She Sins at Midnight (4 page)

She thanked God that Lila had agreed to come home and give her the courage she needed to attend the reunion. Her friend must be thrilled to come back and share what a glamorous life she led in Southern California; movie premiers, designer clothes, star studded parties. Lila was tall, gorgeous
and
successful. How could it get any better than that?

Jilly laid her head on the table for a moment of

self-pity when she realized that she reeked of regurgitated baby formula. Dragging herself off to the shower, she fantasized about what it would be like to change places with Lila for a week. Heck, who was she kidding? She’d take a day.

T
he day before she left for Bentley, Lila was still valiantly trying to convey to Charlotte the basic information that she would need in order to be Josh’s temporary right hand. Unfortunately, Charlotte didn’t seem to be up to the task. Earlier in the week, Lila put her in charge of booking a plane ticket for Josh from L.A. to New York. But instead of flying him first class from LAX to LaGuardia, non-stop, she booked him in economy class on a flight leaving Long Beach, making two stops and finally landing in Islip, Long Island. Then, to make matters worse, she reserved a hotel room for him at a Radisson in Queens. When Lila asked what she was thinking, Charlotte answered, “I was thinking that it was nine hundred dollars cheaper.” Needless to say, Josh was furious. But Lila merely laughed and thought what a wonderful thing Karma was. Josh
had
asked for Charlotte and while the going around was easy, the coming around could be a real bitch.

Being that her boss wouldn’t be back until the next day, Lila decided to leave the office at 5:30. She wished her replacement good luck, grabbed her purse and made a bee line for Cynthia’s office. As Lila walked through her door, her friend squealed into the phone and hung up on whoever she was talking to. Cynthia ran around her desk, pushed Lila into a chair and threw her hands into the air, “You are NEVER going to guess what I just found out!”

Lila ventured, “Too much caffeine is a bad thing?”

Cyn gave a loud, “HA!” and continued, “No my dear, I just found out why Josh was so cool about your taking a month’s vacation
with
a retroactive raise.”

Lila’s heart fell. She knew it shouldn’t have been as easy as it was to get time off and more money, but in her desperation to vacate the premises, she tamped down those pesky little questions that kept popping into her head. “Do tell.”

“Well,” Cyn started, “it seems that Melinda is under the impression that Josh got you suspended for a month without pay because you called her the Queen of Oral Pleasure.” Lila couldn’t seem to find her voice. She sat there with her mouth open ala mounted fish, absolutely mute with fury. Cynthia continued, “And you are never going to guess where I got that bit of information…” Lila just stared at her, “from Franze LaBonge.”

Lila finally found her voice, “From your hairdresser?! How in god’s name did Franze find out?”

“From Sherry Foil who heard it from Nastacia.”

Completely astounded, Lila asked, “Sherry Foil heard it from my eyebrow-waxer?”

Cyn answered, “Not only your eyebrow-waxer, but half of Hollywood’s as well.”

Lila could not believe what she was hearing. It had to be common knowledge among everyone that Melinda knew she had the power to get Lila suspended. In and of itself, Lila didn’t give a fart what the movie star’s crowd thought of her. The problem was that Melinda thought that she had the power and that was simply not going to wash!

Cynthia continued, “Don’t worry, I told Franze that Melinda was making it up because you caught her in flagrant delicto with one of the janitors in the third floor coat room.” With extra glee, she added, “Then I made him swear on his best scissors that he wouldn’t tell anyone. After all, we as her agency, have a duty to protect her reputation.”

Lila stared at her friend in wonder and started to laugh uncontrollably. “You are positively diabolical. How soon before Franze had to get off the phone?”

“Are you kidding? He was so jazzed to pass on the new dish that he didn’t even say goodbye. He just hung up. By the time you get home Li, the entire Beverly Hills beauty community is going to be convinced that Melinda is pregnant with José’s baby.” Breaking into a beatific smile, she added, “And that my friend, is my going away present to you.” Lila gave Cyn a fierce hug of gratitude and swore that she would call her at least twice a week. Then she spun around and went straight back to her desk.

Charlotte, of the non-existent skirt, was perched on her chair filing her nails. She jumped like something had just bitten her toes when she spotted Lila, “Oh, hi. Did you forget something?”

Not realizing that the words about to leave her mouth would change her life forever, Lila answered, “Only the most important thing. Listen Charlotte, ever since Melinda’s Oscar nomination last spring, she insists that we refer to her as your Highness.”

Poor Charlotte looked horrified. “You’re kidding? I’m supposed to say please hold, your Highness. or Josh will see you now your Highness?”

Lila shrugged her shoulders in confirmation, “Exactly. Although, she likes to be called the Queen of Pleasure too. So feel free to mix it up.” With that directive, Lila turned and walked away. She smiled all the way to the elevator and thought, “That’ll show Melinda Forrester who’s boss!”

L
ila realized that LAX on a Saturday morning in August was not unlike a Turkish market day. Not that she had ever been to Turkey or the markets therein. She simply guessed they would be incredibly hot, crowded and tending toward the odiferous. LAX was certainly all of the above. In fact, it wouldn’t have surprised her if a herd of goats walked by.

By the time she got from the shuttle bus to the ticket counter, Lila had a river of sweat pooling in her bra. Other than that, she felt and looked pretty darn great. She had taken long lunch hours the week before in order to have all the prerequisite, pre-reunion beauty treatments performed upon her person. After all, when a girl was going back to the time when two roads diverged in a wood, she figured she had better look her best.

Lila’s shoulder length brown hair had been dyed the same color as her favorite bittersweet hot chocolate, with very subtle auburn highlights. Her eyebrows had been arched to perfection by the gossipy Nastacia. She was sporting a gorgeous French mani-pedi and of course there was the all-important oxygen-facial-rejuvenation thingy that she got talked into, which really worked. She was positively glowing, on the outside anyway. On the inside she still felt lacking. The thought of facing all her old friends in her single and childless state was enough to make her want to barf. What was her problem anyway? Why couldn’t she find Mr. Right? Then she remembered where she lived. in the land where not only did gentleman (term used loosely) prefer blondes but they also preferred emaciated ones with enormous fake boobies. Poor Marilyn was probably rolling over in her grave.

After checking four suitcases at the curb, Lila proceeded to the ticket counter for her boarding pass. Unbeknownst to her boss, she absconded with twenty-five thousand of his frequent flier miles and bumped herself up to first class. She was so mad at him for his perfidy, that she was devising a whole slew of tortures to unleash upon him. In the meantime, she started by misappropriating his sky miles.

On her way to the gate, Lila stopped by the gift shop to pick up some reading material for her flight. As her eyes searched the book rack, she focused on one paperback in particular. The cover had a sumptuous vibrant purple background with a voluptuous brunette lying across a massive bed, her nightgown hanging off one shoulder to reveal an alarming amount of cleavage. Standing over her was a black haired, green eyed Adonis in riding breeches. His shirt was opened down to his navel and blowing as though he were standing in the midst of gale-force winds. It was clear that ravishment was on both of their minds.

Lila’s mouth dropped open and she let out a joyful gasp. There it was, dead center in the row of New York Times Best Sellers,
She Sins at Midnight
by Jasmine Sheath! Her eyes nearly filled with tears at the site of her first published novel.

Lila’s New York based literary agent, Mitzi Feinman, sent her the official notice that
She Sins at Midnight
had just hit the New York Times Bestseller list. The letter was safely locked in her desk drawer at work. But Lila could hardly believe that it was being sold at the airport already.

Seeing her book there, so prominently displayed, was the second most exciting thing that ever happened to her. The first was the day that Mitzi called to say that Marsupial Books wanted to publish her steamy tale of erotic adventure.

Lila had been writing for years just for the fun of it and had never planned on trying to get her stories published, until the day she finished writing
She Sins at Midnight
. Lila identified with and loved those characters so much that she really wanted to see them in print. So she placed a call to Benny Fingle down in the motion picture /literary department and told him she needed an agent recommendation for a friend who just finished writing a romance novel. When Benny stopped laughing at the news that Lila actually had a friend who wrote that kind of trash, he came through with Mitzi’s name and number.

Lila contacted Mitzi, sent her the book and signed a contract all within two weeks, which was nearly an unprecedented amount of time in the literary world. Within six months, the revisions had been made and Mitzi sold the book to Marsupial.

Lila warned Mitzi that under pain of death, she could never reveal her true identity to anyone. Mitzi didn’t understand why her new client wanted to keep her success hush-hush. She was convinced that Lila’s friends and family would be delighted by her achievement, but Lila knew better. She explained that while her friends and family loved her enormously, they would be shocked out of their minds to read some of the racier scenes in her book. The only way Lila could express her true passionate nature was to know that she would have complete anonymity. Mitzi ultimately agreed and that was the day that Jasmine Sheath was born.

Various people tried to push Lila out of the way as she blocked the traffic flow. But she was so mesmerized by the sight of her book that she didn’t even realize it. Slowly she approached the shelf and picked up a copy of
She Sins at Midnight
. She was going to buy one, regardless of the fact that she had ten of them back at her apartment. Normally, Lila wouldn’t have risked being seen carrying a bodice ripper around in public. The covers were just too scintillating and suggestive. But this was a different situation all together. This was her novel and it had just hit the New York Times Bestseller list. All of a sudden, she was beyond proud to be seen with it, saucy cover and all.

As Lila settled into a seat at gate 23A, she sadly realized that trashy romances accounted for about ninety-eight percent of her social life. The other two percent was spent with Cynthia trying the latest and trendiest tinies (the appletini and chocolatetini being her most recent favorites).

While staring at the cover of
She Sins at Midnight
, Lila daydreamed of what it would be like to be caught in the midst of her own rapturous romance. When she first moved to L.A., she used to date a lot as her then voluptuous (read: size 8) body and wholesome Midwesterness (read: her own boobs) was received as a very fresh and appealing package. While flattered by all the attention, it didn’t take her long to realize that the men who were asking her out were not interested in a meaningful relationship.

In fact, there was a rule in Hollywood that dubbed the third date the “do or dump” date. That translated into if you didn’t “do” the guy by the third date he would dump you before there would ever be a fourth. Cynthia relayed this piece of information when Lila confided that she hadn’t been asked out on a fourth date since moving to California.

Cynthia was stunned by the news and asked if Lila had
ever
been out on a fourth date, her meaning crystal clear. Lila replied that she did have one serious boyfriend in college but there had been no one since. As nearly twelve years had passed since George, it was no wonder that she had become a romance novel junkie. Lila flipped her book over to read the back cover.

“Julius Hunkster Rapscallion, eighth Viscount Hedgeworth, looked down his aristocratic nose at her. Lady Vivian Ashwood thought she might swoon when his eyes lingered on her décolletage and continued to traverse the rest of her curvaceous form. Julius, who was a rake through and through and had bedded his fair share of the ladies in the ton, couldn’t imagine why this innocent piece of baggage was arousing him so. He couldn’t seem to wait to get his hands on her porcelain shoulders or his mouth on her pert…”

“Looks like you’ve got a steamy one there.”

“…breasts. Vivian was shocked to her core as Julius’s piercing gaze continued to ravish her with penetrating intent. Her insides turned to molten liquid and her knees buckled as he leaned down so that his mouth was only inches from her own. His large and insistent hands slid down her back and cupped her rounded bottom as he pulled her close. Then his lips were on hers devouring her whole. As Julius drew her closer yet, she could feel the hard…”

“Pretty engrossing, huh?”

“…length of him.”

Lila started to feel flushed. Truly, she was astounded at the degree of detail she could conjure up. She certainly never experienced that kind passion with George. The truth was that she and George had both been virgins and while he was always rearing and ready to go, he had no idea how to make the experience memorable for her. Once she was actually starting to enjoy herself, he was done and snoozing beside her. It was during the George years that Lila became hooked on historical romances. Everything always worked out so well for the heroines in her books. She just couldn’t help but wish that she was one of them.

There were three tried and true formulas (in the historic bodice ripping department) that Lila always favored. One: young virginal lady about to enter her first season catches the eye of His Hot Lordship. Against her will, or his, they fall madly in love and immediately get to work on an heir.