The New York Project

9. There and back again

And they eventually had to face each other: at Charlotte's birthday, on the last Saturday of September.

After one deep breath, she rang the bell of the townhouse and he opened the door.

Naturally.

"Victoria, hello, come on in... wow, you look stunning."

She smoothed an imaginary crease in her long tulle and chiffon dress. Anything to ease the awkwardness and to hide the jumps of joy her heart was making in her chest, tightened in a beaded teal bustier.

"Cheers, lad, how are you?" she managed to utter.

"Oh, I'm great, you know, I'm attending the birthday of a nine-year-old princess in the Upper East Side, alongside seven other perfect ladies like her, so I'm thriving."

"Right," she chuckled, "well, I'm here now, I'll save you."

"Ah, there she is!" her father interrupted them, "darling, what a dress, you're so lovely, how are you? You have disappeared these last few weeks."

"I'm sorry, Papa, too much work."

She avoided Robbie's gaze while responding and hugging Henry. She then greeted Brooke, who threw a concupiscent look at her dress without saying anything.

Charlotte, wearing a rather similar outfit, was ecstatic to see her and to introduce her to her friends. They remained in awe of her and concluded, with a lot of squeaking sounds, that she looked like a princess.

She retreated to the kitchen to pimp the cupcakes that she had baked in the morning. Robbie soon joined her and cleared his throat.

"Sorry, my mother has just decided that I had to help you."

"Oh, that's all right, no problem."

With trembling hands, she quickly showed him how to enhance the top of the purple raspberry cupcakes with tiny unicorn decorations. They worked in silence for a few minutes.

"Your gown is magnificent."

His husky voice almost startled her. She braced herself to lift her head and look at him.

"Oh, thanks, Rob, it's a bridesmaid dress, from the wedding of one of my London friends, last year. It's so rare to have lovely bridesmaid dresses, we were thrilled. I thought that Charlotte and her guests would like it, and I reckon they do."

"Of course they do. With your long hair, you look like a Disney princess. A mix of Elsa and Cinderella with red-brown hair. That's a good thing, I swear."

She supposed he added the last bit along with a reassuring hand gesture after seeing her horrified expression, which made her chuckle.

"Ok, I believe you, thanks. So, how are you? How is Columbia?"

"Oh, it's great, I'm enjoying my classes. We have a lot of theoretical lectures to comprehend architecture as a whole and we'll soon begin our work in the studio. We'll also study several buildings here in New York. So, yeah, it's great."

His cute smile lightened her heart and her regrets.

"That's amazing, lad, I'm so glad for you."

There was no awkwardness in their exchange, despite everything that had happened between them. The words and chuckles were running smoothly, and they soon couldn't take their eyes off each other.

Perhaps she would have preferred a bit of awkwardness.

***

They brought the cupcakes in the living room with the traditional song, and lit candles, Charlotte opened her indecent mountain of presents. Robbie and Victoria then committed to a treasure hunt with the birthday girl and her guests. Things got out of hand a few times – cheating, betrayal, fear of losing – however, all in all, it was a success. Probably because they had chosen small make-up items as gifts for each guest and not only for the winner.