Facade

clothes.
    As Nicky threw a hissy fit, Tanna took over, persuading the flooring boss that since it was their suggestion that nothing would happen to the floor if they put the wood over it, it was also their job to work through the night to get the new floor ready. Workmen were booked for the last twenty-four hours so the shelving would be in place in time to put out the merchandise, and Jonas was enlisted to drag Nicky practically kicking and screaming from the shop to the atelier where Maia would be waiting for him to pick out the clothes that would be displayed in the store for opening night. It took both of them to calm Nicky down enough for him to make any sense, and Jonas was happily amused, taking mental notes of how exactly Maia managed to make the decisions but still give Nicky the feeling that he’d had a say in all of it.
    The evening before the opening, they were finally allowed in the store again and Jonas had no idea how they were going to get it up and running in less than twenty-four hours. He knew that Nicky had picked out tons of decorations—all very stylish and en vogue of course—but the walls were still bare. The carpenters were hanging up the shelving, and a clearly overworked Andrea was directing his minions to all places at once. Of course, Nicky saw fit to give them contradictory orders, which resulted in Andrea turning beet red with anger and Nicky throwing him looks of disdain, but Jonas felt sorry for the minions, who were caught between a rock and a hard place.
    Although Jonas was very much used to being the observer, the one sitting in a chair with a magazine patiently waiting, he now had to become a reluctant handy man, unpacking furniture and unwrapping the strange chrome handlebars that were supposed to be the clothes hangers. He didn’t mind doing a bit of manual labor. In his house in Spain getting his hands dirty was the ultimate way to relax, but here the tension in the air was making it hard to breathe, and the fact that fashion groupies were already camping out in front 194
    Zahra
    Owens
    of the large shuttered storefront meant they couldn’t even open a door or a window.
    Jonas silently endured, and for the first time in his adult life, he was counting the hours until the store opened and he could whisk Nicky away with him to their holiday hideaway.
    “This is never going to be ready in time,” Nicky sighed, standing next to Jonas in a ruffled shirt and skinny black pants and looking a lot more disheveled than Jonas had ever seen him. Jonas too had exchanged his usual dress code of stylish suits for jeans and a T-shirt, which had gotten him a few admiring looks from some of the minions, and one of the carpenters had definitely checked out his ass.
    “Everything will work out,” Jonas told Nicky calmly.
    “Oh, what do you know,” Nicky replied gruffly. Jonas didn’t answer. Above all, he knew when to shut up.
    At 11 a.m. and after working through the night, the shop was mostly ready, with the exception of the clothes that were not yet hanging.
    “Go home, people,” Tanna shouted over the ruckus of nervous chatter. “Get a few hours of sleep. The shop girls will hang up the clothes, and Maia will make sure that Nicky’s decisions have been met.”
    “I can’t leave,” Nicky protested. “This is nowhere near ready!”
    “Darling,” Tanna preached. “You of all people need to look rested and relaxed.”
    “How can I be relaxed when this looks like a shambles, Tan?
    We can’t open this store. We’ll have to postpone it!”
    “Nonsense,” Tanna replied. “We’re expecting three hundred invited guests, and there are already about sixty or seventy girls standing outside hoping to catch a glimpse of some celebrity or other. We’ll do fine; we always do!”
    “She’s right,” Jonas said, coming to Tanna’s aid. “Let me take you home and get some sleep, even if it’s just for an hour or two.

    Façade
    195
    Then we can come back, and you can survey the work they’ve done.
    The girls are going to manage this store anyway after the opening.”
    “But it needs to be perfect tonight!”
    Jonas gave him a cautioning look, and Nicky tried to protest one more time but then gave in. “Okay, but I need to be back here at least three hours before the opening. What if I think they did a lousy job and I want everything changed?”
    “Then I’m sure you’ll tell them exactly that,” Tanna replied, resolutely pushing Nicky in Jonas’s direction.
    “But