Chapter 15 – Cora #2
“Adrian and Cora, so good to see you again!” Yann booms, shaking Adrian’s hand, clearly expecting me to stand and exchange kisses on the cheek. I manage to dart a glance up at him and nod. I’m going to puke. All my blood has rushed to my feet.
“Mike and Delaney, this is a surprise,” Adrian says, his voice tight.
“We had such a good time crunching the numbers earlier, I suggested we keep the party going,” Yann says. “Two redheads can only add spice to the festivities, eh? Especially one as lovely as your director of finance.”
Mike is your traditional freckled, pasty carrot top. Delaney, of course, has that copper red hair that makes you think of art nouveau and witchcraft and mermaids that sell their souls for a man.
“Yann, sit down and roll your tongue back into your head,” Huda says, taking the seat at the foot of the table that Yann pulled out for her. He pulled out a chair for Delaney, too. Right next to me.
Mike seats himself across from her. Adrian sits across from me, and Yann is at the head of the table. If the table weren’t in the way, if I could get a running start, could I bust through the window and fly away, over the skaters and the star at the top of the tree, into the night?
“Cora, how are you?” Huda asks. “It’s been so long. You’re well?”
I have to turn my head to answer her, and there’s Delaney, inches away, smiling like the shark from Finding Nemo. I can see the faint shadow on her incisor that whitening hasn’t quite covered, and how she’s traced her lips just outside the natural line.
I can smell her, too. Expensive perfume, coffee, and notes of a fruit-flavored vape. Maybe watermelon.
She isn’t uncomfortable in the least. She’s triumphant. Expectant. Her beady eyes are as bright as the Christmas tree.
“Good,” I mumble. “And yourself?” My gaze catches on Delaney’s diamond tennis bracelet. I have one exactly like it in a sock tied to a slat under the daybed in the nursery.
“Well, bored, I must admit. I was promised a visit to the Peabody Museum in New Haven, but Yann spent his day with these good people and sent me all alone to do the Christmas shopping.”
“Only you would complain about shopping, Huda,” Yann says fondly.
“Cora understands. Don’t you, Cora? These men work too much.”
“At home, I cannot pry you away from the lab for love or money!” Yann protests as he accepts the wine menu from the waiter.
“That isn’t work,” Huda opines. “That is passion.”
Yann harrumphs. “I’ll show you passion when we get back to the hotel,” he mutters under his breath, surveying the wines.
Huda’s lips twitch. “Not until you show me the holotypes of Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops,” she mutters back.
Adrian tries to catch my eye. I grab a wine menu and study it. The text blurs like smudged mascara.
“Cora,” Adrian says quietly.
Why is everyone talking to me? I can’t focus. My pulse is pounding too loud in my ears.
“Cora,” Adrian repeats. My gaze flies to his. His expression is stone cold, his eyes glittering. If he’s trying to tell me something, I can’t understand. I can’t stand to look at his face for longer than a second. My brain is glitching.
Delaney reaches for her water, and her bracelet clinks against the glass.
“Where did you get that?” I ask her, a dozen more unasked questions piling up in my throat behind it, choking me.
Did Adrian buy it for you? What was the occasion? What holiday, what anniversary? There’s always an occasion. He’s not spontaneous, my husband. Or is he, with you?
Was it really only once? Did he know you were coming today? Is this a setup to drive me crazy so you two can be together and steal my children?
I try to breathe. I’m in trouble. I don’t want trouble.
“Oh, this?” Delaney lifts her hand, pretending she’s surprised that I noticed.
“A dear friend gave it to me. It’s lovely, isn’t it?
” She twists her wrist, letting the light from the chandelier overhead catch the diamonds.
When she lays her arm back on the table, she shoots Adrian a glance from under her thick, spiky lashes.
He’s looking at me. Is he worried that I’m going to explode? He should be. My lungs are collapsing, and the air that should be in my chest is filling my head, stretching my skull, pushing at the insides of my eyeballs.
Why does it hurt so bad? I don’t love him anymore. It’s not fair.
“What do you say, Maddox? Shall we start with a bottle of champagne?” Yann suggests. “’Tis the season, eh?”
“Let’s do a Moscato,” Adrian counters.
“You have a sweet tooth tonight, eh?” Yann playfully leers at his wife. “I must admit, I’m in the mood for something sweet myself.”
She snorts. “Too bad for you,” she says. “I could be sweet, but my feet hurt, and I haven’t seen a single dinosaur today.”
“My wife is impossible to please.” Yann says to Delaney and me. “You see—she demands dinosaurs. They’ve been extinct for a million years!”
“Try sixty-six million,” Huda corrects him, clearly amused.
The room echoes with too many voices. The server asks for drink orders. Yann tells Mike about a steakhouse in Dallas. Huda asks Delaney if she’s from the city originally. Adrian stares at me, and the shrieking in my head yells at me to flip the table. Run. Fall out of my chair laughing.
It is funny. I’ve seen the woman sitting next to me ride a dick, butt naked except for her high heels. I’ve seen the pink line at the top of her ass crack, and she’s lounging in her chair, chatting with Huda, making eyes at my husband every so often, not bothering to hide it.
Adrian’s composure has broken. He’s angry.
Every minute that passes, his jaw clenches harder, the cords in his neck straining tighter.
Huda begins casting curious looks at him, but the men don’t notice.
They’re lost in an animated conversation that roams from brisket in Texas to picanha in Brazil to bulgogi in Korea.
The server brings wine and pours. Yann proposes a toast. I raise my glass to my lips, but I don’t sip. There’s no way I can swallow.
A few minutes pass, and the server returns to take our orders. I order a filet. I never did read the menu. She asks if I’d like anything else. I stare at her, my brain and mouth disconnected, until Adrian says, “She’ll have the mushrooms, thank you.”
By the time the food comes, Mike, Huda, and Yann are holding up the entire conversation. Delaney smolders and smirks as she sips her drink. Adrian speaks when called upon and answers for me, too.
“Cora, you’re from D.C. originally, aren’t you?” Yann asks. “What beef dish is your nation’s capital known for?”
My brain slowly begins to process the question, word by word, but it keeps losing its place and skittering to focus on that god-awful watermelon smell and the clink, clink, clink of diamond against glass.
“She’s from Baltimore,” Adrian says. “They’re known for their seafood. In particular, blue crab.”
“Baltimore, eh? What brought you to the Big Apple?” Yann smiles. He’s being polite, including me in the conversation.
I want to rock back on my chair until it tips, and when it hits the ground, I want to fall through the floor like I’m Alice in Wonderland.
“She came for work. I’m very fortunate that she did.” Adrian raises his glass to me. Yann follows suit. “You met Huda in Munich, if I remember correctly?”
The conversation meanders on. I cut my steak, pierce a bite with a slice of mushroom, raise it to my mouth and lower it again, uneaten.
Beside me, Delaney devours her salmon, dragging pieces across her plate, sopping up the sauce, tines scraping the china.
The server brings more wine. Delaney holds up her glass for a refill. Clink, clink, clink.
Her metallic wrap dress glitters, the V neck gaping when she leans over the table like she’s trying to hear Mike better. They can hear Mike down at the ice-skating rink. He’s from Jersey City.
Adrian watches me, his body tensed, primed for an attack. He should relax. I’ve never hurt anyone else, not even people who deserved it. Early on, I learned to turn the knife on myself.
The conversation continues to Mike’s backstory and then Yann turns his attention to Delaney. “Now, you strike me as a native New Yorker, Ms. Pierson.”
“Guilty as charged.” Delaney lets her fork clatter to her plate. “What gave me away?”
“I could say a certain je ne sais quoi, but in reality, it’s the speed at which you walk. You nearly left me in the dust at lunch!”
“Never!” Delaney chuckles. “It’s the curse of long legs, I’m afraid.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t call it a curse.” Yann waggles his bushy eyebrows.
Huda rolls her eyes, her attention still mostly on her shrimp scampi. She’s eating with gusto.
“And have you lived in New York for your entire young life, my dear?” Yann asks Delaney.
“Mostly. Except for four years of undergrad outside of Boston. That’s where I met the boss.” Delaney flashes Adrian a fond smile.
Claws sink into my chest, and I’m pinned to my chair, frozen, a deer in headlights, a rabbit in an open field. They knew each other back then?
“You two go back so far?” Yann sips his wine.
“Oh, Adrian and I circled each other for years before he invited me to join Maddox Capital.” She glances at me, smirking.
I want to tell her she doesn’t have to do all this—she can have him—but I can’t speak. My insides are unspooling and my brain is plunging into free fall, every handhold slipping through my fingers.
“High finance is a small world.” There’s a note of warning in Adrian’s voice.
“And Maddox Capital is a crown jewel,” Yann says. “Delaney, you must be happy that you kept your old college friend’s number.”
“It’s been very gratifying to work under such a brilliant man.” Delaney backs her seat a few inches away from the table. “It’s nice when one’s talents are so thoroughly appreciated.” She’s practically purring. “A woman will really go above and beyond for a boss like that.”