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"San Francisco Fashion Week is not small-town shit"

"Emerson?" A head popped out from the door behind Emerson, and Emerson bristled

"What do you need, Nicolette?" she asked froritted teeth

Nicolette blushed a fierce red and glanced quickly at me and then directly to the stained carpet at her feet But in that fleeting glance, I noticed that Nicolette shared Emerson’s unfortunately beady eyes and sharp, defined cheekbones, though she had clearly gotten the luxe end of the stick when it calistened a pretty blond "I have all the garments steamed if you want to take a look"

"Hi," I said casually, "who are you?"

"She’s my sister," Emerson snapped "And Nicolette, even you can’t s in the bathrooh"

"Sisters?" I said "How very Little House on the Prairie"

Even with her face turned toward the floor, I could see Nicolette’s cheeks push up into a smile "I’m Nina, by the way" I pushed out a hand and Nicolette shook; the fe ene froaveme all about her cute little fashion line"

"Cute? Apparently you forgot who spanked who in Seattle?"

"It’s whoenerally find it hard to forget when sons," I said

"Steals? I prefer to call it ‘borrowed inspiration’"

"I prefer to call it a death wish"

"Um," Nicolette said, her voice soft as she addressed the floor "Isn’t there a third person in the competition?"

Emerson rested her fists on her love handles and threw back her head, looking like a stupid statue of some sort of conqueror "There is a third person, but he’s hardly part of the coht unawares, but I hadn’t read my welcome packet (hello? I’ me to read?) and didn’t knoas behind door nuue direction of the hallway "Reg"

"Reginald Fairfield?" I gaped

Reginald Fairfield was the Queen Elizabeth of the up-and-courehead who kept plaid walking shorts and seersucker fabrics alive and kicking Every one of his lines was crisp and came in shades of Martha’s-Vineyard-slash-old money, and the rumor around toas the man himself had never actually wielded a pair of scissors--he left the dirty work to his "traveling coentleman with a heavy accent and a resumé that I am completely sure contained the words "cabana boy"

"They moved in about a week early"

I nodded "I suppose it would take soinald to unpack his ered behind her hand and Erade-A horrible "Didn’t you have some fabric to steam?"

Nicolette scampered away like a sad little pup and Emerson turned her eyes--and her stench--back to me

"Look LaShay, you and I both know that this competition boils down to only two people: you and me"