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He smirked. “I most certainly wouldn’t take that bet.” He cleared his throat, looking around them for a moment. “But, it’s not over yet, though. She’s going to be testing you at every opportunity tonight.” Stella gave him an annoyed look and Richard just shook his head. “All right,” he said. “You’ve got this. Message received. Just do me a favor and stay alert.”
Stella was looking around for the waiters with the champagne glasses. Despite her calm exterior, she was shaking in her expensive shoes. She needed a drink. “I’m going to grab a drink.”
She started to move away, but he held her arm fast. “Two drinks,” he said. “No more, please.”
“What kind of lush do you think I am? I can handle my liquor.”
“I’m sure you can,” he said, “But we can’t afford any slip-ups. I don’t even want you tipsy. Understand?”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll have a drink now and one at dinner.” Stella got her drink and Richard got one as well and the night began. Richard paraded Stella around, introducing her to several executives within the company where he worked and she couldn’t help but think that this felt more like a very expensive work gathering. It reminded her of the Christmas parties at the old company where she used to work. She always felt out of place there and she felt even more so now that she was impersonating someone else.
“So,” one executive asked, “are you involved in the family business at all? I’m sure they could always use another CEO.”
He chuckled, his fat jowls jiggling. She just laughed a fake laugh with him. She had no idea what that meant. “Oh, I’m sure,” she said, “But I’ve decided to take a gap year from the family trade and do some traveling through America.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, I would have thought you’d choose somewhere else coming from such a beautiful place as France.”
“Well,” she said, “France is beautiful, but I’ve already seen so much of it. I’m ready for a change.”
“It’s a good thing, too,” Richard chimed in. “Right, honey?”
She cringed inwardly, the word ‘honey’ sounding foreign on Richard’s tongue. “Right.”
The man whose name Stella already forgot smiled at the two of them. “That’s just lovely. You know, you’ve snagged yourself a good one. Brillant businessman, this one. The smartest man I’ve worked with in years. Did you know this one was practically a child prodigy?”
Stella raised her eyebrows and looked at Richard, whose face was uncharacteristically blushing. “He exaggerates,” he said with a chuckle.
“Not hardly. Richard the Second had this one playing the stock market before he was five. Made out like a bandit most of the time, too. Do you remember investing in that toy company when you were little, Richard?”
Richard’s face got even redder. “Stop,” he said with a polite laugh. “You’re embarrassing me.”
“Came back with an eighty percent return,” the man said to Stella directly. “I’d never seen anything like it. I told Richard right then that he and Matilda need to get him into the family business immediately.”
“Matilda?” said Stella before she could stop herself. The man tilted his head a little.
“Yes. His mother, dear.”
“Oh, right!” she said. “Sorry, um, Richard doesn’t really talk about his mother very often.”
Now she was flushed. Richard didn’t put very much about his mother in a binder. Her name might’ve been there, but as far as she recalled, he maybe only included a sentence or two about her and even those were about his father.
“It’s kind of a sore subject,” Richard added. “Mother’s death was hard on me.”
“This is true,” said the man. “They were very close.”
“Well,” said Richard. “Now that I’m officially embarrassed, I should take this moment before dinner to utilize the facilities. Mr. Walters, Stella. I’ll be right back.”
Stella stood there, feeling like she was sitting in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. Once he was gone, Mr. Walters said, “He must trust you immensely to leave you in this sea of single men.”
She looked at him curiously. “Single…?” She looked over his shoulder and suddenly, she became acutely aware that there were an inordinate amount of men at this party. It was practically a sausagefest.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Everyone here knows who Richard is and now they all know who you are. No one would dare make a move on you.”
She smiled stiffly. She certainly hoped so. She saw a plate of hors d’oeuvres go by and she excused herself to follow it. This cocktail party was going on too long. She was getting hungry. She wondered if there was even a dinner at all happening at this point.
She grabbed what looked like cheese on a circle of styrofoam that was on one of the trays and looked around herself as she took a bite. It was a nice enough party and, as it happened, it seemed like she was doing pretty well.
“Don’t fill up on those,” she heard from behind her. “I’ve got a big dinner planned for tonight.”
