by Sasha Fino
Paris?!! Aunt Renee has invited us to stay with her!! Think about
it! Fashion and the best in Paris!” Lexy said smiling as she walked “Paris for a week! Wow!! It would be a dream come true, but I
need to talk it over with Aunt Blanche,” she said, wondering if this
might also help with Max’s relationship with Blanche
“Of course, talk it over with your aunt and tell her it’s all free!
Kimberly, next week we will be in Italy and then Paris! I knew my
aunt would come home!” Lexy said happily with spring in her step.
“That’s why I’ve chased off all of my father’s dumb girls!” “Oh, so that’s why you are very happy.” Kimberly looked at her “Yes, I am, nothing will ruin my night!” Lexy said contentedly,
looking at Kimberly as they entered the pool area
“Ah, Lexy, I hate to pop your bubble, but why are Kasey and the
dumb Flagstaff twins sitting by the pool?” Kimberly asked looking
at Kasey
“What the hell are they doing on my terrain?”
“Don’t know. Did your dad invite her family to the party?” “No, I made sure of it,” Lexy said marching up to them “Hello,
Lexy, fantastic party,” Kasey said with a big smile,
“Kasey, Vanessa, and Amelia, it’s wonderful to see all three of
you,” Lexy replied as she and Kimberly walked up to them. “Kimberly,” Kasey said looking at Kimberly
“Hello, Kasey.”
“So, Lexy, I was wondering why my parents weren’t invited to
this party. It’s not like Mr. Heller not invite them. Thank god
Vanessa, and Amelia asked me if I wanted to come with them.” “I don’t know. Maybe the invitation got lost in the mail, or
maybe Dad didn’t want to see Ms. Patella at his party. I thought
that your father would rather sneak around, alone, with Ms.
Patella some more, or did they break up because you are finally
out of her class?”
“Hmm, it seems to me that your father went out with Miss.
Patella when she was our teacher at your old school,” Vanessa said
piping in
“True, but I still hated her and got a D+ from Ms. Patella when
she was sleeping with Dad. I was happy to see that she gave me a
B+ this year. But, then again, I didn’t make-up to her at the
expense of my own mother, Kasey,” Lexy said coldly to them. “Hah, hah, I forgot to laugh. For your information, my dear
mother has moved to New York with her boyfriend and my father
has asked Ms. Patella to come and live with us,” Kasey said “OMG, that’s why she was in a great mood on the last day of
school!” Lexy exclaimed in astonishment.
“There was a beautiful canyon for sale that my father would
have bought it for a new winery. Yet Lexy, your dumb billionaire
father, came in at the last minute and bought it out from under my
father’s nose.” Kasey said with malice changing the subject “Oops, I guess I should feel very badly about it. But I guess part
of what is great about being a billionaire is the ability to take land
craved by people like your father. Gee, great old dad I have,” Lexy
said. Kasey just looked at her with more hate in her eyes “Kimberly, what are you doing here, by the way? The party is
only for the rich not for the poor,” Amelia said
“Yes, we thought you would be home with your drunken
uncle,” Vanessa sniped
“Hey!” Lexy yelled at her
“What do you guys know about me?” Kimberly asked looking
right at Vanessa and Amelia
“Kasey told us all about you, Kimberly. I bet Lexy didn’t tell you
about my sister and me yet? Amelia said to her
“If you must know, Lexy invited me, okay?” Kimberly lied. The
last thing she wanted Kasey and Lily to know was that Uncle Dean
was here
“Oh, then why did we see you, your aunt, and your uncle
getting out of an old yellow jeep? Man, your uncle is a jerk,” Kasey
said as Vanessa and Amelia started to laugh
Kimberly was unsure what to say. In the first two weeks of
school, she had befriended Kasey and told her all about her aunt and unclever invited Kasey over to her house one day after school.
“Good thing he’s only related to me by marriage,” she answered “My dad is helping her aunt open a new coffee café at Heller
Plaza. Did you see the fantastic article in the newspaper? That’s
why her aunt and uncle are here.”
Kasey laughed with the twins.
“Wow, I wonder why? Mr. Heller never helped out a woman
before, especially one like your aunt, Kimberly.”
Without another word, Lexy and Kimberly looked at each
other, reading each other’s minds. Then, in unison, they pushed
Kasey, Vanessa, and Amelia right into the pool with great
satisfaction. The last laugh was on the three girls.
Chapter 24
Blanche had no idea where Max was taking her. She followed Max as they made their way through the mob of people. It was hard for Blanche to keep up a conversation because people kept stopping them from talking with Max.
“So Lexy’s Aunt Renee is staying with you?” she inquired Max. After they said their goodbyes to a man who was on the board of Heller International, Max didn’t reply back to her quickly.
“Yes. You should know that I was once in love with my late sister-in-law,” Max said with a sigh
“I understand. Kimberly actually told me that you and Renee had a past,” she said with disappointment in her voice
“Really?”
“Of course, she did. Kimberly has been instrumental in all of this. She told me about that shop for rent at your plaza even before I met you, and that’s when it reminded me of my coffee house dream,” Blanche said stopping to look at Max
“Why didn’t you tell me about it?” Max asked softly “Must have slipped my mind that night,” Blanche said
“Yes, it’s amazing that out of over 200 people at the school fundraiser, we happened to meet”
“You are right, but I also found it marvelous that we ended up sitting together. I guess it was meant to be that we met that night.”
“I think that night precipitated our standing here tonight, and the opening of your shop.”
“It did, but it was also only a matter of time before we met. Kimberly and Lexy are always together.”
“It would not have turned into such a grand romance if we’d met when you picked up Kimberly one day at my mansion,” Max told her
“You think not?” Blanche asked as she felt an overwhelming desire to kiss Max, much as she had when they were alone in her shop. She looked into Max’s eyes with love, then stepped back. Forgetting that she was in the middle of a party, she bumped into a woman as she took the step back.
“Sorry,” Blanche said to the woman. Once Max and Blanche walked further away from the partygoers, she asked the question that had been on her mind for days
“What you said the other day. Was it true?” Blanche questioned, stopping to look at Max. “That you loved me after we had….” Blanche told him looking for an answer in his eyes
“What do you want me to tell you? Yes, I love you, Blanche!” She found she was breathless and her heart was racing
“Max, this just seems so crazy! It’s been two months since we met. Now, I can’t imagine my life without you. I love you, Max Heller!” Max looked at her, unsure of what to say.
“You are very beautiful, Blanche. I need to say something to…” Max said, unable to say what he wanted to say.
“Max and Blanche come and say ‘hi’ to us!” Bill called out to them interrupti
ng the mood between them
“Ah, there they are,” Max said turning to look up at a gazebo where Dan, Jake, and Bill were talking
“Let’s say ‘hello’ to Dan, Jake, and Bill,” Blanche said smiling at him and acting like nothing had happened
Blanche followed as he led the way to the gazebo. The three men were not wearing tuxes like the rest of the guests
“Hello, Max and Blanche, lovely party!” Bill said as he saw Max and Blanche approaching them
“Dan, Jake, and Bill great to see you all,” Blanche told them, “Enjoying the party?” Max asked
“Yep, we are, and no Jennet here talking gossip,” Bill added, “I like her, but she can be a pain!” Dan said
“Where is she? It isn’t like her to miss a party of mine.” “Home, sick,” Dan commented
“But she sends her best,” Jake told them
“Blanche, how was your first week in the shop?” Dan asked
For the next hour, they stood there, drinking and chitchatting about her shop and their businesses at the Plaza. Then Max and Blanche said their goodbyes and moved off
“I like them; they are great guys.”
“Yes, they are. I have a good time with them. There are other owners in the plaza. I don’t know them well enough to hang out with them.”
“Why don’t you get to know them?” Blanche questioned as they walked back toward the center of the party.
“I’m sure they are nice, but who has the time?”
“I know what you mean,” Blanche said
“I don’t know what I would do without Bill. He has helped me a lot over the years. Bill is also like an uncle to Lexy. Jake is a family man with two boys and a wife of ten years who is a stay-at-home mother. Jack’s wife and kids are visiting grandparents up north, so that’s why they are not here tonight,” Max told her
“What about Dan?”
“Dan is just Dan; he does his own thing and has never been married.”
“Oh. My mother’s boyfriend, Kimberly’s birth grandfather, was much like Dan.” She smiled
“Really? I didn’t know Kimberly’s mother was your half-sister.”
“Yes, her father’s name was Ken, a free spirit. Boy, my mother sure did love him.”
“How many years’ difference in age were you and your sister?”
“We were five years apart, but my sister and I were very close.” “What happened to Ken and your mother?” Max asked
“They couldn’t live together or be married. He found marriage to constricting and didn’t want to live together or be tied down. But I think that they had sex once in a blue moon after they broke up.”
“Oh.”
“When my birth father came home from the Army, he found that my mother had had a child by him and a later one, Diane, with a former boyfriend. Diane was Kimberly’s mother. My father married my mother, taking on a child who wasn’t his.”
“Family drama, I see.”
“Oh yeah, Diane knew Ken as her dad, but my father was the father who raised her, while Ken had me to deal with early on. I must be boring you. Do you have somewhere else you have to be?”
“No, it’s my party, and I can be with whomever I wish. You know my mother, Susan, is off living in France, spending my late father’s money from their big, fat divorce as we speak.”
“I remember it was a big mess, in the newspapers and everywhere when I was little.”
“The worst part of my childhood was that horrific divorce. My mother took my father to the cleaners. I wasn’t good enough for her, either. Troy, my older brother, my mother, has always loved Troy best the ‘golden boy.’ I was a mistake in my mother’s eyes.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Max.”
“It’s okay. When my wife died in childbirth and left me with a newborn baby, my mother came and upset the entire household. I sure as hell didn’t ask her to stop her life and come to help me out with Lexy. It was Horace and Renee, who was always there to support me.”
“Wow, I’m sorry to hear about your mother.”
“It’s okay, no love lost there. My father was the one who raised me with love like I said in my speech.”
“I bet that your father is proud of you and smiling down on you now! How did we get on our families’ pasts?”
“I have no idea,” Max said, laughing with his eyes upon her. It made her feel unsteady.
“I really need to tell you something,” Max confessed
“Yes?” The same feeling, she had had earlier resurfaced. Just then, she looked up to see Max’s sister-in-law coming up to them.
“Max, where have you been? I have been looking all over for you,” Renee said as she strolled up to Max
“I’ve been busy talking to my friends.”
“Oh, I see. Hello, I don’t think that I have met you?”
“This is Blanche. I am helping her to open a business. She’s Kimberly’s aunt,” Max told her by way of an introduction.
“Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” Blanche said as she held her hand out for Renee to shake
“Hello, Blanche. It is very nice to meet you, as well. Lexy spoke very highly of your niece, Kimberly.” Renee said happily as they shook hands
“I would love to talk to you more. It’s almost time for dinner. Why don’t we go in and sit together?”
“Sounds good to me; I am hungry,” Max told her
“Then follow me, you two,” Renee said as Max looked at Blanche uncomfortably
“I must find my husband, Dean, and my niece, Kimberly, and tell them that it’s time for dinner. I will see you two at our table,” Blanche replied, looking at Max and feeling all mixed up inside. What was with her tonight? She had seen Max every day over the past week to work on things for the shop, and suddenly, tonight, she felt more distant and self-conscious.
Chapter 25
Before going in search of Dean and Kimberly, Blanche went to use the bathroom in the east guesthouse. Once inside, she heard three women enter the bathroom, laughing and talking while they waited for one of the toilets to become vacant. Blanche did not mean to eavesdrop, and never had before in her life, when she heard what she thought was a reference to her
“Did you see that woman with Max?” A lady asked
“Of course. You know that she owns that Sedona’s Heart Café up at Heller Plaza?” “I heard that she’s struggling financially, Max is helping her out with her dream.”
“I knew that her dress was off the rack. What does Max see in someone like her?”
“It must be about sex even though she doesn’t look like the other bimbos!” “Did you see that she’s married? I saw a ring on her finger, and she’s lusting after Max?”
“Poor Renee, hoping to rekindle her love for Max only to find this gold digger's hands all over him.”
“How do we know if Max is sleeping with her?”
“Oh, give me a break! Did you see the way they were looking at each other? Who does she think she is, Cinderella? Does she even know that she’d never had a chance of fitting into our privileged enclave?”
Blanche exited the bathroom sick to her stomach. The three ladies stopped their backbiting at once when they saw who it was. Blanche didn’t look at them or say a word. She washed her hands and left the bathroom, feeling wicked and humiliated. Here she was married and having an affair with Max. Threatening his chance for happiness with a woman who loved him enough to come all the way from Paris to reenter his life, hoping to be his wife. She loves Max, yet will she leave Dean for Max, how can she leave Dean alone too drunk to his death. She must face it, those women were right, she doesn’t belong in their first-class world. Blanche needed to end it with Max before she made an even bigger fool of herself, or Dean found out.
The party moved into a large tent for dinner. The tent was richly demerited— white with a summer’s evening replicated in the gorgeous flower centerpieces and with candles giving a warm glow to everything. Lexy looked around as she walked in for dinner. She found the tent alrea
dy packed with people. The sun had just set, and the moon was at its fullest. Lexy noticed Kasey, Vanessa, and Amelia sitting at a table close by busy whispering to each other about something. They were still in their damp clothes. “Hello, Kasey,” she said walking by them
“I wonder how much this party has set your father back?”
Kasey inquired of her
“Yeah, your father is good at throwing luxurious parties,”
Vanessa said.
“Well, Kasey, if your father held a party like this, you would
have to move to the poorhouse. Thank God my ancestors had the
foresight and brains to save their money and invest well so that
today we have extra money to spend!”
“Rich brat!” Kasey said
“Really? I thought you are the rich brat, Kasey?”
“If I were you, I would watch my back, tonight,” Kasey told her “Really? I would just love to tell my bodyguard what you have
just told me.” Lexy said to her as Kasey’s face turned white as a
ghost. Kasey almost said something but was interrupted by
someone else
“Here you are, Lexy!” said a voice she was happy to hear “Aunt Renee! Girls, you remember my dear aunt,” Lexy said
happily as she felt her aunt’s hand upon her shoulder
“Renee Rara! I just love your fashion line!” Kasey said gushing
all over Renee
“You must be Kasey. Lexy has told me so much about you. Nice
to meet you at last,” Renee said, leaving Kasey speechless with
surprise and admiration.”
“I’m on a long waiting list for your new bag,” Amelia added, “I
just love your line.” Vanessa chipped in.
“Thank you, girls… Lexy and Kimberly are going to help me
pick out my winter line when they are coming to see me in Paris
before school starts. Of course, it is a privilege reserved for only
Lexy’s best friends…” The girls got the message as Renee’s classy
remark put them all in their places, and Lexy saw Kimberly walk
into the tent
“Come on, Aunt Renee, I want you to meet someone.” “Lead
the way,” Renee replied
“So long Kasey, Amelia, and Vanessa have a nice dinner,” Lexy