The Collector (3 page)

The Partiers rarely spent an evening at home, seemed to revel in a frantic sort of lifestyle.

And the Body practiced his bump and grind regularly—to her unabashed pleasure.

She treated herself to the show, and the stories she created every morning. She'd work into the afternoon, break to amuse the cat before she dressed and went out to buy what she thought she might like for dinner, to see the neighborhood.

She sent pictures of a happy Thomas to her clients, picked tomatoes, sorted mail, composed a vicious lycan battle, updated her blog. And installed the two baskets in the pantry.

On the first day of week two, she bought a good bottle of Barolo, filled in the fancy cheese selections, added some mini cupcakes from an amazing neighborhood bakery.

Just after seven in the evening, she opened the door to the party pack that was her closest friend.

“There you are.” Julie, wine bottle in one hand, a fragrant bouquet of star lilies in the other, still managed to enfold her.

Six feet of curves and tumbled red hair, Julie Bryant struck the opposite end of Lila's average height, slim build, straight brown hair.

“You brought a tan back from Rome. God, I'd be wearing 500 SPF and still end up going lobster in the Italian sun. You look just great.”

“Who wouldn't after two weeks in Rome? The pasta alone. I told you I'd get the wine,” Lila added when Julie shoved the bottle into her hand.

“Now we have two. And welcome home.”

“Thanks.” Lila took the flowers.

“Wow, some place. It's huge, and the view's a killer. What do these people do?”

“Start with family money.”

“Oh, don't I wish I had.”

“Let's detour to the kitchen so I can fix the flowers, then I'll give you a tour. He works in finance, and I don't understand any of it. He loves his work and prefers tennis to golf. She does some interior design, and you can see she's good at it from the way the apartment looks. She's thinking about going pro, but they're talking about starting a family, so she's not sure it's the right time to start her own business.”

“They're new clients, right? And they still tell you that kind of personal detail?”

“What can I say? I have a face that says tell me all about it. Say hello to Thomas.”

Julie crouched to greet the cat. “What a handsome face he has.”

“He's a sweetheart.” Lila's deep brown eyes went soft as Julie and Thomas made friends. “Pets aren't always a plus on the job, but Thomas is.”

She selected a motorized mouse out of Thomas's toy basket, enjoyed Julie's easy laugh as the cat pounced.

“Oh, he's a killer.” Straightening, Julie leaned back on the stone-gray counter while Lila fussed the lilies into a clear glass vase.

“Rome was fabulous?”

“It really was.”

“And did you find a gorgeous Italian to have mad sex with?”

“Sadly no, but I think the proprietor of the local market fell for me. He was about eighty, give or take. He called me
una bella donna
and gave me the most beautiful peaches.”

“Not as good as sex, but something. I can't believe I missed you when you got back.”

“I appreciate the overnight at your place between jobs.”

“Anytime, you know that. I only wish I'd been there.”

“How was the wedding?”

“I definitely need wine before I get started on Cousin Melly's Hamptons Wedding Week From Hell, and why I've officially retired as a bridesmaid.”

“Your texts were fun for me. I especially liked the one . . . ‘Crazy Bride Bitch says rose petals wrong shade of pink. Hysteria ensues. Must destroy CBB for the good of womankind.'”

“It almost came to that. Oh no! Sobs, tremors, despair. The petals are pink-pink! They have to be rose-pink. Julie! Fix it, Julie! I came close to fixing her.”

“Did she really have a half-ton truckload of petals?”

“Just about.”

“You should have buried her in them. Bride smothered by rose petals. Everyone would think it was an ironic, if tragic, mishap.”

“If only I'd thought of it. I really missed you. I like it better when you're working in New York, and I can come see your digs and hang out with you.”

Lila studied her friend as she opened the wine. “You should come with me sometime—when it's someplace fabulous.”

“I know, you keep saying.” Julie wandered as she spoke. “I'm just not sure I wouldn't feel weird, actually staying in— Oh my God, look at this china. It has to be antique, and just amazing.”

“Her great-grandmother's. And you don't feel weird coming over and spending an evening with me wherever, you wouldn't feel weird staying. You stay in hotels.”

“People don't live there.”

“Some people do. Eloise and Nanny did.”

Julie gave Lila's long tail of hair a tug. “Eloise and Nanny are fictional.”

“Fictional people are people, too, otherwise why would we care what happens to them? Here, let's have this on the little terrace. Wait until you see Macey's container garden. Her family started in France—vineyards.”

Lila scooped up the tray with the ease of the waitress she'd once been. “They met five years ago when she was over there visiting her grandparents—like they are now—and he was on vacation and came to their winery. Love at first sight, they both claim.”

“It's the best. First sight.”

“I'd say fictional, but I just made a case for fictional.” She led the way to the terrace. “Turned out they both lived in New York. He called her, they went out. And were exchanging ‘I dos' about eighteen months later.”

“Like a fairy tale.”

“Which I'd also say fictional, except I love fairy tales. And they look really happy together. And as you'll see, she's got a seriously green thumb.”

Julie tapped the binoculars as they started out. “Still spying?”

Lila's wide, top-heavy mouth moved into a pout. “It's not spying.
It's observing. If people don't want you looking in, they should close the curtains, pull down the shades.”

“Uh-huh. Wow.” Julie set her hands on her hips as she scanned the terrace. “You're right about the green thumb.”

Everything lush and colorful and thriving in simple terra-cotta pots made the urban space a creative oasis. “She's growing tomatoes?”

“They're wonderful, and the herbs? She started them from seeds.”

“Can you do that?”

“Macey can. I—as they told me I could and should—harvested some. I had a big, beautiful salad for dinner last night. Ate it out here, with a glass of wine, and watched the window show.”

“You have the oddest life. Tell me about the window people.”

Lila poured wine, then reached inside for the binoculars—just in case.

“We have the family on the tenth floor—they just got the little boy a puppy. The kid and the pup are both incredibly pretty and adorable. It's true love, and fun to watch. There's a sexy blonde on fourteen who lives with a very hot guy—both could be models. He comes and goes, and they have very intense conversations, bitter arguments with flying crockery, followed by major sex.”

“You watch them have sex? Lila, give me those binoculars.”

“No!” Laughing, Lila shook her head. “I don't watch them have sex. But I can tell that's what's going on. They talk, fight, pace around with lots of arm waving from her, then grab each other and start pulling off clothes. In the bedroom, in the living room. They don't have a terrace like this, but that little balcony deal off the bedroom. They barely made it back in once before they were both naked.

“And speaking of naked, there's a guy on twelve. Wait, maybe he's around.”

Now she did get the glasses, checked. “Oh yeah, baby. Check this out. Twelfth floor, three windows from the left.”

Curious enough, Julie took the binoculars, finally found the
window. “Oh my. Mmmm, mmmm. He does have some moves. We should call him, invite him over.”

“I don't think we're his type.”

“Between us we're every man's type.”

“Gay, Julie.”

“You can't tell from here.” Julie lowered the glasses, frowned, then lifted them again for another look. “Your gaydar can't leap over buildings in a single bound like Superman.”

“He's wearing a thong. Enough said.”

“It's for ease of movement.”

“Thong,” Lila repeated.

“Does he dance nightly?”

“Pretty much. I figure he's a struggling actor, working part-time in a strip club until he gets his break.”

“He's got a great body. David had a great body.”

“Had?”

Julie set down the glasses, mimed breaking a twig in half.

“When?”

“Right after the Hamptons Wedding Week From Hell. It had to be done, but I didn't want to do it at the wedding, which was bad enough.”

“Sorry, honey.”

“Thanks, but you didn't like David anyway.”

“I didn't not like him.”

“Amounts to the same. And though he was so nice to look at, he'd just gotten too clingy. Where are you going, how long will you be, blah blah. Always texting me, or leaving messages on my machine. If I had work stuff, or made plans with you and other friends, he'd get upset or sulky. God, it was like having a wife—in the worst way. No dis meant to wives, as I used to be one. I'd only been seeing him for a couple months, and he was pushing to move in. I don't want a live-in.”

“You don't want the wrong live-in,” Lila corrected.

“I'm not ready for the right live-in yet. It's too soon after Maxim.”

“It's been five years.”

Julie shook her head, patted Lila's hand. “Too soon. Cheating bastard still pisses me off. I have to get that down to mild amusement, I think. I hate breakups,” she added. “They either make you feel sad—you've been dumped—or mean—you've done the dumping.”

“I don't think I've ever dumped anyone, but I'll take your word.”

“That's because you make them think it's their idea—plus you really don't let it get serious enough to earn the term ‘dump.'”

Lila just smiled. “It's too soon after Maxim,” she said, and made Julie laugh. “We can order in. There's a Greek place the clients recommended. I haven't tried it yet.”

“As long as there's baklava for after.”

“I have cupcakes.”

“Even better. I now have it all. Swank apartment, good wine, Greek food coming, my best pal. And a sexy . . . oh, and sweaty,” she added as she lifted the glasses again. “Sexy, sweating dancing man—sexual orientation not confirmed.”

“Gay,” Lila repeated, and rose to get the takeout menu.

T
hey polished off most of the wine with lamb kabobs—then dug into the cupcakes around midnight. Maybe not the best combination, Lila decided, considering her mildly queasy stomach, but just the right thing for a friend who was more upset about a breakup than she admitted.

Not the guy, Lila thought as she did the rounds to check security, but the act itself, and all the questions that dogged the mind and heart after it was done.

Is it me? Why couldn't I make it work? Who will I have dinner with?

When you lived in a culture of couples, it could make you feel less when you were flying solo.

“I don't,” Lila assured the cat, who'd curled up in his own little bed sometime between the last kabob and the first cupcake. “I'm okay being single. It means I can go where I want when I want, take any job that works for me. I'm seeing the world, Thomas, and okay, talking to cats, but I'm okay with that, too.”

Still, she wished she'd been able to talk Julie into staying over. Not just for the company, but to help deal with the hangover her friend was bound to have come morning.

Mini cupcakes were Satan, she decided as she readied for bed. So cute and tiny, oh, they're like eating nothing, that's what you tell yourself, until you've eaten half a dozen.

Now she was wired up on alcohol and sugar, and she'd never get to sleep.

She picked up the binoculars. Still some lights on, she noted. She wasn't the only one still up at . . . Jesus, one-forty in the morning.

Sweaty Naked Guy was still up, and in the company of an equally hot-looking guy. Smug, Lila made a mental note to tell Julie her gaydar
was
like Superman.

Party couple hadn't made it to bed yet; in fact it looked as though they'd just gotten in. Another swank deal from their attire. Lila admired the woman's shimmery orange dress, and wished she could see the shoes. Then was rewarded when the woman reached down, balancing a hand on the man's shoulder, and removed one strappy, sky-high gold sandal with a red sole.

Mmm, Louboutins.

Lila scanned down.

Blondie hadn't turned in yet either. She wore black again—snug and short—with her hair tumbling out of an updo. Been out on the town, Lila speculated, and it didn't go very well.