Adduné - the Vampire's Game (45 page)

Miranda snaked her arm around and rang her doorbell several times.

“
Uh-oh! Someone is in for a major beat down. They are playing games with the wrong person because I am in no mood for …”

The door swung open as Miranda sprang forward in front of the astonished friend.

“
Miranda! Oh, my god! You come here and let me give you some love, chickie!”

The two friends hugged warmly. Miranda felt tears welling up in her eyes. It felt so good to be with Tiffany again. She felt Tiffany’s grip loosen as Tiffany stepped back.

“
Let me look at you, honey!” Tiff cried enthusiastically as she savored the sight of her very best bud in the world. “You look so beautiful, Miranda. You always do!”

“
Yeah, well, it’s a shame not everyone feels that way.”

“
What? Somebody dissed you? Tell me who and I’ll kick their ass!”

“
Forget it. I’m being a stupid idiot. A hungry stupid idiot at that.”

“
You? Stupid? Hardly! I’m the one that used to cheat off your papers and I got straight A’s! I can only wonder what they gave you!”

“
Shhhh, don’t say that too loudly. They may revoke both of our degrees!”

Her remark prompted a boisterous round of Tiffany’s exuberant, full-bodied laughter. It had been too long since she’d last h
e
ard it.

“
And if they rescind our degrees,” Miranda continued, “then we’d be forced to repeat those college years and the whole thing sounds like a very bad movie. As if father dying wasn’t bad enough,” she added.

Tiffany grabbed Miranda and hugged her tightly. She rocked her softly as she whispered, “I know. I know.”

Miranda fought back tears and caught her breath. She was determined not to turn this happy occasion into a maudlin revisiting of her father’s death. She could have kicked herself for mentioning his untimely departure.

She pulled away running her forefinger under each eye to catch any tears that might be spilling.

“
I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”

“
It’s alright. If you can’t talk to me about whatever is on your mind, then what is a best friend for?”

Miranda smiled as Tiffany grabbed her by the arm and led her deeper into her newly-decorated apartment. She locked the door behind them as Miranda looked around. She hadn’t seen it since it had been turned into a Zen retreat. She moved to the fireplace which now had a working built-in waterfall above it.

“
Fire and water? This is great! However did they do that?”

“
Don’t know, but the combo of the two is crazy good.”

“
It’s really beautiful, Tiffany. I mean everything.”

“
By the way, how’d you know I’d be home? Last time we talked ….”

“
Yeah, you had that ... what was it called?”

Miranda snapped her fingers as she dramatically played the part of a person desperately trying to remember a word.

“
Job?” Tiffany answered stifling a laugh.

“
Oh, that’s right! Knew that wouldn’t last long – not even if it’s working for your father who is probably the only one in the world that can handle your very difficult, scandalous ass.”

“
Thanks, for the assessment. I actually left so I can work for you and Perry Antiques.”

“
Wouldn’t that be fun? I mean, I know you’re kidding, but I would love to have you around. I’d page you 24/7 and interrupt your herbal massages …”

“…
and yoga classes. I need to meditate, chickie. It calms my nerves.”

“
If anyone has nerve, it’s you!”

“
I’ll take that as a compliment. Now, can I get you something? Of course, you know I have nothing on hand since I wasn’t expecting company this early, but then what can I expect from a little sneaky chickie, like you? Honestly, you caught me unprepared. Spontaneity is not even on your long list.”

“
I’m changing my stripes. From now on, I am Miranda, the keeper of spur of the moment decisions.”

Miranda sat on the long sectional gray-green sofa. It was sleek and modern and way more comfortable than she’d thought from first glance.

“
Hey, wake me in the morning!”

“
You know you can stay there as long as you like. Mi casa, su casa. Actually, why don’t you stay here with me like I asked? There’s plenty of room and I haven’t had a roommate since … ”

“…
since the last time we were roommates!”

“
And obviously, you have that set of keys I gave you,” she said feigning immense irritation.

Miranda got up and kissed her on the cheek. She pulled her down on the cushion next to her. Miranda was about to dismiss the notion, but the dream from last night came rushing back to her.

“
I’ll think it over. After all, there were perks with that roomie thing – we being the same size and all and raiding each other’s closets …”

“
We still could.”

“
Thanks to a rigorous exercise classes and personal trainers that charge me six figures – yes, we undoubtedly can!” Miranda settled back into the couch’s luxurious padding. “You know, that particular college memory stands out more than the whole education thing. Especially that horrid philosophy class. What was that pompous asshole teacher’s name?

“
Satan.”

Miranda immediately burst into hysterical laughter. The name suited him to a T.

“
Tiffany, you are too funny, my dear girl.”

“
It’s because I go there and yes, I did again. That man got on my last nerve.”

“
Mine also. The only thing he understood was hubris so I always tried to pretend to have even more of it than he did. It took a lot of energy, but the charade is why I kept my 4.0.”

“
And that’s why I was right behind you and copied what you did. He loved it when I held my nose up in the air like I was smelling something putrid.”

Miranda reached and grabbed a small round pillow. She placed it in the small of her back.

“
That’s better.”

“
Need something to drink?”

“
I thought you said you were out of everything?”

“
Uh, a beverage I think I can handle, chickie,” Tiffany intoned sarcastically.

“
Then a glass of anything you have would be lovely. If there could be ice added to the glass it would be glorious.”

“
Done,” Tiffany said rising.

“
Then how about you getting dressed and us having some dinner. I am quite famished and could do with some bangers and chips.”

Tiffany rolled her eyes in a comical fashion.

“
Yes, let’s roam the streets of New York until we find a quaint pub for you to play darts.”

“
Thought a little local flavor would tick you off!”

“
You do love to tweak me in my bubble butt. I always knew you were a little minx. In spite of your outward sophistication, you have the heart of a little London gutter snipe.”

“
What can I say? I’m straight out of Dickens. And I can’t disagree with your astute observation. Now get that little booty in gear before I waste away on your extremely, absolutely fabulously comfy couch.”

Miranda lay back down and stretched out while Tiffany walked into her kitchen. She looked out through Tiffany’s glass doors to the patio.

“
I suppose if I have to die, this will be a good place to do it. Sort of like being buried in a field of daisies. Has to be better than being thrown on a garbage pile.”

Tiffany handed Miranda a glass of sparkling water with a twist. Miranda sat erect and took it.

“
Such happy, bright thoughts you’re dispensing today. Dinner should be fab. Not!” Tiffany called over her shoulder before she made her way into her room to change.

“
Love, love, love what you’ve done to this place! It’s modern, and comfy, and just perfect!”

“
Thanks!” came Tiffany’s offscreen voice. “I hired this fantastic designer, Emilio Santiago is his name. He had this vision and I told him to go with it. I wasn’t all that sure as I wanted something a little livelier, but it turns out that he was right. It works!”

“
What the heck is this?” Miranda said picking up a soft-covered book. It looks like a crossword only with numbers.”

“
Yeah, it’s Sudoku and I’m hooked.”

Miranda tossed it to the side.

“
You always were a little obsessed with those game things. Let’s see crosswords in college and then cryptograms and anagrams.”

“
Love word games and solving puzzles. Say chickie, how you feeling?”

“
Young and rambunctious. Why?” Miranda asked as she pulled her phone out of her purse. She checked her messages. There was an email from Cheryl. She’d attached a pdf of the appraisal and overnighted the original. That woman was on the ball. She complemented Reginald perfectly. She replaced her phone in her bag.

“
Cause I thought if you weren’t wiped out, we could head out to this new club. It’s called The Paparazzi,” Tiffany yelled out. Her voice was becoming muffled. Miranda walked into the hallway so she could hear her.

“
I believe I did hear of that place – clear across the Atlantic. Isn’t that the one that opened last spring?”

“
Yeah, made quite a splash. Anybody who’s anybody wants to be seen there. And the scandal made it all the more desirable.”

“
Scandal?”

“
Yeah, you must have heard about it! Everybody was talking about that infamous backroom!”

Every club had private rooms where things went on. Miranda knew all about them and hadn’t as yet partaken of the opportunity to get her freak on in public. Doing it in a private room was on her bucket list. She wasn’t a prude by any stretch of the imagination. She wondered what sort of trouble someone had gotten into.

“
No, not really.”

Tiffany began to tell her.

“
Well, that actress, you know the one that starred with Ethan somebody … “

Miranda drank deeply quenching her thirst. She slid open the sliding glass doors and walked out onto Tiffany’s terrace. She couldn’t hear Tiffany, but didn’t care. Tiffany was way more into gossip than she was. Besides if it happened last spring, she knew why she hadn’t read about it. It was because her father had just died and Miranda had isolated herself from the outside world. Miranda decided to spare herself the grisly details of some Hollywood starlet who’d made the trip and then regretted everyone knowing she’d done the nasty behind closed doors.

Miranda leaned on the railing looking out onto New York. The view from her balcony wasn’t this expansive. It came from Tiffany living on the top floor of a high-rise. Being up a few floors higher made a tremendous difference.

Tiffany’s father, Victor Rodriguez, was one of the largest real estate developers in the city. The luxury building was one of her father’s prize accomplishments. While Tiffany had worked for his company a few summers, she wasn’t ready to join him in his passion for building and remodeling the city’s landscape. Right now she contented herself with shopping and living in her crow’s nest plum of a homestead. It was the pinnacle of living in New York and Tiffany well knew the absurd rent it would have commanded had it not been given to her carte blanche by a loving, devoted dad.

Miranda walked back inside in time to field Tiffany’s question. She evidently had finished with her story about young love gone astray. Miranda felt confident she could ambiguously answer Tiffany’s queries without giving away the fact she hadn’t heard a word she’d said. She was used to doing it – like with Jake. She justified it by telling herself that if she didn’t occasionally tune her friend out, she’d know every salacious detail about everyone in town.

“
So what do you think?”

“
Not much.”

“
Really? I would have thought you’d be more sympathetic.”