Guardian Girl (The Chronicles of Staffordshire) (23 page)

Lenore mimicked Lena and propped her face in her palms. “Well, my beautiful Wild Child, I
love
this city. I
love
our apartment, I
love
Harvard, I
love
the law, and,” she blew Lena a kiss, “I definitely
love
you. So yes, I would say this is all happening precisely according to plan.”

Lena glanced nervously around the room and looked back at Lenore, index finger pressed to her lips. “Shhhh! Lenore! Icks-nay on the Ove-lay!”

“Huh?”

“Watch what you say about the ‘L’ word. We’re in public, babe.”

Still oblivious, Lenore asked again. “Huh? What ‘L’ word?”

Lena bent over the table and beckoned Lenore closer. She pressed her lips to Lenore’s ear. “L O V E, Freaky. Love. Don’t say that too loud. They don’t take well to that kind of thing in this town. Did you see what some of the locals said about Billy Jean when she came out? Not kind, Freaky.”

“Ohhhhh…” Lenore leaned back. “I am sorry. I did not think I said it that loudly.”

“Look, Lenore, Boston is a WAY different town than New York. Up here, everyone knows everyone. A little rumor gets out to the wrong person and our lives could be over in a hurry. No endorsements, no signature clothing lines, no cash. Done. Kaput. Over. So watch it with the ‘L’ word.”

Lenore pouted and put her face back in her palms, locking eyes with Lena. She said nothing. For an uncomfortably silent eternity, Lenore besieged Lena’s eyes with the “Supermodel Sulk.”

“Stop it, Freaky.”

Lenore remained silent.

“Stop it, Lenore.”

Mope.

“C’mon, Lenore. Stop it.”

Frown.

“What do you want? You want me to say it? Is that what this is about? You want me to say it?”

Lenore smiled and nodded, face still planted in palms.

“Dear God! What a frigging diva!”

Lena beckoned Lenore forward with her index finger. The two women met at the center of the table and Lena whispered the words Lenore longed to hear. “I love you, too, Lenore.”

Lenore beamed, resting her chin on her interlaced fingers, smiling with her eyes at the powerhouse attorney in the making.

“Now, can we get past all this lovey-dovey stuff and talk about the rest of the week? I have a ton of work to get done before Friday. You remember I have that warm-up tournament in LA this weekend, right?”

“Yes, dear. You leave Friday after class, I leave Friday after class.”

“Oh yeah? You’re heading out, too? I guess I forgot about that. Where are
you
going?”

“Paris. There is a fall preview show this weekend and I am doing a two-day shoot for Raquel for her new working professional designs. I am coming back Sunday night on the red eye.”

“Well, then, I guess we’ll both need to spend some quality time at the library this week! Tichner will have our heads if we walk in Monday morning with jetlag and no prep.”

Coquettishly cocking her head and resting her chin on clasped fingers, Lenore’s competitive side got the better of her. Offering one of the Wild Child’s signature eye-batting smirks, she slipped. “Well
you
may need extra time at the library this week but
I
, my procrastinating friend, have moved ahead in my reading. I have the night off. I have a few things I must do back at the apartment.”

“SHEESH! How do you do that? How do you get ahead of me like that? This is the second time this month that you’ve ditched on me because you’re ahead of me. You were
never
like this at Paulson! We studied
everything
together and I don’t
ever
remember you leaving me in the dust like this.”

Snagged. Lenore bowed her head and glanced away. “Oh… I do not know. I just worked a little faster this week, that is all.”

Squinting, the future litigator didn’t believe her roommate’s excuse. “Lenooore? What’s going on, Freaky? Why do you look embarrassed all of a sudden? What’s going on? And don’t say, ‘I just worked a little faster this week.’ It’s truth-o-meter time, Freaky.”

Humiliated, Lenore thrust her hands into her lap. “Well… Wild Child… I have a confession. And
please
do not be upset, but... I learned how to skim pages when I was ten. I never wanted to frustrate you by getting too far ahead, so I… I have always pretended to read at your speed. I kept journals inside my textbooks so I could read something else while you were catching up.”

Lena’s head popped to attention, her eyes flaming. “N
ow wait a damned minute, Lenore
! You mean to tell me you’ve been ahead of me all this time and you never let me know about it? All four years? All the way through Paulson you were leaving me in your dust?”

“Yes, Lena,” Lenore acknowledged, dropping her head in shame. “I am sorry! I never told you because I did not want you to feel badly about it. You were always so competitive about our studies and grades and I did not want to upset you.”

Exasperated and slightly humiliated, Lena scowled and shook her head. “Well, then! Any other secrets you feel like letting me in on, huh Lenore? Like the fact that you’re really Super Girl and every time you go into the bathroom you’re really flying out the window to stop a passenger train from derailing?”

The freaky supermodel had a hearty laugh. A look of practiced innocence met Lena’s attempt to read Lenore’s eyes. The roommate feigned genuine consideration of the Wild Child’s query.

“No, dear. No other secrets. Just the speed reading. Besides… What are you complaining about? You graduated higher than me anyway. So it does not really matter that I was ahead of you on reading assignments, does it? You still won.”

Lena peered at Lenore through slitted eyes, wary, a nagging suspicion tugging at her heart. She knew the look. Lenore never used it with Lena - or so she thought - but she’d seen it many times over the years whenever the freaky supermodel did a TV interview. Lenore put on “the mask” anytime she wished to dodge questions she did not want to answer.

“Lenore…?”

The freaky supermodel glanced away nervously, toward the window and the street beyond. Snagged again!

“Lenore…? Look at me. Did you do something else besides speed read, Freaky? Is there something else I should know about?”

Feigning confusion, Lenore attempted to deflect the Wild Child’s cross examination. “I do not think so. No. Just the speed reading, dear.”

In her peripheral vision, Lena caught Lenore’s right forearm flexing. She was picking at the cuticle on her left index finger.

“Lenore… What’s going on? What else are you hiding? It wasn’t just speed reading, was it? C’mon, Freaky Baby. Fess up.”

“Really, Lena. Nothing else. No other secrets. I promise.”

Math was never Lena’s favorite subject, but a simple equation was hard to miss. Lenore was a secret speed reader, ergo Lenore was probably way ahead of Lena on
all
of their assignments. Lena always felt as if Lenore was one step sharper during their study sessions. PLUS, Lenore was always calculating, always plotting, always on the hunt for adventure.

Lena mulled the absurdity of her next question.
“Nah… She didn’t. She couldn’t. Did she? NAH!”

“Freaky… Did you…?”

Lenore’s eyes shifted uncomfortably.

“Lenore Consuela Maria De La Fuente… Did you… Did you
let
me win?”

A muscle in Lenore’s cheek rippled.

“Win…? Win
what,
dear?”

“Lenoooore…?”

“Leeeena…?”

Lena stared into Lenore’s eyes and forced her way past the guarded portals of Lenore’s soul. She climbed down and into Lenore’s heart, scouring for confirmation of her suspicion. Lenore broke her gaze, her eyes darting to her clasped hands as they rested on the pizzeria table.

“YOU DID! YOU DID! YOU THREW YOUR GPA! YOU LET ME WIN!”

“No! I did not, Lena! I did not! I would not! Why would I do that? Why would I let you beat me?” Lenore pleaded, not convincingly.

“You
did,
didn’t you? You threw your goddamned GPA so I would beat you! I KNEW IT! God damn it! I knew it!”

Lena pounded the table and pointed accusingly at Lenore. The furious Wild Child laid into her self-sacrificial sweetie. “I knew something was up! I couldn’t believe you got a 98 on ‘The Myth of Sisyphus!’ You got a 98 on a paper you could have written in your sleep, damn it! A goddamned throw-away paper in our last, fluffy, piece-of-cake, elective course and you lost two frigging points. YOU HELPED ME WRITE THE DAMNED PAPER THAT I GOT A 100 ON, LENORE! On Camus, of all people! That goddamned Frenchie you love so much!”

A slip of apology crept across Lenore’s face. She begged with her eyes, seeking forgiveness from the Wild Child. “Lena… I am sorry! I just thought... You worked so hard for it! Your tennis always took so much more work than my modeling and I was so proud of you! I just wanted you to have the extra rank! Is there anything wrong with wanting you to have it instead of me?”

“But Lenore… I wanted to beat you
fair and square
! I thought we were just having fun with the competition! I never wanted it so bad that you would throw your grades for me!”

“Lena… You have always worked harder than me for everything. I watched you sweat and work and fight for every grade and every win on the tennis court. I grew up with great privilege and you… You always had to fight for everything.
You
deserved it! I wanted you to have it. Please don’t be angry with me! Please! Let it be my gift! Please?”

Fuming, Lena shook her head and glared at the freaky supermodel. “Ooooh! Lenore… I’m going to… Ooooh! I’m going to…”

“Hit me with your racket?” Lenore quipped hopefully.

“NOT FUNNY, Freaky! You’re not getting out of this… You can’t joke your way out of this you… You… GPA-thrower!”

The supermodel put on sad, amber-brown puppy dog eyes, sniffing away a hint of a tear, quietly imploring forgiveness from the Wild Child. Lena’s contempt cracked.

“Don’t you do that, Lenore! You’re in BIG trouble with me, Freaky!”

Tilting her head down, Lenore looked upward with her eyes toward her softening sweetie. In her lap, Lenore wrung her hands in shame, adding a darling little hint of humility to her quest for Lena’s forgiveness.

“Ooooh… Don’t you do that, Lenore! Ooooh. I am NOT happy with you, Freaky! C’mon, Lenore… You can’t sweetie-pie your way out of this! Just stop it, you GPA-thrower! Stop it!”

“Pleeeeze, Lena? Pleeeeze forgive me? Please?”

“Ooooh! Lenore De La Fuente…! You are such a… Such a…”

A light reflected off Lenore’s eyes and she turned on the charm. She urged Lena forward with a call of her index finger, speaking in a whisper as Lena came closer. “I am such a girl who is so completely in love with you that I wanted to give my beautiful Wild Child a gift nobody else ever could? Is that what you are trying to say?”

“NO! I was going to say you are such a
royal pain in my ass!
”

With their faces only inches apart, the freaky supermodel loosed her magical powers of breathy seduction on the Wild Child. “Are you sure you weren’t going to say that you forgive me and that you understand how I can be so madly in love with you that I would under-perform by two, measly, little points on a silly, little, insignificant paper just to see that beautiful, excited smile on your face at graduation?”

Lena growled and flicked her hand like a jungle cat presenting its claws. She pressed her index finger to the tip of Lenore’s nose. “Listen here, miss freaky pants… If you ever do that again I’m going to take you over my knee and spank you, do you hear me? When I win, I want to win fair and square, do you hear me? Fair and square, Lenore! No pity points!”

“But… Do you still love me, Lena? Do you forgive me? Please…?”

The hard-as-nails court cat crumbled. “Yes… Damn you.”

“YES? Do you forgive me? Really?”

Lena grumbled. “Yes, Lenore. Damn you. I forgive you. Idiot.” Lena thrust her index finger a second time into Lenore’s face. “But you are STILL in big trouble, Lenore. Someday I’m going to get you for this and I’m going to get you good!”

Lenore kissed Lena’s index finger and gently sucked on the tip of the digit, sending a shiver down Lena’s spine. Lena sat spellbound, her mouth hanging open and tongue pressed against her upper teeth as Lenore worked her seductive magic. Abruptly remembering their public location, Lena glanced around to see a fuzzy-bearded, professorial-looking individual in a tweed jacket staring at Lenore’s erotically charged connection with Lena’s appendage. Lena yanked her finger free.

“Stop it, Lenore! We’re in public! Don’t come after me now, you super-hussy!”

Lenore kissed Lena with her eyes, her adoring smile turning the tennis pro’s artificially hardened heart to Jello. “Oh… I will come after you sometime, my love. Do not worry. And when I do I will be certain you will forget ALL about my little indiscretion.”