Chapter 19
The next morning, Lily and Nicola found an envelope slipped under their door. Inside was Wilson’s credit card and a neat list of fashion boutiques at the Beverly Mall, each one with a name next to it.
“Is he serious?” Lily couldn’t believe it. “What am I saying, he’s always serious.”
“How much do you think we can spend?” wondered Nicola.
“Nothing! We can’t accept this. We’re not charity cases!”
“Yes we are!” pleaded Nicola. “We’re going to a pool party at a Hollywood producer’s mansion, Lily! I don’t want to look like I work at Bready-Set-Go Bakery!”
“But you do.”
“But I don’t want to look like it. And seriously, Lily, what are you going to wear? It’s casual classy. We don’t have that.”
Lily had to admit that in that particular style category, their travel wardrobes were a little limited. She remained reluctant, but Nicola persisted and enlisted Charlotte’s help.
“Of course you should get something! That’s the family credit card; Javier pays that and, honestly, he won’t even notice. You don’t have to get anything over the top. Just something nice that you can take home and remember us by. Please. For me.”
Charlotte made a convincing case, and as long as they only bought what they really needed—ethically made and sustainably sourced—Lily was almost as happy as Nicola to oblige.
“But we’re not doing it for Stacy Black’s benefit—or Wilson’s or Dorian’s,” she asserted.
“Of course not,” agreed Nicola. “It’s for us.”
“The only person I wouldn’t mind impressing is Franklin,” Lily mused.
Wilson arrived just before three to pick them up. He was suitably satisfied with the girls’ new outfits and felt personally responsible for their choices as he had directed them to the right stores.
“You look amazing,” he gushed at Lily.
“And me?” asked Nicola.
“Oh yes, amazing. Now get IN, gosh. NO, Mom, we don’t have time! We’ll take photos when we get there!”
The car snaked along the curved streets, past lush lawns and palm trees, and up into the crazy curly corners of the Hills.
The mansions became more and more opulent and less and less visible from the street.
Lily caught glimpses of sun-drenched terraces and sparkling pools beyond hedges and gates and on the distant slopes of narrow canyons.
Finally, as they reached a peak and a dead end, Wilson delivered them to the most majestic gate yet.
He entered the code, the gate swung open, and in they slipped.
The car crunched to a halt in a circle of gravel.
Before them, a white concrete edifice of angles and curves sprawled across and down an expanse of terraced landscaping cut into the hillside.
“I know. It takes your breath away,” said Wilson. “Don’t worry,” he assured Lily, who was not in the least bit worried. “She likes you.”
He led them in the front door, which was wide enough to admit all three of them side by side, to an interior of sweeping surfaces and views from rooms so minimally furnished that some were completely empty.
Then down an oval-shaped staircase that seemed to have no visible means of support, and out to a pool deck where clusters of people in beige, black, and white were arranged, with LA quite literally at their feet.
Lily was more struck by the ordinariness of it all than its opulence.
The sun hits all houses the same way, she reflected.
Without a frame around it, even the most dramatically social-media-worthy setting is still just another moment in your life, connected to all the other ordinary moments, with all the attendant ordinary feelings.
She felt a twinge of sympathy for Stacy Black, locked up here behind a high fence and a huge gate, filling the space around her with people closer in age to her teenage daughter.
The daughter herself, Inez, sat on an oddly shaped bench with her face in her phone.
As the afternoon progressed, she occasionally changed location when the party moved from pool deck to dining area to kitchen, without even looking up.
She was like some walking black hole. Luckily, there was plenty of personality bouncing around to fill the void.
In addition to Dorian and Franklin, there was a handful of young industry types who all seemed to know each other.
Introductions confirmed Lily’s suspicion that, directly or indirectly, they all worked for Stacy.
This was not really a social occasion. Everyone was on show and on the clock.
Stacy Black drifted around in a caftan and a floppy hat, telling everyone about the various and many things she had done or had other people do to her house, garden, belongings, or body and advising everyone what they ought to do as well.
Wilson followed her around, lapping it all up, assiduously taking notes on his phone when necessary.
(“The pink place on Sunset—ask for Letitia and tell her I sent you.”)
Dorian let her talk and managed to remain coolly polite without attracting her disapproval.
Indeed, Lily thought she detected a slight—just a slight—air of neediness from Stacy Black toward Dorian Khan.
He was certainly the only person there whose opinions she solicited or whose replies she listened to.
Luckily, with Stacy Black dominating the conversation, it wasn’t too difficult for Lily to just enjoy the food (no one else was eating it), the view, and the swimming pool, and take what opportunities she could to engage with others one-on-one, away from the monologues about travel, design, shopping, movies, body maintenance, and other people.
She found a willing conversationalist in Franklin, who turned out to know quite a lot about Pippi Beach.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there with you on New Year’s Eve,” he said.
“I’m sure you were somewhere more glamorous,” laughed Lily. “Like this.” She gestured to the infinity pool and the city glittering beyond it in the afternoon sun.
“Do you really think this is better?”
“No!”
They both laughed.
“But Pippi is special to me,” said Lily. “I know it’s beautiful in a conventional way—you know, sand, water, sun, nature—but it’s not just that.”
“The people, maybe? I always think people make a place.”
“Yes, partly, but that doesn’t quite explain it either. Some of the people there drive me crazy. Like my mother.”
Franklin laughed good-naturedly. “So Pippi has something else?”
“What? What does Pippi have?” shouted Nicola as she drifted into the conversation. One week into her Hollywood experience and one drink into the party, Nicola had become rather expansive.
“It’s got you,” Lily said with a smile. “And plenty of other contradictions.” She was aware that Dorian was hovering nearby and wondered what he had told Franklin about her home.
“It’s wild but also comforting. It’s a world you can see the end of, with everything you need inside it, but then somehow the water and the bush around it extend forever. ”
“No shops,” put in Nicola. “No theater.”
“Apart from the New Year’s Eve talent show,” said Dorian, who had edged closer.
“Talent show—what?” Now Stacy Black had overheard. “This place has a talent show?”
“We have one every year,” said Lily.
“It’s just for kids, really,” Wilson explained quickly. “I did a tight five, but—”
“And did you perform?” Stacy ignored Wilson and kept her eyes on Lily. “What is your talent?”
Lily laughed. “I haven’t performed in a while.”
“She won too many times, they wouldn’t let her enter anymore!” crowed Nicola.
“You didn’t tell me she was a performer too, Wilson,” accused Stacy Black. “So what are you? Dancer, singer, actor?”
“I’m none of those things.”
“Then what is it that you are?”
Lily felt the color rising in her cheeks. What indeed was she? In this place where everyone was pursuing a goal or ensuring the security of one they’d already attained, her lack of direction felt like failure. But how did someone like Stacy Black measure success? Was this it?
“I don’t know what I am,” Lily had to admit. “But I can play the ukulele.”
“Then we must hear you. Wilson, get a ukulele.”
Wilson, not knowing where he could find such a thing, rushed off to ask the housekeeper.
“I’d rather not,” Lily protested.
“Nonsense. This is a party.”
“No, really, I wouldn’t like to.”
“Of course you would,” purred Stacy Black.
“You’re among friends. No judgment. It’s not like the movies when the pool boy sings or the waitress gets caught rehearsing and then suddenly I notice them and they become a big star.
” (Nicola was hanging on every word.) “That literally never happens. I can tell if someone has what it takes the moment I see them, and you and I both know you don’t. ”
“Oh. Well, thank you, I suppose,” said Lily as Wilson thrust a ukulele at her.
“But you do have something, I’ll give you that,” went on Stacy Black. “So go ahead and show it off.”
Lily could only laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
There was desperation in Wilson’s face and some creeping embarrassment among the others.
It was quite clear that Lily could not get out of this without a confrontation.
Everyone, including Dorian Khan, appeared to know that Stacy was being impossibly rude and a bully, but nobody was going to say so.
Out of everyone there, Lily was the one who cared the least about pleasing Stacy Black, with the exception of perhaps her own daughter.
Stacy was just like a cat choosing to sit on an unreceptive lap, and Lily knew her only defense was to choose not to fight.
So she went ahead and sang her 1920s novelty song in a light but pleasantly charming voice, in a way that was so unaffected that Stacy Black appeared quite confused.
“Well, you certainly don’t have a voice,” Stacy said at the end as the applause died down. “But you’ve got guts.”
Lily just laughed. She may have performed for Stacy, but she hadn’t submitted to her judgment and that is what raised her in the eyes of everyone else there.
As Franklin told her later, it wasn’t putting on a show that intrigued this audience of performers—it was that she seemed to enjoy it without caring much whether anyone liked it.
Lily took care to keep her distance from Dorian and was somewhat surprised and a little annoyed that he always seemed close by.
“Are you trying to scare me?” she asked Dorian jokingly as she chatted with Franklin on the pool deck, well away from the others.
“Not at all,” Dorian replied.
“He wouldn’t scare anyone,” laughed Franklin. “He’s too sweet.”
“You’d be surprised,” Lily shot back. “He was not known for his sweetness at Pippi Beach.”
“Really? All dark and mysterious, were you?”
“Positively threatening,” assured Lily. “The very first day—a fabulously casual gathering—Dorian Khan did not speak to a single person.”
Franklin gasped in mock horror as Lily dropped her voice so Inez wouldn’t hear. “And spent the entire time looking at his phone.”
Franklin laughed. “Ah yes—the ultimate sign of disdain.”
“Or the last refuge of the socially challenged,” Lily said.
Dorian seemed annoyed. “I didn’t know anyone. I’m not like some people who can just throw themselves into a situation with strangers and make friends. I’m not good at it.”
Lily raised her eyebrows and looked over at Nicola, who was nodding as Stacy Black told her which kind of eyelash extensions to get. “Hm. Well, that’s a funny thing, isn’t it? I’m not that good at the ukulele, but I’ve always thought that’s my own fault for not practicing.”
Franklin laughed loudly and easily. “Ha! She got you there!”
Dorian’s lips twisted a little. “You sell yourself short. Everyone here thought your performance was just perfect.”
“But apparently not my voice.”
Dorian winced at this reminder of Stacy Black’s rudeness. “But you don’t perform for just anyone. And neither do I.”
“Dorian! Hey, Dorian,” called Stacy. “Get over here. Did we make Dan Danger two in the Czech Republic?”
“Yes.”
Somehow, Stacy annexed Dorian, Franklin, and Lily into a conversation about the suitability of landscapes for various kinds of filming (“Europe has versatile geography but not architecture”).
Lily attempted to drift off but was instantly roped back in with more questions from Stacy about Pippi Beach.
“So is there a mayor, or something? Who runs the show?”
“No one, really, although I’m sure Bob-with-One-Dog would like to think he does,” laughed Lily. “There’s also a Bob with two dogs. But Bob-with-One-Dog has the most property there so he usually gets his way.”
“Interesting,” mused Stacy. “So Bob-with-One-Dog is really Bob-with-All-the-Say? What does Bob-with-Three-Dogs think?”
Lily had to laugh. Discussing the power machinations of Pippi Beach in such a setting was nothing if not amusing. But if Stacy insisted on engaging Lily in conversation, then she was glad it was at least about a topic she knew.