Chapter 11 #3
She walked up the steps of the hotel in her slicker and boots and lace pants that were soaked from the knee down from the muddy water she had walked through.
Her face was as white as her lace blouse.
The bar was bulging with activity, and someone was playing the piano.
People were singing and drunk, safe from the storm in the hotel, which sat considerably higher than the street.
And they hadn’t lost power. All the lights were on.
She looked for Geoff in the bar, didn’t see him, and decided to walk upstairs to make sure he wasn’t staggering around the halls.
There was no one at the desk to stop her and she ran quietly up the stairs, just in time to see him kiss an equally drunk woman and slip into a room with her.
Gloria’s heart was pounding as she walked to the end of the hall and knocked on the door.
There was no answer and she pounded on it.
The woman she had seen opened it, already stripped down to her bra and a black lace thong.
Geoff already had his jeans off and was standing behind her unbuttoning his shirt.
He was furious when he saw Gloria. The woman looked confused and very drunk.
“I told you what I was going to do, and I’m doing it,” he said viciously, “you bitch. You should have let me come home with you.” There was no remorse, no apology, no explanation.
He was too drunk to care, and she realized now that what her mother had told her was probably true.
He had probably cheated on her before, and this was the night before their wedding.
“I’m not as dumb as you think,” she said, keeping a level gaze on him, as the girl he had picked up walked away and lay down on the bed and left them to their argument.
She was too drunk to care and passed out while Geoff shouted at Gloria.
She had seen enough and turned to leave, while Geoff called after her.
“See you in church,” he said, and laughed uproariously.
“The wedding’s off,” she said in a clear voice. “Don’t come back to the house. I’ll have your suitcase dropped off at your parents’. And don’t come back to my apartment in London. I’ll send you your shit.”
“Oh, big fucking deal. You think I care? That girl I picked up is probably a better fuck than you are. You’re so fucking uptight, you’re just like your mother and sisters.
You’d be a real pain in the ass to be married to, without a little jolly time on the side,” he said, as she pulled off the small antique ring that he had given her as an engagement ring, because his parents had sold everything else to fix the roof.
She threw it in his direction, and it landed somewhere near him on the floor.
“I don’t give a fuck what you do,” he shouted after her as she left the room and hurried down the hall, “and you write like shit,” he added, as her eyes filled with tears, but she had her back to him so he didn’t see them, and she didn’t stop or turn back.
“I was just going to marry you for the money,” he added insult to injury, shouting down the hall.
“You don’t deserve to be a countess.” He was still shouting as she ran down the stairs, and he didn’t follow her.
He was raging drunk, but there was a ring of truth to what he said and how he said it, about marrying her for the money.
And even if he had apologized or crawled to her, she knew what he was now.
She hadn’t wanted to see it, even if everyone else had.
She ran to the car in the driving rain and wind, got in, and drove back to the house, sobbing all the way.
It took her an hour to get there on the way back.
The water on the roads was higher, and she had to drive around pools of water.
The power was still off when she got to the house.
She walked into the little room behind the kitchen and took off the boots and slicker.
She was soaked in spite of them and the white lace pants were covered in mud.
She walked into the living room, less than two hours after she had left, and they were all still there, talking in subdued voices, watching the storm by candlelight.
It was two in the morning, and they were drinking wine by the fire.
They all looked up when she came in, and no one said a word.
Gloria’s hair was matted to her head from the rain and wind, she looked ravaged, but she was fully sober.
“I just got a text from the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. Several of the columns were blown down and fell into the kitchen and catering area. The wedding is canceled,” Eugenia said, seriously.
“Yes, it is,” Gloria said, looking at her.
“You were right. Geoff was about to screw some woman he picked up at the bar at the Maidstone. He’s drunk off his ass, but he said enough.
I told him the wedding is off. Maybe if the club is damaged, you can get your deposit back,” she said.
“I’m sorry, Mom, for everything.” She left the room and walked upstairs to one of the bedrooms she knew was empty and lay down on the bed.
She didn’t want to talk to anyone, or sit with them.
What she had seen at the inn had been traumatic, and she needed time to absorb it, and who he was.
She had only begun to realize in the last hour how cruel she had been to her mother, and why the others were so angry at her.
She needed time to understand it, and her part in it.
He had egged her on, but she had been willing to do it, to participate.
Not only did she now know who Geoff was, she didn’t know who she was anymore, and she needed time to figure it out. That was all she was sure of now.
In the firelit living room downstairs, Eugenia looked at Eloise. “Do you think I should go up to her?”
“No, I don’t,” Eloise said quietly. “She needs time to think, and to grow up, and maybe you do too. You can’t fix everything for us all the time.
She screwed it up, with you, and all of us, and she has to fix it.
You can’t do it for her.” Eugenia sat thinking about what she said, as Stefano spoke up.
“She’s right, Mom. She made a pretty big mess for herself, with everyone. She needs to think about it, or she’ll never learn the lesson. It’s a big lesson to learn. Thank God she didn’t make the mistake and marry the guy. She’ll be okay, when she figures it out.”
Eugenia listened to him, and nodded. She knew he was right, and maybe she needed to grow up too. She couldn’t protect them anymore. They didn’t belong to her anymore. They belonged to themselves.
She sat quietly, thinking about all of it, as the storm seemed to get worse outside.
They were just starting to get up to go to bed.
It was after three, and the hurricane showed no sign of abating.
According to the news on their phones, the flooding had gotten worse, roads were blocked, highways were closed.
The highway patrol was telling people to stay in their homes unless they were dangerously flooded or were in areas being evacuated, which they weren’t yet.
But a map shown on the screen indicated that the evacuation area was coming closer to them.
They were all slowly shuffling up to bed when the front door opened and Phillip and Daphne walked in.
He was carrying Tucker, sound asleep. They looked like refugees, bundled up in slickers, Wellingtons, and rainwear.
Everyone came alive again when they saw them.
“Our house is flooding,” Daphne said. “Sheriff’s deputies told us to evacuate.
Angelica went home to her parents. I’m sorry to barge in.
” Phillip looked at her pointedly, and she bit her lip, fighting tears.
“My water broke an hour ago. The road to the hospital is completely flooded. The patients got evacuated two hours ago and airlifted out. And the highway to the city is closed. I think I might be in labor, and I don’t know what to do.
” She burst into tears, and Sofia stepped forward instantly to comfort her.
“You’re going to be fine,” she said calmly, and Brad called 911 on his cellphone.
He spoke in codes that were familiar to him and Sofia but not the others.
Eugenia had called Pam and asked her to send emails to all the guests to tell them the wedding was canceled due to the storm. They didn’t need to know the rest yet.