Chapter 15-2
1120 Words
And now, at the end of the wildest and best week of her life in Seattle, she couldn’t wait to sit with her friends. Just as she entered the front door to Cutters she spotted Carlo and Melanie leaving the restaurant. She rushed up to them.
“You’re back!” she hugged Melanie in greeting. “Hi Carlo, you’re looking very mellow.” She offered him a broad wink and the three of them shared a laugh.
“Yes, she last night arrivata. Little…” he turned to Melanie and said something quickly in Italian.
Melanie translated in her soft French accent, “We did not much last night sleep. Oh sorry, translating is tricky. We haven’t slept much since I arrived.” They shared a smile that explained exactly why. “But now he must or Monsieur Director will be very angry with him tomorrow morning when he can’t sing a note.”
“Perfect!” Perrin kissed Carlo on each cheek then grabbed Melanie’s hand. “C’mon, you’re my date tonight. Go away, Carlo. Go sleep.”
Melanie wished him a good night, kissed him sweetly enough, but Melanie appeared a little too happy for an excuse to join her.
Carlo, bemused, headed off.
“What was that about, Melanie?”
“What was what…” she trailed off and made an eloquent and graceful shrug. “We—”
“No, wait. Don’t tell me. You’ll just have to repeat it for the others.”
“What others?”
Perrin didn’t bother to explain but dragged her into the bar. Cassidy, Jo, and Maria were already at a four-top table. They all welcomed Melanie, and Perrin could detect no hesitation between Cassidy and Melanie, even though the one had married the man that the other woman had loved. They soon scared up an extra stool and all crammed around the small table.
“Well, tell us.” Perrin jumped in and watched Melanie considering. She liked the supermodel. In addition to loving Russell despite all his rough edges, she’d always been so kind to Perrin about her designs. And there was a shared pain the others would never, thankfully, understand, but had been obvious to both of them soon after meeting each other. While Melanie had faced far less physical a***e, she too had risen from a trailer-trash background and a beyond domineering mother. A past she covered with an unbreakable calm and a soft French accent.
Perrin watched Melanie’s shields of caution continue to rise. True, she’d only sat with Jo and Cassidy a couple times and had barely met Mama Maria.
“Okay,” Perrin jumped in for her to set her at ease. Funny how a little embarrassment could actually do that sometimes. “Unlike me who is so falling in love but not getting nearly enough s*x, Melanie is getting too much s*x and not enough romance. How much longer does Carlo have with our Melanie? Will he make it to opening night? Your fans want to know and we want to know now. We promise we won’t tell. Right everyone?” Perrin made a criss-cross between her breasts and glared at each of the others until they did as well.
“You’re safe now,” she told Melanie. “You can trust them.” She knew from her own experience with Bill that “safe” and “trust” were very powerful words that perhaps Melanie needed to hear. Mama Maria looked at her with the tiniest widening of her eyes that told Perrin she’d done it exactly right, enough so to surprise even Maria.
Melanie grimaced, then threw up her hands and laughed, a bright musical sound that turned a dozen heads at the nearer tables who were trying not to stare at the supermodel suddenly in their midst.
“Yes. Maybe. Carlo is very nice, but he has…limitations.”
“Perhaps he is good for fun, but not worth keeping long term.” Cassidy made it a statement of perfect understanding.
Perrin leaned over and kissed her on the shoulder in thanks for making Melanie welcome.
“Yes. I should like to attend opening night, Carlo tells me such wonderful things about the music and the staging and the costumes,” she rested one of her elegant hands over Perrin’s.
Perrin envied her those hands. Melanie’s first jobs had been as a hand model, and they were still one of the best features on the beautiful woman.
“And I am not mercenary, he is charming and fun. But maybe when the curtain comes down on the opera, perhaps so it does on Carlo and Melanie.”
They stopped to order drinks and appetizers. Perrin ordered one of her usual Cosmos. Melanie tasted the white wine Cassidy had ordered for the table and, after a soft “oh my” of appreciation, she asked for an empty glass and cheerfully accepted Perrin’s judgment of “wimp.” Crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, and a big bowl of steamers would get them started. The waitress left behind a plate of Cutter’s focaccia bread gloriously drowned in rosemary, garlic, and olive oil.
“So…” Melanie turned to Perrin, clearly not wholly comfortable with being the center of attention, “In love and not enough s*x… Was I right about Bill Cullen? He does like you?”
“He told me…” Perrin looked around the table. Well, if Melanie didn’t want to be at the center of attention having just joined them for the first time, Perrin knew exactly how to shift the conversation for a good long while. “Bill told me that he loves me.”
There were understanding nods around the table. Some softening of looks, but it was something most men said too easily and they all knew that.
“And I believe him.”
That knocked back everyone around the table.
Mama Maria reached a hand right across Melanie’s lap to grab Perrin’s hand.
Perrin took a deep breath to steady herself then met Maria’s gaze. They didn’t need words. For five long heartbeats they held hands and looked at each other. For five poundings of blood in Perrin’s ears, emotions flowed across Maria’s face as they must have across her own. Fear and hope, relief and amazement, truth and acceptance, and finally approval. That was all it took. Then Maria’s face lit with a smile that could brighten the whole world. With a quick squeeze, she sat back and apologized to Melanie.
Maria placed her hand briefly to her throat, where the gold chain that Perrin had given for her wedding rested every day, often Maria’s only jewelry aside from Hogan’s wedding band. It had been a gift from the heart and a bond between them. Perrin had to fight hard to keep the tears inside where they belonged at Maria’s ultimate sign of hope for a marriage and a future.
The others were still gearing up to question her all about being in love and why she believed him. Perrin wasn’t sure if she was up for that, so she went for a much safer topic. She leaned in close and all the others leaned in as well, including Melanie. She glanced around to meet each of their gazes before whispering her subject change.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to get some decent s*x with a single dad? You wouldn’t believe how creative we’ve had to be.”
Mama Maria laughed. Of course she’d know what Perrin was doing, but the others all fell for the trap and wanted to know just how creative.
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