Who wouldn't look better, more pulled together, wearing this?

Mrs Westhoven put on a pair of sw.a.n.ky, bejewelled reading gla.s.ses and bent over the dress. She picked up a sleeve and inspected it closely, running the fabric between her fingers.

'Sweatshirt material? With Lycra or without?'

'Stretch jersey with Lycra.'

'This is nothing special, you could pick it up in any warehouse anywhere in the city.'

Or any skip, Elena thought.

'No, but we make a special dress out of ordinary fabric. This is our selling point. It is a dressed up, pulled together casual dress. You could wear this with diamonds and heels to look very bohemian at a party. But it is also wonderful with boots and a jacket, looking very, very casual.'

Mrs Westhoven didn't even pause to consider. 'No, I don't think this is what a Bloomingdale's customer is looking for. I think this dress is tonally confused. It's not one thing or the other. It's all wrong, Elena. Not for us.'

Mrs Westhoven was definitely not 'tonally confused'. The way Mrs Westhoven said this, it sounded final.

Elena decided not to argue. She wanted to fold up the dress and get out just as quickly as she possibly could. Yes, it was an order of ninety dresses their biggest single order but somehow she would just sell those ninety dresses to someone else. She would certainly not humiliate herself pleading with Mrs Westhoven.

As she packed the dress back into her briefcase, Elena met Mrs Westhoven's piercing eyes. 'Is this because I'm not with Sye any more?' she asked, surprising herself. The question just bubbled up out of nowhere.

'No. I'm delighted that you're not with Sye any more,' Mrs Westhoven replied coolly, taking off her gla.s.ses and setting them down on her desk. 'When I heard your story ... well, I just knew it was going to lead to trouble: the poor girl from the Ukraine moving to America for love. I thought you'd be engaged for a permanent visa within months, and it would all end in divorce before anyone could say "starter marriage". No, I don't need any of that and neither does Sye. I told him to get rid of you and I'm delighted he has done so.'

Elena was so stung, she didn't know which slight to argue first.

She zipped up her briefcase, hands trembling with rage. 'I'm very sorry you are missing out on our dresses, Mrs Westhoven. I think you're wrong, I think they are going to be the must-have item this season. The number one go-to piece.'

Elena tried to leave it there. But then, she found she couldn't.

'I am not a poor girl from the Ukraine, I have an engineering degree and a Business Master's. My mother and business partner is very ... a very wealthy woman. I have no need of marrying Sye, not even for a visa.'

Elena stretched herself to her full height, displaying her lean, athletic body to best advantage. With the most condescending face she could pull, she added, 'And Sye did not finish with me, he still trying to call me ten times a day. I finish with him. Thank you for your time to see me.'

She turned on her heel and swept out of the door, thudding it shut behind her.

In the corridor, Elena kept on walking very briskly, blinking back hot humiliated tears. Ninety dresses ... how on earth was she going to find orders in a fortnight for ninety dresses?

When she was out in the street once again, Elena looked around and tried to get her bearings. There was the subway station. Good yes, she could get on a train and get back home, just as soon as she had calmed the huge, bubbling tension building up inside her.

She needed to be nice to herself. She needed to do something caring and generous for herself. She needed to buy something. Right now. As soon as possible.

She began racing down the sidewalk in search of a shop which could help. A drugstore wouldn't do. Shampoo, even bottles and bottles of discounted shampoo, would not be enough. Elena needed clothing. Nice shiny new clothing, with the tags still on, double-wrapped in carrier bags, with all the shiny promise of newness, of exciting, good times ahead. She needed something lovely, a treat to make herself feel better.

But it had to be cheap, special offer, sale purchase. Only if she was sure she wasn't paying full price could she be happy.

She soon came across a red poster in a window promising 'Special purchase this week only.' Here were racks and racks hung with all the summer clothes the store was trying to offload at the tail end of September. Skimpy dresses, shorts, frilly T-shirts, everything that had hung out all summer long and not been chosen.

Expertly Elena began to flick through the rails looking for her size. There was a concentrated zeal to her pursuit. This had nothing to do with buying something nice or something needed: it was about buying to fulfil a hungry urge.

Flick, flick, flick ... the multi-coloured halterneck tops were rejected; then she moved on to silky, tie-dyed T-shirts. She liked these, liked them enough to buy them anyway. She picked out a pink one and a turquoise blue.

Then she moved on to skirts. The simple linen skirts were nice. She would take the white one and maybe the blue too. To go with the T-shirt. All her size, all looked about right.

Elena didn't feel satisfied yet. She looked around the shop desperately, grasping the T-shirts and skirts tightly by their hangers. Over here were scarves, necklaces and shiny handbags. Like a magpie, she a.s.sessed and then swooped. One pink and white checked cotton scarf; two ropes of pastel gla.s.s beads and a shimmery pink clutch bag.

Now that Elena had a hold of all these items, the panic subsided a little. She gathered up her h.o.a.rd and went to the till, where the cashier smiled at her pleasantly. 'Hi there and how are you today? We have a fitting room if you'd like to try these on?'

'No, no, is fine. I'm in a hurry and I need them for ...'

Elena paused.

In her hand was her credit card all ready to hand over. All ready to add a few more hundred dollars to the vast, out of control landslide of debt she'd already built up.

Plus, she couldn't finish her sentence. What exactly did she need these things for? Not to wear. She would never wear them. She would never even take them out of the shopping bag. She would just put them into a corner of her clean and tidied, calmly ordered bedroom and begin to build up her mountain of unwanted items all over again.

'I'm sorry,' Elena blushed and retreated from the till, 'I think I make mistake, I come back later.'

'Sure, no problem, would you like me to put these to the side for you? We can hold for twenty-four hours,' came the friendly response.

'No, is fine ... is fine, thank you,' Elena said as she backed towards the door.

Out on the sidewalk again, blinking against the sunshine, Elena felt shaky, still panicky, but there was a tiny glow of accomplishment building up inside her. This had been a very difficult afternoon, but somehow she'd managed to back away from her usual stress relief.

The store just a few doors down from the clothes place was a small chocolatier's. Elena stepped inside and stood in the air-conditioned coolness inhaling the rich aroma and trying to calm herself.

Personally, she had no interest in chocolate. She'd never been given chocolate when she was a child so it had none of the comforting a.s.sociations that it seemed to have for so many women.

But she wanted to buy something small. A present. She wanted to simultaneously scratch the buying itch and do something generous for the woman who had helped her understand it a little bit better.

With cash, not credit, Elena went to the counter and picked out a bespoke selection of chocolates and candies, had them wrapped in a pink box and tied with a an exuberant flourish of pink and white ribbon.

Once it was in the shiny plastic bag and Elena had it in her hands, she felt her panic subside, just as easily as if she'd just splashed out $300 on discount summer clothes. This was good. This was definitely progress.

She beamed at the cashier as she left, stepped out of the store, and walked right into Sye.

'Elena ...' he began, but then he just held open his arms and wrapped them around her as she fell against him.

'Sye!' she exclaimed, 'Sye.'

For several moments, they just remained tightly entwined, feeling each other's hearts thud terrifyingly fast and loud.

Then Elena felt his hand stroke the back of her neck and she was suddenly crying against his shoulder.

'I'm sorry,' she blurted out. Whatever thoughts she might have had about trying to end this relationship had vanished as soon as she'd set eyes on him.