by Amy Brent
“Wonderful,” she replied after a second or two. “I’ll dig you out a dress. I’m sure we can find something suitable for you to wear…”
“Suitable?” I lifted my head and raised my eyebrows at her playfully. “What is this, a cotillion?”
“Oh, stop,” she waved a hand at me. “I just want you to look nice for your father’s event, that’s all.”
“I shall expect the formal invitation in the post,” I propped myself up on my elbows and grinned at her. “Who shall be my suitor for the evening?”
“I’m sure I can dig you someone up,” she replied, cocking an eyebrow at me playfully – she played at being the dutiful wife and mother all the time but once in a while the veil would slip for a second and I would see this silly, fun side of her that had always been my secret favorite.
“I’ll be able to find something for myself to wear, honestly, don’t worry about it,” I climbed out of bed and winced slightly as I stood up – the blood rushed to my head and my stomach lurched a little and I placed my hand on the bedside table to keep from falling to the floor – or puking at my mother’s feet. She frowned at me.
“Are you doing alright?” She asked, touching my arm. “You’ve seemed a little…off recently.”
“Yeah, I’ve just been under the weather,” I shook my head. “You know what’s it’s like when you slow down after working your ass off for months on end.”
“Yes, I suppose,” she frowned at me. “You sure everything’s okay?”
“Yeah, really,” I nodded, even though it felt as though the contents of my stomach were shifting back and forth conspicuously inside of me. “I’m just glad to be back, that’s all.”
“Okay,” she pressed her lips together and eyed me for a moment longer, and for a second I felt as though I could have told her all of it – about Matt, and the details of why we’d broken up, about Nate, about that night at the restaurant, about how sure I’d been when I went home that evening that something was brewing between us. About how stupid I’d been. About how I had felt physically out of it for days now thanks to my stupid heart and my dumb-ass decision to fall for the wrong guy, twice in a row.
But I swallowed it down swiftly and glanced away from her, trying to get myself back in hand. She didn’t need to hear that. And I wasn’t sure I had the heart to tell her any of it.
“What time are we heading off?” I asked instead, busying myself by starting to go through the wardrobe to see what I had that was appropriate for a big event like the one I would be heading to.
“Seven,” she replied. “Give me a shout if you need anything, right?”
“Right,” I nodded, and she leaned in to give me a quick, sudden hug – I hugged her right back, on instinct at first, but within an instant I found something in me giving out and I held her even tighter than before. I just wanted…I just wanted to be near her, to be near someone who knew nothing of the mess I had managed to drag myself into in the last few months. She squeezed me tight and then pulled back, and I felt this wobbling wave of emotion threaten to take me over. I had been so crazy-emotional the last few days and I couldn’t figure out why – was it being home, or just being away from Nate? Was my heart really that badly broken after only a few weeks? I needed to get myself in hand because it had felt like I was on the brink of tears pretty much every minute of every day since I had arrived back home, and I couldn’t go on like this much longer. I could see myself breaking down over us being out of orange juice or some shit like that, and I had no intention of letting myself go. I had to move forward, leave all this behind – even if I had no idea how I was going to do that right at that moment.
I looked through my wardrobe and eventually dug up a dress that I hadn’t worn in years – deep green velvet with a fluttery skirt that puffed out around my knees when I moved, and a halter neck strap with a low-cut bodice that stopped it from coming across as too Rennaisance-faire. It felt good to get dressed up, and I stuck on some loud music from the record collection I’d abandoned here when I was a teenager, and found myself singing along as I applied some lipstick and carefully raked the mascara wand through my lashes. I pulled my hair up and piled it on top of my head, and swayed this way and that in the mirror as I checked myself out. The men in my life apparently didn’t agree, but I thought I looked pretty damn good right there and then. Ready to flirt. I had no intention of getting anything started with anyone new – not for a hell of a long time – but I was up for a little fun and a little flattery from those guys that Mom seemed so keen to set me up with.
Before I knew it, it was seven and Dad had sent a car round to the house to pick us up. Mom emerged from her bedroom in a close-cut pant-suit, and I raised my eyebrows as she did a little twirl in front of me.
“Looking good,” I remarked, with a long low whistle. She giggled, and patted her hair to make sure that it hadn’t come loose.
“You look lovely too,” she nodded at my dress. “You ready?”
“When you are,” I replied. “Is Dad already there?”
“Yeah, he’s been down there all day, no doubt getting under the caterer’s feet at every opportunity,” she rolled her eyes fondly. “Come on, let’s get out there. I don’t want to leave him hanging around any longer.”
“So what is this in aid of, again?” I asked as we climbed into the back of the sleek cab that Dad had sent in our direction, to whisk us off to the event. Mom frowned.
“You know, I do know but it’s totally slipped my mind,” she shook her head. “I guess I just started tuning him out the last few days, he’s been talking about it so much…”
“A new business deal, right?” I wrinkled my nose up, and she nodded. Dad ran a real estate business, local to the are but distinctly successful, and I had to admit I was a little surprised that he was going all-out to announce a new acquisition. It couldn’t be that big a deal, could it?
“That’s right, yes,” Mom nodded, crossing and uncrossing her legs nervously. “Some new partner he’s going to be working with. Someone big, from the city, I believe.”
“Do you remember his name?” I asked with some interest, but she shook her head – I had hoped that I might be able to use this as a foot in the door, since I had all but burned my bridges with Helios and couldn’t really explain to prospective employers why I had been so reluctant to go back and work there after my internship was done.
“No, just that he’s come in from the city for this evening,” she replied, looking idly out the window. “I know your father’s very excited about introducing him to everyone. Says he’s quite a boon for the business.”
“Cool,” I nodded, feeling a little guilty that I hadn’t really been keeping up with everything that had been going on with the business back home – I had been so focused on getting my own career off the ground that I had failed to check in with another business, the one that my father had spent so long curating and creating and perfecting. He was the reason I’d gotten into this business and the least I could do was make a more concentrated effort to check in with him. I had barely seen him the last couple of days, since I’d arrived, as he’d been so caught up in getting everything in hand for this event, but I made a mental note that I would try and put aside some time for him over the next couple of days so we could unwind and hang out together.
“Oh, here already!” Mom exclaimed and I realized that I hadn’t bothered to check where this event was being held – I looked up, and my jaw dropped when I realized we were outside the Lansing Theatre.
“How the hell did he afford this place?” I exclaimed. The Lansing was about the only part of this small town that was worth anything, the only reason to come visiting outside of friends and family – an enormous, gorgeous old building but at the turn of the century, it had been restored to it’s previous gold-plated opulence a few years previously by the local council. And now, all lit up like this with a handful of people milling outside and many more waiting within, it looked as though it had been plucked straight from the last ce
ntury – astoundingly beautiful, ridiculously luxurious. Who the hell had Dad started work with that had landed him enough cash to get a place like this for an event?
Mom and I climbed out of the car and were at once waved inside by the man on the door; I nodded politely and moved past the crowds of people, taking the place in. The smell of expensive wine and shoe polish was heavy in the air, and usually I would have enjoyed a drink at an event like this one, but something about the thought of alcohol in those circumstances turned my stomach and make me feel even more ill. I wobbled a little in my heels, and headed to the bar to grab myself a glass of sparkling water. I could already feel a few eyes on me, and wondered if any of them belonged to those men that had apparently been scoping me out from photographs the last few months. I glanced around and my heart sank a little – I couldn’t see anyone who even remotely caught my fancy, no-one who made my heart flutter or my eyes widen a little as their beauty caught me off-guard. No-one like Nate, if I was telling the truth, if I was being honest with myself.
“What can I get you?” The bartender caught me off-guard and I did my best to offer him a smile as he stood there waiting patiently for a response.
“Sparkling water, please,” I nodded, and he ducked away to get me a drink. I took the chance to look around this place once more – God, it was busy. How many people were here? How many people, in brutal honesty, really gave that much of a damn about a new business deal struck by a local real estate guy? I couldn’t figure out what the appeal of this kind of thing was to people outside the immediate social circles of the people involved, and yet, here we were – the place was packed from top to bottom, and there was a palpable buzz of excitement in the room. Just what was going on here?
The bartender reappeared with my drink and handed me the glass; I took it with a grateful nod and wandered off to find my father. Because, in this room full of strangers, all I wanted was someone I actually knew. But before I could find him, I heard a voice calling out my name and knew at once the way this night was going to go.
Chapter Nine
“Nia!”
My mother’s voice came from behind me and I closed my eyes for a moment before I slowly turned around to see what she wanted me for. She had a young man by the arm and was steering him towards me, apparently not noticing or not caring about the look of sheer panic on his face as she led him through the crowd. He was a little older than me, his hair thinning slightly on the top, and I offered him an apologetic smile as he approached me. Sorry, this wasn’t my idea, and I don’t want this any more than you do.
“Hey,” I greeted the two of them, and the man nervously stuck his hand out towards me – he was wearing an expensive suit that couldn’t cover up how obviously uncomfortable he looked in it, as though this was the first time he had ever worn one outside of prom. I took his hand, playing along for the time being. She was just trying to help, after all.
“This is Nia, my daughter,” Mom looked up at the man with a beaming smile on her face. “And Nia, this is Matthew. He works with your father. You two should…”
She waved a hand between the two of us, raising her eyebrows at me meaningfully. I smiled back at her indulgently. Honestly, even if I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, it would be nice to get my head out of my ass for a while and actually have a good time. So I turned my attention to Matthew as Mom discreetly backed off into the crowd once more, and looked at him expectantly. He had a little patch of stubble, right beneath his nose, that he had clearly missed while he was shaving. I let my gaze linger on it for a second and then finally realized that I was going to have to say something.
“Oh, uh,” I began, blustering a little. It had been so long since I had gotten to know anyone knew outside of the confines of…no, no, stop thinking about Nate. The whole point of this evening was to get Nate out of my head for a while and letting myself linger on him wasn’t going to do me any good.
“What do you do?” I finally managed weakly, falling back on an old faithful so well-used I cringed a little even as I came out with it. He blinked at me for a moment, and it was clear he was trying to come up with something less boring that the truth of whatever he did at my father’s company.
“I, uh,” He began, groping around for the words. “I work in accountancy?”
“Oh, right,” I nodded, playing like that was the most fascinating thing I’d ever heard. “And what does that entail, exactly?”
He launched off on a long, in-depth description of everything that his job involved, and I allowed myself to check out a little. I wasn’t sure how I was able to feel so alone in a crowd of people this enormous, but here I was, pulling it off. That odd feeling, the one that had told me that there was something more than a little off right now, was plaguing me with more intensity than it had been before. Was I still just emotional? Hormonal? I craned my head around to get a look at everyone in this place, in the hopes that I could locate the source of my unease, but I couldn’t come across anything that stood out. I frowned a little, the corners of my mouth turning downward, and Matthew came to an abrupt halt.
“I’m sorry, am I boring you?” He apologised sheepishly. I focused back in on the conversation and at once felt terrible for letting him think that – he was a sweet guy and all he was doing was trying to be nice to the daughter of the guy he worked for. He wasn’t a sleaze who had picked me out of the crowd and decided to make the rest of my evening an assault course in trying to avoid him. I needed to get over myself and treat him with a little respect.
“No, not at all,” I assured him. “I’m just a little under the weather, that’s all.”
“Right, okay,” he nodded, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “I…uh, so what do you do?”
“I just finished college,” I replied automatically. I had been rehearsing this in my head for the inevitable visit from my grandparents who would at once want to know what was going on with me and my life now that I had finished up my education. “I’m just at a loose end right now. I have a few options back in the city but I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to do yet.”
“The city, huh?” Matthew remarked, taking a sip of the red wine he’d been clinging to like it was a life raft. “So you’re not a country girl at heart?”
“There’s just not much here for me,” I shook my head. “The world is much bigger than this place, you know?”
“So, you live there?” He asked, and I nodded again without thinking.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I…guess.”
I hadn’t had much of a chance to think about whether or not I would want to return to the city when I was done here. He didn’t know that, of course, but I felt this bristling of irritation at him at making me consider it again.
“You know, I should go find my dad,” I remarked, glancing around the room. “I have to congratulate him. Will you excuse me?”
“Yeah, of course,” he nodded, and he frowned at me once more. Poor thing. He didn’t know that he’d just blundered head-first into commenting on the stuff in my life that I would have done anything not to think about. He wasn’t to blame.
I made my way around the party, keeping an eye out for my father and trying to avoid my mother lest she pounce on me for walking away from that perfectly nice young man she’d been trying to set me up with. The last thing I needed was to explain myself to her. Eventually, my ears pricked to the sound of my father’s distinctive deep, booming laugh, and I navigated my way through the crowd until I came across him in conversation with a couple of his old friends, the guys he’d worked with at the business for years. His face lit up as soon as he saw me and I could tell he’d had a drink or two.
“Nia!” He exclaimed, waving for me to come closer. I made my way towards him, smiling as sweetly as I could as I got nearer; there was something a little off about this room and I couldn’t figure out what it was yet. Maybe it was just knowing there were likely at least a half-dozen more men here that my mother would set me up with as soon as she realized that
I hadn’t taken to Matt. Maybe it was something else entirely.
Dad pulled me into a big hug, and I could sense the excitement coming off of him in waves; he deserved it. Whatever he had landed had been enough for him to get this place for the night, and that meant it had to be big. Someone in the city? I was surprised that I hadn’t heard talk of some sort of merger when I was at Helios. My heart twisted in my chest when I thought about it. Nope, nope, nope – focus on the task at hand, celebrating my father’s success.
“I’m so glad you could make it,” he beamed at me, and I could tell he genuinely meant what he said; I returned his grin and tilted my head to the side, casting my eye around the group of grey-haired, grey-suited men who were standing around waiting for Dad to return his attention to them.
“This is my daughter, Nia,” Dad announced proudly to them, and I quickly went around the circle introducing myself; it had been a while since I had been required to play the dutiful daughter and I didn’t mind performing my part for a few hours, especially if it meant I got to make connections with some potentially big businessmen in the process. I caught a couple of them looking at me with a less than professional glance and tried to ignore it. Guys that age always had trouble being around younger women, whether they would have admitted it or not. Dad seemed to notice too, and shot one of the guys a look so foul I was surprised he didn’t burst into flames right there on the spot. I cocked an eyebrow. So he was still my protective old father, huh? Same as ever. Good thing that he had never found out about Nate and I or else he would have probably torn my one-time beau a new one. And Nate would probably have deserved it, too.