Della stood by her car in the gallery parking lot and tried to mentally prepare for her reconnaissance mission. ‘Simple,’ she told herelf, ‘just go in grab the shoes and leave. Don’t trip, don’t make any noise, and Bette will never have to know. She is probably still going over the conract, so as long as I get in and out quickly I should be golden.” Despite her mental self-peptalk she still had to steal herself while opening the gallery door.

She walked silently up the stairs to the room where she had left her shoes. When she reached the room in question she breathed a sigh of relief at not having been intercepted by Bette. This sigh quickly turned into muffled groan of embarassment and dissapointment. She stood in the middle of the room and looked around. No sign of her shoes. She would now have to approach the gallery’s front desk to ask for a missing pair of shoes… wonderful.

She walked back downstairs, putting on the best dignified facade she could muster. She managed to keep a perfectly striaght face while asking the man at the desk if any one had found a piar of shoes in the building and was even able to control a threatening blush when he informed her that no one had turned in anything. She thanked him politley and walked away without betraying her exteme embarassment, even under his quizzical and amused gaze.

When she had gone halfway down the hallway Della realized she was not heading toward to front doors at all. Not wanting to look even more absentminded in front of one of Bette’s employees, she decided to search for a back door. While searching for a way to escape from further embarassment Della passed by Bette’s office, she paused, leaning on the wall and biting her lip, trying to decide. She took a deep breath, walked back to the door to Bette’s office and peeked her head in. She did not see Bette, but she also couldn’t see all of the room. She knocked gently, when no response came she took a step into the room. She did not find Bette inside, but as her eyes wandered about the room her stomache suddenly dropped below her knees and her heart skipped a beat. When she looked out the window she saw that it offered a view of the gallery’s garden and, beyond it, the parking lot. Della saw Bette standing by her car and looking around. On the hood of her car Della saw her shoes.