Miami Midnight by Davis Maggie;

Author:Davis, Maggie;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2003-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Crissette lay stretched out on her stomach on a rustic bench in the shade of a banyan tree, the untied strings of her bright yellow bikini top dangling over the wooden slats. The public park on Miami Beach’s Eighty-first Street was almost empty at noon, most of the sunbathers and swimmers having taken refuge in their hotels from the relentless fireball of the midday sun. Beyond the wide stretch of sand the Gulf Stream glimmered like a field of solid aquamarine gemstone, breathtakingly crystal-clear.

Crissette stifled a yawn. “This is some way to take a lunch break, Gabrielle,” she drawled. “You gotta admit Miami is no hardship territory, not when you can spend your lunch hour like this.”

“Mmm,” Gaby agreed absently. She was reading the draft of her engagement announcement.

Gaby was sitting with her feet propped against a railing, below which she could see a beach jungle of sea grape and banyans. She and Crissette had spent all that Thursday morning shooting winter formal wear, a collection of beaded and sequined evening gowns at St. Laurent’s Rive Gauche shop in Bal Harbour. The contrast between a hectic three hours of adjusting lights, soothing a nervous shop manager, and encouraging a gaggle of particularly awkward socialite models, and what they were doing now—catching a lunch break and a swim at one of Miami Beach’s most beautiful seaside parks—was the better part of Miami’s sometimes frenetic lifestyle. As a native, Gaby supposed she’d always taken living like this for granted. Now she was learning to appreciate the exotic environment.

Crissette rolled over on her back, holding the bikini top to her breasts to keep it from falling. Gaby thought that Crissette, with her graceful dusky body, looked more like a professional model than the amateur volunteers she’d been shooting the past few hours. While they’d been at the St. Laurent shop Crissette had bought two summer outfits that, even though on sale, had been dazzlingly expensive, worth several weeks of her salary. The day before, Crissette had bought lunch at an expensive waterside restaurant, picking up the check for both of them because Gaby didn’t have the money to spend. But in spite of the bursts of extravagance, Crissette was noticeably restless and edgy, and certainly not very happy. She never mentioned David Fothergill.

“Hey, Gabrielle, is your announcement okay?” she asked lazily. “How does it look?”

“It looks all right.” Gaby studied the photograph that had been taken when she’d been working in Florence. She hadn’t realized how much she’d changed. The young woman whose photo would appear in the Times-Journal wedding announcements column looked like a stranger with her prim smile and pale hair scraped back from her face. She had to admit she certainly wasn’t the same person she’d been a little over two months ago. She now had an entirely new wardrobe and a new hairstyle. She even had a considerable tan. Her gaze dropped to the words below her photograph. “Mrs. Paul Aston Collier of Miami announces the engagement of her daughter, Victoria Gabrielle, to Dodson Flagler Brickell III, also of Miami.

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