The Year of the Great Seventh

by Orts, Teresa

  Nate fidgeted from foot to foot as if he hadn’t anticipated my reaction. “He… well… He’s not as exciting as you think.”

  Actually, I’d seen him on TV a few times, and I wasn’t too impressed by him. But this wasn’t about meeting a high-profile politician; this was about Nate letting me into his inner circle.

  “I know we don’t have time for this, but I have to meet him. If he suspects anything, he won’t leave me alone until he finds out,” Nate said apologetically as if we weren’t talking about one of the most influential people in California.

  He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and placed his hands on my shoulders to stare directly into my eyes. “I’d like you to come and meet him.”

  Then I thought about it. The idea of meeting a likely future senator just made my legs feel like butter. The pressure was on. What was I going to say to him?

  “Are you sure?” I brought my gaze down. “What will he think if he realizes that I’m just a West Hollywood girl?”

  “What do you mean?” Nate spoke with seriousness in his voice. His grip tightened on my shoulders. “You’re the most beautiful and smartest girl I’ve ever met, and he’ll be thrilled to meet you.”

  The blood rushed to my face at Nate’s forwardness.

  “That way you’ll get an idea what my family’s like.” Nate half-smiled.

  I guess he was being serious and he meant every word. However, that remark left me wondering.

  “And if meeting my family is important for you, I promise you that once we get back to L.A., I’ll introduce you to my parents, okay?”

  I nodded, unable to utter a word.

  “Let’s meet at street level at eight o’clock, then. Don’t be late!” Nate’s grin was reassuring, just like the daredevil smile he had in the photo Señora had shown me.

  He stroked my face and disappeared into his room.

  The rest of the afternoon flew by. I spent most of it on the Internet on my laptop, confirming the information we’d received from the woman at the information desk was correct. And indeed it was. Someone had stolen the two crabs. It meant no one would know what the inscription on the Caesareum referred to.

  Also, I searched for Preston Gorringe. The problem was the more I knew about Preston, the more I realized how important he was. He held a BA in economics from Harvard and had gone through Yale Law School. On top of that, he’d started his political career at the age of twenty-five.

  The next morning I was going to attend the NYU tour. Of course, I wasn’t going to waste all day while that horrible stain grew on Nate’s back. I was going to sign in, and as soon as I had the chance, I was going to disappear. I had to meet Professor Silverman at 1 p.m., and I convinced myself that he was going to be able to get us to those crabs right away. He worked at the Met as a consultant for special exhibitions, and I hoped he could get us into the museum vault. I knew he could help us, and I was prepared to beg if necessary.

  I decided to send an email to Professor Silverman in advance to explain that we needed to see the crabs for a school project before we went back to L.A. At seven o’clock, I began to get ready to meet Nate downstairs. It had taken some deliberation to decide what to wear. First impressions are super important. His cousin Preston would probably report back to the rest of the family, and I needed to gain Nate’s Mom back. She wasn’t likely to have much sympathy for me after our phone conversation.

  Ignoring that I was going to freeze to death, I decided to go for a tight gray dress, black heels, and a leather jacket. On occasions like this, fashion had to triumph over comfort.

  I loosened my long hair and smoothed out all the waves with my flat iron until it was completely straight. I put on some makeup and with ten minutes left, I applied black nail polish to give the outfit the final bad-girl look. Hopefully it would intimidate Preston a little and help him take me seriously.

  Before leaving the room, I checked my outfit in the mirror to reassure myself that I could stand up to the situation.

  When I got to street level, Nate was already there. He was outside on the street, leaning on the door and playing with his cell phone. I was sure he wasn’t even trying, but he seemed to be posing for a modeling photo shoot. His back was against the doorframe, and he was resting one foot on it.

  I couldn’t really decide why he looked so handsome. Maybe it was the dark jeans with a rip just above his knee and his gray leather jacket. Or maybe it was just the way he looked with his cropped hair.

  “I’m ready,” I said, stepping next to him.

  Nate glanced at me for a second and continued playing with his phone.

  “Should I call a cab?” I insisted.

  Nate slowly brought his gaze up from the phone in disbelief. “Wow. I didn’t recognize you. You look… you look… so much older with that hair.” His eyes twinkled.

  I took the older look comment as a compliment, as I was aware of Nate’s dating history, and he was obviously into older girls.

  “Stop looking at me like that. You’re making me blush.”

  “Sorry, you just look… beautiful.” Nate raised his hand and hailed a cab that cruised around Columbus Circle.

  The taxi driver took us all the way downtown to the Lower East Side and dropped us off at the door of a Mexican fast-food joint.

  As Nate helped me out of the taxi, he could see I was stunned.

  “I thought you really liked tacos,” Nate said, holding his laugh.

  We went into the taco joint and Nate headed straight to the back where there was a man with a suit by the service door.

  The restaurant walls had once been white, but with the steaming of the front kitchen, they turned yellow. The place looked like a diner, but it only served food to go, except for a few stools by the windows.

  “Do you have a reservation?” the man murmured to Nate.

  A reservation? Was he kidding us? There were plenty of stools available. Anyway, why would anyone want to make a reservation at this awful place?

  “Yes, it should be under Preston Gorringe’s name,” Nate said.

  The man with the suit grabbed a walkie-talkie from his pocket and spoke into it. “Brenda, I have two people from the Preston Gorringe party.”

  Then magically, the service door opened and a woman popped out. “Please follow me.”

  We went down a flight of stairs into the basement. Then we crossed through a busy kitchen until we got to a double red door.

  “Right through there. They’re at the bar,” the woman said, leaving us there and going back through the kitchen.

  Nate grabbed my hand as if to prepare for a grand entrance, and at once, we swung the doors open Wild West saloon-style. I was stunned to see there was a restaurant full of people hidden in the basement.

  The ceiling had wooden beams and the walls were stripped to the original bricks. There were different types of antique lamps and huge melting candles. A black wooden bar was to one side, and a forged metal railing separated the eating area.

  Trendy, beautiful people ate at the tables and a few gathered around the bar. Everyone here seemed out of a fashion commercial. It was by far the coolest place I’d ever seen. Right away, I recognized Preston Gorringe from TV. He was at the bar with a blond girl. As soon as he waved at us, Nate moved toward him.

  “Hey, man! I can’t believe I have to come all the way to New York to catch up with you.” Preston hugged Nate and patted him on the shoulder. He observed me over Nate’s shoulder.

  “How have you been?” Nate said with forced enthusiasm.

  Preston didn’t seem as intimidating as I expected. He certainly was more of the Beverly Hills type than Nate. His hair was combed to one side, and he wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up as if to make his Rolex more visible.

  “I didn’t know you were bringing someone?” Preston stared at me as if I were some sort of pet.

  “Sorry, this is Sophie.” Nate stepped slightly to the side, including me in the circle.

  At least Nate stopped introdu
cing me as his friend. I hadn’t gotten to the girlfriend position yet, but we were moving in the right direction.

  “Preston… helloooo,” I heard from the blond girl ordering drinks at the bar.

  “This is Addison,” Preston said dismissively.

  Preston seemed a bit overconfident for my taste. I’d been here for less than a minute, and I was already starting to dislike him. Addison kissed Nate on the cheek and gave me what could be called an air hug.

  “So what brings you here?” Preston said, handing each of us a beer.

  “Sophie’s doing an NYU tour and I decided to come with her.”

  I wondered why Preston offered us drinks when he obviously knew we were underage. By his attitude, he seemed to think he was above the law. Or perhaps that he was the law—which was technically almost true.

  “Are you in college?” Addison said as we’d been left slightly aside.

  A curious question. Obviously, if I was here checking out NYU, it was because I wasn’t in college yet. Maybe she thought I wanted to transfer to NYU from another college.

  “No, I’m not in college. I’m from L.A. I just came here for the week.”

  Nate and Preston were engaged in deep conversation next to the bar. However, I could tell Preston was watching me through the corner of his eye.

  “Are you a model?” Addison sipped from her beer bottle.

  “I’m actually not that into fashion.” I had to stop cutting off Addison every time she tried to make conversation. At least she was trying to be friendly.

  “Are you a model?” I asked her back, since I knew she asked me for a reason.

  I held my untouched beer, pretending to be drinking it.

  “Yeah, I did a diamond ring ad a while back,” she said, seemingly proud of herself. “I’m working on getting more gigs.”

  Two women sitting at a table turned to stare at Preston, and then one of them took a photo of him with her cell phone.

  “Oh, I see. I bet it’s hard to get work.” I tried to focus on my conversation with Addison, even though I was looking at Preston and Nate.

  I knew for a fact that if the acting world was competitive, the modeling industry was even tougher. You had to be extremely thin and tall to even stand a chance.

  Preston kept glancing at me as Nate was talking to him. He whispered something in Nate’s ear and they both turned at once to look at me. This was nerve-wracking. Were they talking about me? And if they were, what were they saying?

  I didn’t want to be rude to Addison, so I decided to fully engage in a conversation with her. It wasn’t her fault she was with Preston. “My Dad is a lecturer at UCLA. He’s a historian; that’s what I want to major in. NYU has the best program in the country.”

  Nate explained something to Preston, doing hand gestures, and he kept drying the sweat off his forehead. But it wasn’t that warm in here. The air-conditioning was fine.

  “What kind of stories does he do?” Addison brought the beer bottle to her mouth and knocked the whole thing down.

  How could I answer a question like that without making her feel uncomfortable? She’d caught me off guard.

  “Just stories about old stuff,” I explained in the most basic way I knew.

  Nate kept shifting his weight from side to side, and now he’d grabbed a paper napkin from the bar to dry his face. He made eye contact with me as Preston blabbed in his ear.

  “That’s that actor from the island show,” Addison said, pointing—not very discreetly—at a man at a corner table. “Nate’s really hot. How did you do it?” She scanned me from head to toe as if she couldn’t understand what Nate saw in me.

  I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Nate. He kept glancing at me over Preston’s shoulder.

  “I kind of feel that I need to warn you.” Addison checked whether Preston was looking at her and whispered in my ear. “Preston told me that Nate’s girlfriends change often and he never takes any of them too seriously. I met this other girl once when we went out for dinner with him. I can’t really remember her name. She was stunning, but Nate didn’t seem into her at all.”

  I was starting to feel sympathy for Addison. She was, in her own way, really trying to help me out. But what I couldn’t share with her was that I didn’t feel threatened by Nate’s dating history. I didn’t care how many girlfriends he had before me. I knew how Nate felt about me and I wasn’t going to let anything or anyone make me hesitate about him. At this point, I didn’t even care whether he introduced me as his friend or his girlfriend. What Nate and I had between us had no name or title. The way he made my emotions stir out of control when he was next to me couldn’t be explained in words.

  Nate nodded at me and, pushing people out of his way, darted to the bathroom.

  I stepped to go after him; I didn’t want to be left alone with Preston. But someone held my arm. “He’ll be back in a moment. Don’t worry!” Preston grinned as if he’d finally gotten what he wanted all along—some time alone to interrogate me.

  “So… you must be very special for Nate,” Preston said as if he couldn’t believe what Nate saw in me.

  Preston was here on a mission to bring me down, but what he didn’t know was he had no chance of succeeding.

  “We’re just friends,” I said, trying to protect myself from any further questioning.

  “I bet you go to that high school, too,” Preston mocked, grabbing a shot from the bar and gulping it down his throat.

  “West Hollywood High?” I said, as I wasn’t sure what he meant.

  “Huh, I bet Nate didn’t tell you what he said when his parents told him he was going to that public school.”

  I looked at Preston, fearing the worse. I knew which way the hit was coming.

  “He told them they may as well send him to a juvenile hall. He’ll probably make the same type of friends.”

  Nate probably had said that before coming to our school, but I was confident he didn’t feel that way now.

  Preston was trying hard to point out that I didn’t belong to his world and never would. He didn’t need to try so hard because I already knew. What Preston didn’t know was that Nate hated everything about his elitist upbringing. And the only person in the world he felt he could be himself with was me. No matter how hard Preston tried to bring me down, he had no chance of succeeding because what Nate and I had was untouchable.

  Anyway, maybe there were a few delinquents around school, but just as many as there were at private schools. Maybe the bullies at those schools drove expensive cars and wore expensive clothes, but that didn’t change anything.

  “You know, I’m running for the senate.” Preston looked down at me as if he doubted I knew what the senate was. “And the last thing I need right now is Nate doing something stupid to embarrass me.”

  He was definitely crossing a line. I wasn’t going to let him walk all over me. “I don’t really get what you mean by ‘something stupid.’”

  Preston pressed his lips into a smirk, as if I was exhausting his patience. “The more I think of it, the more I realize you must be very special to Nate. I’m sure he’s never taken any of his girlfriends on a trip across the country.”

  “Do you think I’m special for him? That’s flattering,” I said, trying to find a way to escape. Where was Nate? Why was he taking so long?

  “It’s also the first time Preston has taken me on a trip.” Addison interrupted.

  “Just order us some more beers.” Preston dismissed Addison by handing her a couple of bills.

  Preston kept getting closer to me, and I kept backing away until I was against the person behind me.

  “I’ll give you a piece of advice. I wouldn’t get too caught up with Nate. He’s a bit of a player.” Preston winked at me. “Now that I get to see you up close, you’re actually quite attractive.” Preston stroked my hair. Then he slid his hand down to my neck.

  “Don’t touch me!” I grabbed his hand and yanked it away from me.

  Preston’s gaze moved to my bracele
t. Once he realized I’d seen him looking at it, he looked away.

  A wave of relief washed over me when I saw Nate coming back from the bathroom. The front of his hair was wet. He’d probably washed his face.

  “I’m afraid we’re going to have to leave. Sophie has an early start tomorrow,” Nate said, dropping some bills on the bar for the drinks.

  “But you just got here! And Sophie and I were just getting to know each other.” The sarcasm was palpable in his tone.

  “Don’t worry. We’ll catch up in L.A.” Nate hugged Preston and tapped him on the back.

  “Nice to meet you, Sophie.” Preston planted a kiss on my cheek without giving me time to dodge it.

  I looked around, searching for Addison, but she’d vanished.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll tell her you said bye when she’s back.” Preston smiled as if we were best friends.

  As we walked out of the bar, I could feel Preston’s eyes on my back. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

  “Why are we leaving so soon?” I said, surprised, after we crossed though the red doors.

  “Preston was asking too many questions. I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to dodge them.”

  The cooks jostled around the busy kitchen, not paying attention to the people cruising through.

  Nate seemed intimidated by Preston’s questioning.

  “An early withdrawal seemed like the best option.” Nate let me pass in front of him to climb the steep metal stairs. “Did Preston behave himself?”

  Nate probably knew that the moment he left me, Preston would try to intimidate me. After all, he was his cousin, and probably knew him too well.

  “He was all right.” I lied.

  We went outside and waited for a taxi. We stood at the edge of the sidewalk, observing the occupied taxis coming downtown. The temperature had dropped dramatically. I was so cold I couldn’t control my shivering. Now I regretted my fashion-over-comfort decision.

  We hadn’t seen a single available taxi, and there were a group of girls next to us, also trying to hail one.

  “Take this.” Nate took off his leather jacket and threw it over my shoulders. Then he brought his arm around me to protect me from the cold.