Worthy Opponents(24)

“I’d look silly coming to work in a ball gown, and it’s a little over the top for the playground with the boys.” She smiled at him.

“We have to do something to jazz up your life,” he said.

“This is all the jazz I need.” But she had to admit the dress was beautiful, and wearing it was going to be fun.

Beau pinned the hem for her and took the dress to alterations, and she called Bill and apologized for the night before. “I need a favor,” she said. “Will you go to a black-tie event at the Met with me tomorrow night? I have to go for the store.” He only hesitated for an instant, still a little miffed that she hadn’t seen him the night before, but it sounded like fun to him too.

“Sure.”

“We don’t have to stay late.” He promised to pick her up, and she went back to her desk. She was all set for the Met. She had a dress and a date. She wasn’t going to make a big evening of it. She’d had a long week. All she had to do was put in an appearance for the store, and the dress was a knockout. Maybe it would be a fun evening after all.





Chapter 5


Spencer worked with Marcy and Beau in her office the day of the charity event at the Met. They were confirming their winter buy for the store. The orders had already been placed several months before, but Spencer liked to go over them in detail. Beau had added three new up-and-coming designers from France, and the same high-end luxury brands they always ordered. He was diligent about coming in under the budget, and he had done it again. Marcy, having bought for the store for thirty years before becoming president, always joined Spencer and Beau for their meetings to offer advice and an overview of the coming season. The three of them worked well together. Spencer had learned a great deal from Marcy, and Beau had been a big success as their fashion director since Spencer had hired him away from Neiman Marcus seven years before. Their future winter buy looked exciting to all three of them.

Marcy had just turned sixty-two, but she was as chic and youthful as ever, with her short snow-white hair. She was full of energy and represented them well as president of the store. She was always cooperative and willing to take direction from Spencer as CEO, despite the fact that she had known her as a little girl. At thirty-seven, Spencer was no longer a child and ran the store with a gentle but firm hand, with her eye on the future, and made responsible decisions which had served them well. Brooke’s under Spencer’s guidance was even more profitable than it had been when her grandfather ran it. She had learned her lessons well in business school.

She mentioned some of the ideas that she and Paul Trask had discussed recently, including long-term expansion and an annex nearby, and Marcy looked concerned.

“Do you ever think about moving out of the neighborhood?” she asked Spencer, and Beau nodded. He had thought of it too. He knew how attached Spencer was to the building they were in because of her grandfather, but there were increasing numbers of homeless people sleeping in front of the building at night, and they got police reports of muggings, petty thefts, and more recently the rape of a woman who lived nearby. “I think it’s getting worse,” Marcy added.

“So do I,” Beau agreed. “It’s a lot worse than it was when I started working here seven years ago. The homeless camped outside seem more aggressive when we leave at night.” There were a lot of younger ones in the mix, who were clearly on drugs and desperate for money. They didn’t bother anyone in the daytime, and disappeared then, but they were back en masse at night, camping outside. None of the employees had gotten hurt, but local residents had, late at night and on weekends. Brooke’s security team was vigilant in the daytime, and looked out for the neighbors too.

“It might be good for business if we move uptown,” Marcy suggested cautiously. She knew how attached Spencer was to anything her grandfather had set up, and the building was part of that mystique, even if inconveniently located for much of their staff and many of their customers.

“I’d really hate to move,” Spencer said. “This building is iconic.” Marcy didn’t want to argue the point with her, although she thought the problem of their location was bad for business.

“Our customers might like it if we moved farther uptown, maybe even to another historic building with some character. It could bring us a flood of new customers who don’t know the store and don’t come downtown. Or a location even farther downtown, like to Soho,” which was so trendy and fashionable now.

“It would probably cost us a fortune,” Spencer said. But it was more about nostalgia for her than money, as they all knew.

After the meeting, Beau gave her a printout about the event at the Met that evening. It was to benefit an art introduction class for inner city kids in the metropolitan area. There were to be three hundred of the Met’s most elite and generous supporters at the party. Seats were ten thousand dollars per person, and they had given her two free tickets.

“I wonder why they invited me,” Spencer mused as she glanced at it. The guest list of those who had accepted was included on a separate sheet. She didn’t bother to look at it, sure that she wouldn’t know anyone there. The guests were among the city and the museum’s biggest donors.

“You’re an important person,” Beau said to her. “Brooke’s is an institution and a legend. The name has been important in retail for more than a century. I’m surprised you don’t get invited to things like this more often.”