The Alex Chronicles:Girlfriends & Secrets by Tracy Reed

 
     
     
who are we…
     
ALEX
     
     
    MY NAME IS ALEXANDRA SIMONE Miller and I am a fashion addict. Isn’t that how
they make you introduce yourself at those addiction anonymous
support group meetings? At least that’s what I’ve heard. I tried
kicking the fashion habit, but it’s a little difficult when there
are so many talented dealers, I mean designers tempting me. I know
somewhere there has to be a support group for people like me. I
think it meets at Neiman's or Barneys. I heard a rumor that if
you’re really bad they sentence you to aversion therapy at
Bergdorf’s…I wish.
    So the
last thing a person like me should do is own a boutique. Fashion is
a drug and not only am I a junkie, I ’ m also a dealer and the base of my operation is my
boutique, “ Alex
Simone".
    Alex
Simone is my baby. It ’ s
a place where women come to escape and fantasize. We encourage
women to try things on, because that usually leads to buying.
Shopping at one of my boutiques is like playing "dress up" in the
ultimate fantasy closet, complete with designer ready-to-wear and
vintage couture.
    Not only
am I a fashion addict, I ’ m also a borderline workaholic. I say borderline, because I
do manage to eek out time to spend with my friends.
    My
girlfriends are like family. People always ask how we met. I think
that ’ s the one thing we
haven ’ t been able to
agree on.
    Let ’ s see.
Taylor is my cousin on my dad ’ s side. She and I have always been close.
She ’ s really more like
an older sister. I think we have shared secrets none of the other
girls know about. But there ’ s that one thing that happened in Paris. I think I
didn ’ t tell her because
I knew she would have been disappointed in me.
    Anyway … she was
going to school in Atlanta and she said I ’ d like it. Not only because it was crawling with
good looking guys, but because it had a great liberal arts program.
To be honest, I needed to get out of the city. A dose of Southern
living was a welcome change. So I applied and got in.
That ’ s where I met
Chloe.
    Chloe was
a typical rich girl on the verge of being cut off. School in the
south was the last straw. She and Taylor were roommates. I
don ’ t know who thought
it was a good idea to put them together. Then again, it was
probably for the best.
    When I
went for my college tour, the two of them had me running around
town. I don ’ t think I
got more than twenty hours of sleep the entire week, but I had a
good time. These two had the hook up for everything.
    When I
got there in the fall, a new dorm was open courtesy of
Chloe ’ s parents. The
rooms were all suites. A few strings were pulled and I was assigned
to Taylor and Chloe ’ s
suite. I was immediately accepted into their social circle. Heck,
they practically ran the social scene on campus. To this day, I
never knew how they managed to get hooked up with every club in
town, without getting busted.
    The year after I got there, I met this girl
named Dionne in Humanities class. We started talking and it turned
out, she was from California. She kept saying I reminded her of her
roommate, Kendell. When I finally met Kendell, I was shocked at how
much we looked alike. We played a little game of Twenty Questions
and discovered the reason we looked so much alike was because we
were related.
    Kendell
is my cousin on my mother ’ s side. Her father and my mother are half siblings. We
share our grandfather ’ s
eyes, smile, skin color and height. When I first saw her, I thought
I was looking at myself minus the upstairs endowment from my
grandmother. My mother and Kendell ’ s father have the same father. My Grandfather
Cyrus had a roaming eye along with some other things. He was
married to my Grandmother while he played house with
Kendell ’ s grandmother.
He fathered a total of nine children, my mother and her three
sisters, and Uncle Chester and his four brothers.
    I think
we ’ ve managed to stay
friends as long as we have because we ’ re so