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He peered at the group and leaned closer. “My parents. The Blakes of course, just as I thought. Mr. and Mrs. B plus Felicia. I hope John shows up soon so Mrs. B doesn’t give me the stink eye. And there's Jim Thorpe and his wife Marie. Plus my father's golfing buddy who's the CEO of a Wall Street investment firm you won’t have heard of but which handles billions of dollars in investments of the rich and famous. Smile for the camera," he said and squeezed my hand.
He pulled me over to where his adoptive mother and adoptive father were sitting.
"Hello everyone," he said and bent down to kiss his adoptive mother's cheek. "Mother. Father," he said and smiled at the people sitting at the table. "Good to see everyone. For those of you who haven’t met her already, this is Alexandria."
I smiled my best smile and tried to make eye contact with everyone as Luke introduced them.
"Luke," Mrs. Thorpe said, eyeing me up and down. "We didn’t know you had a new girlfriend. How nice to meet you, Alexandria."
"Please, call me Alexa," I said and felt my cheeks heat.
"Alexa’s doing her Master's Degree in International Relations at Columbia," Luke said, a note of fake pride in his voice. "We met there last year."
"How nice," Mrs. Thorpe said and I was surprised at how these adults looked on the children of their friends almost as possessions to be mated off to each other's children. On their part, the Blakes gave me acid smiles, Mr. Blake narrowing his eyes like he was assessing why I got Luke instead of his daughter. I thought the time of the aristocracy pairing off children to each other had gone, but I found it operating in full force in the wealthy business types in Manhattan. Who would have thought?
Luke and I went over to the barbecue where a chef wearing a white chef's hat was moving pieces of meat around on the grill.
"Take a plate and tell Jean what you want. Looks like there's beef ribs, roast beef, steak and burgers."
I examined everything on the grill and opted for a small tenderloin steak. Luke took some ribs and then we served ourselves salad and bread, snagged a beer each and went back to the table. Luke pulled out a seat and I sat down, nervous about being with all these strangers, but at least Luke would be there to look after me. While I thought I could carry on a conversation about international affairs as well as the best of them, I had no idea what rich people talked about when they sat around a supper table.
I ate my meal and listened as they talked about the stock market, about the golf courses they were visiting during the season, about the election, and about mundane things like the weather and the price of oil. I kept my mouth shut and ate without contributing, and Luke was silent as well, seemingly hungry and focused on his food.
"Is your steak to your liking?" Mrs. Marshall asked, looking at me over top of her glass of wine.
"Yes, thanks," I replied, smiling. "Delicious."
"So, Luke, tell us about this deal we've all been hearing about," Mr. Thorpe said, focusing on Luke.
Luke recounted the upcoming meeting and how there were several buyers interested in acquiring Chatter, including Harrison, the Blake’s son. I recounted how they were vetting each one to ensure they shared the company's vision for the business. Luke was smart and articulate and the others listened as he spoke. They were all rich as crap but they were also impressed with someone who could build a business worth two billion in such a short time.
"To what do you attribute your success, young man?" Mr. Thorpe asked. He'd pulled out a cigar and was smoking, blowing the smoke off to the side of the group. Beside him, Mrs. Thorpe waved the smoke away, making a face of disgust. She turned to Luke.
"Yes, Luke. Tell us what you think made your business so successful."
Luke put down his rib and wiped his hand, then took a drink of beer.
"It was timing and a lot of legwork plus the smarts of my co-founder. I'm the deal maker, John is the tech wizard. We work together really well, we're both equally ambitious and we had a product that people actually wanted to use. It filled a niche and there were enough people using it to make it very desirable to investment types."
People nodded and congratulated Luke on his success and I smiled as I watched him enjoy it, basking in being able to talk about his business.
"What will you do now?"
"I'm going to take a year off and sail around the world," Luke replied, then filled them all in on his plans, talking about building a custom-made catamaran from the ground up and then take it around the world with a crew.
"What about you, dear?" Mrs. Blake asked, her face a bit gloating. "Will you be going with Luke?"
"Oh, no," I said and felt incredibly nervous, coming up with a story on the fly. "I couldn't take the time off. I'll be starting my PhD and I don’t want to delay it any longer than I have to."
"Alexa will fly and meet us at various locations while we're in port," Luke said and took my hand, squeezing it and then kissing my knuckles in a gallant gesture that was pure performance. "It'll be hard to be apart for that long, but we'll find ways to see each other during her vacations and on long weekends. I'll fly her anywhere she wants to go when we get into port."
I smiled, wishing that were the truth and not just a story he told to make sure Mrs. Blak
e gave up on her dreams of marrying Felicia off with him. I turned to see what Felicia was doing but she was looking down at her plate, pushing food around. I felt truly bad for her because it was obvious Mrs. B was a domineering type who tried to control her daughter’s life.
I couldn’t stand it if my mother was that much of a busybody, trying to marry me off to her best friend's son. Felicia herself was quiet and I hoped John showed up soon so she could enjoy the night. John seemed to be interested in her when we were at the family dinner at Cipriani's. Felicia was pretty and she was sweet in a quiet sort of way. I felt no ill will from her and when she met my eyes, she wasn't shooting daggers at me the way her mother was.
For the next hour, we sat with the group and ate our meals, and once we were done and the bottles of wine were empty, Luke's parents, Mrs. Thorpe, Felicia and the Blakes went up to the house. Mr. Thorpe stayed behind with us and Luke and Mr. Thorpe talked business.
