CHAPTER SIXTEEN
(Charlotte)
Visiting someone’s house for the very first time is always a little strange, but when it’s an actual compound, it’s slightly more intimidating.
The word conjured images of weirdo religious cults, so I was greatly relieved when we arrived in Sagaponack and found that the “compound” was a huge parcel of land housing stables, a guest house, and the biggest, most fuck-off mansion I’d ever seen in my life.
It made Matt’s mom’s house look like a two-bedroom ranch in a blue-collar neighborhood.
“How many people live here?” Matt asked as he pulled the car around the circular drive to the front door. Even he, owner of a sky palace, sounded intimidated.
“There’s the throuple, and two kids.” I added, “There was a third, but she moved out for college.”
“Packed house. I wonder how they cope in such a tiny space.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t pretend you’ve never been somewhere like this. I mean, it’s not that far off from how you grew up.”
He put the car into park and didn’t argue.
To my surprise, it wasn’t a butler who met us at the door, but Sophie, dressed in a cute sundress with a blue pattern that would match a china teacup, with big, floppy blue bows atop her shoulders.
She clapped her hands in delight and hopped up and down on the balls of her bare feet as she waited for me to come up the few steps.
“You’re here!” She threw her arms around me in a bear hug.
Usually, if someone became that friendly in such a short time, I would keep my distance, but I never got a sense that it was a red flag with Sophie.
Maybe it was because she was from the Midwest—I’d heard tales of what people were like out there—but she seemed genuinely happy to have made friends with me.
And I got it; making friends as an adult was hard.
I imagined it must have been a lot harder living in such an isolated location.
Though there were plenty of rich people on Long Island, and the country’s largest metropolitan area was an hour or so away depending on traffic, the Scaife-Elwood-Ati home felt like a far-off kingdom.
“Come in, come in,” Sophie urged us, waving me through the door and hesitating to wait for Matt, who took our overnight bag from the trunk of the car.
“Sorry, we don’t have a butler. I don’t like having too many people around.
” She motioned him ahead of her, and we stood in the towering foyer, taking the place in.
High above the octagonal room was a skylight that flooded the space with cheerful light.
The brightness continued as we moved into a sitting room with phenomenal views of the ocean and far more couches and chairs than a family of five could fill up at once.
“This must be great for entertaining,” I said, openly ogling the white-painted beams overhead. Despite its monstrous size, the house seemed to be under the impression that it was a seaside cottage.
“It is,” Sophie agreed with a decisive nod. “Although, we don’t get to do a lot of that, lately. Most of Neil’s friends are based in London, and El-Mudad hasn’t lived in the U.S. very long. He’s kind of a loner, anyway. And my friends have all started families, so they’re super busy.”
That would explain why she was so willing to bring someone new on board.
“But you have kids,” Matt pointed out.
“I don’t,” Sophie said quickly. “We have El-Mudad’s girls and Neil’s granddaughter, and we raise them together, but I’m not what you could describe as maternal. Oh, you can put your bag down anywhere. We can take it up to a guest room later.”
A guest room. Not the guest room. Most people I knew from my old life either had a single spare place to host overnight guests or none at all.
“Neil and El-Mudad are outside setting up lunch,” she went on as she opened one of the patio doors.
We followed her onto a stone veranda with a fancy firepit and fashionable outdoor furniture that was nicer than anything I’d ever had inside my own house.
A blue pool of crystal-clear water sparkled like topaz in the emerald lawn.
A pool. Right next to the ocean.
A concrete path lined with neatly clipped ornamental shrubs led around the corner of the house and behind a berm that enclosed a smaller patio.
A large dining table set for five with real china, crystal, and silverware awaited us, as did a brutally attractive man standing at the grill.
His clothing was ridiculous; I recognized the obnoxious print of his short-sleeved, silk button down as a designer’s hallmark, but it was paired with knee-length board shorts.
Somehow, he managed to be hot despite looking like the guy you’d avoid at the club.
His devastatingly sharp cheekbones and silky dark hair swept back from his face were a large part of his ridiculous beauty, and a golden tan made his brown skin almost glow.
He turned to us with a dazzling smile and put down the spatula he’d been using to flip burgers.
It was his smile that triggered my memory. The banquet-slash-gangbang at Ascend Red.
I lifted my index finger in a point of recognition. “I know you.”
“Biblically, as the saying goes, but we’ve never been formally introduced.” He put his hand out. “You must be Charlotte.”
“Charlotte, this is my husband, El-Mudad,” Sophie said as he and I shook hands. “And El-Mudad, this is Charlotte and Matt.”
“We’ve met, as well,” Matt said, repeating the gesture.
The French door to the house swung open and a voice said, “Darling, you forgot the blue cheese,” in a posh English accent.
I knew this guy, too. He’d been introduced to me as Leif on the island, but here he was Neil, Sophie’s other husband. He halted at the sight of us and set the plate he carried on the table before hurrying over. “Matthew, good to see you again!”
They also shook hands, but Neil pulled Matt in for a brief hug, as well.
So, clearly Matt and Neil knew each other a little better than Matt knew the rest of them.
Even Sophie seemed taken aback by the gesture. “I was aware that you’d met, but I didn’t realize you were old friends.”
“His company has been one of Elwood and Stern’s largest advertising accounts for years now,” Neil explained.
“And I’ve taken advantage of that,” Matt joked. “Lots of very expensive dinners on Neil’s dime.”
“It’s how I earned our invitation to Ascend Red,” Neil said, adding a saucy, “One of the ways, at least.”
“Yeah, we get it, you’ve all screwed around together. We’re not talking about that kind of stuff until after lunch,” Sophie scolded. “I want to have a normal, cordial picnic with my lovely new friends before you all start talking about dirty stuff.”
Cautiously, I ventured, “Uh... I’m not sure this counts as a picnic. At least, not any picnic I’ve ever been to.”
“Get used to it. This is your tax bracket now,” Sophie said, picking up a pitcher. “Virgin mimosa?”
“It’s orange juice and Sprite,” El-Mudad said wryly.
“Hey. I’m striving for elegance here.” Sophie picked up a champagne flute and filled it, handed it to me, and filled another for Matt. Then she poured her own and held it up. “To my new friends.”
We clinked our glasses while Neil and El-Mudad shook their heads fondly at their wife.
For someone as rich as she was, she was refreshingly silly, and I realized how many very serious people I’d been surrounded with lately.
Everyone at the office was out to build their careers and make their fortunes climbing the ladder.
That was fun, for Business Charlotte. Charlotte Classic needed someone as carefree as Sophie to break the monotony.
Not that life with Matt had grown monotonous. He was my favorite part of every single day. But there was a dynamic that only friendship—even sex friendship—could satisfy.
“I didn’t forget the blue cheese,” El-Mudad said to Neil, turning back to the grill. “It’s disgusting, so I consciously chose not to bring it out.”
“It’s delicious on burgers,” Neil protested. “Charlotte, be a pal. You like blue cheese, don’t you?”
“Not even a little. I’m on his side.”
It stunned me to see them cooking, setting the table, serving the food all by themselves.
I still hadn’t gotten completely used to the servants at our apartment, but they were starting to fade into the background a little for me.
Our apartment could probably fit into Sophie’s house fifteen times, but I didn’t see a single member of the staff anywhere.
I wondered how long it took her to get her husbands to go along with that arrangement, because I knew for a fact that they hadn’t come with self-sufficiency pre-installed. I’d already met enough billionaires to generalize about that.
“I would ask you how you liked your burgers, but I’m not so good at guessing their level of done-ness,” El-Mudad apologized.
“In my house, it was ‘get what you get and don’t throw a fit,’ I said, laying my hands on the back of a chair. “Is this...?”
“Sit anywhere,” Sophie said, reaching to pull out one of the chairs.
I noted that the head of the table had a plate.
I wondered who sat there. My money—not that I had any—was on Neil.
There was something so commanding about his presence; he wasn’t unusually handsome, but charisma radiated from him.
I could see why he’d appealed to Matt, and I couldn’t help imagining the two of them together.
Maybe I would get to see it for myself.
Matt took a seat beside me as Neil situated himself at the head of the table, as I predicted. Matt sipped his “mimosa” and asked, “So. How did you all enjoy the island?”
Sophie blushed furiously.
“Exquisite,” Neil said, lifting a glass of ice water. “You’ve outdone yourself.”
El-Mudad brought the platter of meat from the grill and situated it between us all. “I was skeptical, at first, but it turned out to be a good way of reintroducing myself to swinging.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Matt replied.