Ripped at the Seams (12 page)

Vin stared at her with surprise. “Not exactly the reception I was expecting. Is something wrong?”

Sami shook her head. “It's beautiful,” she told him through her tears. “I just wish I could use it. I don't think I'll be doing much designing anymore.”

It took Vin a minute to figure out what Sami meant. As it became clear, he walked over and gently draped his arm around her, and let the tears flow onto his shoulder. After a moment he said, “Don't stop drawing just because of one guy's opinion. He's only a junior designer.”

Sami shook her head. “It wasn't Bruce. It was Ted Fromme.”

“Bruce actually showed your designs to him?” Rain asked with surprise.

“Of course,” Sami told her. “He said he would. But it doesn't matter, because Ted didn't like them. He said my work was amateurish.”

“Ted Fromme told you that?” Vin asked.

“Well, not exactly. But that's what he told Bruce, and—”

Vin's body tensed.
“Bruce …,”
he started with a quiet anger. “So you didn't actually speak to Ted Fromme.”

Sami shrugged. “What does it matter? I got the message. Ted Fromme doesn't think my stuff is professional enough.”

“What does Ted Fromme know?” Rain butted in. “He may be today's news, but you're tomorrow's big star. Someday he'll be begging you for work! Then you can tell
him
he's an amateur!” She pounded her fist on the desk for emphasis.

“Hey, take it easy,” Vin warned, rubbing his hand lovingly over the hand-carved wood. “It's not made of titanium, you know.”

Sami stared at Rain with surprise. Her outburst was so intense that Sami couldn't help but laugh. “You guys are the best,” she said.

Rain nodded. “You know it.”

“Common knowledge,” Vin added.

“No, I mean it,” Sami said. “I was about to give up on drawing.”

“Oh, we'd never let you do that,” Vin assured her.

Rain came up beside Sami and put her arm around her so that the three of them were all standing side by side. “We take care of one another,” she told Sami.

“Like family,” Vin suggested.

Rain shook her head. “Nah. We're better than family. We're the Three Musketeers. One for all and all for one.”

Sami sniffed at the air. The scent of herbed chicken was very powerful. “Vin, you'll stay, won't you? There's plenty of food.”

Vin looked at Rain. “She cooks, too?”

Rain nodded. “She's a woman of many talents, our Sami.”

Vin watched as Sami walked toward the kitchen. “Tell me about it,” he agreed. Then, as soon as she was out of earshot, he whispered to Rain, “Where's Bruce? Shouldn't he be consoling her?”

Rain shrugged. “I think he's busy with
his own work. Sami said she wasn't going to see him until Saturday.”

Vin frowned. “That guys a piece of work.”

As it turned out, Sami never got to see Bruce that weekend.

She'd waited for him to mention something on Friday, but he was in meetings with Ted Fromme the whole day, and they never got to speak. On Saturday, she sat with her mind so focused on the phone that Rain teased her mercilessly that her ear would drop off if she stretched it any farther. But there was still no call from Bruce. Rain had suggested that Sami call him if she wanted to talk to him so badly. But Sami was forced to admit that he'd never given her his phone number. Sami tried hard to ignore
the fact that Rain wasn't surprised to hear that.

By the time Sami got to work on Monday there was an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was terribly wrong. Bruce didn't make her feel any better when he arrived at the office early Monday morning. He breezed past Sami's desk with barely a hello. Sami had smiled and tried to catch his attention, but Bruce's mind seemed focused elsewhere.

Sami didn't have long to bemoan the fact that Bruce seemed to be ignoring her. Ted Fromme arrived at the office at 9:00
A.M.
He seemed exceptionally excited.

“Sami, please send out an e-mail to the entire staff. I need everyone in the boardroom at 10:00
A.M.
sharp for a staff meeting. That means you, too. I have a big announcement, and I think it's one you'll want to hear.”

“Really?”

Ted laughed. “Don't think you can get it out of me by batting those big blue eyes,” he teased. “It's a surprise.”

By the time ten o'clock rolled around, everyone who worked at Ted Fromme
Fashions had come up with his or her own theory about what the meeting would be about.

“Do you think Ted has merged with Ralph Lauren?” Suzi in accounting wondered. “There was that rumor going around.”

“I heard it was with Tommy Hilfiger,” Emma, a secretary in the marketing department, countered.

“Maybe he's bringing in a big-name designer to spruce up the spring line,” suggested Jackson from sales.

“Do you think he's opening a European office?” Justine, one of the junior designers, asked hopefully. “I would love to work in Paris, or maybe Milan.”

“You don't think he's closing us down, do you?” Alex, the computer tech expert, asked nervously. “I just bid on a co-op in Park Slope.”

As Ted strolled into the giant conference room at 10:00 on the dot, it was easy to see that he enjoyed the suspense his call for a meeting had created. While Ted walked to the front of the room, his ever present cup of coffee in hand, Sami
searched the conference room looking for Bruce, even though she knew instinctively that he wasn't there yet. She'd developed a kind of sixth sense where Bruce was concerned: She could feel his presence when he entered a room.

Finally, Bruce appeared in the doorway. He stood there for a moment, his arms filled with large pieces of sketch paper. When he was certain that all eyes were upon him, Bruce entered the room, strutting toward Ted.

Sami blushed as Bruce placed the sketches on a large easel and sat leisurely on top of the conference table, his arms folded nonchalantly across his chest. It was the exact same pose he'd taken that night when they'd stayed late together. She wondered if Bruce was remembering the same thing. But as she looked across the room she didn't spot any glimmer of remembrance in Bruce's moss-green eyes. Instead, she got the distinct impression he was avoiding her glance, focusing on Ted instead.

“Okay, boys and girls,” Ted called out in a voice that wasn't very loud. Ted had a habit of speaking softly at meetings.
Interestingly enough, his low tone had a much stronger effect than a loud, booming voice. People automatically quieted down when he spoke, focusing on his every word to make sure that they heard him correctly. “I'll end your suspense right now. As you know, we've been looking for some fresh designs for our new show. And I've found them. I'd like you all to be the first to witness the Bruce Jamison line, specially designed for Ted Fromme Fashions!”

Sami gasped. Ted was giving Bruce his own line!
No wonder Bruce had been too busy to call me all weekend.
He and Ted had probably been in meetings the whole time. She smiled broadly, hoping her expression would show him just how excited and proud she felt.

“So, let's take a look, shall we?” Ted said, unveiling the first in a series of sketches. Sami turned her head, anxious to see what Bruce had come up with. She realized suddenly that he'd never once shown her his work. Now she would get a chance to see the kind of style Bruce was interested in.

What she saw made her stomach drop—and her blood pressure rise.

The sketch Ted had just displayed was of a pink-and-white gingham ankle-length sleeveless dress. It was Sami's dress—the one she'd shown Bruce that night in the boardroom!

“You see, this is what I've been looking for,” Ted explained. “Bruce, how was it you described your line? Oh, yes. Clothes that will make women feel young and fresh, but still look professional.”

Sami's heart was pounding wildly now. That was exactly how she'd described her designs to Bruce. He'd not only stolen her work, he'd stolen her words.

Ted flipped the page once again to show a cotton summer suit that featured an asymmetrically hemmed cream-colored skirt and a black-and-cream blouse that laced across the chest. “Now this design is incredibly unique, not just because of the look, but because of the fabric Bruce is considering.”

“This one will look like suede, but it will really be made of brushed cotton, so it can have that Southwestern flair, without being heavy,” Bruce explained.

He flipped the page to show Sami's black A-line dress with a lace bodice. “Almost
every woman looks good in an A-line dress,” Bruce continued, quoting what he'd heard Sami say. “This just adds a certain twist.”

“I think this will be a big seller for us,” Ted continued. “I'm thinking of putting it out there in several colors, maybe patterns, too. It could be as big as the wrap dress was in the seventies.”

Sami couldn't believe what was happening. At first it was all too surreal to digest. But the realization came fast and furious: Bruce had stolen her designs,
every one of them
.

How could she have been so stupid? She'd trusted him, and the only truth he'd ever told her was that he'd shown the designs to Ted. Unfortunately, he'd passed them off as his own.

Suddenly, all the anger inside her boiled over. Sami couldn't control herself. “Those are mine!” she shouted out, right in front of everyone. “Bruce, tell him those designs are
mine
!”

Bruce stared at Sami as though he'd never seen her before. “I don't know what she's talking about,” he swore to Ted.

“You
liar
! You asked me to show you my
portfolio, and then you stole my designs.”

“Sami, what is the meaning of this?” Ted asked, his voice growing softer as his irritation became apparent.

“I designed those dresses, Ted. And lots more like them.” She pointed to Bruce. “
He
told me you thought they were unprofessional.”

“Sami, this isn't the time or place,” Ted said calmly. “If you have some work you'd like to show me, we can make an appointment.”

“I don't need an appointment,” Sami insisted. “You've already seen my work. It's right there!”

A murmur ran through the room. Everyone was talking at once. “Okay, let's quiet down,” Ted said. “The show's over. Go back to work. Bruce, can I see you in my office?”

For a moment, Sami thought that Ted believed her. But as she caught a glimpse of Bruce walking behind his boss, she knew in an instant that Bruce would never let that happen. He shot her an angry look that plainly broadcast his warning:
Don't try it. You're sure to lose.

Sami had no doubt that was true. Bruce was a master at making people believe what he wanted them to. And there was no way he was going to lose his chance to be a big-name designer. Not for Sami … not for anyone. He'd simply tell Ted that she was a lunatic. Or that she was out to destroy him because they'd had a doomed love affair. Anything to save his own neck. And there was no doubt that Ted would believe him.

The others in the room weren't sure what to think. They glanced from Sami to Bruce and Ted leaving the room and then back to Sami again.

“You guys believe me, don't you?” Sami asked her coworkers.

No one knew what to say to her. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they knew that Bruce Jamison was capable of almost anything. On the other hand, Bruce was the favorite son now. Sami knew that backing her would be career suicide for them.

She couldn't win. So, without even so much as a glance at the other people in the room, Sami stormed out and hurried to the reception area. She went back to her desk
and began to pack up the few things she'd placed in her drawer. Her arms seemed to be moving on their own without any direction from her brain. She could no longer think, or feel much of anything. For the moment, her brain was protecting her from a pain that she couldn't handle right now. She gathered her personal items in her arms and walked toward the elevators. As she stood there waiting for the doors to open, her mind shifted back to that first day when she'd gotten the job. That woman—Roxie—had warned her that Ted Fromme Fashions was hell, and that Bruce Jamison was the devil himself.

Sami should have heeded the warning.

“I'm going to kill him!” Rain screeched when Sami arrived home about an hour later and poured out her tale. “How could anybody
do
that? He stole your work. That's sick!”

“He stole a lot more than that,” Sami said sadly. “He stole my heart.”

Rain reached over and put an arm around her roommate. “You really liked him, huh?”

Sami nodded. “I can't believe I was so stupid. He kept telling me to trust him, over and over again. And I did.”

“There's no way you could make Ted Fromme believe you?” Rain asked. “I mean, show him some of your other designs?”

Sami shook her head. “By now, Bruce has him convinced that I belong in a mental hospital and that the company is better off rid of a child like me.”

Vin had been sitting on the living room couch listening as Rain raved, and Sami spoke in a pained, numbed voice. He hadn't said a word until now. “You know, Sami, there is something good in all this …,” he began.

“Not now, Vin.” Rain's eyes warned him not to gloat over the fact that he'd been right about Bruce Jamison.

“Not that,” Vin assured her. “What Sami has to realize is that Ted Fromme
did
like her designs.”

“But he thinks they're Bruce's,” Sami insisted.

“Yeah, well, that's another conversation for another day,” Vin said. “What you have to focus on is that obviously you do have
what it takes to be a designer. You need to get back to work, Sami. Design something better than those dresses, and get a different design house to look at them.”