If I Were You Read Online Free PDF

filters in with nerves as I rush toward the door.
A young brunette woman in a simple black dress holds it open for me and offers
me a smile. “Welcome.”
    I return the smile and enter the gallery, noting the nervous
energy bouncing off the twenty-something girl as I pass, an energy that seems
to scream "I’m new and don’t know what I am doing.” This isn’t Rebecca,
who I know will be daringly bold and confident. In fact, the hostess brings out
the schoolteacher in me, and I fight the urge to give her a hug and tell her
she’s doing fine. I’m a hugger. I got it from my mother, just like I did my
love of art, only I wasn’t talented with a brush as she had been.
    The girl is saved from my mothering when the sound of a
piano playing from a distant corner filters through the air and draws my
attention to the main showroom. I am in awe. This isn’t my first time visiting
the four-thousand-square-foot wonder that is the Allure gallery, but it doesn’t
diminish my excitement at seeing it again.
    The entryway opens to the main showroom of glistening white
wonder. The walls are snow white, the floor glistening like white diamonds. The
shiny divider walls curve like abstract waves, and each of them is adorned with
contrasting, eye popping, colorful artwork.
    I turn away from the showroom, attending to business before
pleasure, and present my ticket to a hostess behind a podium. She is tall and
elegant with long, raven hair. “Rebecca?” I ask hopefully.
    “No, sorry,” she says. “I’m Tesse.” She holds up a finger as
she glances through the glass doors at an approaching customer she needs to
attend. I wait patiently, hoping this young woman can connect me with Rebecca.
I listen attentively while she directs the new guest to a short stairway that
leads toward the music, and apparently, the location where Ricco Alvarez will
be unveiling his masterpiece.
    “Sorry for the interruption,” Tesse finally says, giving me
her full attention. “You were looking for Rebecca. Unfortunately she isn’t
attending tonight’s event. Is there something I can help you with?”
    Disappointment fills me. To miss an Alvarez event is not
something someone in Rebecca’s role would likely do. I just want to know, for
certain, that Rebecca is safe. Painting myself as a stranger doesn’t seem the
way to do that. “My sister’s an old friend of Rebecca’s. She told me to be sure
and say hello to her and pass along her new phone number. She seemed to think
Rebecca worked big events like this one. She’ll be disappointed I missed her.”
    “Oh, I hate that you missed her,” Tesse says, looking
genuinely concerned. “I’m not only new, I only work part time, on an as-needed
basis, so I don’t hear much of what’s going on internally, but I think
Rebecca took some personal time off. Mark would know for certain.”
    “Mark?”
    “The manager here,” she says. "He’ll be tied up with
the presentation soon, but I can introduce you to him afterwards if you like?”
    I nod. “Yes. Please. That would be perfect.”
    The piano stops abruptly. “They’re about to start,” Tesse
informs me. “You should grab a seat while you still can. I’ll be sure to help
you connect with Mark after the presentation.”
    A thrill shoots through me. “Thank you so much,” I say,
before I head toward the seating area. I can’t believe that I am about to see
an Alvarez original presented by Alvarez himself.
    A tuxedo-clad usher greets me at the bottom of the stairs
and offers me some help finding a seat. And boy did I need help. There were at
least two hundred chairs lined up in front of a mini stage, set in front of a
bay window that was essentially the entire wall, and almost every single chair
was taken.
    I squeeze into a center row, between a man that has artsy
rebel, written all over him from longish light-blond hair to his jeans and a
blazer, and a fifty-something woman who is more than a little irritated to have
to let me pass. I