Chapter 11 #2
“We could tell from the way you walked. Think we’re strangers? You’re in good company, Ms. Colbert. Or will we be calling you Mrs. Moreau soon? After all, Danica has no… what do the kids say… chill? Everyone knows how eager she is to marry someone.”
“They do?”
“They do?” Natsuko echoed. Fuck! What else had she heard?
“Of course.” Lara sat back up. “Her dating someone is huge news. Everyone at the sports club is crying, because they’re waiting for you two to announce your engagement. Or so we’ve heard. Like I said… ahem.”
“Well,” Kennedy Anderssen said, standing up and kissing her wife on top of her golden head, “I’m going to mingle. Order me the steak, dear. You know how I like it.” She winked at Alicia. “Pleasure, Ms. Colbert. It’s the elixir of life and a happy marriage.”
“Oh, look.” Natsuko pointed to someone on the other side of the ballroom. “Someone I went to Brown with. Let’s go meet her, Daddy.” She nudged her father until they both left the table as well.
That left Alicia and Lara, the most unlikely couple at that night’s Senator’s Ball.
“Let me guess,” Lara said. “Moreau Sr. is trying to hook your girlfriend up with Ms. Matsuda. No man is more transparent than Russell Moreau.” She snorted. “Bastard.”
“I see.”
“Everyone knows what a bastard he is, hon. I’m sure you’ve heard about his ex-wife.
What?” Lara looked genuinely shocked. “Julia Moreau was about as sane as a carton of cracked eggs. Some people said she was born that way, but if you have two eyes, it becomes pretty apparent that someone cracked her instead. The Moreaus are… passionate people.”
“Why are you saying these things?”
“Because, dearie, you best know what you’re getting into. Russell Moreau likes you about as much as he likes a big fat mole on his face. You know what people do with moles they don’t want anymore, right?”
Alicia slowly shook her head.
“They burn ‘em off.”
Did she know? About Julia? About Russell’s involvement? About the abuse and his violent tendencies? How many people knew? Was it an open secret that Russell harmed his family regularly? Was everyone laughing at Alicia right now… or, worse, lighting a preemptive candle for her?
“Thank you for the warning,” Alicia finally said.
“Hey, I’m actually trying to be a friend. Here.” Lara slid a card across the table. “Take it. No, take it. You need a lawyer? I’ll take care of it.”
“What!”
“You scoff, but…” A waiter dressed in white tails approached the table to take their dinner orders. “Sometimes we have to look out for one another, because most others aren’t going to look out for us.”
“Danica…”
“Apples sometimes don’t fall from the tree.” Lara smiled at the waiter. “I’ll take the poached quail, red wine, not white. Ms. Anderssen will have the steak, medium-rare.”
Alicia swallowed as the waiter came over to her. “Guess I’ll have the steak,” she muttered. “Medium. Ms. Moreau will have the same.”
“Very well,” the waiter wandered off. Alicia let out her pent-up sigh.
“Already know what she wants to eat, huh?” Lara laughed. “Maybe you’re ready to be Mrs. Moreau, after all. Hope you know what her father likes to eat, too.”
Alicia squared her shoulders. “I’m going out on a limb here and saying that he can eat some fucking crow.”
“That’s the spirit. Extra well-done.”
“So well done, it’s burnt to a crisp.”
“Keep up that mercenary attitude and you might survive yet, Ms. Colbert.”
Danica began a languid trek back to the table. “I’m definitely a survivor, Mrs. Anderssen. Especially if I have something worth living for.” She accepted a kiss to the cheek when Danica sat back down next to her.
The next two hours were a barrage of political speeches, fundraising tidbits, and a minor fashion show meant to get everyone in the donating mood.
Alicia was too hung up on the fact that two rich freaks seemingly controlled her fate to give a damn about what they were raising money for.
The woman was sitting beside her, who always had one hand somewhere on her body, even when her eyes were glued to the podium at the front of the room.
Then there was the man, sitting only a few tables away and constantly stealing sour looks in Alicia’s direction.
Warnings blared in both of Alicia’s ears.
It was clear that Russell Moreau was not impressed with her relationship with Danica.
To what extent? Would he simply make her life miserable?
Or would he go to the extremes that his ex-wife claimed he often would?
How much do I trust her? Alicia wished that Dee were there, but she had been dismissed shortly before they arrived at the party.
Danica’s bodyguard was supposed to be good enough for both of them.
“Our next benefactor of the evening,” a speaker at the front of the room began, “is none other than Ms. Danica Moreau, who has made it possible for us to continue our research.”
Applause rippled through the ballroom. Danica stood, straightening her clothes before releasing Alicia for the first time in two hours.
I didn’t realize she was speaking tonight.
Alicia wished she had a sweater to keep her arms warm.
Was it her, or did a chill take over the room the moment Danica left her side?
The only thing she could say was that her girlfriend was the best-looking person standing up at the podium that night.
Politicians, charity presidents, and other businesspeople had spoken throughout the evening, but none of them looked as confident, as straight-backed as Danica did when she commandeered the podium and waited for someone to adjust the mic to her height.
“Thank you,” she began, her strong voice booming throughout the room.
Alicia shuddered where she sat. She caught reassuring glances from both Lara Anderssen and Natsuko Matsuda.
“It’s a tremendous honor and pleasure to be asked to speak tonight.
As most of you know, I’ve been heavily involved in this enterprise since its founding seven years ago… ”
Alicia spaced out after that. Something about cancer research.
Something about one of the senators putting together a bill to allocate more federal funding toward a cure.
If everyone would pump funding into Senator So-and-so, we would be that much closer to finding a cure.
As much as Alicia was falling in love with the woman, it sounded like rehearsed bullshit.
What followed at the end of her speech did not, however.
“If I may, I would like to invite up someone who has done much to encourage me as of late.” Danica gestured across the top of the podium.
What? All eyes turned to Alicia. What! She sat up, feeling naked in her green dress.
This was like those nightmares where Alicia went to her first day of school completely in the nude!
“Could you please come up here, Alicia?”
A bodyguard nudged her from behind. Alicia slowly stood, and as if in a dream, waded through the crowded tables populated with multimillionaires, wishing she had something to occupy her hands with – but someone had left her clutch back at the table.
An usher helped her up the few steps to the stage.
Alicia realized that the whole room was looking at her now.
How could they not, when her image was displayed on a large monitor behind her?
Cameras popped off. Flashes surrounded her.
Alicia remembered to smile in case she ended up front page somewhere the next day.
“I’d like to introduce the world to Alicia Colbert, the sole reason I even came to this event tonight.” Danica leaned in toward her, whispering, “Play along, all right?”
Alicia kept smiling. What the hell else was she supposed to do?
“While it’s true that I still feel strongly about this cause, I’m also asocial enough to not be caught dead at more than a few functions.
” Her deadpan humor was a hit with the crowd.
Everyone but Russell, anyway. The senior Moreau kept his demeanor hard.
“But I find myself obsessed with showing off my new girlfriend to the world. Look at her.” Danica wrapped her arm around Alicia and pulled her into the biggest photo-op of the night.
Alicia, sweating, had her mouth go dry and her eyes go blind to the flashes popping in front of her.
“Now, Alicia, how much money do you think I should donate to the senator’s wonderful charity? ”
Silence befell the cavernous ballroom. “I don’t know,” Alicia said sheepishly. Where had her voice gone? Had Danica stolen it right in front of these people? “Can’t say I’m too used to spending your money yet.”
Laughter rippled again. Alicia felt so silly that she turned the brightest red her cheeks could muster.
“Now, now, don’t be shy.” Danica’s hand tightened around her waist. “And don’t be shy about spending my money, either.
Don’t know if you heard the five million times it was mentioned tonight, but this charity has done more to finance treatments and medicines for cancer warriors than any other in America. ”
Alicia had not heard that. “Well, in that case, considering the number of people suffering from cancer right now, why not donate your entire net worth?”
Someone hollered in the back of the room. Then someone else. Then someone else. More than one stuffy man or woman in their designer wear laughed at the ludicrous thought. Danica, on the other hand, said, “If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to buy you dinner tomorrow night.”
“Oh, well, since we can’t have that… ten million?” The number squeaked out of her. Was that offensively low for a billionaire to donate? Or too high? Would she otherwise only donate half that? More? What was she doing to her, making her play this game in front of everyone?”
“Ten million it is.” Danica waved for Ms. Sarah Clayborn to come out of the shadows with a pen. “Where’s my checkbook?”
After the check was made out and signed, a happy charity president took it with a huge smile and a handshake for Alicia. “Thank you!” the president said into the mic.
“We do what we can,” Danica replied. “Thank Alicia before you thank me. She’s the one who offered such a generous number. I’m merely too smitten with her to argue.”
Alicia was glad that her makeup was smear-proof, because her teeth kept chomping on her lipstick.
Don’t indulge in that habit right now, idiot!
Alicia laughed uneasily and pretended she had nothing to do with this.
In truth, she still wasn’t quite sure what was going on.
Was it really necessary to have her come up here so Danica could show her off?
What was the point of all the cameras? Was Danica’s ego so big that she needed the validation of everyone loving her, too? Because her father didn’t?
I’m overthinking this. Alicia relaxed her shoulders, but her throat was still dry.
“On that note,” Danica continued, “while I have everyone’s attention, allow me to be a bit selfish for a moment.
” The chuckles in the room conveyed that she was selfish every moment of every day.
“Oh, that Danica.” “While many of you may not know Ms. Colbert as well as I do, I can assure you that I’ve never met a woman more beautiful, more intelligent, and more patient with my quirks.
” She took Alicia’s hand by the podium. Oh, my God.
Is she going to propose? She'd better not. Not here! Not like this! She wasn’t ready!
It had barely been a month! “Since this is a big thing for me to say, let me already say it for the press and for everyone here this evening. I am in love with Alicia Colbert, and with any luck, she’ll stay in love with me, too.
Expect to see her become more involved with my work as the weeks and months go on. ”
Well, she hadn’t proposed in front of these people. That was the good thing.
The bad thing was that Russell Moreau unceremoniously stood up from his table and left the room, bodyguard following behind.
As for the rest of the room? The gossip already started. When one of the world’s staunchest bachelorettes announced to the world that her new girlfriend was the one, gossip spread like the most toxic, most powerful wildfire. It was summer, after all.