“Then thank you very much, dearest Babe.”
“Oh, good!” And Babe beamed; the pucker between her eyes relaxed. “Let’s pick something out that’s perfect.”
“Yes, perfect.” Slim followed Babe, who now strode through the department with confidence, her exquisite taste unquestionable as she sorted through hangers, delicately picked through piles. Soon she had a small but absolutely breathtaking assortment of gowns in Slim’s exact size—God, for the days when she was a six!—and Slim found herself in an elaborate dressing room filled with more furniture than most small apartments, trying them all on.
“Now, do not look at the price tags,” Babe instructed in a soothing voice through the closed door. “Promise?”
“Promise,” said Slim as she studied herself in a mirror, turning so she could see her backside, lifting her breasts with her hands and frowning as they fell back into middle-aged place. “Babe?”
“Yes, dear?”
“I didn’t mean what I said, earlier. Of course Truman will still have time for us. We’re his swans, remember? I was only being flippant. He’s still our True Heart.”
There was a long pause, then Babe murmured, “Thank you.”
“Now”—Slim threw open the dressing room door with a grand gesture, just like Claudette Colbert in a movie from the thirties. She swept around the little parlor where Babe was perched on a chair, enjoying another tiny cup of tea. Posing, posturing, Slim modeled the most exquisite—and expensive—of the gowns, a white silk one with delicate black embroidered flowers across the cups and straps; it plunged down in the back to just barely above her tailbone, and the silk felt like cool lips on her skin. “What do you think?”
“I think whoever it’s for will be unable to resist you for a second.”
“Then I’ll take it. And thank you, my dearest friend.” Slim ran to Babe and threw her arms about her, kissed her on the cheek, then fled back to the dressing room, leaving them both breathless and slightly dizzy from the unexpected physical contact.
They simply didn’t do that, normally. Friendship among their set was sedate, wry, at arm’s length.
But something about Babe today—how pale, how uncertain she had looked before Slim called out to her, her hesitancy in discussing Truman—touched Slim to the core. In taking Babe’s gift, Slim felt she was giving, instead. Giving Babe something she very much needed.
“Let’s go make sure Truman doesn’t forget us,” Slim urged, after Babe had paid for the gown. “Let’s go buy him the kind of present that he likes. Something shiny and garish and too damn expensive for him to ignore.”
“That’s a wonderful idea!” Babe’s eyes lit up. “Something for his new apartment; I know exactly what he needs—he saw the most exquisite foo dogs at this little antiques store on Seventh Avenue.”
“Seventh Avenue it is!” As the two women exited Bergdorf’s, the CBS limo was already waiting for them. Mr. Stevens had done his job well. They handed their purchases, wrapped up in the signature Bergdorf purple, to the driver, who carefully placed them in the trunk.
Then they sank down into the seats, and were driven two blocks west.
“It’s fun, sometimes, pretending,” Babe said.
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, today. Today, I just pretended I was someone else. It was fun, in a way. Not to be me, just to be a person. A normal person.”
Slim gnawed her lip, watching her friend settle happily into the plush leather of the sedan. She looked outside the window; they were stuck in traffic, people walking briskly by. They could have strolled to the shop faster than their luxurious car was moving.
“Darling Babe,” Slim murmured, taking her friend’s hand.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just don’t pretend too often, please. I love you just the way you are. And so does Bill. And so does Truman.”
Babe blushed and folded her arms; she looked outside and didn’t say a word. But Slim glimpsed a tear rolling down her cheek, reflected in the discreetly tinted windows of the Town Car.
CHAPTER 12
…..
New York loved a parade.
For war heroes, baseball players, prizefighters, presidents, holidays. Ticker tape raining down from the tallest buildings; ridiculous giant balloons floating down Broadway for Thanksgiving. Fireworks over the Statue of Liberty on the Fourth of July.