Lovers by Judith Krantz

your reputation, you claim to be an honest man, and you didn’t tell me you were staying here? Ha!”
    “You looked as if you were leading a cavalry charge into the wilderness—I simply enjoyed watching you, I like your style, I admire a spirited female, is that a crime?”
    “Yeah, yeah,” she muttered, unimpressed.
    “Please?”
    “Oh, all right. But only because I claimed you ascousin-once-removed. I was overly impulsive, I see that clearly now, but I owe you the benefit of the doubt.”
    “I’m honestly impressed,” Gigi said, after she’d taken a long look at the architect’s drawings. “As malls go, this must be as good as it gets. But I guess there won’t be a toy store in it.”
    “It looks that way, unless Toys “ ” Us moves in, and with our high rents that’s not likely.”
    Gigi got up from her seat near the coffee table and began to pace slowly around the large sitting room of Ben’s suite, a room that breathed luxury in twenty-five shades of terra-cotta.
    “Did Kids’ Paradise ever advertise?” she asked.
    “Locally, but not much.”
    “Hmm. Listen, Ben, I had to go to five baby showers in the last six months—one of them for Billy, one for Sasha, three for Spider’s sisters. The guests were all women with money, from comfortable to rich, the kind who live near your malls. And I have
never
in my life seen such presents!”
    As she spoke, she walked faster and faster, shaking her head at the memory of the excessive baby showers.
    “I didn’t know such absolutely gorgeous baby clothes existed, and all the equally special outfits for when the baby stuff is outgrown—then there was a slew of really expensive toys and things that are more for the mother to enjoy than for kids to use or play with, like antique crib quilts, antique children’s chairs, music boxes, old doll’s tea sets.”
    Gigi stopped walking and turned to him.
    “Ben, listen, here’s my point. After the presents are opened, the guests invariably start comparing notes on how impossible it is to find something special for these showers, how much harder it is than finding things for a bridal shower. These occasions are more and more frequent with so many women having babies and lots of them having them later in life.”
    “Why do I have the feeling you’re leading me into a trap?”
    “Because I am. Just listen. Baby-shower guests are feeling the pressure to one-up each other with everyone watching as the guest of honor opens each gift. It’s obscene! Take me, for example. Once I spent hours looking for something really great to give Sasha. I was desperate. Finally I found a bookstore in the Valley that specializes in old children’s books.… I bought out their stock, every Oz book, every Beatrix Potter, every Hardy Boy, every Nancy Drew … I gave Sasha a first edition of
Glinda the Good
, and now I’m set for years of parties and I’m keeping my source a secret so that no one copies me.”
    “Gigi, your altruistic impulses are impressive. But could you get to the point here?”
    “Have I got your attention? Good. Okay, I realize I live in a community where everything is bigger than life, but doesn’t it make sense that this baby-present mania has spread to
all
the expensive suburbs, in a less dramatic way no doubt, but you know that trends start here first. Shaker Heights? Oak Forest? Brookline? La Jolla? The Main Line? You know. Doesn’t that mean that there’s a need for a store that sells
nothing but
upscale children’s things,
especially to grandparents?”
Gigi had stopped pacing and was standing in the middle of the room, her hands spread eloquently.
    “Grandparents?”
    “God, you’re such a dumb bachelor, Ben! Grandparents give the world’s most ridiculously expensive presents, because they had to hold back and try not to spoil their own kids, but now all bets are off. Plus one set of grandparents is always viciously competitive with the other set.”
    “I still don’t see it,” he said