Chapter 1
1470 Words
Chapter 1“Why are we doing this?” Mick grumbled.
Trent grinned. “Maybe because your sister finally snagged a man who’s crazy enough to want to marry her and your father decided to celebrate?”
“Well, he could have picked a better night for it.” Mick gestured toward the snow falling outside the picture window in the apartment’s living room.
“I’m sure he would have, if he had the power to see the future and know a freak snowstorm was going to happen in the middle of March.” Trent crossed the room to wrap his arms around his lover. “It’ll be fine. If we leave now, we should get there before this gets too awful.”
“So help me if we get snowed in I’m going to, well I don’t know what but…” Mick shook his head, turning in Trent’s arms to give him a kiss.
“If that happens, we make sure we get the guestroom off the fitness center. That way we can work-out in the morning while everyone else is still asleep.”
Mick smirked. “We don’t need a fitness center to work out.”
“True.” Trent put his hands on Mick’s shoulders to steer him to the coat closet. “Coat, boots, scarf, hat…”
Laughing, Mick replied, “Believe it or not I was dressing myself for winter excursions long before you came into my life.” He glanced in the entryway mirror, straightened his tie, and ran his fingers through his dark hair, thus earning a finger-wag from Trent, indicating he should leave well enough alone. He smiled at Trent’s reflection and got ready to face the inclement weather, mumbling that he was going to have a few choice words with his father when they arrived—sans boots as they didn’t really need them. After all, they’d be driving from the parking garage in their building to the one in Ed Newton’s.
* * * *
Across town, Adele Newton, Mick’s sister, was bemoaning the weather to her fiancé, Dirk Leonard.
“If I had half a brain, I’d call Dad and tell him we weren’t coming.”
“Now, love, you know you really wouldn’t. He’s been planning this party ever since we told him we’d gotten engaged. You wouldn’t want to disappoint him.”
“I know.” She sighed and then chuckled. “At least I talked him out of making it a formal affair.”
“Thank goodness. Now if only you’d been able to convince him to let the men wear jeans and T-shirts, instead of suits and ties, with or without the jackets.” He’d opted to forego the jacket, settling on a vest instead, and suspected most of the other men would as well.
“Poor baby.” She kissed him, he returned it, and they got ready leave her apartment to head to her father’s penthouse condo in a very upscale area of the city.
* * * *
Dirk’s parents, James and Karen Leonard, were also debating whether they should call Ed Newton to beg off the party, even though it was for their son and his fiancée.
“If the snow gets any worse, we could be stuck there for who knows how long,” Karen said as she sat at her dressing table, putting the finishing touches on her makeup.
James laughed. “Then we’d better hope Ed’s got enough food to last until spring.”
“This isn’t funny. What if we get snowed in? Can you imagine being stuck there with all the kids and Ed’s latest inamorata?” She looked up at her husband. “What do you want to bet that Mick’s bringing his sleazy boyfriend, umm, what’s his name?”
“You know perfectly well what it is, Trent Taylor, and he’s not sleazy.”
“He’s a private detective. They’re all sleazy.”
“Sweetheart, you’ve been watching too many bad movies. Trent’s quite reputable, owns his own agency, and has several well-known clients who swear he’s the best in the city.” His tone was light but with a definite chastising edge to it.
She snorted. “Because he caught their husbands or wives cheating on them. That’s what investigators do, you know.”
“Karen, my love, you can be such a snob at times.” James bent to kiss her forehead and then suggested they get moving before the snow got any worse.
“I’m not a snob, but honestly, Jimmy, if Mick had to be gay couldn’t he at least have picked a more appropriate man? Trent is not—”
“In our social class?” James replied scathingly, an emotion that he knew was wasted on his wife, much to his dismay. She was how she was and there was nothing he could do about it. Besides which, he loved her, warts and all, or so he told himself whenever she got on his nerves.
He helped her on with her fur coat, donned his gray wool overcoat, and they left the house by the back door, hurrying up the short, snow-covered path to the garage.
“I hope this stops soon,” Karen whined, brushing the snow off her coat before getting into the car.
“Don’t we both. At least, being Sunday, there shouldn’t be too much traffic to contend with.” He started the car, used the remote to open the garage door, and then they were on their way to the party.
* * * *
Vera Ryan, Ed Newton’s sixty-six year old, live-in housekeeper, stepped back to look at the dining room table. It held fourteen place settings with wine glasses, a large bouquet of flowers in the center, and silver candlesticks marching down the length of it.
“I’m forgetting something, I know I am,” she said under her breath.
“If so, it’s too late now,” Ed Newton replied, having overheard her as he came into the room. “It looks beautiful.”
“Thank you. The caterers just left, grumbling about the snow like everyone else in town, I suspect. The Cornish game hens in their rosemary-garlic sauce are in the oven to finish cooking, the salad is in the refrigerator, and the mushroom risotto’s in the warming oven.”
“Excellent. As soon people start arriving, I’ll let you know so you can put out the hors d’oeuvres.”
She nodded, passing Isabel Odell, Ed’s current lady friend, on her way back to the kitchen.
“Ed, that is absolutely gorgeous,” Isabel said as she joined him in the dining room, waving a hand at the table.
“Thank Vera for that, Izzy,” he replied, turning to eye her appreciatively. “It’s almost as gorgeous as you.”
“Aww, thank you.” She pressed one hand to her chest above the very revealing décolletage of her bright red dress, fluttering her patently false eyelashes at him. “You look quite handsome, yourself.”
He smiled, pulling her to him to give her a kiss, and then suggested they retire to the living room to await his guests.
* * * *
Adele heard a woman squeal her name as she and Dirk entered the lobby of her father’s building from the underground parking garage. “You look…”
“Like I’m about to trek across the Antarctic, Sandy?” Adele grinned, giving her future maid of honor, Sandra Grey, a quick hug.
“Well, I was going to say lovely, but that works, too, considering.”
“We made it,” a second woman said, joining them as they walked to the bank of elevators.
“Before Armageddon,” the man with her added.
“It’s not that bad,” Adele replied, grinning at Brian and Celeste Palmer. Celeste was one of her best friends, along with…“Is Fran here, yet, Sandy?”
“Not that I’ve seen, but I just got here myself.”
“Speak of the devil.” Celeste pointed to a woman hurrying their way. “It’s going to be a full elevator.”
Fran, because that’s who it was, brushed snow off the shoulders of her coat before giving the three other women hugs. “Thank God for Uber or I’d still be sitting at home. There’s no way I could drive in this mess.”
“Chicken,” Dirk said, chuckling. “Where’s my hugs, ladies?”
They all obliged him, laughing, and got onto the private elevator that would take them up the Ed Newton’s condo.
* * * *
Trent took off his coat as soon as he and Mick entered the lobby from the parking garage, slinging it over his shoulders. Mick did the same with his as they walked to the bank of elevators. They were about to get into Ed’s private one when someone called, “Hold the door,” and a man and woman hurried toward them.
When they got there, the man said, “You’re Adele’s brother, right?”
“Yep,” Mick replied. “I recognize you, but I can’t put a name to the face.”
“Hank Waller and this is my girlfriend, Rita.” He put his arm around the waist of the slender, dark-haired young woman. “I’m going to be Dirk’s best man.”
“I knew that,” Mick nodded emphatically. “Nice to meet you, Rita. This is Trent, my, umm, roommate.”
Trent grinned. “He’s being polite, in case the fact we’re more than that bothers you.”
Hank shook his head. “Not in the least. Some of my best friends…” He winked. “Yeah, not going there, so don’t worry.”
“Hadn’t better,” Mick retorted, laughing. “Okay, shall we do this and hope we’re the last to arrive?”
“The last and the best,” Trent stated as they got on the elevator.
- Writer
