“There’s just one thing.” The saleswoman tilted her head and smiled at Lucy. “It’s a little over your budget.” Lucy held up the dress and looked at the tag. Yes, it cost more than the GNP of some countries and was also a size 10, two good reasons it wouldn’t be leaving here with her.

Gia waved her hand and made a little dismissive huff. “Don’t worry about the money. I’ll call Isaac and tell him I need it. He’ll work it out with the shopkeeper.”

Lucy held the dress and stared. Since she began this makeover gig seven months ago, she had found herself in a situation every now and then that seemed just downright dreamlike, as if it were happening to someone else. This was one of them.

She was being catered to by a staff of saleswomen in a posh South Beach boutique, a Vogue cover girl acting as her personal fashion assistant, shopping for formal wear in a size 10 that she would wear to a black-tie dinner thrown in her honor.

“You forget how to move or something, girlie?” Lucy shook her head and entered the dressing room. A few minutes later, she emerged from behind the ornate partition to find Gia sprawled on the sofa laughing into her cell phone. Gia looked up, continued talking for a second, then looked up again, her mouth wide.

“Holy moley, chica!” she shrieked, then went back to the phone. “Danny, baby, I gotta go. Your sister needs me.” She snapped the phone shut and a torrent of Spanish words came tumbling out of her mouth, only a few of which Lucy understood. Gia stood up and nodded. “You look like a million-freakin‘-dollars.” “With the proper foundation garments, this dress will flow perfectly.” The saleswoman swiped a hand down the side of Lucy’s hip.

“A girdle?”

She laughed at Lucy. “No, dear. Just a strapless body smoother. Many ladies wear them for form-fitting dresses like this, and you’ll need it anyway so there is no bra visible.”

Gia crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “You look hot. No questions about it.”

Lucy almost couldn’t look at herself. She began at her bare feet, moved up her legs to two inches above her knees, where the hemline hit, then up her thighs to the way she filled in the dress at the hips.

“Issac? It’s Gia. Are you in Cannes?”

While Lucy turned to look at her bottom in the mirror she half-listened to Gia on her cell phone. Theo seemed to appreciate that bottom. It was a good bottom. And it was now a size 10 bottom.

“I think we have a couple different body smoother styles in nude. I’ll see what we can do.” The saleswoman was gone, and Lucy stood by herself, alone with her reflection, as Gia talked in the background.

Lucy couldn’t wait for Theo to see her.

Gia came up and stood behind her. “I think you are the most beautiful friend I have,” she said, leaning down and kissing Lucy’s cheek. “You look better in this dress than I did. I think I’m jealous.”

Lucy smiled.

“Isaac says just take it. It’s his gift to you. Now let’s go see how else we can spend that money of yours.”

Lucy was stunned. “The man who designed this dress is giving it to me for free?”

‘That’s what I said.“

“Wow.” Lucy swallowed hard. “So what else do I need?”

“Shoes, my little mango. Shoes and stockings and a bag and some sparkly things.”

“I’m exhausted already.”

“Vamanos, girlie. We’re going to do the loaves and fishes thing with your money. Just you watch.”

They stopped for a late lunch at a sidewalk cafe, Lucy steadying the array of shopping bags at her feet, still amazed that the day she’d just spent had been a day in her own life, the life of Lucy Cunningham.

At Gia’s urging, she called Frannie to tell her about the dress. She screeched into the phone in approval, then chatted briefly with Gia.

Halfway through lunch, Gia frowned at Lucy and tapped her hand. “You OK? All day you’ve been going back and forth between looking like you just won the Powerball and like you’re gonna cry. What’s going on with you? Is it hormones or what?”

Lucy shook her head slightly, knowing this was the kind of thing she usually saved for Dr. Lehman. It had been a while since she’d had a friend she could truly confide in.

“Then it’s gotta be Theo-dorable. What he do to you now?”

Lucy laughed. What had he done to her? He’d made her delirious with pleasure and drunk with happiness. He’d given her a refresher course in her own sexuality. He’d shown her that he cared for her, adored her, wanted her.

“Oh no, girlie! Did you go to bed with him?”

Lucy’s head snapped up. “Why did you say ‘oh no’ like that? Like it was something he does all the time with his clients? Like I’m just another pitiful girl who’s fallen under his spell?”

Gia’s eyes went wide and she looked around the outdoor restaurant, as if she was unsure who Lucy was talking to. “Where did that come from?”

“I don’t know.” Lucy took a big gulp of her unsweetened iced tea, hoping it would extinguish the uncomfortable heat she felt rising in her.

“Spill it, Lucy.”

“I did sleep with him. In Tampa. Then four times since we’ve been back.”

“Dios mio!” Gia put a hand to the surface of her diminutive tank top. “Was it good? Wait-I don’t want to know if it wasn’t, ‘cause it’ll ruin my whole image of Theo,OK?”

Lucy smiled. “It’s been everything, Gia. It’s tender and wild and good and everything I’ve ever dreamed of.”

“OK.” Gia scrunched up her mouth. “So if it’s so good, how come you’re sitting over there looking so sad?”

Lucy shrugged. “It’s just that I’m not sure it’s as important to him as it is me. He says it is, but I’m feeling a little… I don’t know… cynical.”

“How come?”

Lucy looked up at her friend. “Something my mentally unstable boss said the other day that really freaked me out.”

“What he say? You tell me and then we’ll go over to your office and whack him one.”

She sighed. “He’s out of town, unfortunately.”

“What did the little prick say?”

Lucy liked that insult and tried it out to herself silently. The little preek. She’d have to remember to use it in the future. “Well, he said it was obvious that I had a crush on Theo. That I looked pitiful because everyone could see that Theo was playing me for the money.”

Gia’s mouth fell open. “You didn’t let him get away with that, did you?”

“I need to keep my job for five more months. Then I’m gone.”

Gia crossed and recrossed her legs, shaking her head. “Look, Lucy. I don’t know this man, but he sounds like he hates your guts or something. He’s the one playing you, not Theo.”

Lucy nodded. Of course Gia was right. “And there’s one other little thing.”

“Shoot.”

“The last time I tried this whole sleeping-with-a-man thing, it didn’t end so well.”

“I hear you, girlie.” Gia took a sip of her iced tea and nodded.

“Which was ten years ago.”

Gia slapped a hand to her mouth in a vain attempt to prevent the iced tea from exploding from her lips. She used a napkin to blot it from her chest, her tank top, the tablecloth. When a waiter arrived to fuss over her, she shooed him away. “I’m sorry, but for a second I thought for sure you said ten years.”

Lucy sighed. “That’s what I said.”

“Oh my God!” Gia grabbed her hand. “No wonder you look so stunned! You were practically a virgin! Are you all right?”

“I’m sure as hell better now,” Lucy said.

They both broke out into peals of laughter.

He watched her walk down the path from the parking lot, gym bag swinging in her hand, and felt that little jolt in his heart he got every time he saw Lucy after a weekend apart.

“Here’s Lucy!” Buddy shouted. “Here she comes!”

“Hi, boys!” Lucy tossed her bag down on the grass and went over to give Buddy a big hug. Then she kissed Theo on the cheek and grinned. “Morning, coach.”