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Yeah, whoever thought it was cute to mix couples’ names together like that deserves to be smacked right upside the head.
“It just might make a comeback, Ray,” the Devil herself said as she stepped up, dressed in all gold and holding a glass of red wine.
“Hi, Mom,” Amelia said, breaking away from me to kiss her mother on both cheeks.
“The London women, looking as stunning as always. What is your secret, Esther?” Ray laughed.
Blackmail, murder, extortion, Botox, and her own daughter’s blood, sweat, and tears.
“Please enjoy yourselves.” He nodded to us, turning back to greet the other guests.
“So, Noah,” Esther said, swirling the wine in her glass, “Amelia tells me you two are dating. Congrats. You are one lucky man.”
“I know it,” I replied, never breaking eye contact with her.
“Be sure to save me a dance, alright?”
“Of course.”
With that, she disappeared into the crowd, and I felt that feeling again telling me to run.
“The person I see and the person I know her to be don’t mesh in my head,” Amelia whispered as we walked.
“I know,” I replied.
That’s what makes her so goddamn terrifying.
Amelia
This wasn’t all that bad.
In fact, if I forgot my mother was here, I was actually enjoying myself.
For the most part, everyone here was well enough on their own that Noah and I didn’t have to do that much mingling. We said hello to a few people and listened to conversations that we couldn’t really care less about. I did have a few older women try to discreetly talk to me about the movie—they tittered as they confessed that they were sinners, big-time fans, and were over the moon with excitement for the movie. I couldn’t talk about it, but seeing women their age excited to see such a highly sexual movie would have been funny if I wasn’t the one they would be watching get tied up, fucked, and whipped, sometimes all in one scene.
“I’m not going to make it another moment longer,” Noah whispered, finishing off his second glass of wine.
“Me either. Let me go to the restroom, and then let’s make our great escape.”
Nodding, he moved aside as I worked my way through the sea of bodies before me. All of them were laughing and talking over each other, most of the conversations centering on the good old days.
“Amelia?” my mother called, seemingly coming out of nowhere and wrapping her arm around mine. “Where are you going, sweetie?”
She was buzzed. Great.
“I was looking for the restroom, and then Noah and I are going to leave,” I said, and she nodded, grabbing the side of her head. “Maybe you should head home, too.”
“No, I’m fine. The restroom is down the hall, third door on the right. Hopefully that couple is out now. If not, there is one on the second floor, second door.” She muttered something under her breath, but her attention was completely diverted when she saw another person she wanted to throw herself onto.
“Bye?” I said to myself, following her directions and navigating down the corridor. I watched as a couple, kissing and pulling at each other’s clothes, rushed into the bathroom, the door slamming behind them.
Sighing, I turned back around, grabbing the side of my dress to walk properly up one side of the grand double staircase. Stopping midway, I glanced down at the people below me, remembering the millions of parties my mother had just like this one, where she showed off everything from the chandelier to my tap-dancing talents. It was like one giant circus, but instead of clowns and animals, there were actors and musicians.
Reaching the door, I knocked twice. Hearing no one, I opened it, but instead of a bathroom, it was a sitting area. It glowed with soft gold light that reflected off the mahogany wall, which was covered floor to ceiling in blue-black butterflies. Stepping inside, I walked toward the wall. It was breathtaking and—
“They are called Ulysses butterflies.”
When I glanced back, there was Ray Mallory, leaning forward on his cane. “Aren’t they beautiful?”
