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Luke nodded and then pointed to the bar. "I'll be right back. John, what can I get for you?"
"Whatever you're having."
"Probably should be hemlock, but I'll have a beer instead." Luke said and left me standing with John.
I turned to him, feeling like the three of us had just survived a battle. "So, I take it Luke and his adoptive mother don't quite see eye to eye."
"That's the understatement of the millennium. She wants him to marry Felicia Blake and he most definitely doesn't want to. Well, she really wanted him to marry this woman called Jenna, but that’s a whole other story.”
"This is the 21st Century," I said. "People find their own partners when they get married."
"I know that and Luke knows that, but apparently, Mrs. M didn’t get the memo. She’s not one to take no for an answer though. I see sabers at dawn in Luke's future."
"Really?" I said. "I'm surprised that there'd be such a big fight over who Luke marries."
"Old money wants to keep it all in the right families, and Felicia comes from only the very oldest money. We're talking cousins of the founding families of Manhattan's banking class. They do things differently than the rest of us."
"I wouldn't know," I said with a shrug. "I come from good old working class stock. Dad was a pilot in the Air Force."
John shrugged. "That's pretty decent stock."
"We're definitely lower middle class, but only just. My dad happens to be skilled with hand-eye coordination and cool under pressure. My grandfather worked on the docks. My other grandfather worked on the railroad as an engineer."
John nodded. "Good red-blooded American working class. Nothing to be ashamed of."
"I'm not," I said with a smile. "I'm really proud, actually."
"What are you proud of?" Luke asked when he joined us, a couple of beers in one hand and a bottle of 7-Up for me. I took it from him and the three of us clinked bottles.
"She's proud of her working-class family background," John said.
"Oh, yeah?" Luke said and turned to me. "How did you get into Columbia? Scholarship?"
I nodded. "Scholarship all the way. My father's working but his income isn't enough to really help with tuition to a good college."
"Columbia's great. You're doing an MA so that means you have brains as well as beauty."
"Your adoptive mother didn’t seem to think I'm very attractive."
"She's just jealous," Luke said and leaned closer. "She's measuring you up against Felicia Blake, and realizes that there's no competition."
Luke smiled, his eyes playful.
I didn't know what to think of him. He knew I wasn’t an escort, and that I was a grad student. I wasn't going to sleep with him so why was he being so nice?
Then, for the next hour, we circulated, John in tow, and the three of us met and talked to various family friends and business associates. Luke introduced me as his girlfriend and luckily, no one seemed interested in asking me anything in detail.
Then, Luke stopped up suddenly and held out his arm to stop John.
"Oh, crap," he said. "Look who showed up."
I glanced over and saw an incredibly handsome man with dark hair walk into the ballroom from the main entrance. On his arm was a woman my age, tall, slim and very elegant looking.
"Who's that?" I asked, wondering why Luke would be so alarmed.
"Heckle and Jeckle,” John said with a sour face. "Heckle is Felicia's brother Harrison. He's a big wheel on Wall Street. He's taking over from his father at the helm of this big investment banking company. He really likes Luke for Felicia's husband and is one of our investors. Jeckle is his girlfriend, one of the recent debutantes of the rich and famous named Jessica. We don't like her much."
"If Harrison's here, Felicia and her mother won't be far behind them." Luke took a long swig of his beer like he was trying to get courage up to face them.
