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Stella looked up and saw Rebecca standing next to her. She smiled at her with red lipstick the same shade as her hair.
“Oh,” said Stella, stepping back unconsciously. “Hello again.”
“Hello. You know, I just wanted to take this moment to tell you how happy I am that you’re here with Richard. It’s about time he found someone. His father and I were so worried that his last marriage might’ve ruined him.”
Stella flushed. This was the moment that Richard had been trying to prepare her for and he was off in the bathroom. It was as though she’d waited until Stella was alone to walk up to her.
“Well, you know, they say that first marriages don’t always work out as well as the second one.”
“Is that what they say?” she said with a tilted head. “He did tell you what happened with him and Eleanor, didn’t he? That’s his ex-wife’s name, by the way.”
Stella could have lied and said that she knew, but she felt like that would be a trap that she couldn’t get herself out of. “He hadn’t mentioned it, no,” she said.
Rebecca raised her eyebrows. “Really? That’s surprising since you two are so close.”
“Well,” Stella said with a little laugh, “you know Richard can be closed off at times. I figured he would tell me what happened when the time came.”
“Of course,” said Rebecca. “Such a traumatic experience can be hard to relive, I imagine.”
Stella felt very uncomfortable under Rebecca’s gaze. She suddenly felt like a laser light was bearing down on her somehow…
“I should probably mingle some more--”
“Can I just say that you are much more high class than I thought he’d go for?” she said, leaning into her as if sharing a secret. “You must be one of those expensive call girls.”
Stella’s face went red. “I beg your pardon?”
“How much is he paying for this appearance? Must be a lot of you had to learn so much just to pass.”
Stella had no response. She wanted to argue with her. To fight with her in the middle of the party, but she knew how bad that would look. She stiffened instead and said, “I don’t know what you’re implying. You’ll excuse me.”
Rebecca gave her a final look, then stepped back, looking over her shoulder at the door. “Of course,” she said. “I have another engagement right now anyway.”
She walked away, making a beeline for a man in a suit by the room’s entrance. Stella sighed, her hands shaking from the encounter. It seemed like it would take more than just her playing a part to convince her of anything.
It was then that she saw him. She couldn’t believe it. What was he doing here??
Curtis was standing at the farthest end of the room with a glass of champagne in his hand, talking to a pretty young woman in a flowery, pink gown.
This was wrong. How did he get into this party?? Panicked, she started walking for the entrance in the direction that Richard went. It was definitely time to go.
Chapter Fourteen Richard
After using the hallway bathroom, Richard started to make his way back to the ballroom, but he was stopped by the sound of voices around the corner of the long hallway leading to the foyer. There was a shout, then the voices drifted back down to a low mumbling.
Richard thought that he should turn around and head back to the party. He shouldn’t be snooping around. Still, he followed the sound of voices to his father’s office. He spotted a sliver of light from the slightly open door and realized that whoever it was, they were in his father’s office.
A rush of anger boiled up from some place of entitlement inside him. That was his father’s office. Who was disrespecting his father’s house this way?
As soon as he was close enough, he had his answer. It was Rebecca. She was talking to someone - a man it sounded like. Richard leaned in and listened.
“This fiasco needs to come to an end!” said Rebecca. “I can’t believe we’re still talking about this. He’s not marriednow. That has to count for something.”
“Normally it would,” said the male voice, “But the estate lawyer was a good friend of your father’s, and he’s said that he would hold off as long as he has to for Richard to get married.”
“That can’t be legal,” she said. “This is ridiculous.”
There was a pause, then, “Listen, is there any chance that this relationship could be real? I mean, from what I saw out there, they looked like a real couple to me.”
