Page 110 of All I Want for Christmas

‘So it’smyfault?’

‘No!’ Darcy said hurriedly. ‘I’m not saying that at all. Things just...developed quickly. There was no time; I was in the situation before I knew what was happening. I was trying to help Otto out, and I said yes to him, thinking I could wear the black velvet dress. Only...you had it. Which was totally fine, of course. But by the time I realized I had nothing to wear, the car was on its way over here to get me, and...’ She blinked. ‘I swear, I would gladly have worn my pyjamas if I possibly could have, but it was a royal event. The King and Queen were there!’

Freja’s eyebrows raised a little at that. ‘...Go on.’

Darcy stared at her with wide eyes. ‘I amsosorry for taking it. I shouldn’t have done – I should have called Otto back and said I couldn’t make it. I hated wearing a dress that I knew had such huge emotional significance for you.’

‘And yet you still did.’

‘I swear on my life, I was being so careful. I lay flat in the car on the way over so I wouldn’t crease it at the hips. But this man who was talking to me...someone jogged his arm, and his wine went all over me.’ She gazed pleadingly at her friend. ‘Freja, you have no idea how sick I’ve felt about it all. It’s been on my mind every day since. It was awful not telling you.’

‘Was it though? You had got away with it. You got another one.’

Darcy bit her lip as Freja’s eyes narrowed.

‘...Howdid you get another one so quickly? I was back the next night.’

Oh God. This was getting worse.

‘Darce!’ Freja snapped. ‘Answer me.’

Darcy swallowed. ‘Max came round the next day with a new one.’

‘What?’

‘I know, that was my reaction. I never asked him to. I couldn’t believe it when...He said his girlfriend has a contact there.’

‘His girlfriend?’

Darcy shrugged. ‘One of them.’

‘So you’re telling me Valentino just opened up for him on a Sunday, and he came round with an identical six-thousand-euro gown—’

Six?‘He said they gifted it.’

‘Valentino doesn’tgiftevening gowns, Darcy! To Bella Hadid, maybe!’

Darcy felt herself crumple. ‘I know!’ she protested. ‘That’s what I thought too, but he won’t let me pay him back! He won’t even talk to me. He’s ghosting all my messages.’

Freja frowned, a silence lengthening as one crisis was superseded by another. ‘Why? Why do all that and then blank you?’

‘I don’t know,’ Darcy shrugged.

Freja’s eyebrows shrugged back. ‘I don’t believe you. Clearly something had to have happened.’

Darcy bit her lip. ‘There was an unfortunate sequence of events when he brought the dress over.’

‘Unfortunate how?’

‘Aksel opened the door to him. He was in just his jeans. It was pretty clear we’d been...interrupted.’

‘So then he’s jealous?’

‘No!’

‘He’s jealous!’

‘No! The man only dates models.’ Darcy groaned, slapping her hand over her forehead and rubbing it down her cheek. She felt too drained for this conversation. ‘I’ve yet to see him with the same girl twice.’

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