Eye of the Tiger

by Melanie Greene

  Fine. One of his siblings wasn't a jerk.

  After the show, Alice and Will thanked Natalie for the idea, and took off to enjoy some couple time. Danny and DJ walked him and Nat back to the hotel.

  Saturday started with a bang. And then Evan left to join the Cafe du Monde crew, and Natalie rolled over to doze for another hour. An incoming call from a client woke her and sent her to her laptop. Evan found her there, drinking hotel-room coffee in a fluffy bathrobe, muttering. He traded her cup for the one of chicory coffee he'd brought her, and tore off the top of the pastry bag to make it easier for her to reach in and dig out beignets.

  "You're not working today, remember?"

  She hummed a skeptical reply, which got the point across without her spewing powdered sugar everywhere.

  "Are you bugging out of the bug tour, then?"

  She swallowed. "Yeah, sorry, I'd better. Thanks for breakfast. This makes up for Mr. Buck's being the first voice I heard today."

  "He yell at you? Have a grating voice? Speak only in iambic pentameter?"

  She pinched closed the bag so he couldn't grab one of her doughnuts. "No, he's a charming tenor. Almost soft-spoken. But insistent. The man's not fond of refusals, and I had to talk him out of seeing a redbrick two-story in River Oaks with another agent. It's completely the wrong house for them, but he's not a man you want to be around when bees and bonnets collide. I'm putting together a list of alternatives now."

  He swept back her hair and bent for a kiss. They both tasted, she supposed, of sweetness and coffee.

  "You sure you need to go to the museum?"

  He rested his forehead on hers. "You sure you can't let Mr. Buck seethe?"

  She pushed him upright. "Go eat crickets. Do not bring any back for me. Meet me for a late lunch?"

  "Back here?"

  Loosening his fingers from her robe's lapel, she said, "No, you insatiable man. Out in this beautiful, vibrant city we are visiting, the one world-famous for good food and good times. We can take that streetcar you promised me over to the Garden District and hit up one of the places on Magazine. Or, wait--let's go to Milk Bar. If my day starts with beignets and ends with birthday cake, it may as well have a milkshake in the middle, right?" She rubbed her own middle, glad she'd packed the loose-waisted sundress and banishing the image of the lycra-enhanced party dress hanging in the closet. At least she and Evan had gotten in some aerobic activity already.

  He texted his family to make plans, and she went back to her comps. After brushing his teeth and charging his phone, he interrupted her for a goodbye kiss. "Last night was a lot of fun, by the way."

  "So was this morning," she said.

  He squeezed her to him, then left. Before he could even have made it to the elevator bank, her phone chimed with a message:

  Nat took me to see a great band

  The jazz that we heard there was grand

  Then we went back to our suite

  And I had pussy to eat

  We screwed so much I barely can stand

  If she had any clothes on, she would have chased him down the corridor just to kiss the smug grin she knew would be on his face.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Although her mother would likely see her photo and would definitely launch into her opinions about grooming, Natalie let her hair go wild. She didn't have much choice. After the several thousand calories she and Evan consumed earlier in the day, they decided it was a good idea to work up a sweat before the birthday bash. It left her with no time to mess with the straightening iron, and summertime humidity in New Orleans made even Houston look mild. Her hair was determined to be voluminous, and it was easier to let it spring free than to attempt taming with clips and gels and sprays.

  "It makes a nice contrast with your sleek as fuck body in that dress," Evan said, when she made a frustrated sound and bent from the waist to scratch her fingers through her scalp.

  "Yeah, lion's mane, I remember."

  He abandoned his tie selection and caged her against the wall. "Some kind of wild cat, anyway."

  She bit lightly on his lower lip, growling. "Don't muss me up any more than I already am."

  "I like you being mussed up."

  She led with her hips to nudge him away, sliding past to check her reflection again. Reapplied lip stain. Backed to the edge of the tub so she could see herself from the waist up, and twisted to check the infernal metallic straps were lying smooth and even across her back. She did look sleek as fuck. Probably the sugar and cream and carbs would make themselves visible by morning, but she had a night of food and dance and, hopefully, laughter ahead of her. And a hot man on her arm. She almost liked the crazy dizziness of her unfettered hair. Never mind her mom. She was ready to have fun.

  Evan perfected whatever complicated knot he was tying. He braced her elbow while she slid on her pumps. "Ready?"

  Natalie grabbed her bronze leather clutch, dropped in her lip color, and nodded. "As I'll ever be." They headed down to the party.

  It was in their hotel's smaller courtyard, which was crisscrossed at ceiling height with twinkle lights and fans, the fountain in the center playing call and response games with the sound system's muted zydeco. In addition to Natalie and the fifteen Lees, two of Marisa's sisters had driven in from Gulfport, and a half-dozen of Chloe's local friends mingled. Catering had set up a table for the kids, and everyone else rotated free-form between the bar, the buffet, and the birthday duo.

  Evan’s dancing was uninhibited, if not skilled. She couldn’t tease: she knew the moves, but never managed to execute them like she wasn’t thinking about them. They mingled and ate and she shooed Evan away when his nephew wanted him to prove a point to his niece. Koray pulled her over to show off his skilled speech-to-texting, causing Ben to narrow his eyes at her in an eerily Evan-like way. "I remember now. You're the one who taught Dad what that little microphone button does."

  "I love that microphone," she said. "It and my car's Bluetooth are the tech I can no longer live without. Besides, I also added the streaming music app, so he's got something besides Joan Baez and that one Steely Dan album to play."

  "For that, we all thank you," Ben said.

  As Koray moved off, Ben took her empty wineglass and set it on a bus tray. She realized it was the first time she'd been in conversation with a sibling without Evan or his parents around. It wasn't as disconcerting as she'd feared. Ben explained that he and Chloe hadn't had a joint birthday party since their disastrous sixteenth. Their social groups had clashed and a few friendships had ended worse for the wear.

  "Is that why you don't have friends here tonight, but she does?"

  "No. Well, until you asked, I hadn't thought so. It mostly comes down to geography, but also, yes, I think it fixes a couple of potential problems. It's been a long time since C got everyone on her turf. Maybe never all of us at once. She's always traveling to us, Evan, too, because the single ones are unencumbered. One plane ticket instead of three or four. No car seats to mess with. It's cool, everyone making the effort to be in her town for once." His tone went wry. "I don't know why I'm spilling my guts here. Sorry to make you the recipient of the birthday confessional."

  She shrugged. "I'm basically the stranger in the room. I know who the people are, but I won't be around later to hold up a mirror and remind you of your feelings. Makes me safe."

  Ben looked from her, over to where Uncle Evan the Superhero was one-upping the kids with puns, and back her way. Nat pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth to stop herself from getting any more revelatory. And he thought he was the one oversharing.

  "So. I'm going to assume you mean you're not going to be around me. Since I live in Atlanta and you live in Houston."

  Nodding, she took the out he offered. "Right."

  The kids were collapsed with giggles, and Evan's deep bell laugh rang out over the courtyard. It really should be too warm for her to break out in goosebumps. She refocused on Ben. "Your mom scanned some photos of your birthday parties over t
he years. Evan talked her out of renting a big screen to show them tonight, but you should know there's a picture of you and Chloe, around Marcus's age. You're both jumping into a pool, and you're both wearing bathing suits from the same Pac-man print."

  He groaned. "And here I thought that was just something out of my nightmares. You know the kind, where you studied for the wrong final, or none of the paths from your childhood bedroom lead to the front door?"

  She did. "Mine are showing up naked on class picture day."

  "Right. That kind." Ben glanced towards his mom. "Anyway, Chloe's was a Ms. Pac-man swimsuit, so it's not like we were identical."

  "I stand corrected."

  Just as he was offering to get them both another drink, his twin called him over, so Natalie was left on her own. Suited her. She made her way to the restroom to check what the humid outdoor air had done to her hair. Probably nothing noticeable; it had been frizzed out to epic proportions before they'd left the room.

  She reapplied lip color, raked fingers through her crown, checked her straps and smoothed the dress over her hips. Imagined the look Gillian would give her if she could see her fussing. Went back to the party.

  Evan was near the bar. Perfect; she needed more of the Argentine Malbec. Less perfect: he was talking to Chloe, whose unrelenting stink-eye had tracked Natalie throughout the weekend. Screw it. She'd survived live music with two couples and a chat with Ben. She could make nice with Chloe for the next seventeen hours. Readying a compliment about the venue, she walked up behind Evan.

  Chloe's eyes flickered her way for a microsecond, then back towards Evan. He was gesticulating through the end of a story about the Insectarium. Chloe shifted slightly out of Nat's view and, it seemed, right into some acoustically perfect zone that ensured her words were a clarion call.

  "Shame this perfect woman Mom and Dad found for you missed out on your showing off your paternal side. It could seal the deal for you."

  He raked a hand through his hair. "Come on, Chloe. It's not like that. I told you, this isn't step one in my path down the aisle. We're having fun is all."

  "Don't get me wrong, E, it's not like I'm holding you to the things you've always said about relationships and how you want to live your life. People change their minds. I'm surprised, is all, that you'd throw it all away for someone you didn't even choose for yourself. Let's face it, even if she can clean up okay, she's not exactly your usual type. Mom and Dad should have seen that."

  Nat took a half-step back to gauge Chloe's smooth-as-jazz expression. Refusing to let her hands creep up to contain her hair, she cleared her throat. "I need to head up and return the Buck's call. This was a beautifully planned party, Chloe. I'm sorry to miss the rest of it. Happy birthday."

  She headed for the hotel restaurant, intent on getting that glass of wine before retreating to her room. She needed an escape from this reality, and minibar vintages weren't going to cut it. Behind her, she heard Evan say, "Jesus, C, do you have to be such a monster?"

  Chloe might've answered, but Natalie missed it. The heavy French doors from the courtyard shut behind her with a satisfying thunk. Instead of the fountain and zydeco, the air was full of low talk and the clink of cutlery.

  Evan found her at the bar. "Nat."

  Holding up a hand, she gave him a wry look. "It's fine. She made it clear before we left Houston that she didn't want me here, and we didn't take the hint. So she made sure to reinforce the point. It doesn't matter."

  "It does matter. She was out of line."

  His lips pinched, his eyebrows folded in, and an angry flush climbed his neck. Poor guy. If she'd been more forceful about staying in Houston, he'd be immersed in his family party instead of feeling like he had to rush after her. She made an effort to gentle her voice. "She's only out of line if what she said wasn't true. It was. She was giving voice to the same thoughts you have. We have."

  "She doesn't know that. As far as she knows, we're serious about each other."

  She tipped the bartender and turned to squeeze his forearm through his suit jacket. "I do need to call the Bucks back. They left me another message. You go enjoy your family--and that turtle cheesecake. You don't want to miss that. Honestly, I'm okay. If anyone asks, tell them good night for me."

  The angry coal burning in his eyes was far from banked, but he let her lean in for the kiss on his cheek she figured was a good idea for appearance's sake. Anyone from the party could spy on them where they stood.

  She took her wine, and retreated to the quiet of their room. It was well over an hour--more than enough time for her to talk to her client and change her flight--before the muted chatter from the courtyard below died down. Before Evan came in, after midnight, she'd let a rerun of House Hunters International lull her into a doze creditable enough to pass for sleep.

  Chloe was laughing with her friends when he went back outside, and she didn't bother to apologize. He was too pissed to talk to anyone, so he retreated to the kid table to listen to the latest gossip about some tween-friendly band he'd never heard of. Wondered if it was Chloe's idea that the kid table include the sixth chair he'd been occupying half the night while his girlfriend--his supposed girlfriend--made small talk with his family. Or if she'd intended it for Natalie.

  Dad came over. Seems they had group photos to take before the cake. Like it was a wedding instead of a birthday party. The two of them herded the cousins to the bathrooms to wash up, then to the brightest corner of the courtyard so Chloe's photographer friend could arrange everyone to his liking.

  The siblings stood, of course, in alphabetical order, with Mom and Dad seated in front of the twins, flanked by chairs for the spouses. They smiled through a few shots of the adults before the kids climbed onto various laps. "Where's Natalie?" Danny asked.

  DJ said, "Tell her to pull a chair up next to me. That way Marisa and Koray will be in the middle."

  "She had to make a call," Evan said. He wasn't going to get into it while they were posing.

  "No, it's better this way. Symmetrical," Chloe said. Five siblings, five kids, three spouses and two parents.

  "That's nonsense." Mom swiveled to look up at her middle child. "Why would symmetry matter? This is family, not geometry."

  "Exactly," Chloe said, not so low that Evan didn't hear. Any more fixed smiling and his jaw would freeze in place.

  Dad lifted Laurel by her armpits and swung her like a bell until she giggled, and Rowan hopped off Mom's lap to demand his turn. Before picking him up, Dad said, "Evan, tell Natalie to come be in the picture. I didn't get any shots of you two all dressed up earlier."

  Neither had he. Everyone running around demanding selfies and group shots with each other, and he hadn't asked anyone to get a picture of him with Natalie. He wondered if she was in anyone's photo cloud, in that dress that showed off all her curves. When she'd preceded him out the hotel room's door, he'd struggled against the urge to snag her by one of the shiny straps between her shoulder blades and haul her back to bed. He didn't know how he'd sat around telling knock-knock jokes and schmoozing the locals instead of getting the two of them in front of a cameraphone.

  Except they only ever took photos together to post to social media. And the point of those photos was to convince his parents they were a real couple. And showing up for a family party together negated the need for more evidence.

  "She had to make a call," he repeated.

  "Let the woman do her work," Chloe said. "We'll get pictures of her and Evan at brunch tomorrow. How about a picture with just Mom and Dad and the grandkids?"

  Redirected, everyone shifted. Evan stepped back into the shadows to watch his family. The moms and dads fussed over their kids' hair and collars and shoelaces. The photographer put them in nuclear family groups, then nuclear with the grandparents, and Chloe got in with Ben and Tara and Marcus. Chloe and Ben with their parents. Chloe and Ben with all the kids. When someone posed Will and Tara and DJ, DJ asked again for Natalie, but he kept silent. The kids were given back their electro
nics, and they swarmed off.

  "I want one of my A and B and C and D and E," Mom said. The photographer seated Alice and Chloe, arranged the brothers standing behind them. Suggested Danny put his arms around Ben and Evan, and they put their hands on their sisters' shoulders. Evan hesitated long enough for Chloe to glance up and see just how reluctant he was to touch her. Her eyes were flat and remorseless. He was sure his weren't. Danny squeezed his neck; Evan pasted on his smile and let his hand brush Chloe's sleeve until the flash went off.

  He avoided her the rest of the night. Took cake to Mom and let her show him all the pics of their childhood she'd uploaded. Various piles of gangly kid limbs before he came along. The four teens lined up in nascent grunge attire, Alice tugging on his hand to keep his overall-clad self in the frame. Bright smiles at Danny's fifth-grade graduation ice cream party. Everyone on the blue chambray sofa on the twins' eleventh birthday, Evan propped like a limp alien in their midst. He'd have been home from the NICU a few months; until his first Christmas, his siblings in photos always looked like they regarded him as a fragile interloper.

  By dint of dodging and vagueness, he avoided explaining Chloe's rudeness to anyone. Ben tried to pin him down, but Tara pulled him away to dance before the interrogation went far. He said goodnight to many, though not all, so it was plausible he didn't mean to snub Chloe.

  The lights were dim in their window above the courtyard. Taking a slice of cheesecake to go, Evan headed up. He entered quietly, just in case, and was glad he did when he saw Nat curled into her pillows. So much for his fantasies about the dress. He aimed for stealth as he got ready to join her, remembering at the last moment to pull the blackout curtains so they could sleep past the morning's first light. She didn't wake when he fit himself around her, but she did settle back against his chest, which was comforting. Further apologies for his sister's rudeness would have to wait until the next day. Nestling his nose against the wildflower wildness of her hair, he drifted off to sleep.