Love-in-Idleness

by Christina Bell

  Grace was the last to arrive at dinner, a faux pas she would surely hear about later from Gianni, who had appointed herself Queen Manners. The mere concept of Gianni as the new Emily Post made Grace laugh out loud.

  Theo sat at the head of the massive, dark wood table that was supported by legs that ended in clawed lion’s feet. Every piece of furniture in the room was clearly chosen by Gianni. The chair backs were high and covered in indigo velvet. A massive mirror hung on the wall, along the long side of the table. The worst part of the room, though, was the chandelier. Gianni was insanely proud of the cut glass monstrosity that hovered above the table with small bulbs sending prisms of light through the room. Only a disco ball could have been a tackier choice. Theo seemed oblivious to his fiancé’s atrocious decorating taste. The day he came home and saw the dining room, Grace was hoping he would throw a fit, but Theo just kissed Gianni and asked if she was happy. He was clearly brainwashed.

  Theo was always handsome, but tonight he looked especially dashing in his tailored suit. Gianni, who normally sat at the other end of the long table like a scene from Citizen Cane, relinquished her normal spot to their guest of honor for the evening. She sat, instead, by Theo’s side, holding a glass of red wine that was filled nearly to the brim. As Grace predicted, she was wearing a low-cut, tight red dress with a sequined neckline. Yep, thought Grace, just dinner at home.

  Opposite Theo, in the seat of honor, was Miles Oberon, senior partner of Theo’s new law firm. Like Theo, he was handsome in a distinguished graying way. Both men were aging well. Seated near Mr. Oberon were two boys about the same age as Grace. One was tall and thin. Even seated, his shoulders sat a couple of inches higher than the other boy’s. He had a slender face and a slightly curved nose that gave him a sharp appearance. Somehow, he managed to pull it off. He was still better-looking than any of the boys that Grace went to school with in Brooklyn. The other was Cameron.

  Theo rose and walked to his daughter as she entered the room. “Hello, sweetie,” he said quietly and kissed her cheek. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in days, I’ve been so busy.”

  Grace leaned forward for a quick hug. Over her shoulder, she saw Gianni studying her glittery fingernails as if she were waiting for this embarrassing little moment to end. When Theo loosened his embrace, he led Grace gently by the elbow toward their guests for introductions.

  “Mr. Oberon, this is my daughter, Grace.”

  “You really need to start calling me Miles,” the man reminded Theo before he turned to Grace. Up close, Miles Oberon was unnaturally perfect, with high cheekbones, a thin straight nose, and pale blue eyes that seemed to be almost translucent. When Miles shook her hand in greeting and locked his gaze upon hers, she felt a vague urge to lean closer to him. Grace studied his face, trying to decide who he reminded her of. He was probably fifty years old with the rugged good looks of an cinema superspy. It was only when he spoke to her that she snapped out of her fog.

  “It is a privilege to meet such a lovely young woman. I’ve seen you in the building, but haven’t had a chance to introduce myself,” he said in a practiced confident voice. He gestured toward the two teenage boys sitting at his end of the table. “May I introduce my sons, Cameron and Puck?”

  A few days ago, when Gianni first mentioned Puck’s name, Grace responded with, “Puck? That’s his name? Shut the Puck up.” Gianni just shook her head and angrily tippy-tapped her stilettos out of the room. Now, seeing him in person, the name seemed to fit.

  The boys shot out of their seats, their strong hands held out to shake Grace’s small trembling one. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen this many beautiful men in one place, much less her own apartment. It was mildly overwhelming. Cameron was tall and well-built, and when he took her hand, she could see the muscles in his arms like cables under his skin. Grace recalled something Gianni said about Cameron being a tennis player. His straight nose and high cheekbones were not unlike his father’s, but his features seemed softer than those of the other members of his family. Puck was taller and thinner than Cameron, and when his turn came to greet her, she didn’t feel the same warmth that she had felt in Cameron’s greeting. Puck looked at her as if she were something he might consider acquiring later. It occurred to her that some girls might find that flattering.

  Grace quickly found herself seated next to Cameron, who turned to her and said, “Your father has been telling us about you. He says that you attended an art magnet school in Brooklyn.” Grace started to speak, but was interrupted by Gianni.

  “And I was telling them that it’s time for you to forget Brooklyn and start preparing for your new school. Grace has been accepted into St. Helen’s for her senior year.”

  Miles smiled and turned his attention back to Grace, looking her over quietly. “I have to say, for a girl who grew up in Brooklyn, you have a very subtle style. I expected…” He paused for a moment. “Well, I expected something else.”

  “When was the last time you were in Brooklyn, Mr. Oberon?” Grace asked.

  “Oh, I’ve never been to Brooklyn,” he answered.

  “Well.” Grace smiled patiently. “Not all of us are like, well,” she nodded in Gianni’s direction, “like that.” She was fully aware that Gianni wasn’t from Brooklyn, but New Jersey shared certain stereotypes with the boroughs of Manhattan.

  Gianni’s nostrils flared as she snatched up her wineglass and leaned into the back of her chair with a thump. She looked at Theo, but pointed at Grace. “Do you see what I have to put up with?” she pouted. Theo sat quietly in his place, looking baffled as to how he should handle the ongoing hostilities between his daughter and his fiancé.

  Miles chuckled quietly. “Oh, Gia, don’t worry.” He fixed his strange gaze on Grace. “The mischief of teenagers should not cause too much grief.” As he spoke, the small hairs on the back of Grace’s neck stood up. She shivered visibly and looked at Gianni, mostly to avoid Miles’s eyes.

  “Are we Gia now?” Grace smirked. She had never heard anyone refer to her future stepmother by this name before. Grace thought, for just a moment, she saw Gianni cast a disproportionately conspiratorial glance at Miles, who spoke in her stead.

  “We were discussing your family’s social position, and the potential for growth in that area. I suggested to Gianni that she might modify her name a bit, just to lessen the ethnic connotations, maybe take some of the bridge and tunnel out of her name.”

  Was this guy for real? Did he not see this walking stereotype sitting at the table with them? It would take more than a name change to knock the Jersey out of that woman. And since when was being Italian problematic?

  “Do you know about this, Theo?” she asked. Why would her father tolerate this nonsense? This was not the simple, practical Theo she knew. “Why does it matter what people think about Gianni?” Grace knew it was ridiculous to try to defend a woman she despised, especially one who didn’t want help. Unfortunately for Grace, her tendency toward indignation sometimes got the best of her.

  Theo waited for Grace to finish. Everyone at the table was quiet. In the midst of the silence, waiters, who must have worked for the catering company, streamed in from the kitchen to serve each diner a single seared scallop with greens and an elaborate drizzle of red sauce. Grace didn’t recognize the flavor of the sauce, but it was delightful. She hated that there was only one scallop.

  Theo, who in Grace’s opinion had been entirely too quiet lately, waited for the servers to leave before he spoke. “Grace, up until now, we’ve never had to think about how we portrayed ourselves as a family. It was enough that we were honest, respectable people. However, with my new position, expectations have changed. I’ll be dealing with people of great means, and must be able to move seamlessly amongst them. Because this is new to all of us, Miles has been kind enough to advise us.” Theo took a small bite of his scallop and waited for what felt like an eternity before he resumed speaking. “We’ll all have areas in which we’ll have to learn to present ourselves in a mo
re, well, sophisticated manner. This includes you.”

  Grace sat in stunned silence for a moment before responding. “How does any of this affect me?”

  Puck finished the last bit of his food, put his fork down on his plate to be cleared, and addressed Grace. “What our fathers do for a living is an entire lifestyle. The family is a machine that must run in complete synchronicity, with each person behaving in a manner that is beyond reproach by anyone with whom we come into contact. There will be dinners, parties, and the occasional family vacations with clients. There must be no element of your family picture that could dissuade clients from seeking our company.” He delivered this message in his low silken voice, as if it were practiced, as if he had said it a hundred times before, but Grace had a hunch that this was how he said everything. Was it her father’s goal to have her become as perfectly trained as Puck seemed to be?

  Miles smiled proudly and patted his son soundly on the shoulder before picking up the wine bottle and refilling the boy’s glass. “My sons are allowed some latitude in private. Boys must be boys. But our public face is impeccable in every way. They don’t drink excessively or go to clubs where they will end up on Page Six. There is no hint of scandal in the public face of our family.”

  Cameron smiled. “Except for Dad’s divorces,” he joked. To Grace’s surprise, Miles smiled broadly and lifted his glass.

  “Now, a divorce can only lead to one thing; another wedding. And there’s no greater social event than a lavish wedding.” Miles turned to Grace. “This leads us to you, my dear.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Gianni tells me that you’ve been taking the train to Park Slope to see Ryder nearly every day,” Theo remarked.

  “He’s my boyfriend,” Grace responded quietly, not liking the direction that this seemed to be going.

  Theo began to speak, but Miles lifted a finger in protest. “Allow me, Theo,” he said, pausing as servers cleared salad plates and served steaming plates of tiny lamb chops with mint chutney. When the chaos subsided, he began to speak in a calm, somewhat patronizing tone. “Grace, it is my understanding that this Ryder boy is a perfectly acceptable young man for a girl of your former standing. He’s attractive, polite, and maintains excellent grades in school. Your father says that Ryder plans to apply to NYU. Compared to your other Brooklyn friends, he shows some promise.”

  “You seem to know a lot about my friends,” Grace snapped, irritated that her social life was the subject of this man’s scrutiny.

  “As I said, I have an interest in everything that reflects upon your family.” Miles paused long enough to sample the lamb chops. Grace watched the elegance with which he moved his hands. She normally found the act of eating to be somewhat vulgar, but Miles Oberon made it look like the most graceful act in the world. At the other end of the table, there was a clunking sound as Gianni put down her glass, sloshing wine onto the white tablecloth. Grace suppressed a contemptuous giggle as Miles continued to speak. “Now that your situation has changed, you need to be practical in your associations. I think it’s clear to all of us,” with this, he gestured toward everyone present at the table, “that this Brooklyn boy is not the person who should be with you at social functions. In fact, it would probably be best for you to reconsider that relationship altogether.”

  Grace shot out of her seat. Standing at the table, looking down at her placid father and a delighted Gianni, she felt hurt and baffled. Why was her father listening to this man? She simply could not grasp how her boyfriend had anything whatsoever to do with her father’s job. As she turned to leave, Theo stood and moved toward her. “Grace, listen to us. Hear what we have to say and we can discuss it.”

  Grace looked at her father’s kind face, and then across the table at Miles. She lowered herself into her chair slowly. She could listen for one more minute.

  “Your father’s wedding is this weekend,” Miles continued. “All we are asking is that you let Cameron escort you to the wedding. The two of you can make an appearance together and become acquainted.” Miles paused and looked at both of them. It seemed to Grace that he was pairing them up as one might pick a new tie to match a suit. “It’s a fine match. You will turn some heads and maybe even enjoy yourselves.”

  Grace looked at Cameron. “Do you always let your father tell you who to date? Why are you so willing to go along with this?”

  “My father doesn’t ask me for much, so when he requests that I spend time with a beautiful girl, it’s hard to object.”

  “And you don’t care that I have a boyfriend?”

  “We’re in high school. Teenage relationships come and go,” Cameron responded. While his expression was kind, Grace had the nagging feeling that no one from the Oberon family should be trusted without question.

  Grace looked slowly around the table from face to face. Her father meant well, sitting there, probably hoping he could persuade her to listen to him for just one night. Gianni’s intentions were no mystery. But the Oberon family was different. As she looked at them, this beautiful, but seemingly soulless group, her head began to swim. Puck, who had been silent through most of the evening, looked so much like his father. He seemed as though he were next in line for the throne, as if he were simply waiting his turn. Cameron, on the other hand, appeared to be softer, but equally eager to please their father, who was clearly in control of the entire room. Is this what it was to be rich? Grace was suddenly distinctly uninterested in continuing her association with any of them.

  She pushed back her chair, and this time, no one tried to stop her. “Excuse me,” she said quietly. “I can’t discuss this anymore.” The men stood as she stormed out of the room and left everyone to their manipulations.

  She breezed through the house and to the front door, where she paused long enough to grab her bag. Completely absorbed in her hostility, she rushed to the elevator and let it carry her to lobby, where she rushed past Julius and crossed the street into Central Park.

  8:00 PM

  When Grace realized that Cameron had come after her, she was only a few feet into the park. Instead of sitting on the bench by the path, she’d climbed up a small hill behind it and was sitting on the ground. She was staring in the general direction of her hideous new home and feeling quite nervous. Because she was raised in Brooklyn, Grace liked to think of herself as invulnerable, but still, she knew that she shouldn’t be in the park alone in the evening. She had heard a lot of talk about how Manhattan was much safer than it used to be, but every Central Park crime that had ever made the news was very much present in her mind. She was almost relieved when she saw Cameron’s tall substantial form moving toward her.

  He sat down next to her. “I didn’t think you should be out here alone,” he said softly. When he looked at her, she wondered for a moment why she had protested the idea of going out with him. It wasn’t his fault that she was involved with someone else.

  “Thank you for coming out to protect me.” Grace smiled.

  “Do you know that’s the first time you’ve smiled since you showed up for dinner? You smirked at Theo, scowled at Gianni, and then you stayed unhappy until you ran out.” Cameron put his finger on her chin and let his touch linger. “I like the smiling.” A faint blush showed in his cheeks as he looked down and ran his hands through his perfectly disheveled hair. Grace felt a familiar flutter in her middle and fought to suppress it. His efforts to accommodate his father made him seem sort of flat back in the apartment, but out here, he was exactly the opposite. He seemed honest and warm.

  “It’s not you,” she insisted quietly. “They’re just asking too much of me all at once. I was happy before we moved, and now everything is suddenly so difficult. Theo and Gianni are ready to walk away from everything I know. Now they want me to change so that they’ll look good. Is it really that important to have all of this money?”

  “Truthfully,” Cameron responded, “I’ve never known anything else. I’ve never had to adjust, because I was born knowing how to be an Oberon
. When my father takes on a new partner, he shapes their entire family into the perfect social machine. He’s got his work cut out for him with Gia.”

  Grace laughed out loud. “What the hell is that? Gia? Honestly? Has he seen her? No one’s going to believe that she’s anything but what she is. There is absolutely no way she’s going to shape up.”

  Cameron leaned back, resting one elbow on the grass. “What about you?” Cameron asked. “How will you shape up?”

  “Better than frickin’ Gia,” Grace replied, and instantly regretted it. She hadn’t meant to imply that she would be changing at all.

  “Don’t be too sure. After an afternoon with Dad’s personal shopper and an expert makeover, you won’t recognize her. “

  “You’ve seen this before.”

  “Every time Miles gets married. It’s never as severe as Gia, but everyone around Miles seems to need some work. ”

  “Why is that? Why is he never happy with anyone the way they are?” Grace pondered.

  “He loves me and he loves Puck, both of us for what we are. He loved our mother, but she died.” Cam paused for a moment before he spoke again. “Maybe he wants to recreate that sense of family, beyond just his sons. He never seems to be able to get it just right.”

  “How many times has he been married?” Grace asked.

  “This is his fourth. He jokes about his divorces, but this one is different. His wife, Titania, had a baby two years ago and Dad wants custody. He’s not going to be able to just write a check this time. This divorce will be long and complicated.”

  “Why is he divorcing her?”