New York Valentine by Carmen Reid Page A

bank. What she needed was to raise some advance cash, money which would let her make the dresses to meet these orders. When the order money came in, she’d be able to pay off her factory debts, then her creditors, and she’d still have money in the bank to get next season’s dresses lined up.
    Despite the financial hiccups, Annie was convinced the dress label was still a great idea. Look how many shops had placed orders! Bloomingdale’s had ordered close to ninety dresses for the period between September and February. Annie remembered now that Sye’s mother had something to do with Bloomingdale’s and this was how Perfect Dress had gained its first foothold in the US.
    So, in a nutshell: they just had to raise some serious funds and find a dress factory that would run their order … that was all.
    Annie glanced again at the Bloomingdale’s order to see when the first dresses were expected. In three weeks’ time!! So what on earth was Elena doing lying in bed at 5.45 in the morning? She needed to be up, drinking coffee and starting a full day of phone hustling on both sides of the Atlantic.
    Lana sat up on the couch. ‘Hi, Mum. You keeping busy?’
    ‘As a bee. I’m going to work all day today, love. What do you want to do with yourself?’
    Lana flicked a glance at the large clock on the wall.
    ‘I think I’ll have a shower, then head straight up Sixth Avenue to be first in line at the Empire State Building. It opens at 8a.m.’
    ‘No! You’re not allowed to go up it without me!’
    ‘Mum, I am,’ Lana insisted. ‘I’ll go up this morning and then you can come up with me when you’ve got the time. I’m going up more than once. Greta says it’s the best thing in New York.’
    ‘It is,’ Annie agreed. ‘Ed and I went up at sunset and the city below was all golden …’
    ‘Very romantic,’ Lana said, nipping embarrassingly dreamy memories in the bud. ‘Did you sleep OK?’
    ‘Yeah fine, you?’
    ‘Not bad. I was so tired but as for you … you snore! Did you know that?’
    ‘I do not snore. There is no way I snore. Ed has never complained about me snoring.’
    She must have said this a little too loudly, for the bedroom door opened and, floral dressing gown flung about her once more, Elena slouched moodily into the kitchen.
    ‘Vat time is it?’ she said, eyes screwed up against the sunshine.
    ‘Just after six,’ Annie said brightly, as if this was a totally reasonable time to wake up the person who’s been forced to have you to stay for four weeks.
    ‘Six!’ Elena hissed.
    ‘Would you like a cup of coffee?’
    Elena shrugged her shoulders, which Annie interpreted as a yes. She turned to the coffee machine and tried not to sigh too audibly; just as the one moody girl in her life seemed to have finally cheered up, she’d landed herself with another.
    Elena perched on the end of the sofa bed because there wasn’t enough space for her to get across the room to the table.
    ‘I’ve been looking through the company books,’ Annie said, pointing to the files, ‘I hope you don’t mind. The orders are fantastic. You’ve got to be pleased about that.’
    ‘Ya, but vat point if no dresses?’ Elena gave another listless shrug.
    ‘Hey, this isn’t like you,’ Annie said, wanting to inspire a bit more confidence and optimism, ‘and this definitely isn’t like Svetlana. If your mother was facing a problem like this, she would do something. She would be on the phone every minute of the day trying to solve this. That’s what you and I need to do. Get on the phone, get talking to people and think of a way to raise some money.
    ‘If we could just find a new factory …’ Annie added.
    Elena laughed at this.
    ‘If you could get enough money together to make the first run of dresses …’
    Elena laughed at this too.
    ‘But once the money for those first orders comes in, you’ll be back in business,’ Annie persisted.
    Elena shrugged and took her coffee cup back to her bedroom.
    She