Ineffable (5 page)

He dove for her, and she laughed as he buried his face in her crotch.

She wouldn’t laugh for long, he thought smugly. But he was wrong about that. She fell out laughing not two minutes later.

“Seriously,” Tommy said, emerging from the bathroom. “Do not go in there for at least 30 minutes. I lit a candle, and I got the fan going, but I’m doing this detox. It’s brutal.”

“Where the hell did you come from?” Nori demanded.

Tommy looked at him like he was crazy. “I had to get something out of my car. I came in the back.”

Margot rolled on the bed she was laughing so hard. Nori just buried his head in the covers and groaned.

Chapter six

A few hours later Margot got ready for dinner with Nori’s father.

“Where’s the stuff from Saks?” Lani asked, rubbing her hands together when she arrived. She always remembered when and where people were shopping. “I love new shit.”

Margot pointed to her bedroom.

“This one,” Lani said promptly, tossing out an orange dress with cut outs at the sides and black straps, exposed zipper and leather band around the waist. “With this bling,” she pounced on the Swarovski crystal necklace Margot had just put together.

“Uh uh, I’m selling that.”

“Bull shit. Wear it, then sell it with a pre-owned by artist tag, full price,” Lani said.

“Don’t you think I should be more conservative?”

“Bitch, please. You’re tall, you’re an artist, and you have huge tits. Wear the fuckin’ dress,” Tommy ordered, going into the fat, hanging dress carrier Lani’d brought in just in case there was a better option. Finding nothing, she lifted one of Margot’s curls. “Into the bathroom; we gotta moisturize these naps!”

“We gotta comb ‘em first,” Lani muttered.

Mostly against her will Margot was primped, plumped, pulled and parted. By the time Nori arrived, she was also inebriated and irritated.

When Lani reached in for the third time to smooth down the hairs at her nape, she yelled, “Would you bitches go on? Enough!”

“Temper,” Tommy warned.

“Then stop fuckin’ botherin’ me!”

“Okay, ladies. You did a wonderful job. She looks beautiful, as always,” Nori said, stepping into the breach. “But we have to go if we’re to make it to the north shore in time for drinks.”

Lani and Tommy found themselves hustled out by an expert, and when they were gone, Margot helped herself to the joint Tommy had left behind.

“Should you be doing that before we meet my parent?”

“Unless you want me to have an episode? Yeah.” But she only took two puffs before she put it down.

She stepped close and he pulled her the rest of the way. She released her hit into his mouth and smoke escaped between them as they kissed. She stroked a hand over his white shirt. “You look good.”

“You look better. I’ve removed your lipstick.” His eyes traced his fingers path over her now bare lips.

She shrugged, picking up her purse and leaving him to lock the door behind them. “I got more. Nice,” she said of his Benz. Then, “Make the sun roof work. I need to air out without screwing up my do.”

“So is this like a test?” she asked, applying lip gloss in the visor mirror.

“Probably,” he admitted. “But the only person who cares if you pass is my father.”

“Will he like me?”

“Probably not. But like I said, I don’t care.”

“Well, why are we going then?”

Nori shrugged. “He has to meet you sometime.”

Joy, Margot thought. She had a feeling tonight was gonna be a riot.

Nori didn’t want to go either. He and his father got along, but he was still a father, and he had very strong opinions, not all of which Nori agreed with. But Aro did need to meet Margot.

As they approached the house Nori said, “My father and I don’t always have the best relationship. If he says anything,” he paused.

“I understand, baby. Just because I don’t have any family doesn’t mean I don’t value it. I know about uneasy family situations.”

He slanted her a look in the dim car. That had been said with an undercurrent of, something. Unfortunately, they were pulling into the driveway. Now was not the time to continue his never ending effort to pull personal information from this rarity among females – a woman who did not like to talk.

He wondered what she saw as she looked at his childhood home. Blonde brick, pillars, classic lines, manicured lawns, lights twinkling merrily down on the expensive looking cars that lined the curved drive. It was large, impressive, set on a huge tract of land in an enclave, one of three vastly different houses. He felt nothing when he looked at it.

The red front door opened as they approached. His father’s slim elegant figure stood waiting, sharp eyes taking in their clasped hands before he smiled and stood back to allow them entrance.

“Good evening, Ms. Temple. My name is Aro, I’m Nori’s father.”

Shaking the large hand offered, she said, “Good evening. Thank you for the invitation. Please call me Margot, Aro.”

“Son.”

“Father.”

“Now, son, you know most people here tonight. Old family friends,” he said, smiling at Margot.

Nori neatly blocked his father’s usual move, to put a female guests arm through his own, and clasped her hand warmly. He smiled into strange faces, easily producing the Gallic charm this pretentious crowd would expect.

“Hello, handsome,” cooed one fat lady whose name he’d forgotten. He kissed her cheek so elaborately the old bat actually blushed.

He could still remember his father staring at him critically when he was 12, “too pretty,” he pronounced, then dismissed him with a waved hand to his tennis coach. Ever since then, whenever someone complimented his physical beauty in his father’s hearing, Nori had to restrain a smirk.

“Frank, Daphne, Rod, Luanne, please come and meet Margot Temple. You all remember my son Nori.”

Hands were shaken all around, and Margot stood comfortably as she was quietly but thoroughly assessed.

“Dolce, right?” Luanne said of her black lace dress, a last minute replacement when Tommy decided the orange needed alterations. “I think I just saw one of my favorite bloggers wearing that dress.”

“Yes, and if the blogger’s name was Tommy, this actually is her dress.” Dissatisfied with Lani’s offerings, her girl had literally taken the dress off her back and given it to her.

Luanne laughed, delighted. “Really? Is she a friend of yours? Her style is impeccable. I follow her Instagram feed every day. I’ve been trying to get her to plan my annual garden party, but I can never quite seem to catch her with any free time on her hands.”

“You’re not, but you must be,” Daphne whispered. “Are you Margot Temple the jewelry designer?”

“Guilty.”

Daphne clapped her hands together in glee. “I knew it. That necklace you’re wearing!” Her blue eyes gleamed covetously as she eyed the beaten gold coils and steel wrapping Margot’s throat.

“I’ve been haunting Ineffable trying to get one of your pieces, but they refuse to hold anything, and twice, twice! A woman has literally arrived right before me and scooped up the last one. I was this close to a pair of your earrings last week,” she held up two fingers so close together no light or air could have come between them.

“I can make something for you personally, if you like.”

The women stared at her. “Really?” Daphne whispered. “A Margot Temple original.” They pondered this for a moment. “Can I afford it?” Daphne laughed, but she was serious.

“Sure. My custom pieces are more expensive, but they’re also utterly unique. There will never be another piece like it, without your permission. They start at $3,000, and if I use lots of gold or semi-precious stones there is a markup for materials, but I’ll let you know what we’re working with before we seal the deal. Or, you could give me a budget, and I’ll create something within that price range. Do you have a card?”

While Daphne and Luanne were hunting down their handbags, Nori came up, put a hand around her waist and a glass of white wine in her hand.

“Managed to drum up some business, have you?”

Margot grinned and shrugged, the movement drawing attention to her creamy shoulders and plump décolletage. “You know me.”

Not yet, he thought.

“Your home is beautiful,” she said to Aro, her large eyes running over the cream walls and ebony hardwood floors with their huge Aubusson rugs.

His father favored a clean, classic look, but there were quirky animal themed accents in the bookcases, paintings and objets d’art on tables around the room. She smiled at a trio of gleaming brass elephants marching across the mantelpiece.

Nori watched slightly enviously as she ran a hand over a glass giraffe with green stones in its eyes, hooves, ears and tail. Down boy, he told himself. You’ll get your turn later.

“My son tells me your products are selling out in Ineffable stores all over the world, Margot,” said Aro.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

He waited for her to say something more, and Nori hid a smile behind his scotch because he knew full well his father could conceivably be waiting forever.

“Thomas is trying to get your attention, dad.”

Aro turned toward the butler. “Ah. Dinner is served. Everyone, let’s move into the dining room.”

Daphne and Luanne monopolized Margot exclusively at the table, each wanting to talk about their proposed jewelry orders.

“Enough, woman,” said husband Frank. “Let her eat, will you?”

Daphne subsided reluctantly, casting Margot and Nori an apologetic look.

“I’ll make something beautiful for you both,” said Margot. “We’ll meet and discuss the details soon.”

The women smiled gratefully, and Nori squeezed her thigh under the table.

“You are a sweetheart,” he whispered into her ear.

“Don’t tell anyone,” she whispered back. “I have a reputation to maintain.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. It was to be the last one during dinner.

Things started innocently enough. Chit chat until Aro turned the conversation to something more personal.

“So, Margot,” he said, “I hear you’re something of a troublemaker.”

Nori’s eyes locked on his father. He murmured something in French.

Aro waved whatever he said away. “Don’t be rude, Nori. I don’t think anyone here speaks French.”

“They don’t have to. But I think you should be a bit more gracious to my guest.”

Aro inclined his head and smiled slightly, but Margot was in no way fooled. So she waited. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for him to deliver the next zinger. That one was about her looks, and how lucky his son was to be sleeping with someone so incredibly lovely.

Margot looked at Nori, whose fork had just hit his plate with a clatter.

“I hope we’re not boring you with all this legal talk, Margot,” said Aro later when the conversation shifted again to business, his black brows arching high to meet thick silver hair. “But perhaps you understand the nuances? You have had your share of legal situations.”

“I certainly have,” she said easily, without a hint of upset at his father’s sotto voce rudeness. “But don’t worry about me. I am a small business owner after all, and even if I wasn’t, I find it remarkably easy to shut out anything I don’t find interesting.”

Score one for my girl, Nori thought, shooting his father a smug, pick the bones out of that! grin.

But old Aro was far from defeated. Without appearing to do so he managed to insult Margo repeatedly, no matter what the topic of conversation. Without ever raising his voice he suggested she was common, boring, ill-educated, and a mediocre talent. And then, for the piece de resistance, he brought up race.

“I finally got around to seeing that movie 12 Years a Slave.”

“I thought it was wonderful,” said Daphne.

“I presume you have seen this film, Margot? I know you – artists – like to support one another.”

“I wouldn’t see a movie about a slave if you paid me,” Margot said, calmly eating her shortcake.

“No? I’d have thought you would want to sympathize with the injustice of it all,” Aro drawled.

“That is enough!” Nori said, tossing his napkin onto the table.

Margot was already on her feet.

“I can sympathize all right. It’s wallowing I find hard to abide. And if you’ve seen one movie degrading black people, visiting sundry atrocities and indignities on black flesh, you’ve pretty much seen them all. I’m not a masochist. And that,” she said, tossing back the last of her wine. “Is why I’m going to say goodnight. It’s been a very – enlightening evening. Ladies, it was a pleasure. You have my number. Do call me when you’re ready to start your custom projects.”

And she turned on her heel and was gone.

“Margot! Margot,” Nori said, moving to follow. “Wait!”

“Let her go,” said Aro, also on his feet.

Nori stopped walking and swung around, a look so foul on his face, his father actually stepped back, shocked.

“You’d better pray your ridiculous, juvenile attempts to make my friend feel inferior, uncomfortable and unwelcome have failed. Because if she doesn’t forgive me I will never darken this fucking door again. Do you understand me? You and this menagerie of old shitheads just fucked up. Huge,”
Nori told his father in French, following Margot from the room without another word for anyone.

He sprinted and found her just as she crossing the foyer to the front door. “Margot.”

She kept walking.

“Margot, please!” He spun her around and then almost fell over when she shoved him back with all her might.