Once upon a time there were three girls. Two of them were sisters and one of them was their stepsister, for her mother had died and her father had remarried. The three girls did not always agree on most things, but they did have one thing in common: they all loved shoes…
“Back of the line, girls,” growled a burly security guard dressed head to toe in black, including a pair of intimidating heavy black sunglasses. “People have been waiting since sunrise.” He gestured at the orderly throng of tired-looking, sunburned girls and women standing in a line that wound around the block, all the way to Fifth Avenue. Some of them wore huge straw hats to fend off the unseasonably hot June sun. “No exceptions,” the security guard said. “You wait your turn.”
Nastia and Dizzy Tremaine, the two tall, beautifully dressed sixteen-year-old girls he’d been addressing ignored him completely.
“Wait, let’s take a selfie,” Nastia said. She wrapped a long shapely arm around her twin sister’s model-worthy shoulders and pressed in close, holding up her phone with the other hand. “Say, ‘shoes!’” she cried, and smiled giddily for the camera.
Dizzy pressed her bronzed cheek against her sister’s and laughed. Her eyes always gleamed and looked their best when she laughed instead of just smiling. She’d been practicing in the mirror since she was ten years old; by now she had it down.
“Make sure you get the Louboutin sign in the background,” she said, her face frozen in a smile.
“Got it.” Nastia checked the photo. They both looked gorgeous—the adorable dimple in her right cheek was showing and Dizzy’s smile was perfect. “And it’s already up,” she said as she posted the photo on Instagram. They had so many followers, before they knew it they’d have thousands of likes. People were obsessed with them because they were beautiful identical twins. What was there not to like?
Dizzy linked arms with her sister and pulled her toward the door of the boutique. “Come on, hurry, before they run out of our size.” The twins had their hearts set on two particular pairs of shoes. For Nastia, the gold eelskin peeptoe platforms. For Dizzy, the pink metallic glitter stilettos. They needed them for The Elite Club Summer Solstice Ball next week. Their gold and pink Miu Miu dresses had been picked out with those particular pairs of shoes in mind, but their mother—ever the miser—had made them wait for the sale.
“Girls!” the security guard barked.
They ignored him. Dizzy pushed against the glass door of the boutique. Inside the shop was crowded. Eight people were squished onto four-person benches as they tried on pair after pair of shoes. Some women even sat on the floor surrounded by shoes and opened shoeboxes. It was mayhem. The door wouldn’t budge.
“What the?” Dizzy exclaimed.
Nastia knocked on the glass with her fist. “Hello people? Could you let us in? Please.” Even when she thought she was being polite, every word out of Nastia’s mouth was really a command. She was not to be messed with.
“Like, now?” Dizzy chimed in.
“The door is locked. I have the key,” the security guard explained as he approached. “Girls, I'm sorry, but you have to go to the end of the line and wait, just like everybody else. School just got out so it’s busier now. But don’t worry. There’s lots of shoes. Enough for everyone.”
Nastia and Dizzy stared at him. Enough shoes, right. As if the shoes they wanted were made in bulk. They were limited edition—only a few pairs were made in each size. And they would definitely have run out of them already if the twins hadn’t sent over their stepsister last night to camp outside the store and reserve the shoes for them the minute the doors opened.
