Goodbye, Janette (36 page)

“I don’t blame them for that,” she said. “If I were in their position I would rather go with Givenchy than Janette. After all, he has already proven himself. And he is one of the best.”

“They dragged us all the way over just to pick our brains,” he said.

“We picked theirs too,” she said. “At least now we know what they’re looking for. Besides they haven’t signed with Givenchy yet. Maybe they never will. He has a great deal more to be independent about than we have.”

A faint bell announced the seat-belt light going off. Jacques got to his feet. “A double scotch on the rocks,” he said to the stewardess as he started for the washroom.

“Champagne,” Janette said, rising also. She waited outside the lavatory door and took the small vial from his hand as he came out. “Feel better now?”

“It helps,” he said grumpily. “So far that’s the only good thing about this trip.”

She locked the door behind her and looked into the mirror. The washroom lights on airplanes were never the most flattering. She looked tired. There were faint dark shadows under her eyes. She opened the vial and, using his gold spoon, took a snort. She breathed deeply, letting the cocaine get into her. She felt the lift. She put a tiny bit on her finger and rubbed it into her gums. She liked the taste. She closed the vial carefully and put it in her bag.

She looked into the mirror once again. She did not appear so tired now. Quickly she checked her makeup—a little powder under her eyes on her cheekbones, lip gloss, and she was ready to go back to her seat.

Jacques rose to let her into her seat. He handed her the glass of champagne and raised his drink. “Cheers,” he said. “You look better.”

“Shows you what a little makeup will do,” she laughed.

They both sipped at their drinks. “Now what?” Jacques asked.

She shrugged. “We’ll see. At least we’re making money this year so we’re in no immediate trouble.”

“Do you think Johann meant it when he told you that you can go to him for money?” he asked.

“I’m sure that he did,” she said. “But I’m not going to. It would mean living in my mother’s shadow forever and never being on my own.”

He was silent for a moment. “Too bad your friend Patrick has nothing to do with his family’s business. If he did, we probably could pull it off.”

She looked at him thoughtfully. Patrick has his own quirks. But under the right circumstances they could be made to work for her. At this point there was nothing to lose. “Maybe we still can,” she said.

***

The lights were on but the villa seemed empty when Lauren and Harvey came through the front door around midnight. Harvey put down their valises. “Maybe she’s not back from New York yet,” he said.

“She said she would be back on the weekend,” Lauren answered.

Janette’s voice came from the balcony at the top of the staircase. “Lauren?”

“Yes,” Lauren called back. “I hope we didn’t wake you.”

“You didn’t,” Janette said. “I got a call from a friend at L’Escale about a half hour ago that you had just come into port, and I was getting dressed to go down and join you. Is Patrick with you?”

“No,” Lauren answered. “Just Harvey. Patrick was going to turn in early. Everything go all right in New York?”

“Fine,” Janette said. “I saw Johann. He sends you his love. Did you have fun in Sardinia?”

“It was great,” Lauren said. “The beaches are big and quiet. Not like here.”

Janette came down the staircase. She was wearing a tight-fitting black leather micro-mini skirt. Her eyes were bright, and there were flecks of golden glitter on the makeup on her cheekbones. “What about the nightlife?” she asked. “I heard a great new discothéque opened there.”

“We never went out at night. Once or twice to a restaurant but mainly we stayed on the boat,” Lauren answered. “It never seemed as if very much was happening.”

“That doesn’t sound very much like Patrick,” Janette said. “He usually never wants to stay in.”

“I’m going to bed,” Harvey announced. “It will feel good to sleep one night in a bed that isn’t moving. I still feel as if I’m walking on a deck.”

“You’ll be over it in the morning,” Janette laughed as he started up the steps.

Lauren waited until she heard the door of his room close, then turned to Janette. “I have a joint here. Would you like to share it?”

“Of course,” Janette answered. She looked at Lauren as she lit the joint. “Is everything all right? You look very serious.”

“Everything’s all right,” Lauren said quickly, passing the joint to her.

Janette dragged on it. “Are you having a problem with Harvey?”

“No.” Lauren shook her head. She looked at her sister. “What do you think of Patrick? Seriously.”

“Patrick’s okay,” Janette answered. “He’s bright and up and likes to have fun.”

“He said he was in love with you once and wanted to marry you,” Lauren said.

Janette laughed. “He was either stoned or drunk or being silly, and I think the only reason he asked me was because he was sure that I would never do it.” Then she saw the expression on Lauren’s face. “Is he making a problem for you?”

Lauren shook her head. “Not really.”

“Then what is it?”

Lauren looked into her eyes. “Are you in love with him?”

Janette laughed. “Patrick? Never. He’s a nice boy but I can’t see myself with him.”

A kind of relief came into Lauren’s eyes. “That makes me feel better.”

“Why?” And then even before Lauren answered, Janette knew. “Are you in love with him?”

“Yes,” Lauren answered, dropping her eyes for a moment, then raising them again. “And he says he’s in love with me and wants to marry me. But I didn’t want to give him an answer until I knew just where you stood. I didn’t want to come between you.”

“There’s nothing between Patrick and me for you to upset,” Janette said quickly. She reached for Lauren’s hand. “But you’re still a child, you’re only seventeen. Are you sure you know about yourself, how you really feel?”

“I know how I feel about him,” Lauren said. “I do love him. But I told him I wouldn’t marry him right now. Not until I was eighteen.”

“And what did he say?” Janette asked.

“He said that would be okay. But he wants to announce our engagement right away.”

Janette was silent for a moment. “Have you made love with him?”

“Not yet,” Lauren said. “I didn’t want to until I knew exactly where I stood.”

“What happened to his two friends?” Janette asked.

“They left the boat the day after we got to Sardinia,” Lauren answered. “Patrick told me that he was through with all that. He was thinking seriously about going back into business as his father had wanted him to.”

Janette dragged on the joint again, then gave it back to Lauren. She smiled slowly. “He must be serious about you then,” she said. “Because for him to even think about going to work is one of the major miracles of all time.”

“He really does know a lot about business,” Lauren said quickly. “It was only that his father was so important that he ran away from it. But his father is dead now.”

Janette nodded. She could understand that. She bent over and kissed Lauren’s cheek. “It will have to be your decision, darling,” she said. “Whatever that is, you can count on me to support you in it.”

Impulsively Lauren hugged her. “I’m glad. Mother and Dad will go through the roof when I tell them.”

“I’m sure we can make them see the light,” Janette said. She nodded toward the staircase. “Does he know anything about it?”

Lauren shook her head. “No. I didn’t want to say anything to anyone until I had spoken to you. Now I can tell him.”

“It can wait until morning,” Janette said. “He’ll be upset. He’s in love with you.”

“Harvey?” Lauren’s voice was happily unbelieving. “You don’t really know about us. We’ve been pals for years. He won’t be upset at all.”

She said it. But then the moment the words left her lips she knew it wouldn’t be like that at all.

***

The light was on in his room. It spilled under the closed door into the hall as she walked past it. She hesitated a moment, then knocked softly. She heard him moving around but there was no answer. She knocked again. Louder this time. “Harvey.”

His voice was muffled. “Yes.”

“Are you going to bed?” Her voice echoed in the hall.

After a moment, he opened the door and stood there. “What do you want?” he asked. His voice was hoarse.

“I want to talk to you,” she said.

He stood silently looking at her, then stepped back abruptly. “Okay.”

His valise lay open on the bed, his clothing next to it. She turned to him as he closed the door. “What are you doing?” she asked.

He walked past her to the open valise and picked up a stack of T-shirts and dumped them into the valise. “What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked. He didn’t wait for an answer. “I’m going home tomorrow.”

She watched him silently as he placed some shirts in the bag. “There’s no reason for you to go,” she said.

He turned and looked at her. The hurt in his voice matched his eyes. “No? I’m not that stupid. You must think I’m a fool.”

“I don’t think you’re a fool, Harvey,” she said softly.

He turned his face away from her. He didn’t want her to see the mist that was blurring his vision. His voice was strained and tight. “I didn’t give a damn about coming to Europe. I came here to be with you.”

“You can still be here with me,” she said.

He looked into her eyes. “You know that I can’t. And I know that I can’t. So who are you trying to kid?” She didn’t answer and he continued. “Do you think I didn’t see what was happening? What was going on between you and Patrick?”

“Nothing happened,” she said.

“No?” he asked with a sarcasm that he himself never knew he had. “I could have gotten off the boat with those two girls and you never would have known that I was gone.”

“Harvey, Harvey,” she said softly, going to him. She put her hands on his arms. “We’re friends. I always want us to be friends.”

He looked down into her face and then couldn’t stop the rush of tears to his eyes. His arms went around her and he pulled her head tightly against his chest. “Look, Lauren,” he said huskily. “I knew that we were both kids. But I always knew that I loved you. But kids don’t talk about love. That’s for grownups and I always thought there was time for that. Maybe I was wrong, but I never figured that you’d go for an old man.”

Lauren was crying too. “He’s not an old man,” she snuffled against his chest. “He’s not going to be thirty until next year.”

“He’s still twelve years older than you are. That’s a lot.”

“That’s not much,” she said. “My father is sixteen years older than my mother.”

“And he talks funny,” Harvey said. “I never can even understand a word he says. Half the time I have to guess at what he means. Why can’t he talk English like the rest of us?”

“Because he is English,” she said. “And they talk different than Americans.”

“I bet there are a lot of things they do different than Americans,” he said.

She placed a gentle finger on his lips to keep him from speaking and looked up into his face. “Harvey, I’m going to marry him.”

She felt his jaw go slack against her finger and his mouth drop open as he pushed her away from him. He looked down at her in amazement. “Holy cats! Your folks’ll kill you!”

“No they won’t,” she said.

He was still staring at her. “That’s real serious,” he said.

“I know. A little scary too.”

“Yeah,” he said. He thought for a moment. “Are you sure you’re not overdoing it?”

“I’m sure,” she said. “I’m in love with him.”

“Oh, brother!” he exclaimed. “That’s a real mind-blower. Getting married and all that. That’s lifetime stuff.”

“Yeah,” she said.

He turned back to his valise and came up with a small vial. “This is the last I’ve got of number thirteen. I’ve been saving it for an emergency like this.”

“What does it do?” she asked as he began to roll the joint.

“Gives you confidence,” he said. “Makes you feel there’s nothing in the world that you can’t handle.”

***

The Valium had put him away and he was aware of nothing until the leather strap slashed across his back, jolting him awake. “What the hell?” he mumbled, rolling across his bed to turn on the cabin lights.

“Jesus!” he yelled as the strap caught him again just as the lights went on. He stared up at Janette, standing at the side of his bed, her breasts heaving under her sheer black see-through blouse delineated by the cross-straps of her micro-mini leather skirt. She raised the belt in her hand and he caught a glimpse of her strong white thighs under the skirt as they fell into her almost hip-length black leather boots. He tried to roll away from the blow and caught it on his arms. “Are you crazy?” he yelled.

“You slimy son of a bitch!” she said in a calm, cold voice. “You said you like beatings? Well, you’re going to get the beating of your life!”

The strap came down again and he jumped with pain. “Stop!” he yelled. He leaped naked from the bed and ran for the bathroom. Relentlessly she followed him, the strap slashing and cutting at him. He turned his face into a corner of the cabin, leaving only his naked back exposed to the stinging leather strap. After a moment he began to cry, then his legs trembled, and he sank to the floor, covering his face with his hands.

“Please,” he said in a little boy’s voice. “Don’t punish me anymore. I’ll be good. I’ll do anything you say.”

Her voice was still cold. “Lick my boots, you little bastard!”

“Yes, yes,” he said, still crying and crawling toward her on his hands and knees. He put his face against the nearest boot and began to lick it.

The strap slashed across his back. “Now the other.”

“Yes,” he said, moving to the other foot. “Let me be your slave.”

The belt came down on his back again. “Is that all you want to be?”

“Yes,” he whispered. “Your slave. That’s all.”

She slapped him across the face. “Eat my cunt,” she ordered, raising the front of her leather skirt.

He rose on his knees and buried his face between her legs. She placed a hand on the back of his head, pressing him into her. “Lick it faster,” she commanded.