11. Nick #3
Cecelia, like Maryse’s replacement ? In all the events I’d attended, they’d never both been present.
Lemon face was still focused on Emily. “I love that you have something that’s keeping you busy, but not everyone cares about color schemes or dresses or chair coverings. Try to connect with Imogen over her interests instead of on trivial things.”
“I’ll try.”
Lemon face smiled, but it only made him look more like a cartoon villain with his overly shiny hair and pinched expression. “Shall I get you a drink?”
“Yes, thank you.”
He turned to me. “What about you, Nick? Do you like Shirley Temples? I’d get you a glass of champagne, but I wouldn’t want to contribute to the corruption of a minor.”
“Mal—”
I cut Emily off with my pretend laugh. “I’m fine, thank you.”
His smile faltered.
I’d learned a long time ago that bullies didn’t like it when you didn’t fight back. Malcolm was a bully, and I refused to stoop to his level.
“I’ll get you that drink.” Malcom waved a server over, picked up one of the champagne flutes on her tray, and handed it to Emily. “There you are.”
“Thank you.” Emily delicately sipped the bubbly.
It didn’t escape me that she’d thanked Malcolm when all he’d done was wave his hand. The server was the one who’d done all the work.
“Sir?” The server shifted the tray closer to me.
“You might want to check his ID first,” Malcom said. “My brother-in-law likes them young.”
The server glanced at me uncertainly.
“He’s just kidding. I’m not underage.” I smiled at her, even as I pictured kicking lemon face in the nuts.
She peered at the drinks on her tray, then at me.
“I’m okay for now, thank you.”
The server left quickly.
“If you’ll excuse me. I need to speak with Grant and Evan.” Malcom kissed Emily’s temple distractedly and hurried away.
“I’m sorry about that. His humor takes some getting used to,” she said.
“I’ll never complain about people thinking I’m younger than I am.” I peeked over at Evan, who was now standing with his dad and Malcolm and looking like he’d mentally checked out a while ago. “His RBF is on point tonight.”
“It always is.” Emily sipped her champagne. “Evan is… He’s my brother and I love him, but he never stood a chance.”
“What do you mean?” I tore my eyes from Evan and turned to her.
“He’s the first born, and the boy. The prodigal male heir.”
“And you were the spare?”
She sniffed. “You could say that. I was the next logical step.”
“I’m not following.”
“Everyone expected our parents to have a second child, so they did. Everything about our family is done for optics and appearances. Everything. They made us, but they didn’t raise us. Did Evan tell you how he called Oksana ‘Mom’ until he was nine? I did until I was eleven.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Vlado. “Your mom?”
He nodded.
“I still call her when I need someone to talk to. And Evan visits her on every holiday, including Mother’s Day. She’s the only reason Evan grew up somewhat normal.”
I shifted so Vlado wasn’t at my back and I could look between him and Emily. “She is?”
“She gave him the space to be a kid. Our parents expected us to be mini adults right out of the womb and treated us like accessories. Always happy to boast about us and parade us around, but completely hands-off when it came to raising us.” She paused.
“Oksana was the one constant source of support in our lives. I’m so glad he had her to confide in when he was struggling with his sexuality. ”
“Evan struggled with being gay?”
She nodded, her eyes sad. “He knew it went against the plans they’d made for him. He was supposed to grow up, take over for Dad, marry a suitable woman, preferably one who had connections to a family friend or was in line for a healthy inheritance, and have his own heir and spare.”
“He didn’t struggle with the actual being gay part?”
“If he did, he never told me.”
I glanced at Vlado, who also shook his head.
“That’s really sad.” It felt a bit wrong to be discussing Evan’s coming out with Emily and Vlado and not with him, but I couldn’t deny that I’d been curious about his experiences with being gay in his world.
It was hard enough for us regular folks to be queer, but he also had the corporate and political bullshit that was built into the fabric of high society to deal with.
“Were your parents supportive when he came out?”
“Mostly. Mom just flipped the script to him finding a suitable husband. Dad had a harder time accepting it. He was never outwardly homophobic to Evan, not as far as I know, but still makes stupid comments like the one about leaving us ‘ladies’ to chat about flowers and dresses. It’s like he needs to point out how Evan is the ‘man’ in the relationship and reduce his partners to feminine roles he can understand. ”
“Ev plays it off like he doesn’t care, but it bothers him,” Vlado said.
“And he also knows his father isn’t the only one saying those things.
It’s another reason he puts everything he has into his work.
He feels like he needs to prove himself.
Like he needs to be more than everyone else just to be seen as an equal. ”
“And the sad part is they have no idea just how much they screwed us up,” Emily continued. “That Evan’s meticulousness and his obsession with being the best came from the same place as when I acted out and caused trouble.”
“Two opposite trauma responses,” I mused.
“I’m glad he hired you,” Emily said slyly.
“What?” She knew?
Emily smiled innocently. “Let’s just say I’m not as oblivious as people think I am. Something tells me we have that in common.”
“We do. It’s annoying, but it can be a blessing.”
“It can.” She patted my arm. “Why don’t you go save Evan before he strokes out. That vein popping out of his forehead is concerning.”
I looked at Evan, who was now red-faced and looking like he was a moment away from punching someone as Grant and Malcom talked to each other, gesticulating wildly and completely unaware that Evan was giving them death stares.
“Good plan.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow. And I’ll talk to Malcom about his jokes. He means well, but he doesn’t understand that not everyone shares his humor.”
I waited until Emily was out of earshot. “Is it just me,” I asked Vlado, “or is Malcom an asshole?”
“It’s not just you.”
“He must be fire in the sack if someone like Emily is putting up with all his bullshit. He knew exactly what he was saying. Those weren’t jokes. And that crap about Emily needing to make peace with his bestie made me uncomfy.”
“Me too.” He made a grievous sound. “I love Emily like a sister, but her taste in men is terrible. Before lemon face, she always ended up with broke losers who used her name and connections to further themselves. Then, when she couldn’t help them anymore, they’d break her heart and leave her devastated.
Her last boyfriend really messed her up and unfortunately Malcolm was there to pick up the pieces. ”
“Like she trauma bonded to him?”
“Like he made sure she only had him to trauma bond to.”
“Interesting.” I glanced at the trio of men off to the side. “Let’s save Evan before he punches lemon face and gets arrested.”
Squaring my shoulders, I marched up to them and stood beside Evan. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I need to steal my boyfriend back.”
Evan slid his arm around my waist. “Is everything okay?”
“Fine. I just need to speak with you.”
“Of course.” He glanced at Grant and Malcolm. “Excuse me.”
“But—” Malcolm started, but his glare was leveled at me.
“We can talk more about this in the office. I’ll see you Monday.” Evan dragged me away from them.
“You okay? That looked intense.”
He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Fine. Just more of the same crap I deal with day in and day out.”
“Is there anyone else you need to say hi too?” I looked around the ballroom. “Oh my fucking god.” I slapped my hand over my mouth in glee.
“What?” Both Vlado and Evan followed my stare.
“Your mom mentioned that Cecelia was here, and I thought yay, drama that doesn’t involve me. But look at her dress, then look at Maryse’s.”
“Holy shit.” Vlado chuckled. “Now this is what I call entertainment.”
“Right?”
Cecelia was standing with Bryant in a blue dress with a sheer bodice and a mermaid skirt nearly identical to the one Maryse had on.
The dresses were slightly different shades of blue, and the cut of the bodice was different, but they were close enough it looked like the women had worn the same dress to the party.
“So, who wore it best?” I asked, craning my neck as I searched for Maryse.
“Cecelia,” Vlado said. “No contest.”
“Yup.”
Evan cocked his eyebrow at me.
“Not because Maryse is a hussy who needs to check herself,” I said, knowing what he was implying.
“Even you have to agree that dress was made for Cecelia. She looks like an ethereal mermaid come to bring us landfolk good news from the ocean depths. Maryse looks like she’s on her way to a throwback prom for kids who didn’t get hot until after college.
And her shoes are so last century. Someone should tell her that the clear heel and platform is a stripper thing.
Especially with bejeweled gladiator straps.
I know what brand those are, and it’s super sad she spent that much money to look like a ‘what not to wear’ Buzzfeed list.”
“I don’t understand most of what you just said, but I’m guessing the tea was hot?” Vlado said.
“Piping.” I grinned.
“Tea?” Evan’s gaze danced between us. “Is this one of those ‘it’s better to just laugh and not ask’ moments?”
“Tis. Do you think Maryse has seen Cecelia? There’s no way in hell that was a coincidence. Who do you think Cecelia’s inside person is?” I glanced around. “Someone had to have told her what Maryse’s dress looked like. Any guesses?”
Vlado and Evan looked at each other. “Emily,” they deadpanned.
I cackled. “Amazing.”
“How did you know what a gloriosa is?”
“Huh?” I asked Evan.
“The flowers. How did you know what they are?”