Age Before Beauty (11 page)

Allie stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the front wall. “If we move that desk over, the shelves I bought today will fit right in the corner. I think the computer power cord will still reach the outlet. What do you think?”

Eric’s lips pursed. “It’ll be tight. Why do you need shelves, anyway?”

“To store my inventory. Most of the time I’ll place orders with the company through the Internet, but Sally Jo says some products sell at every party and customers appreciate it when you have them already on hand. Which reminds me.” She gave him a sideways flinch. “I dropped by the bank and got a credit card today. Just for business purchases. That way I can keep everything separate from our personal expenses.”

An anxious breath caught in her lungs. She’d expected him to react negatively to that, since they had agreed early in their marriage not to succumb to the temptation to build up a large credit card debt. He merely lifted a shoulder.

“Makes sense. Just be sure you pay it off every month, or you’ll end up spending all your profit on finance charges.”

“I will.” She let out a relieved sigh.

He cocked his head and looked at the desk. “It’s going to be crowded in here.”

“You’re right.” Allie cast a withering glance in the direction of the kitchen. “But I can’t set up my office in the guest room.”

“Oh, that reminds me.” Eric lowered his voice. “I talked to Dad today.”

Allie listened to Eric recount his conversation with his father. “A doormat, huh?”

Eric nodded.

She glanced toward the open door and spoke in a whisper. “Your mother sure seems to like cooking and cleaning and all that. If she’s as quiet at home as she is here, I can kind of see why your father would be surprised that she suddenly up and left.”

“Yeah, but apparently he isn’t going to do anything about it.” Joanie wiggled in Eric’s arms. He grabbed a waving fist and smiled down at his daughter.

Allie folded her arms across her chest. “She can’t live here, Eric.”

“I know.” He looked up and whispered, “What do you want me to do? Tell her she has to leave, go to a hotel or something? I will, if that’s what you want.”

Allie studied his earnest expression. He would do it. He would tell his own mother she had to go to a hotel. And he’d probably take the blame for the move himself, because Eric was too much a gentleman to blame anything on his wife.

She sighed. “I guess we can make it work for a little while. But it’s definitely a temporary situation.”

The relief on his face made her feel guilty for nagging. She really was lucky to have Eric. If he had a fault at all, it was that he didn’t communicate enough. It took a major blowup like last night to open him up. Apparently his father didn’t talk much, either. Neither had Allie’s own father. Thank goodness it was the only thing Eric had in common with Daddy.

Betty appeared in the doorway and spoke in her quiet voice. “Dinner is on the table.” She turned away without waiting for an answer.

“Thanks, Mother,” Eric called after her.

Allie grinned as she fell in step beside him. “You know, having someone cook all our meals is one thing I could get used to.”

“Mom, please?” Allie shifted the telephone to her right ear and added a note of shameless begging into her tone. “It’s just for a couple of hours until Eric gets off work.”

Genuine regret sounded in Mom’s voice. “You know I’d love to babysit my granddaughter, but I can’t leave the hospital.”

“Mondays are supposed to be your day off!” Allie wasn’t above whining if that’s what it took to convince Mom.

“They usually are. I had to switch shifts with someone in order to host your party tomorrow night.”

Allie leaned against the back of the desk chair and directed a sullen glare toward her computer monitor. Mom was doing her a favor by hosting her very first party as a Varie Cose consultant.

“You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’ll figure something out.”

“Why don’t you ask Betty to watch Joanie?” Mom asked.

“Because Betty hardly ever holds her or anything. She was here with us all weekend, and I think she only picked Joanie up twice. She never offered to change her. Whenever you or Joan or Tori are here, you can’t put her down.”

“Allie, Betty isn’t like us. She’s quiet and probably very shy. Maybe you should make it a point to ask for her help instead of waiting for her to volunteer.”

Allie tapped a finger against the phone. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”

“I’ve got to go, honey. Good luck. I’ll talk to you later.” The phone clicked in Allie’s ear. She replaced the receiver in the cradle on the edge of her desk and stared at it as she considered her options. Maybe she could call Joan … No. Joan wouldn’t be able to leave the furniture store she managed on a couple hours’ notice. And Tori had an important job as a marketing analyst in Lexington, so that was out of the question. Gram? Allie shook her head. Gram would probably love the opportunity, but she was in her mid-eighties and hadn’t fully recovered from breaking her hip a few weeks before Joanie was born. She still relied on a walker for longer journeys, like the one from her apartment down the hall to the center’s dining room.

She shot a glance toward the baby monitor on the nightstand. Maybe she should take Joanie with her. The memory of Sally Jo’s expression during Thursday’s meeting when both Joanie and Darcy’s son started crying leaped into focus. Sally Jo had specifically said that babies shouldn’t come to today’s makeup demo. Still, if Allie had no choice …

She did have a choice, albeit an unpleasant one. With a sigh, she heaved herself up from her chair.

“Betty?” Allie stepped into the kitchen. The older woman sat at the table, flipping through the pages of a magazine. Betty looked up. That woman held the record for blank expressions. Her face didn’t give away a single hint at any thoughts that might have been rattling around in her brain.

Allie slipped into an empty chair. “I’ve got to go to a meeting at three o’clock today. I thought my mom would be able to watch Joanie, but she had to work. I wondered if you’d mind.”

A spark of interest flared into Betty’s brown eyes, though she maintained her stoic silence.

Allie went on. “It’ll only be for a couple of hours, just until Eric gets home. She shouldn’t be any problem. I’m sure you can handle her.”

“Of course I can handle her.” Betty closed the pages of the magazine. “A child that age just needs to be fed and kept dry. I noticed some bottles of milk in the freezer, and though it has been a long time since I’ve changed a diaper, I think I still remember how.”

“So you’ll do it?”

Betty inclined her forehead. “Of course.”

Relief flooded Allie. “Thank you. I really appreciate it. I’ll have my cell phone on the whole time, so if you need to call me, you can.”

Her lips formed that slight smile. “We’ll manage.”

Allie got up from the table and pushed her chair in, while Betty watched in her cool, detached manner. “Okay. Well, I really appreciate it.”

As she turned, Betty asked, “Will you be home in time for dinner? I’m making a low-fat pasta dish.”

Another low-fat dish. Allie forced a smile. “I should be home by five thirty.”

She left the room and headed to the nursery to check on the baby, not sure whether she should be relieved or irritated.

“Okay, y’all, now we’ll apply the final layer—the powder.” Sally Jo picked up a cotton ball. “Watch me.”

Allie dipped a cotton ball in the powdery pile on the thin foam tray in front of her. Colorful blobs of makeup and concealer filled the tray’s slots so it resembled one of those watercolor paint trays Allie used to have in grade school. She held the face-sized mirror in one hand and, matching Sally Jo’s technique, brushed the powder over her skin with an upward sweeping motion. Seated beside her at the table in Sally Jo’s spotless kitchen, Darcy stared into her own mirror and dabbed at her nose.

“There. Now for the finishing touch.” Sally Jo picked up a clear plastic box and started at one end of the table. “Let’s see, Kirsten, I think this color suits you.” She set a small lip pencil in front of the brunette and moved to the next seat. “Nicole, you get Chocolate. Perfect for you. Laura, your skin tone cries out for Pearly Peach, and Dusty Gold for Darcy. And for Allie …” Allie held her chin high as Sally Jo studied her through narrowed eyes. “Definitely a bright pink. Let’s try Candy Coral.”

Allie took the lip pencil from Sally Jo’s fingers and looked at it. Pretty bright. As a rule, she didn’t wear lipstick, just a shimmery gloss that Eric preferred because he said it made her lips kissable. But she couldn’t very well sell the stuff if she wouldn’t at least try it, could she?

“Now, I want you to start at the top and draw a V.” Sally Jo demonstrated with a finger in front of her own mouth. “Then carefully outline your top lip, working from the center out. On the bottom you’re going to do the opposite and move from the edges in. When your whole mouth is outlined, fill it in.”

Allie pulled the mirror close so she could get a better look at her lips. She followed the outline carefully, then surveyed the result. “I think my lips are lopsided.”

Darcy laughed, but Sally Jo said, “Most people’s aren’t symmetrical.” She returned to stand beside Allie. “Let me see.”

Allie lowered the mirror and swiveled sideways in the chair, then tilted her face upward for Sally Jo’s inspection.

Her brows drew together. “Oh yes, I see what you mean. Here, let me work on you.”

She held out a hand. Allie, feeling slightly offended that she had to be “worked on,” put the lip pencil in her palm. Sally Jo’s strokes were firmer than hers. Allie felt as though her lips were being pushed all over her face.

“The good thing about lip pencils,” Sally Jo said as she worked, “is they can correct any mistakes Mother Nature made. They can make a big mouth small, or thin lips wide and sexy. They can even fix irregularly shaped lips. There.” She tossed the pencil on the table and straightened. “Take a look.”

Allie picked up the mirror and tilted it to examine her mouth. Did she have thin lips, or lopsided ones? Judging by the amount of color Sally Jo had drawn outside her lip line, apparently both.

“It’s really, uh, bright.” Those lips didn’t even look like hers.

“Trust me,” Sally Jo said, “you’ve got the coloring to pull it off. That shade is perfect for you.”

“How do you know that?” Laura looked up from her own mirror. “You picked different colors for each of us. How’d you know which ones to try?”

“Practice.” Sally Jo put a hand on her hip and smiled. “And the color charts included in your skin care start-up kit help a lot. They have all kinds of pictures of women with different coloring. After a while, you just sort of know what will look good on someone.”

Allie studied her reflection in the small mirror, moving it around so she could see all the parts. One eye looked pretty good, but the accent color on the outside lid of the other one looked a bit off-center. The concealer she’d layered on brightened a couple of dark smudges she had not realized were there until Sally Jo pointed them out. She held the mirror at arms’ length, trying to see her whole face at once.

Sally Jo stepped to the sink and pulled a trashcan from the cabinet beneath. She returned to the table and picked up Kirsten’s tray. “Why don’t you girls run into the bathroom and take a look in better lighting.”

Allie trooped down a hallway behind the others and into a bathroom. Laura flipped on the vanity lights, and the five women squeezed close together in front of the sink, examining their reflection.

“Wow,” said Laura. “That’s a pretty dramatic change.”

Kirsten nodded. “It sure is.”

“She did a good job picking out eye shadow for each of us.” Nicole tilted her head sideways. “I’m not sure about the lip color, though. Do you think mine is too dark?”

Allie stared at her reflection. A stranger stared back. “That,” she said, “is a lot of makeup.”

Laura nodded. “Way more than I usually wear. Maybe this is evening makeup. You know, they say you’re supposed to wear more at night because of the lighting.”

“Sally Jo always wears a lot.” Kirsten shrugged. “It looks natural on her. If we were wearing professional clothes instead of jeans and sweats, it would probably look better. Maybe we just have to get used to it.”

“I guess so.” Nicole’s tone was uncertain. “If we’re going to sell the stuff, I guess our faces are sort of like an advertisement.”

“I really like that moisturizer.” Kirsten’s fingers brushed at her cheek. “My skin feels so soft under the makeup.”

Allie leaned forward to get a better look at that right eyelid. Definitely not even with the other one. But it was kind of amazing how the placement of a darker shade gave her eyes a totally different look. And her lips! She puckered. She could get used to having wide, sexy lips.

She glanced at Darcy, who was staring at the reflection with a look of growing horror.

“What’s the matter, Darcy?” Allie asked. “Don’t you like the way you look?”

“It’s not that. It’s just …” Darcy’s gaze swept down the line in the mirror from Nicole to Allie. “We look like clones. Sally Jo made us over in the Varie Cose image, like Gregory Peck in that movie
The Boys from Brazil
. We’re the Cose Clones!”

On the drive home Allie kept leaning to the side so she could peek at her reflection. The more she saw it, the more she decided she liked the new look. She needed a different image if she was going to make a go as a Varie Cose consultant. The old Allie was okay for a social worker. Allie the successful businesswoman needed to project a totally different image. This makeover was definitely a step in the right direction.

She had everything she needed to make a bundle selling Varie Cose’s most popular line of products. Her new makeup start-up kit—correction,
skin care
start-up kit— rested on the seat beside her. All three hundred dollars’ worth of it.

Allie winced. The bank said her credit card should arrive within a week. She hoped it didn’t take too long. The check she’d just written had taken her account balance dangerously close to zero. Hopefully she’d sell a lot of stuff at Mom’s party tomorrow night and could get some money back in the bank before Eric noticed. Besides, she had to have a variety of colors to demonstrate. As Sally Jo said, how could she expect people to buy makeup without trying it first?