Chapter 22
“Ihave no idea what to say,” Nala stood at the front of the restaurant.
Varen was beside her, dressed in a silk white blouse that left the top two buttons undone.
Oh, and that blazer and pants… I’m trash.
Nala kept her eyes off Varen when she picked her up, drove to the restaurant, and then escorted her in.
Varen, on the other hand, had a difficult time keeping eyes off her.
To be fair, even Nala admitted she was a knockout in her designer black sweater dress that clutched her frame and tapered off before her knee.
A thick, gold chain illuminated her neck and rested above her breasts.
Rings sparkled on her fingers. Shoes that were easy to walk in but still sexy clacked on the hardwood floors of the restaurant.
The only thing she probably wasn’t crazy about was her hair, tied back into a high, shining ponytail sporting a big, gold clasp around it.
Wish I had more than studs to wear in my ears.
“You don’t have to say anything.” Varen placed her hand on the small of Nala’s back as they followed the ma?tre d' to their table. “As for do? Don’t be rude. Simple as that.”
Maybe for you. Nala didn’t think that because Varen was better than her. For someone like Nala, it was difficult to maintain certain levels of propriety. Especially when nothing lay on the line for her. I’m her hired girlfriend tonight. That’s it. No espionage.
Or at least that’s what she thought until they reached their table.
Four people already sat there, with two chairs pulled out for Nala and Varen. Two of the guests were men Nala had never seen before. An older gentleman, relaxing with a cigar while the younger man next to him carried on the conversation at the table. They looked related. Perhaps father and son.
The other two people? Made Nala stop in her tracks and Varen fiddle with her bracelet.
“Why, hello.” Maggie turned to them, her grin both curious and delighted at once. Jay looked up from behind her, flashing them his usual silent grin. What the… Nala looked to Varen, who was not looking back at her. “How lovely to see you two.”
She held out her hand. Varen, a lady, kissed the back of it.
Nala nodded in acknowledgment but did not hurry to look like she knew either Jay or Maggie.
At least in this amount of light, she could see the wedding rings glistening on their fingers.
I guess they really are married. Not that she didn’t believe it before…
“We ordered wine,” Jay announced, gesturing to the other guests.
A round of introductions occurred, with Nala being the least interesting person.
Regardless, she was introduced to Donovan and Ira Mathison, the father and son team in town to get funding for a hotel they were renovating on the East Coast.
Or is it father and daughter? Nala suffered through a pronoun crisis as she took in Ira’s extremely androgynous appearance but feminine tone of voice.
He. She. They? Nala almost missed her chair when Varen pulled it out for her.
Ira caught her staring, and in a fashion that must have been more New England than Portland, directly informed Nala that any pronouns were fine.
Which didn’t make things easier, for Ira’s father used masculine pronouns while Jay and Maggie used female.
What the fuck do I do? She radiated that to Varen, who sat next to her at the table and mediated by…
using they and them. Oh, fuck you! Nala wasn’t Portland enough for this.
And, apparently, not New England enough.
Nala quickly gathered, as dinner commenced and she listened to business talk, that the Mathisons were in talks with Varen, who had proposed to develop them a hotel managing app.
Everything is run by apps these days. Nala had barely begun playing with her phone and finding out what it could do.
One of the first apps she downloaded was developed by Lake Technological Solutions, an earlier development that helped manage music files on a person’s phone, without having to download other music programs.
She likes managing things. All her programs had this theme to them.
It apparently brought her a ton of money, so…
As for Maggie and Jay, whose real names were not revealed throughout the meal? They were investing in the Mathisons’ hotel, but Nala couldn’t figure out why they were at the dinner. Varen was supposed to be schmoozing. So far, not much of that was happening.
Nala had her chance to find out when Jay went to the restroom and the Mathisons had to take an emergency call. Maggie likewise decided to check on her husband’s car. Or is it her car? Nala had yet to be convinced that Maggie and Jay were a real Dom/sub couple, regardless of what Robin claimed.
“This is crazy,” she said to Varen, the moment they were left alone with wine and salads. “Did you know they were going to be here?”
“I had a hunch. That’s why I wanted you to come tonight.”
“You had a hunch? Then what are their real names?”
“Don’t know.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Listen for any subtleties. Out of everyone in The Aviary, they’re the most perplexing.”
“You don’t say.”
“I have my suspicions about things.”
“You’re helping clear things up.”
Varen shot her a harsh look. “I can’t do my business and pay attention to them too. The Mathisons invited them along. Look, I don’t need you to do much tonight. Be pretty, be charming, and above all, pay attention to…”
“Got it! Sheesh, and here I thought you wanted me to be by your side tonight.”
She was almost put out. Almost. Nala wouldn’t lie and say she didn’t find it invigorating that Varen wanted her to be the pretend girlfriend in other areas of her life too.
She thinks I’m beautiful. She keeps spoiling me.
She can barely keep her hands off me. The woman might be falling for me.
It definitely wouldn’t be good for their undercover gig, no matter how it may have seemed on the surface.
If they got too close to one another… well, things could be compromised.
Opportunities could slip through their fingers.
Varen put a hand on Nala’s knee. “I do want you here. If not as my girlfriend, then as my partner in… well, something.”
If not as my girlfriend… Was it something she thought about? Considered? Nala stared at her half-eaten salad, wondering if Varen really did want a girlfriend. That would change everything. Not for the better.
“I’m stronger having you around. Perhaps I’m not good at expressing it, but… yeah.”
Nala squared her shoulders and attempted to look not only presentable but functioning as well.
She needed all the divine interference she could get.
“You’re terrible at expressing it,” she finally said.
“You either want me to be your real girlfriend or not. It’s one thing to pay me to fake it for others, especially if they’re from The Aviary, but don’t put me in weird spots where I have to wonder what you feel about me.”
Varen’s lips remained taut. “I’m not good at expressing myself in words. In all honesty, I’m not sure I could express to you how I feel even in binary code.”
“Sexy.”
Nala tried not to let it get to her as the others returned.
First, the Mathisons, laughing as they sat down with the arrival of the soup course, then Jay and Maggie, the latter slipping into her seat between Varen and Jay as if it were completely natural for her to be flanked by these people.
She exchanged a coy look with Varen before digging into her soup.
These people. Rich people. Nala didn’t understand them.
She didn’t really want to understand them.
It was that stink of money that made women like Varen feel free to say, “I don’t know how to express myself in words, har har,” and get away with it.
Fuck that. The more Nala sat in her seat, the more she wondered if she was a plaything, a doll, or a girlfriend.
She looked up and happened to catch a glance from the person sitting next to her.
Ira Mathison flashed her a friendly smile before perusing the drink menu once more, her soup untouched in front of her.
How old is this gal? Varen’s age? Thereabouts.
Yet while Varen was grim and moody, Ira had an energy that made her seem younger than she was.
Every time she was caught looking at Nala?
She saw an opportunity to find out how Varen really felt.
“So, Mathison,” Nala said, sweetly, as if sugar poured from her mouth. The other people at the table were deep in marketing conversation, something she couldn’t care less about. Ira looked about as interested as a kid in school, too. “Are you enjoying Portland so far?”
“Please. Ira.” She jerked her thumb in her father’s direction. “That’s Mathison.” When all Nala did was graze her teeth along her lip, Ira dropped her smile and said, “Portland is very nice, rain aside. It has a nice atmosphere.”
“We’re very relaxed here.”
“I’ve seen that.”
Nala thought back to the conversation happening at her house a few days ago.
“Very relaxed, if you catch my drift.” Her hand “happened” to slip beneath the table and over Ira’s unsuspecting knee.
She tensed but did not change her expression.
It’s the same kind of expression Varen has when she’s thinking about something…
regarding me. Nala had seen that careful fa?ade before getting slammed for the first time.
“I catch your drift, Miss…”
“Gale,” she said, switching to how the Nightingale would respond. She’d seduce this stranger, for whatever gain was on the table. “You can call me Gale, Ira.”
“Well, Miss Gale.” Nala’s hand was plucked off Ira’s knee and left to dangle between them. “I’m afraid I will have to decline any invitations tonight. You’re a beautiful woman, to be sure, but I sort of have… someone.”
“Oh, dear. Never mind little old me, then.”
The soup dishes were taken away and replaced with the main course. What the fuck is this? Nala decided not to take her chances with suspicious-looking food.
She took her chances with Varen, who was also not eating. She was glaring at her, at Ira, and the hand still dangling between them. Oh, did you see that? Nala suppressed her cackle.
“Nala,” Varen said so low that she could barely hear. She snatched Nala’s knee, squeezing it until she shifted uncomfortably, and the skin surrounding Varen’s grip turned white, then pink. “Behave yourself.”