LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Silly, it’s not supposed to have a back. Now turn around and let me see the front.”

      Bridget did as instructed and Raquel oohed. “You’re oohing. Don’t ooh. This is not an ooh dress. It’s got no back.”

      “Just look at yourself, will you?” Raquel moved out of the way and Bridget left the tiny dressing area. Three full-length mirrors stood at the end of the tiny dressing-room hallway and Bridget walked toward them, wondering the whole time who the girl in the red dress was. It shimmered as she moved. Instead of making her seem too pale, it made her skin glow. The neckline plunged, but the gathered material sort of left the contents of her chest a mystery and when she turned…

      “Ooh,” Bridget moaned.

      “See.”

      The dress did scoop dramatically, barely covering the small of her back, but the effect was…not so bad. Who knew she had such a killer back?

      “This one?” she asked Raquel, confirming what she already suspected.

      “That one.”

      Bridget turned and studied herself again. “I’ll take it.”

      “Wonderful,” Raquel stated.

      “Does this mean we’re done?” Bridget asked hopefully. She couldn’t remember a day when she’d worked harder, and all they had done so far was shop.

      “Don’t be silly. Now we need shoes.”

      Bridget groaned. Shoes. She was never going to make it.

      LATER THAT DAY, she limped her way into Richard’s office. He looked up from his drafting table and grimaced. “What happened to you?”

      “Shoe accident,” she muttered. She hung her dress, draped in black plastic, on his coat rack then hobbled her way to the stool positioned on the other side of his drawing table. She climbed up on it and sighed in blessed relief to be off her feet.

      “Shoe accident?”

      “Yeah, I fell off a pair. You would be amazed at how high those things can actually go.”

      He chuckled and nodded his head toward the dress. “Is that it?”

      “It is.”

      “Can I see it?”

      “No.” She wanted it to be a surprise. Raquel had big plans for her including the dress, the sandals they had picked out to go with it that were currently being dyed to match, a new hairstyle and makeup. When all was said and done, Bridget was going to be a new woman and she wanted the effect to be startling.

      So startling Richard might feel compelled to walk up to her, proclaim to the world his hidden passion for her—which, in all honesty, she wasn’t sure she exactly wanted him to have, but it played much better in her fantasy—and then sweep her off her feet.

      At least she hoped he would sweep her off her feet. She really didn’t walk so well in the shoes.

      “What are you doing?” she wondered aloud, taking a peek at his drawing.

      He glanced around to make sure no one was passing by his office door then answered, “Stuff.”

      “Stuff” for Richard meant non-work-related comic-strip stuff. Bridget never understood why he got so anxious about people uncovering his big dark secret. The great mystery was that the creative force behind most of V.I.P.’s successful ad campaigns was also a truly gifted cartoonist.

      Whenever she asked him when he’d begun drawing comics, he’d shrug and mumble something about being a kid. Then invariably he would try to pretend it meant nothing to him. He would demean it by calling it a hobby. Or recreational drawing. Her favorite was when he referred to it as his creative Drano. Whenever the ideas stopped flowing for a product, he invariably turned back to the strip to get the creative juices moving.

      The first time she saw one of his strips, she had immediately fallen in love with his talent. For months afterward she had begged him to submit the strip to a paper, a magazine, someone who could render a professional judgment. But he refused. Every once in a while, she would broach the subject again, but invariably he would balk.

      Comic strips weren’t serious; advertising was serious, he would tell her.

      The last time he’d said that she’d pointed out that writing an ad for a company called Breathe Better Mouthwash was not exactly what she would call serious. But he hadn’t budged.

      “Let me see this one,” Bridget said.

      He pushed the white paper filled with the neatly arranged boxes over the top of the two-sided desk and let her study it.

      “So what has Betty gotten herself into this time?” Betty was his latest cartoon character. She’d shown up over a year ago in a drawing and had been a constant in his work since then. Betty coincidentally bore a striking resemblance to…well, Bridget.

      “Her boss has asked her for a favor and now she finds herself in a bit of trouble.”

      “I don’t know where you get your ideas,” Bridget said sarcastically.

      He smiled innocently. “They just come to me. Hey, can I use that shoe bit?”

      “Sure. Mock my life. As long as it brings a chuckle to you, that’s all that matters.”

      “Speaking of mocking, your mother called,” Richard told her, pulling his drawings back to his side of the desk. “She wants to know why you were on television trying to get a husband when you have such a wonderful man like me in your life.”

      “Did you explain how you sold me into the servitude of Breathe Better Mouthwash?”

      “I told her it was my fault. I begged her for forgiveness. She asked me if I was coming for Christmas, to which I said yes. There, you see? I’m not all bad.”

      “Not all bad.”

      Richard glanced again at the now mysterious dress. “So you’re all set for next week?”

      “Hardly. I’ve got a facial, a pedicure and a manicure all scheduled for this weekend. This whole caving into society and trying to live up to impossible physical standards is exhausting work. I don’t know how women do it on a regular basis.”

      “Practice,” Richard guessed. “Were you planning on spending any time here at the office?”

      She shook her head. “After all that is done, Raquel is going to try and fit me in with Lars—”

      “Lars?”

      “Her hairstyling boyfriend.”

      “You mean ex-boyfriend.”

      “Right,” Bridget affirmed even as she was rolling her eyes. “She wants to get me in with him the day of the show to do my do.”

      “Mountain Dew?”

      “Hairdo,” she corrected, although she knew he knew what she meant. He was just being difficult. She was curious as to why. After all, putting her on the show had been his idea. Granted, he hadn’t expected her to make the first cut, but now that she had, he seemed almost surly about it and she didn’t think it was just about her missing work. “Anyway, then Raquel will do my makeup right before we go live.”

      Richard scowled a little. “That’s an awful lot of effort for a guy you don’t even like.”

      “How do I know if I don’t like him?” Bridget pointed out. “I haven’t really gotten to know him.”

      “Trust me. With Brock, what you see is what you get. The man is as fake as his capped teeth and sunless tan.”

      “That’s unfair. He might have hidden depths to him. Levels to his character that even he isn’t aware of. He is an actor. Surely he has to pull from some internal emotional wellspring. If not, then maybe I will bring something out in him that no other

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