Chapter Ten #3
Serena waves a hand and makes a pfft sound, then leads her into the room by the hand and goes around the room making introductions. When she gets to me, she says, “And you know Lily. And Reggie. Have you met Chloe?”
“I have not.” Marina reaches a hand out and shakes Chloe’s, and before I can brace for it, she bends and hugs me. In my ear, she whispers, “You look beautiful.”
I almost laugh at her words, because I look beautiful?
Has she looked in a mirror lately? She’s wearing jeans today, and it occurs to me that I haven’t seen her in jeans.
It’s been too hot. And it’s also very sad I haven’t seen her in jeans because two words: her ass.
Holy shit. Her ass is the most perfect specimen of a person’s behind I’ve ever seen in my life.
Like, ever. She bends to shake hands with London, and I can’t pull my eyes away.
On top, she’s wearing a black sleeveless top, and her arms are lean and muscular and deeply tanned.
Her dark, dark waves of hair have been pulled back into a ponytail which, instead of making her look even younger, just makes her look casual and fun.
I clear my throat and manage to wrench my gaze away. Finally.
“Okay, we’re all here,” Serena says with a clap of clear delight. “Who needs wine?”
We’re all here and we’re all queer echoes through my brain.
Well, besides Chloe, but I now realize there are two queer couples, plus me and Marina, and is this a setup?
Marina catches my eye and very subtly lifts one shoulder, as if she’s wondering the same thing.
Did Serena invite us both to hang with other gay couples because she’s trying to tell us something? I mean, I wouldn’t put it past her.
Ria has collected the empty Champagne glasses and returns with several kinds of snacks.
Charcuterie galore, grapes, olives, bread—we will not go hungry while we play, that’s for sure.
She then takes everybody’s wine order, because Serena has just about every kind of wine you can think of, and I absently wonder if this gorgeous house of hers has a wine cellar. I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
Marina sits next to me so it’s her, me, and Chloe in a row. “How are you enjoying Rome, Chloe?” she asks across me.
Chloe leans forward to see her. “I’ve only been here since yesterday, but so far, it’s pretty dope. Right, Reg?” My dog licks her face in response.
“Trying to think of some cool places to take her while she’s here,” I say to my lap. Part of me is afraid to look at Marina while she’s so close. I’m not sure I could control myself. “She flies home on Monday.”
“We should take her to the Spanish Steps,” Marina says. “At night, though. Super cool there.”
“I read about those,” Chloe says, and I can tell the way her voice has kicked up a bit in pitch that she’s excited by this suggestion. “And Trevi Fountain isn’t that far from them, right?”
Marina shakes her head. “Easy walk.”
“Can we do that, Aunt Lil? Maybe tomorrow?”
“I’m sure we could,” I say, because who needs to work?
Then I chastise myself internally. I haven’t seen Chloe in weeks, she’s only here for a couple days, and it’s not like I’ve been a writing fiend anyway, right?
I pretend spending the day with Marina isn’t something I’d absolutely love to do. Nope. Not thinking about that at all.
Ria returns with a tray of wine glasses and hands them out. Some white, some red, one rosé for James. I notice Serena is missing, but she returns in a few seconds with a stack of game boxes.
“Okay, who wants to play what?” she asks, and our night really begins.
“Wait,” London says as Serena is opening the box with the game Taboo in it. “Lily Chambers?”
I nod. “Mm-hmm.”
London slaps her own thigh. “I know you. Oh my God.” She gives Kayla a playful shove. “She’s a writer.” Back to me. “You’re a writer, aren’t you?”
“I am,” I say, holding a glass of wine.
“What do you write?” James asks.
“Novels and screenplays,” London answers for me, then immediately apologizes.
“Sorry about that. I’m just so excited to meet you.
I can’t believe it took me so long to put it together.
” Kayla still looks a little lost, so London clarifies, “She wrote the movie Heartbreaker .” Kayla’s expression shows surprised recognition as London turns back to me. “Right?”
“I did, yes.”
“God, I love that movie. I loved the book more,” she says, lowering her voice.
“She also had a book series turned into a TV series on Hulu,” Chloe says, and I smile and shake my head slightly. Chloe is always tooting my horn for me.
“Wow,” Brandon says. “So you’re, like, famous.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I say with a smile.
I always falter a bit in these situations.
It’s lovely to be recognized, to have my work praised.
But it’s also always just the tiniest bit uncomfortable.
Chloe used to tell everybody we met who I was, and it drove me nuts until I realized she was just a kid and she was simply proud of me, and she wasn’t sure where the boundaries of oversharing were.
I finally had to have a conversation with her about how it was okay for her to talk about my work, but only if it was brought up by somebody else.
“I mean, she’s kinda famous,” Chloe says, her grin painted with pride.
“Well, Heartbreaker is in my top five all-time favorite movies.” London solidifies that with a determined nod. “Definitely.”
I start to thank her, but Kayla is squinting at me like she’s trying to look into my brain. “Was Aria Keller in that movie?”
“She was. She played the teenage daughter.”
Kayla points at me. “She’s a big client of mine.”
“Really?” Marina asks, jumping into the conversation. “What do you do?”
“I’m in security. I have several celebrities as clients, and Aria is a regular.”
London runs a hand down Kayla’s arm, clearly proud of her wife.
“What a small world,” Serena says. “Right? What are the chances you’d have some kind of Six Degrees of Separation connection?”
“I guess it just means we were all meant to meet,” Marina says simply, and murmurs of agreement zip around the room.
“So,” Serena says then and holds up the box top from the game. “What do you say? Are we ready?”
Let me state here that I had no idea my niece was so good at Taboo. Like, how have I known her for her entire life and never realized this? She’s a ringer.
So, the game Taboo has teams. We start out broken into four of them, but after over an hour, both Brandon and I decide we need a break.
So now the teams are Kayla and James, London and Serena, and Marina and Chloe.
The idea is you get a card with a word on it, say book , for example.
And then there’s a list of words that are taboo—meaning words you cannot use as clues.
You need to get your teammate to guess the word book without using words like read, pages, cover, story, New York Times bestseller , things like that.
Kayla and James are comically bad. London and Serena are quite good—though not nearly as good as London and Kayla when they were on the same team.
We had to break that up pretty damn quick.
Marina and Chloe, however, are absolutely kicking ass.
Everybody is doubled over with laughter at the moment, me included.
“The fact that you got eggplant with only phone and penis as your clues is alarming to me,” I say to my niece through my laughter. “What would your father say?”
“If you tell him,” Chloe warns me, also through laughter as she points a finger at me, “I will never speak to you again.” She’s sitting on one of the sofas next to Serena, and Reggie is curled up between the two of them, fast asleep.
Not for the first time, I marvel at his ability to tune out a very boisterous room in order to nap.
Chloe sees me looking his way and puts a hand on his furry head.
“He’s good,” she mouths, as if understanding that I was checking on him.
She’s such a sweet kid, full of empathy.
That’s something I find seems to be lacking in a lot of youth these days, and it thrills me that my niece cares about others in her world.
I shift my gaze and catch Marina looking at me.
She grins, and with her flushed cheeks and bright eyes, it’s clear she’s having a blast. Much wine has been consumed, lots of good nibbles have been had, and the night is winding down, I think, which James and Brandon confirm when they stand and one of them gives the usual “Welp” signal that’s pretty universal for “Time to go.” It’s funny how it only takes one person to start the flow of everybody leaving.
A glance at my watch tells me it’s going on ten.
I could stay longer—I’m surprisingly not tired—but I know Chloe must be.
Her body clock isn’t as regulated as mine.
I give her the raised eyebrow look of Ready?
She gives me a half shrug, like she’s not sure, and pushes to her feet.
Reggie is not happy about it, and he makes a grumbling sound that makes both Chloe and Serena laugh.
“We’ve disturbed the little prince,” Serena says, giving Reggie a pet and a kiss on his head.
One by one, we hug Serena and thank her for a lovely evening. When it’s Chloe’s turn, Serena keeps an arm around her as she looks at me and says, “I like this girl. You can bring her around any time.” Chloe blushes adorably.
The handshakes the evening started with have turned into goodbye hugs, all of us feeling like old friends now. Kayla sidles up to me and asks, “Where’s your phone?”
I pull it out, and she and I exchange numbers.
“Next time you’re in New York,” London says, “give me a shout. We’ll do dinner or have you over or something.” She glances toward Kayla, who nods with enthusiasm.
“Definitely. It was great to meet you.”
More hugs and then everybody is on their way, waving over our shoulders to Serena.