Nancy’s Theory of Style, page 23
“Nice try, Bailey.” She smiled, but all she could think about was getting to the house and explaining to Derek. She was so upset that she almost walked into the local man who took care of the house for her family.
“Hi, there, Nancy.”
“Hi, Lowell.”
“Your folks called and said you were coming this weekend. I stocked up the firewood. Anything you need?”
“No, everything is fine. Thank you.” She took a step away, but Lowell didn’t seem to notice her urgency.
“Are you cooking? Because I just had the oven fixed. The temperature gauge was off. It should be fine now.”
“I’m not using the oven. Thanks for telling me.”
“Have you seen the kitten?”
“What kitten?”
“A mama cat had her babies under the deck. I got all but one of them and found homes, but one is still hiding there. Little stripy thing. I leave food.”
“I haven’t seen any kittens. Maybe you could call someone to trap it.” How much longer would he trap her here?
“Might do that. Well, you got my number if you need anything.”
“Yes, thanks so much, Lowell. You have a good weekend.”
“You, too.”
When Nancy finally reached the house, her heart was racing. Far from doing anything wrong, she’d diverted suspicion.
Derek was in the kitchen making sandwiches.
“Hi!” she said with more cheer than she felt. “That was close. I think I managed to throw Bailey off our trail.”
“No need to explain, Madame. You said nothing that wasn’t true.” He smiled politely, but it wasn’t his usual smile, the one that carried to his eyes.
“You know I am very fond of you, Derek.”
“Thank you. Would you like to eat in or outside?”
“On the back patio. It’s warm there.” She watched as he sliced the sandwiches in half and put them on a platter. “Are you sure everything is all right?”
“Between us, yes. But Prescott called a few minutes ago. He’s returning home and he’d like me to be there tonight. If you have no need of my help with the drudgery or chores, I’ll find a bus back to the city.”
“I didn’t mean it that way. Please, Derek, you know me better than that.” Nancy wanted to throw her arms around him and ask him to forgive her and have everything be the way it was this morning.
“But I’m afraid, Madame, that you don’t know me at all.”
As Nancy looked at his cold expression she realized that she’d fallen for a man who could never feel the way about her that he did about Prescott and that was the moment that her heart broke for the first time in her life. The anguish was so overwhelming and surprising that Nancy didn’t understand what she was feeling for long seconds. She blinked back tears and composed herself. “I’ll give you a ride if you want to go.”
“Yes, I’d like to.”
“I’m happy that you and Prescott are working things out.” Her words sounded shrill to her own ears. “We’ll have lunch and go. Where’s Eugenia?”
“She’s playing on the patio.”
“I’ll take out our drinks.”
Nancy’s hand trembled as she poured lemonade for them. She carried the drinks to the back door. Thankfully, the cover was secured atop the spa. She hadn’t even thought of all the dangers that lurked in everyday life.
Eugenia was lying on the deck, her little legs kicking as she tried to wiggle under the crawlspace of the house.
“Eugenia, what are you doing? Get out from under there.”
The child grunted in her effort to squeeze further under the house.
“Eugenia Carrington!” Nancy put the drinks on the teak table and went to the girl. “Come out of there right now.” When Eugenia continued her wiggling, Nancy gripped her waist and pulled her out.
Eugenia was holding a striped kitten and smiling triumphantly. “Look what I found!”
The kitten twisted and scratched Eugenia, but the girl kept holding it.
“Let go of that thing! It’s probably got diseases.”
“No!”
“Give it to me.” Nancy really didn’t want to touch the cat, which was obviously feral.
“No! You said I could have a kitten.”
“No, I didn’t. I said you could ask your mother.” Nancy tried to take the kitten from Eugenia, who shrieked, “No!” and darted away. Nancy followed right behind and they both crashed into Derek who was coming out of the house with their lunch.
The tray of sandwiches clattered to the deck, and Eugenia deftly squeezed past Derek into the house and up the stairs.
“What was that?” Derek said as Nancy rubbed her arm.
“She found a wild kitten under the house. It’s probably carrying bubonic plague.” Nancy chased after the girl with Derek right behind.
The door to the bathroom was closed and Nancy heard water running. She tried the doorknob, but it was locked. “Eugenia, open this door this minute.”
“Go way!”
Nancy looked at Derek and said, “That tub is big enough for you to drown in.”
“Have you been plotting my demise?” he said. “The lock is simple. Stay here and I’ll find something to jimmy it.”
“Try the utility room. There are tools there.” Nancy banged on the bathroom door. She heard the cat yowling and Eugenia’s own animal noises. “Don’t you drown that cat, missy, or you’ll be in serious trouble. You’ll never eat pudding again. Eugenia!”
Nancy heard things clunking to the floor. “Eugenia! Did you break something? What are you doing in there?”
Derek was back in a few minutes with a small screwdriver. Nancy stepped aside as he put it in a small hole in the knob and fiddled with it. He turned the handle and the door opened.
Eugenia, her clothes drenched, was in the tub with the water running. She held the angry, soapy kitten and said, “Now you are all nice and clean.” Containers of bath products were on the floor, and a shampoo bottle spilled its fragrant contents on the tiles.
Derek turned off the water and Nancy hauled Eugenia, still holding the kitten, out of the tub. Nancy wrapped the animal in a towel and handed it to Derek. She clutched the wet child to her. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again!”
After Nancy had washed and dressed Eugenia’s scratches with antibacterial ointment and dressed her in dry clothes, she went to find Derek. He’d made a collar and leash for the cat out of a length of nylon cord and tied the creature to a chair leg.
“My kitten!” Eugenia said.
“She found her treasure after all,” Derek said.
“I am not keeping that thing. Do you and Prescott want it?”
“Prescott is allergic to moggies.”
The adults were both somber as they salvaged lunch. Nancy tore at the crusts on her sandwich to make it seem that she’d eaten a few bites. Then she and her assistant packed their things, put the kitten in a cardboard box with air holes poked into the top, and got in the car.
The drive home seemed to take forever and not just because of weekend traffic. Eugenia was happy in the backseat with the cat beside her, but Nancy and Derek were silent for most of the journey.
Maybe Derek wasn’t angry with her, but preoccupied with the thought of seeing his wayward lover again. The thought of Derek with someone else…Derek kissing someone else. Derek laughing in bed with someone else. Nancy felt sick. It was the curvy road. She focused on driving and kept quiet.
When they got to the city, she said, “You know, I’ve never seen where you live.”
“It’s best if I go there by myself today. I’ll take the bus from the Château.”
“I am going to show Miss Wiggles my kitten,” Eugenia said.
“You are not keeping that animal.”
“You promised.”
“I did not.”
Eugenia began kicking the back of the passenger seat and Nancy wondered how they had gone from an idyllic morning on the beach to this. “Eugenia, you’re going to have a time out when we go home!”
Derek helped Nancy unload the car and carry things upstairs. “Thank you for the holiday,” he said. His blue, blue eyes didn’t meet hers. “I shall see you Monday morning.”
She wanted him to stay. She wanted him to smile at her and like her again, and call her Mrs. Carrington-Chambers in that teasing tone. “Last night...” she began, but what could she say? “I hope everything goes well with Prescott.”
He nodded and left. Nancy heard a ripping sound. She looked around the room and saw the kitten climbing on her custom drapes, while Eugenia giggled.
Nancy could have screamed. She wanted to scream. But a lady doesn’t scream when her unexpected houseguest destroys her furnishings and the gay object of her desire returns to his boyfriend.
Chapter 19: Must-Haves for Luxurious Living
Nancy made scrambled eggs for dinner. Even the cat ate them. Nancy was so worn out that she went to bed at the same time as Eugenia. She could hear the kitten mewling faintly in the laundry room. It stopped after an hour. Derek and Prescott might be going out to a club now, or having a romantic dinner by candlelight.
Prescott was probably looking into Derek’s l’heure bleue eyes and planning their future. Nancy should be thankful that this thing with Derek had stopped now, before she became too entangled with him. Because he was gay and he was staff. Somehow that wasn’t important anymore.
She put the butterfly pin in the drawer of her writing desk, because she wanted it to be close to her.
On Monday, Derek came to the apartment and went about his job as if they’d never shared any intimate moments. He made a cappuccino for her, but not for himself, and sat at his desk methodically going through his tasks for the fundraiser.
Nancy tried to keep her voice normal as she called the caterer and the photographer and set up meetings. Sometimes she glanced over at Derek, but he kept his eyes on his computer.
GP stopped by to say he’d hired people from a welfare-to-work program to act as costumed extras at the event. He talked excitedly about giving people employable skills, but Nancy had a hard time following the conversation with Derek sitting silently across the room.
Nancy said, “It will be so fabulous to see the grit and depravity of the Barbary Coast,” but her fabulous sounded hollow to her own ears and she said, “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get water for us. GP, do you like sparkling or flat?”
Derek stood up and said, “I can—”
“No, I’ll do it,” Nancy said. “Sparkling is better.”
She went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and stared at the contents without seeing. The cold hit her and she grabbed the closest tall bottle, which was shoved in the back behind the juice bottles and milk.
She poured the water into three glasses and added ice cubes and slices of lime. She dropped neon-bright straws in the glasses and carried them out. When she was in the dining room, she heard GP talking to Derek and paused to readjust the slippery glasses.
GP’s voice was clear. “Nancy saved me, you know.”
There was a low rumble of Derek’s reply.
The GP spoke again, “No, really. I had, like, no social skills and my family had gotten buckets of money, but I didn’t know how to act with these rich kids. My roommates used to torture me every fucking day. I was going to drop out, but Nancy started talking to me. She’d come sit on my bed and talk about her classes, clothes, movies. She told me that I was her tech czar and had to update her stuff.”
This time she heard Derek saying, “You served a purpose for her.”
That’s how he saw her, as using people for drudgery and chores.
GP said, “Yeah, I thought so, too. That’s what she wanted me to think because it made me more comfortable when I felt useful. But when other people saw that Nancy was my friend, their whole attitude changed. Even my jackass roommates started including me in on things.”
Nancy moved a chair loudly so they would hear her coming and then took the water into the living room.
GP showed her his schedule for delivery of the sets and props and ran down numbers with her. As he was leaving, he said, “I’m going to make this totally kick-ass for you, princess. Just you wait and see.”
Then she was alone with Derek. She tried to keep everything professional, but just before she left to pick up Eugenia she said, “I hope things went well with Prescott.”
“Indeed. I understand precisely where I stand with him and that is very reassuring.”
“Good, wonderful. I want you to be happy, Derek,” and she more grief at losing the man she never could have had, than at leaving the one she’d pledged her life to.
Eugenia was so eager to return to her kitten that she rushed back to Château Winkles and didn’t seem to notice that the mood had shifted.
“His name is Blackbeard,” she told the adults. “He has little swords in his paws. She and Nancy took the kitten to the vet for shots and bought a travel case, food, a sandbox, and toys for the cat.
By Tuesday afternoon, Nancy was anxious to see Bailey, thinking that he could be the bracing tonic of heterosexuality that would cleanse away her fervid longing for Derek. Sloane had already agreed to watch Eugenia and even offered to watch the kitten.
Blackbeard didn’t like his travel case and mewed loudly all the way to Sloane’s house in the Avenues. Nancy found these neighborhoods depressing. They were as foggy as hers, but the fog seemed dirtier. The houses were smacked side to side and some were covered with layers of grime from car and bus exhaust.
“No hors de control antics with Miss Sloane,” Nancy said. “Do what she says and say please and thank-you.”
“Okay.”
“She’s a very nice lady and her boys are well-behaved.”
“Okay.”
As Nancy and Eugenia stood on the stairs to the taupe house, the child said, “Auntie Nanny, will you come back for me?”
“I will always come back for you, Eugenia. But I’ll be out late, so I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning to take you to school. You can have a slumber party.”
“Like with Derek?”
“Yes, but don’t tell anyone about that. It’s a secret. Adults don’t have slumber parties.”
“Mama does with her bedfriends.”
The door opened and Sloane stood there flanked by two curious boys with curly brown hair and freckles.
“Hi, Mrs. Chambers,” they said and hugged her.
“Hello, boys. This is my niece, Eugenia. Eugenia, one of these children is Lloyd and the other is Dobler. I can never tell which is which.”
One said, “I’m Dobler,” and the other said, “No, I’m Dobler!” and they shoved each other.
Sloane said, “Come in, Nancy. The boys were so happy when I told them you were coming.”
“I think they are dreadful children,” Nancy said and mussed the hair of the smaller child, who asked, “Did you bring me a present?”
“Why would I do that? Is it Christmas? Is it your birthday?”
“We brought toys,” Eugenia said. “And I brought my cat. His name is Blackbeard.”
Nancy pulled the gifts out of her tote bag for the boys. They ripped through the wrapping and Nancy said, “You’re really little monsters, aren’t you? The store clerk told me that boys like grotesque robot things.”
“Thank you! Thank you!” the boys shouted
“Nancy, you spoil them. You don’t have to bring presents every time you see them.”
“Children have such undeveloped little brains, it’s the only way I can make sure they’ll remember me when I’m in a home and need someone to tell the nurse to turn me over once a day.”
Sloane laughed. “You say such awful things. Where are you going tonight?”
Nancy looked at Sloane’s living room. Toys were everywhere and photos of the boys were displayed in cheap Plexiglas frames. The olive green wall-to-wall carpeting was worn and faded. A dining table was set up for a tea party with plastic cups and saucers and a plate of crackers with peanut butter. It looked comfortable.
“I’m having dinner with Bailey Whiteside and maybe a club. I guess you were gone before he showed up at Gigi’s party. Do you know him?”
“He was a friend of my husband’s.” Sloane continued to smile, but she seemed uneasy. She rarely mentioned the man who had abandoned her. “They shared an apartment in Boston for a year. We all used to go out together. We even took trips together.”
Nancy couldn’t imagine homebody Sloane larking around with Bailey and his crowd. “Todd and Bailey met through mutual friends when Todd was in biz school, but I didn’t know you were close.”
“It was a long time ago. I feel like a different person now with my boys. It’s been so long, I’m sure Bailey’s different, too.”
Nancy thought that the de-sparkling effect of motherhood must surely be more dramatic than whatever maturing Bailey had had. “I’ll come get Eugenia at 8:30 tomorrow.”
The children were running through the house and shouting. Sloane smiled and said, “I thought you told me she was quiet.”
“She was quiet. But lately she’s becoming very obstinate and outspoken. It’s not very ladylike.”
“She must be feeling safer.”
Nancy called, “Eugenia, I’m going now. Adieu.” Eugenia ran over and Nancy obligingly bent over to give her a kiss goodbye.
The girl whispered, “You’ll come back?”
“I told you I would. I promised and I keep my promises.” Well, with a few exceptions. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
Nancy went home and cleared Eugenia’s plastic toys out of the bathtub and into a red bin. Once in the shower, she picked up her bottle of fig apricot body gel and squirted some onto her bath mitt. Nothing came out. She squeezed harder and then shook it. It was empty.
She reached for a tube of nectarine blossom and honey gel. Empty. She opened the container of almond body scrub. Soapy water splashed out of the jar. The only things Eugenia hadn’t plundered were the hair care products on a high shelf.
Nancy put on a body-skimming jungle green v-neck dress with skinny shoulder straps and teal suede heels with cutouts. She wore delicate dangly gold and smoky quartz earrings and a trio of thin gold bracelets.
