Scandalous (35 page)

“Old Mulligatawny Soup’s put his name in the hat, has he?” laughed Jenny. “He’s the dullest man in Cambridge. You’d be miles better than him, Theresa.”

Theresa laughed. Some PA to the gods had obviously sent a celestial memo around that today was her day to be flattered. “Thanks guys. I appreciate the vote of confidence. But I am
much
too young,
much
too insignificant, and last but not least, much too female to stand a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming master of St. Mike’s. Now, who’s for pudding? The hazelnut soufflé’s supposed to be out of this world.”

Later that night, in bed in Willow Tree Cottage with the wind rattling the ancient leaded windows, Theresa lay under a mountain of blankets, thinking about the day. She’d managed to get through the rest of the supervision with Horatio Hollander, largely by avoiding eye contact as much as possible, but the poor boy’s embarrassment was contagious. Afterward she’d wondered guiltily if perhaps she’d somehow given him any encouragement—unconsciously, of course. The truth was she did enjoy his company. Theresa had come to look on her supervisions with Horatio as one of the highlights of her week, though in the past she’d always put that down to the thrill of working with an undergraduate capable of challenging her intellectually, of pushing the boundaries. Well, now the boundaries had been well and truly pushed. It was her job, her responsibility, to push them back. Even so, she couldn’t help but take a tiny sliver of pleasure from the fact that this kind, brilliant golden boy had fallen for
her
of all people. At her age, it was quite a compliment.

Then there was the day’s other compliment, at the other end of the scale, Jean Paul’s suggestion that she apply for the St. Michael’s mastership. Theresa wasn’t sure which fantasy was the more impossible to picture. Herself as Mrs. Horatio Hollander, skipping down the aisle in a white dress, or herself taking the master’s seat at St. Michael’s high table. Both thoughts—the white dress and St. Michael’s—drew her mind back to Theo.

Theresa was no longer in love with him. Those days, mercifully, had passed. But occasionally, especially after a few glasses of Bordeaux, or when she saw pictures of his and Dita’s adorable little children, fragile, blond Milo and the chubby-cheeked little girl, Francesca, she felt a sort of wistful nostalgia.
Those could have been my children
, she would think, before realizing that of course they couldn’t, and that it was ridiculous and wrong to project her own frustrations or regrets onto two perfectly innocent little people whom she hadn’t even met, and likely never would.

Tonight, as sleep crept over her, she wondered about Theo. Where he was right now, this moment, as she lay in bed in Grantchester? What he was thinking? She thought of how amazed he’d be if he were to read that she, Theresa O’Connor, had become master of his old college.

As pipe dreams went, it was a good one.

J
ACKSON
D
UPREE STOOD
at the altar, staring down at his shoes on the polished parquet floor.

“You OK?” James Dermott, Jackson’s second cousin and longest-standing childhood friend, nudged him in the ribs. “Not thinking of running, are you?”

Jackson turned around. Behind him, over two hundred guests crammed into the pews of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, overdressed in garish hats and feathers and finery. More hovered at the back and in the side chapels, straining to catch a glimpse of the bride who had snagged the most eligible bachelor in Martha’s Vineyard, and quite possibly the whole of America.

“I’d never make it out of here alive,” he joked. “I’m trapped.”

Turning back to face the front, he started fiddling with his tie. The stiff collar of his formal shirt made him feel like he was suffocating. At least, he chose to blame it on the collar.

“She’ll be here in a minute,” said James. “Do some deep breathing. Think of your happy place.”

My happy place
, thought Jackson.
Isn’t that supposed to be here? On my wedding day? The happiest day of my life?

The last five years had been five of the most magical, and traumatic, of Jackson Dupree’s gilded young life. When Sasha Miller spun off Wrexall Dupree’s retail division to form Ceres, the company she walked out on was changed instantly and irrevocably. As Jackson predicted, the market soon forgot about the McKinley deal and the millions of dollars of revenue it had brought them. Instead investors and pundits alike watched with interest to see just
how
the new, slimmed-down Wrexall would compete; what their next move would be; and whether they would, as Jackson Dupree had famously and publicly threatened, “go after” Ceres with all the fury of a lover scorned. Market-watchers hovered over Wrexall, not like an anxious parent concerned with its offspring’s progress, but like a pack of vultures, circling above their prey until they were quite sure it was dead.

In the first six months, the vultures almost got their way. While Ceres clocked up deal after deal, the seemingly unstoppable new kid on the block, Wrexall struggled to rebuild in retail real estate. First, their attempt to hire the CEO of
Cityfleet.com
, the online commercial real-estate giant, backfired spectacularly and publicly when an overenthusiastic headhunter leaked information about his proposed multimillion-dollar compensation package to the press. Next they made the mistake of going head-to-head with Ceres over a transaction with Westfield, the Australian shopping-mall giant, for a new mall outside Los Angeles.

“I don’t understand,” Bob Massey complained to the head of Westfield’s West Coast operations when he called to tell him Wrexall’s pitch had been unsuccessful. “That was a strong pitch. You’ve been partners with us for over eight years, David.”

“Yeah. And everyone I dealt with at Wrexall for the last four of those years is now at Ceres. I’m sorry, Bob. It’s nothing personal. But Sasha Miller really understands our goals.”

It was after Westfield fell through that the decline in Wrexall’s stock price began in earnest. By that time they had
belatedly rebuilt a retail division, hiring from all their key competitors (other than Ceres) and even bringing in fresh blood from other sectors, investment bankers and private equity guys. But it was too little, too late. If it hadn’t been for Jackson’s thriving hotels division and the gains they’d made in the residential sector, things might have gotten very bad indeed. As it was, they survived the year, bruised but still fighting and, at least in Jackson Dupree’s case, determined to bring Ceres down.

“You know, they say the opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s indifference,” said Lottie over dinner with Jackson one evening. They’d been dating for over a year by this point, and give or take a few slipups in the first few weeks, Jackson had been faithful, a personal best that those who knew him well viewed as little short of miraculous.

“You’re maturing,” James Dermott told him.

“Bullshit. I’ve always been mature. I just never had a reason to stay faithful before. Now I do.”

This was partly true. Lottie had certainly played her cards well, firstly by refusing to move in with Jackson and secondly by quitting Wrexall Dupree and finding herself a new, highly paid job at a chic uptown art gallery. “We can’t sleep together and work together,” she told Jackson, presenting her resignation as a fait accompli.

“What do you mean? Of course we can. We’ve been doing it for six months, haven’t we? It’s been working out fine.”

“Not for me it hasn’t,” said Lottie. “You’re my boyfriend, not my boss.
I’m
my boss.” Jackson pretended to be pissed off for a week, but Lottie completely ignored his cold shoulder, so in the end he gave up. Besides, deep down he loved the fact that she was independent, that she challenged him. Deep down, he still occasionally worried that there was something missing between them. Sex was fine. It was regular and enjoyable, if a little on the straight side, at least in comparison to Jackson’s prior tastes.
But it lacked the spark, the passion, the addictive adrenaline rush he’d spent most of his adult life pursuing.

That’s why this relationship is working
, Jackson told himself firmly.
You like Lottie. You respect her. She’s the best friend you always wanted, the sister you never had, the business partner you always needed…and she’s hot. Stop analyzing it to death and get on with it.

Tonight, three years into their relationship, he’d taken Lottie out to Nobu in Tribeca to try to take his mind off of Ceres’s latest triumph—their quarterly results, published today, had hugely outperformed even the most bullish analysts’ estimates, and Sasha was once again riding high. As usual, Lottie did her best to calm him down.

“Have you ever thought the best revenge you could hope to have on Sasha would be to ignore her? Indifference, that’s the key. Forget about Ceres. Focus on Wrexall, focus on your own business.”

Jackson speared a California roll morosely with his chopstick, wantonly destroying the sushi chef’s work of art.

“The more energy you waste on hating Sasha…” Lottie continued.

“I don’t hate Sasha.”

Lottie raised an eyebrow, as if to say
not much
. “Then why are you going after Raj Patel?”

Raj Patel, once Sasha’s direct boss at Wrexall, now worked for her as a key member of her senior management team at Ceres. Indian, Oxford educated, and devastatingly handsome in a softly spoken, intellectual Imran Khan sort of way, Raj had become almost as much the face of Ceres as Sasha herself. The two of them were often photographed together, Sasha creamy-skinned and seductive beneath her sleek black bob, and Raj dark and regal, his fine bone structure and strong aquiline nose belying his upper-class Indian heritage. If they ever got together sexually they’d make the world’s most beautiful kids.

“That’s business,” said Jackson. “At Ceres, Raj will always play second fiddle to Sasha. Back with us he could run his own show.”

It sounded plausible. But Lottie didn’t buy it. Out of loyalty to Jackson, she’d quietly dropped her own friendship with Sasha. There was no big bust-up, no announcement. Both women understood implicitly that, after all that had happened, it was the way it had to be. Ironically, it was Jackson who kept Sasha’s memory alive, to the point where Lottie sometimes felt, like Princess Diana, that there were three people in her relationship. Jackson hadn’t seen Sasha in person for over a year, but he carried her with him everywhere, lodged in his chest like a tumor. His attempt to poach back Raj Patel was just the latest in a long line of stunts aimed at hurting Sasha, humiliating her the way that she had humiliated him. Lottie prayed it wouldn’t backfire as badly as all the others.

“About Raj,” said Jackson. “I’m thinking of flying out to Barcelona next week.”

Lottie’s eyes widened. “You’re not serious?”
Forbes
had reported only last week that Ceres was holding its first global off-site at the Hotel Majestic in Barcelona, Spain. Sasha Miller was to be the keynote speaker at a real estate conference that would be attended by the biggest names in the industry. “You can’t hijack Raj there, it’s far too high profile. Remember what happened with Mr. Cityfleet? If Raj doesn’t come back to Wrexall, you’ll end up with very public egg on your face. You’re supposed to be being discreet.”