Searching for Moore (35 page)

“It won’t always be this way, Schooner. He’s a petulant, beautiful boy, but at some point, with life experience, he’ll realize this isn’t a war.”

“Mia Silver, you are the one with the beautiful heart. I’m not so sure that my son has one or ever will. I will tell you this though, I was very clear with him on what is acceptable behavior where it comes to you. I will not tolerate blatant disrespect.”

“C’mere you.” Mia pulled Schooner’s head to her chest, kissing the top of his head in a gesture which he had patently comforted and expressed his love for her. Schooner nestled into Mia’s soft breasts, getting himself comfortable and let out a soft “mmmm” sound. Mia wrapped her arms tightly around him and entwined her legs with his before drifting off into an uneasy sleep.

“We’ll see you over at L9. It’s ‘Showtime’ folks,” was Schooner’s last words to the team before dismissing everyone.

Everyone left the breakfast meeting pumped on adrenaline and excitement for the opening, clear on their assignments and ready to rock the New York social scene. The press for the event had already reached a frenzy and everyone was calling in favors trying to get an invite.

Charles was on hand to brief the staff on interacting with his team, as well as with celebrities and their private security. Mia and Kami gave precise instructions on dealing with the press and paparazzi. Yoli met with each of the teams and their team leaders to review rolls and rotations throughout the night. There was some buzz about Mandy’s departure and if anyone was unsure of how Mia fit into the L9 organization, it was now clear that Schooner and Mia were partners in every sense of the word. Most of the staff were extremely savvy and professional and understood the ramifications of mouthing off to the boss. Calling your boss a bitch (unless you were Seth) was generally not a good career move.

“We’re headed off to go beautify. I’ll come over to the club when I’m done.”

“Why don’t you rest this afternoon, Baby Girl. You’re going to be on your feet all night.” Schooner reached down and brushed Mia’s bangs from her eyes.

“I feel like there is some detail I’m going to miss if I don’t go.” Mia looked up at Schooner, searching his face.

He shook his head. “Everything’s under control. Between the two of us, Yoli, Seth, Kami, Shai and Charles, we’ve done as much as we can. I don’t want you to push it.”

“Are you trying to tell me I need to relax?”

Schooner laughed, “I would never…”

Mia swatted him in the arm, smiling up at him. “You know that is not in my DNA!”

“Baby Girl, do not make me sic Dr. Gary on you,” his hands were in her hair, as he smiled down at her.

“Gary’s coming tonight,” she smiled back at him.

“Yes, I know, so don’t make me rat you out to him.” Schooner continued to play with her hair. “Go enjoy your girly stuff.” He bent down to softly kiss her lips.

“Schooner-,” she stopped.

“What, Baby Girl?”

“I love you.” Mia’s eyes were so earnest and every time she said the words to him, it was like she was saying it for the first time.

He leaned his forehead into hers and stayed like that for a moment before kissing her lips softly and saying, “It’s smoochal” into them.

Mia, Kami, Holly, Yoli, Debbie and Seth walked the two blocks down Grand Street through SoHo to the Sam Brocato Salon. Turning left on Wooster Street, the red Brocato Salon flag was gently blowing in the breeze.

“Oh my God, now it seems real, doesn’t it. We’re getting coiffed for tonight.” Mia commented, as they walked into the salon. The entourage was met warmly, with Sam whisking Mia off immediately.

He started to play with her hair as they talked, “You’ve always had thick hair, but pregnancy has turned it into a mane,” he played some more, “I can see you have not been using the Peppermint Scrub on your scalp.”

Mia looked guilty as she met Sam’s eyes in the mirror, “Busted.”

“I’ll go easy on you because I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, but you are not leaving here without a Peppermint Scrub Complete Pack. Now tell me about tonight, what you are wearing, your role, etc. This event is clearly the big ticket in town, everyone is talking about it.”

“They are? You’re hearing about it?” Sam nodded at Mia, “Excellent, means we’re doing a good job. Ok, so obviously we are the agency of record and we are handling all aspects, advertising, marketing, PR, events — all the details for this event.”

“Have you worked with Level 9 on the West Coast? They are huge out there.”

“No. Frankly, I had no clue who they were until February.” Mia laughed, “Apparently, I was the only one.”

“So, how did you connect with them?” Sam was trying out different parts on Mia’s hair, critically looking at her in the mirror as he pulled her hair up, put it back down, flared it on her shoulders, swept it to one side, then the other.

“Well, I have a relationship with the owner.”

Sam stopped playing and leveled a glance at Mia in the mirror, “With Schooner Moore.”

Mia nodded.

“What kind of relationship?” Sam was intrigued. Schooner was the new mystery man in town.

Mia laughed and rubbed her belly. “Knocked me up,” she deadpanned.

Sam led out a guffaw laugh. He laid his hand with the hairbrush on Mia’s shoulder. “So, he is your significant other?” Mia nodded.

“Mia, Mia, Mia. You have just made my day so much more interesting. Ok, so that makes you both the professional that has created the event as well as the hostess. Ok, let’s get your hair washed and your scalp scrubbed.”

Mia returned to Sam’s chair with her scalp feeling like it was glowing. “Tell me about your dress.”

Mia looked at Sam in the mirror and rolled her eyes. “Maternity evening wear is penance for something I did wrong in a past life,” she pouted.

Sam laughed, “I’m sure you are wearing something very chic and flattering. Seth would not let you attend in something embarrassing.”

“It’s a midnight blue one-shouldered Grecian drape thing.”

Sam was listening as he combed through Mia’s hair. “Length?”

“Short, above the knee.”

He stopped what he was doing, “Oh thank goodness, you are too small to carry long maternity.”

Mia nodded, “That is what Seth said.”

“Ok, so classic lines on your dress and since you are the hostess, I’m thinking old Hollywood for you tonight. Let’s sweep these bangs over to the side. Think Rita Haworth, Ava Gardner, Lauren Bacall. Soft waves for the rest. And I need to shape your hair, you are a mess from this summer.”

“Do it!” Mia proclaimed with a smile. As she glanced to her left and her right, the rest of her party were in different phases of their makeovers.

When Sam was done with Mia, she sat with her mouth open looking at her reflection. She checked out her left profile, then her right profile, tilted and cocked her head. “You like?” Sam looked very satisfied with his masterful handiwork.

“I love it.”

As Mia headed toward make-up, she stopped behind Seth’s chair. He spied her in his mirror and gasped, “It’s movie star BBC. I likee!”

Mia stood in front of the bathroom mirror trying to maneuver her body into her dress properly. “This is some serious cleavage,” she muttered at her changing body.

She heard the front door to the hotel penthouse loft slam, “Hey, I’m back.” Schooner yelled

“I’ll be out in a few.” Showtime, Mia thought and wished she’d had her shoes and jewelry on, so that Schooner could get the full effect of the silver screen image that Sam had created for her.

Schooner had his back to her when she emerged from the bathroom. He was already in the pants of his Fendi Steel Mélange black suit and white Armani Collezioni dress shirt and was fumbling as he attempted to insert black stingray leather and silver cufflinks.

“Need help with those?”

Schooner slowly turned around, his eyes widening and a real smile spreading across his handsome face at the sight of Mia. “Hey, Gorgeous,” his voice was little more than a growl.

“Hey Gorgeous, yourself,” she took the cufflinks from his hands and inserted them into his French cuffs.

She looked up and he was smiling down at her, appreciatively. “You look beautiful, Baby Girl.”

“You think?” She asked over her shoulder with a devil smile as she headed to the closet. “Oh crap. Where are my shoes?” There was panic in Mia’s voice.

“In the living room.”

“In the living room, really?” Mia was confused and left the bedroom in search of her shoes. “What the…” She turned around to see Schooner standing behind her with a shit-eating grin on his face. Mia cocked her head, questioningly. On the low coffee table in the living room were two matte black shoeboxes emblazoned with the silver
Jimmy Choo
logo.

Schooner took Mia by the hand and led her to the couch where they sat down. She just smiled at him with a bemused look.

He took one of the boxes in his lap, “Christian Louboutin made you cry. So I bought you Jimmy Choo’s.” His eyes never leaving hers, he removed the box top and watched her gasp as the recessed lighting in the hotel loft caught the glint off of the shiny silver peep toe slingbacks.

“Oh my God, Schooner.” Mia was floored as Schooner took out the first of the “Clue” pumps.

“A sexy silver shoe. There just could not be a more perfect shoe for Mia Silver.” Mia lifted her foot for him and Schooner slipped the sexy and elegant silver shoe onto her left foot and then her right. She smiled at them in awe.

“They fit.” Mia beamed at Schooner. “I love you so much,” she leaned over and softly kissed his lips.

“Do you want to see what is in the other box?” He was the one giving her the devil smile now. Mia nodded, but was clearly distracted by the beautiful slingbacks gracing her shapely legs and high-arched, newly pedicured feet.

Schooner handed her the second box and she lifted the lid and gasped again. “I figured your feet might not make it through the night in the first pair and you’ll still need to look chic — or Seth will kill the both of us,” he laughed. In the second box, were are pair of Jimmy Choo flat silver thong sandals with a sexy ankle strap.

Mia wrapped her arms around Schooner’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss. “You spoil me,” she said against his lips.

He nodded, smiling. “And it’s a rare treat when you actually let me.”

She kissed his lips softly and said, “Wait here.”

Coming from the bedroom, she sat down and handed him a long thin burnt orange box with black piping. The box was sashed with a thin black satin ribbon emblazoned in white with
Hermès-Paris.
“I needed to complete your New York transformation.”

Schooner opened the box and smiled at Mia. Nestled in soft tissue was an Hermes Faconnee H jacquard silk twill tie that matched Mia’s midnight blue dress. “Now that’s class,” he whispered, as he removed the hand folded tie from the box. It was Schooner’s first Hermès.

He handed the tie to Mia, who draped it slowly and sensually around his neck and under his shirt collar, smiling at him and making a slow meal of it, before tying a perfect double Windsor knot and pulling him in by his tie for a kiss.

“You’re killing me here,” he groaned.

“Good,” she kissed him again, devil smile reaching her eyes this time.

They finished dressing and Mia was standing in front of the full length mirror in the bedroom. Schooner came up behind her buttoning his suit jacket, looking at her petite and very feminine reflection appreciatively. They both stood there silently drinking in the image in the mirror. Their image was not just one of beauty, but also exuded happiness. Mia couldn’t help but think of a line from a Roxy Music song,
“More than this, there is nothing.”
⁹

Schooner and Mia did not just look like they belonged together, Schooner and Mia belonged together.

Schooner and Mia reached the Sky Lobby on the hotel’s third floor where the rest of their party awaited. “Wait until you see your daughter,” Mia squeezed Schooner’s hand, as they approached.

Dressed in an azalea red ruched Theia silk jacquard cocktail dress with her long blonde hair swept to one side, Holly looked as if she should be walking the runway. Schooner’s face melted upon seeing his daughter and Mia gave his hand a final squeeze, before letting it go.

Schooner held Holly by her shoulders at arm’s length looking at her. “You look…” he began to speak, but was overcome and shook his head, before pulling her in for a sweet hug. Seth grabbed Mia’s hand and gave it a squeeze as they smiled at the heartwarming scene unfolding in front of them.

It was then that Mia noticed Zac watching them from off to the side, where he stood leaning against a glass wall. Instinctively, she could not help herself from smiling at him standing there looking like a brooding Greek god. She knew who and what he was, yet could not control an underlying, and unwarranted, fondness — he was Schooner’s.

“Zac, come over here. I want to take a picture of you, your dad and Holly.” Mia motioned him over. It was the first interaction she’d had with him since the incident at the pool. Zac stood there stone-faced, not moving. Mia rolled her eyes at him and shook her head, “Just get your ass over there.” Her tone was one that she would take with a friend, like Seth, saying “just cut the crap.” Not quite knowing how to take her, Zach complied and shuffled over. Refusing to smile for the picture, his scowl actually complimented both his looks and the eveningwear.

“Gorgeous.” Mia said, showing Seth the picture. “You did an amazing job dressing him.”

“I hate admitting how beautiful Devil Spawn is,” he whispered at her through clenched teeth and Mia squeezed his arm.

Out of the corner of her eye, Mia saw Schooner nod his head at Zac and motion toward Mia. As Zac approached Mia, Seth gave her a look and backed away.

“Sorry about last night,” he muttered, without conviction.

“Come walk with me.” Mia took Zac by the upper arm.

They moved away from the rest of the party and rounded a corner before Mia stopped. She leveled a cold glance at him, her green eyes meeting his ice blue eyes head on. “Do you love your father?” She asked.