Love-in-Idleness (13 page)

Miles grinned as he concentrated on the inner workings of Titania’s locked door until he heard the bolt pull back.
What had formerly been a loose plan began to gel in his mind. For the first time, he made a connection between having a house full of teenagers and possessing the potion from Tadhg. He couldn’t have planned this better.

As he crept silently toward Titania, he whispered, “Duerme,” under his breath. Only a small spell was required to deepen her sleep
, as well as that of anyone who slept nearby. For a few minutes, he sat at the edge of her bed, somewhat regretful of the fact that he had extracted himself from her good graces. Knowing that she wouldn’t awaken, he brushed the back of his index finger over the line of her cheekbone. She was truly exquisite. This was a loss he would feel with his heart. He hadn’t loved anyone as much as Titania since his first wife. However, there were sacrifices to be made. It was his duty as the executor of his family’s legacy to ensure their privacy and survival. Titania was too smart to be part of that, which seemed ironic since it was partially her intelligence that had drawn him to her in the first place. Nonetheless, she wasn’t family, and therefore couldn’t be trusted, no matter how much Miles wanted to believe otherwise.

Before he could weaken, he glanced at
the little bed on the other side of the room to make sure India was sleeping and then returned his gaze to Titania. He opened the small vial that Puck had brought him and took a pinch of it between his index finger and thumb. It fell below her nose, where she only had to inhale a small amount in the course of her normal breathing.

He replaced the cap and pocketed the vial before he picked up his son to carry him back to the nursery. It wouldn’t do for his son to spend this night in the company of his mother.

12:00 AM

 
        As Puck entered Ryder’s parents’ apartment, the air was completely still. He assumed that any inhabitants were already sleeping. He focused until his forehead ached, sending the command
duerme
into the apartment. If anyone was home, he could be assured that they would not wake up for a least a few minutes. With Cam and Chloe on his heels, time was of the essence. He followed the sound of the television to find Ryder sound asleep on the sofa, the remote control lying on the floor where he dropped it.  Puck squatted on his heels in front of Ryder and studied his face for a moment.         

 
             
So
, he thought,
you’re the source of all this trouble. You don’t even know what an inconvenience you’ve been tonight, do you?           

Quickly, he produced the vial from his pocket and released a small pile of dust into his hand. He took a pinch and sprinkled it next to Ryder’s nose, letting him breathe it in. However, when he was finished, he didn’t put it away. He followed his father’s orders, but he also had plans of his own. There was one more person to take care of tonight. He was forbidden to use magic on Grace for some absurd reason, but that didn’t completely limit his options.
           

Bickering voices rose from the stairwell, and Puck ran to conceal himself behind the open door of a closet. Within moments, Chloe and Cam appeared.

“How the hell,” Chloe asked Cam, “do you get lost when you have a GPS? We’ve been circling this neighborhood forever. We could have been killed.”

“Will you just drop it?” he asked. “It must be broken.”

“It’s probably as old as that ancient car.”

Cam shook his head. “That ancient car is a classic, and there was no such thing as a navigation system when it was built”

“That’s ridiculous,” Chloe snipped. “You really should look these things up before you argue with me. Besides, you’re a New Yorker. You should know your way around.”

“This isn’t New York. It’s Brooklyn.”

Chloe shrugged, as if in consent. Puck grinned. Nothing ended an argument as quickly as mutual disdain for the boroughs.

Cam quickly scanned the room and immediately spotted the television and the sleeping boy on the sofa. He tiptoed over and stared at Ryder over the back of the sofa. Puck had a sudden urge to wake Ryder, and had to stifle a laugh at the thought of Ryder falling desperately in love with Cam. As much fun as that would be, though, there was a better way.
           

Cam gestured for Chloe to join him, which she did eagerly.
           

 
“Listen,” he instructed. “Watch him and make sure he doesn’t wake up. I’m going to find Grace.”           

 
              “And say what?” Chloe whispered. “What could you possibly say that would explain you being here?”           

 
              “I guess I have about thirty seconds to figure something out, don’t I?” Cam turned and began to investigate the rest of the apartment. Puck had only seconds to plan and execute several spells, and did so with incredible accuracy.            

Before Cam had finished his instruction to Chloe, Puck began to whisper furtively. To anyone else, it would have sounded like he was giving random instructions to no one. However, very few people would have understood what it meant when he ended with the word
stasis
. It was this word that caused both Cam and Chloe to freeze momentarily.  Chloe was leaning over the couch, looking at Ryder. Cam was walking out of the room and into the depths of the apartment when he stopped short.        

Puck slipped out of his hiding place long enough to walk out into the apartment and push his brother to the floor. He took care to push Cam sideways. It wouldn’t do to hurt him too much. Puck needed Cam to be
able to fulfill his part of Puck’s plan, however unwittingly. Cam fell like a statue, landing on his left arm. His head hit the floor, but not hard enough to be problematic. Leaving Cam on the floor, Puck released Chloe from her frozen state before he concealed himself just beyond the door the living room.

Chloe stood behind the couch, staring at Ryder’s sleeping face. He seemed so ordinary to her. He wasn’t unattractive, but he definitely wouldn’t stand out in a Manhattan crowd. Looking around this squalid little apartment with its horrid man-made fibers and pressboard furniture, Chloe didn’t see why anyone, even Grace, would choose this regular-looking, middle class nobody over Cam. It made no sense to her.            

Upon thinking of Cam, she turned to see what had become of him, but before she could, a hand grab
bed hers. Chloe shrieked and jerked back as if she had been bitten. Ryder was sitting up and looking at her as if he were deranged.           

 
              “I’m so sorry,” she exclaimed. “Please don’t shoot me. I’m just with him.” She pointed behind her, but then remembered that there was no one behind her. Great. Now she was alone with some Brooklyn kid whose apartment she had broken into.            

 
              “You’re incredible,” Ryder whispered, his eyes wide.           

 
              “Yes,” Chloe responded without thinking at all. Maybe he wasn’t going to hurt her after all. However, his eyes were pretty glassy. Maybe he was on crack.           

 
              “What’s your name, beautiful girl in my house?” Ryder leaned forward and reached a hand out to touch her hair. Chloe swatted it away like a bug.           

 
              “Chloe. I’m here with Cam Oberon. He wants to see Grace for some stupid reason.”           

 
              “Grace? She’s in there.” He pointed toward the guest bedroom. “She’s all his. They can run off together if they’ll leave you here with me.” Ryder kept staring at Chloe in a funny way that was making her uncomfortable. “I know who you are. You’re the girl on the street. Grace told me that you were beautiful, but she didn’t do you justice.”           

 
“Are you high?” Chloe tried to look at his pupils, but was afraid he would think she was going to kiss him. From where she stood, his pupils weren’t dilated, but he still seemed off somehow. She took a step back. Normally, she didn’t question the admiration of men, but this was Grace’s boyfriend. Grace wasn’t exactly Chloe’s new best friend. “Why are you messing with me like this? What did Grace tell you? Are you making fun of me?” That was the only thing that made sense.  Grace heard her and Cam coming and put Ryder up to this as a cruel joke. There was no way to be sure that Grace wasn’t peeking out the window when she and Cam pulled up. There would have been exactly enough time between then and now to cook up a mediocre gag like having Ryder pretend to fall in love.

“Grace, you little bitch!” she yelled. “Where are you hiding? This is ridiculous, getting your boyfriend to make fun of me.
    

 
              “I’m not making fun of you.” Ryder stood up and walked around the couch, toward Chloe, which caused her to take a step back. “Seeing you, I can understand that I’ve wasted all of the time I’ve spent with Grace. I settled for less because I didn’t understand what true beauty is. How could I know when I’d never seen it until now?”

Chloe turned from him, ranting. “I’m in a freakin’ loony bin. Cam treats me like a dog all night and then this makes it worse. Isn’t it bad enough that everyone thinks Grace is this great beauty and I’m nothing? Do they have to rub it in?”
  When this was all over and she and Cam were finally together, he had a lot to make up to her.                 

Chloe ran to the front door and was down the stairs almost before Ryder could start after her. She was shockingly fast, despite her high-heeled boots, and when she heard Ryder’s steps behind her on the stairs, she began to move even faster, her white clothes reflecting the streetlights as she bolted down the street.

 
     After Puck’s hasty departure, his friends were left with the run of the Oberon family great room. What none of them realized was that Miles Oberon was watching them from his office via the small nanny cam that had been installed several years ago when India was born and Ana was hired. Ana turned out to be great with India, so they could have packed away the camera a long time ago. However, Miles liked having it in the boys’ favorite room. It let him know what was happening with them. And tonight, it was a tremendous source of amusement.

Nick Bottom was behind the bar, investigating each bottle of liquor and consuming a quick splash of the ones that intrigued him. He pondered the events of the evening aloud.
           

 
              “Why do you think Mr. Oberon needs for us to do this silly play? Why can’t he hire actors?”            

The other boys were lounging on various other pieces of furniture. Peter and Francis had taken over the oversized brown velvet sofa, and had their feet on a cherry wood coffee table the size of a twin bed. Sloan and Robin sat idly in smaller matching chairs, waiting for the others to lead the rest of the evening.
         

 
              “Who cares?” insisted Peter. “Whatever gets me a MBA program recommendation from Mr. Oberon. Just think of it as practice for your fraternity. They have to do things like this all the time. Maybe it’s the old guy’s way of getting us ready for college.” 

Miles took offense at being referred to as old. He was in his mid-forties. HE was younger than half the heartthrobs in Hollywood.

Francis shook his head in apparent disagreement. “I think it’s because of the redhead. That guy who’s getting married has a daughter.”           

 
              “So what, he has a daughter.” Sloan shrugged. “What does that have to do with us?”            Nick nodded. “Francis is right. Maybe he’s setting out a little beefcake buffet for the new girl.”           

Miles laughed out loud, looking at the crew of nitwits assembled in his home. Only a group this clueless wouldn’t be able to figure out that they were being mocked. What could be funnier than a bunch of stupid, arrogant rich boys in drag? It would be the hit of the social season. He only wished he had thought of it for one of his own weddings, but Puck had a more reasonable group of friends back then.
           

In the living room, Peter lifted one hand like a traffic cop in a valiant effort to focus the group. “Okay, the wedding is this weekend, so if we’re going to do this thing, then let’s do it, and for God’s sake, stop drinking, Nick.” Peter walked to the bar and reached over to remove a bottle of Courvoisier from Nick’s hand and put it down on the bar. “Puck left copies of the pla
y, let’s read through it. Sloan, try to keep up and just roar at the right parts.”           

Nick guffawed loudly, only to be silenced by a nasty look from Peter. “Try not to hurl, Nick.”
           

Peter distributed the small pamphlets. The group took a minute to peruse them. Nick flipped right to the end, and as he read, slowly lifted his hand as if he were in class.
           

 
              “Yes, Nick,” sighed Peter.    

 
                     “Everyone dies. Why are we doing a play where everyone dies at a wedding?” Nick asked.            

 
              “Yeah, I don’t get that either,” added Sloan.