TASTE ME

by Carrie Alexander

  * * *

  13

  "Nikki, it's Petra Lombardi."

  "Oh. Hi! I'm so excited!"

  "Then you've already been told you got the job. Fantastic. I'm quite pleased for you."

  "Yes, I'm going to be a Hard Candy staff writer!" Nikki squealed into her cell phone. "And they're rushing my article and Mia's painted-fashions layout into publication as soon as possible—to build on the excitement after the December issue with her cover. That was a surprise, because at first the editor wasn't sure they'd use more than a paragraph. I guess it helped that Julian pushed the idea. Mia's his girlfriend, you know."

  "Fantastic. I have nothing against nepotism."

  Petra's subsequent pause was long enough for Nikki to speculate on the woman's sincerity. Zip, she decided, before saying with a giggle, "Me, neither."

  Finally the art director went on. "Hard Candy usually only profiles celebrities. But the editor does love sexy gossip and scandal. Plus, I put in a good word for you, the way I said I would. Since I'll be in charge of that—of Mia's layout—I do have an influence."

  "Thank you," Nikki said with scrupulous etiquette, even if she wasn't sure that Petra deserved it despite the advice she'd dispensed at their lunch. "I owe you big-time."

  Petra laughed. "Not at all."

  Nikki squirmed, her suspicions about the art director's motives deepening. Although they'd barely mentioned Julian when they'd met, there had been something in Petra's voice—a brittle edge when she said his name—that had made Nikki wonder. She'd told herself that she was only networking. And it wasn't as if Petra had even hinted at an exchange of favors.

  Besides, what could Nikki do? No more was she a schoolgirl bringing home friends who only wanted to goggle over her brother. Petra was much more sophisticated than that.

  "I'll take you out for drinks, my first day on the job," Nikki offered. "I'm starting next week."

  "I'm sure we can think of something more exciting than drinks."

  Nikki stopped outside of Bendel's window, not even looking at the shoes. "Such as?"

  "We will see." Petra sounded like a cream-fed cat. "As they say, what goes around comes around."

  A city work crew had set up on the street nearby and a man with neck-to-wrist tattoos was vibrating behind a jackhammer. Nikki held out her phone and shouted at it from an arm's length away. "There's a huge racket here. Sorry, gotta go!"

  She snapped the phone shut and stowed it in her bag. Either Petra was maneuvering for the sake of office politics, or she was up to a more personal game. Nikki didn't want to speak to Julian about it. He'd only tell her that she was in over her head and she should have listened to him and written about decorating a country kitchen with ginghams and plaid. Yuck.

  Sex and celebrity were the hot trends. Hard Candy was where Nikki wanted to be, even if it did seem as if she'd unexpectedly pulled a plum out of the Silk Publishing pie. Oh well. She'd work so diligently that no one would be able to say she didn't deserve her good fortune.

  And she'd steer clear of Petra Lombardi.

  If great sex really gave a woman that certain glow, Mia figured that she must be lit up like a Christmas tree. Either men could smell it on her or they were responding to her irrepressible grin, because every other guy she passed on the street had a comment, a whistle, a wink or leer. And all of them made her laugh.

  She had stayed the night at Julian's apartment. Around 3:00 a.m., she'd been belly down over a raw silk ottoman, watching a late movie on the plasma screen TV while he made love to her from behind. He'd pushed deep, leaned over and whispered in her ear—some variation of Bacall's famous line about putting her lips together—and soon she'd been coming for the third time. Bogart and Bacall were a good inspiration.

  They'd slept late and then Julian had raced off to work, leaving her to his apartment. She'd thought about doing the new-girlfriend closet search, looking for clues to his inner life, especially because the place was so spartan. But there just hadn't been time, after a long hot bath, a call from her new booking agent, another call from Nikki and a last-minute wardrobe panic.

  "Hot frickin' mama!" yelled a guy from behind as she ran to beat the light at a cross street. Maybe she should have worn the white dress again, even though it had been a crumpled mess.

  Nikki was standing outside of their meeting point, talking on her cell. She waved at Mia, eyes widening.

  Mia arrived out of breath. "Hi. Sorry I'm late."

  "Is that an I-boffed-your-brother-all-night-long ensemble?"

  "You might call it that." She'd worn her sari shawl like a sarong skirt, with a pale blue dress shirt of Julian's tucked into it, the knee-length tail peeping out where the makeshift skirt gathered to knot at her waist. The sleeves were rolled up past her elbow and underneath was a pair of biking shorts, but no one could tell that. She looked half-dressed and thoroughly rogered.

  "Ew." Nikki shuddered. "Don't you know I'm an impressionable youngster?"

  Mia put a hand over her silly smiting mouth. "Sorry. I didn't have time to go home and change."

  "But it's noon." Nikki checked her watch. "Past noon. We'd better go in and grab our table instead of waiting for Very."

  "Very's coming?"

  "Is that okay? She wanted to help celebrate my new job, and I think she's also hoping to get to know you better. Great fodder for teasing Julian." Nikki acknowledged the hostess with a tiny nod and moved with strutting élan through the crowded restaurant. She walked like a runway model; Mia scurried like a bunny rabbit.

  The walls were chocolate-brown and chalkboard-black. Pendant lights with a thirties' glam hung over small square tables set mere inches apart. It was the kind of place that made Mia feel chubby and underdressed, even when she wore her best. In a man's dress shirt, she was a lost cause. Fodder, for sure.

  She sucked in her stomach and edged toward the long bench that lined the wall, trying not to drag the linen tablecloth with her. "Do you think I can pass my look off as a new trend?" she said under her breath to Nikki from behind oversized menus, aware of amused glances from the next table over, where two women with locked jaws and stretched skin nibbled at raw greens.

  Nikki sent the server away with an order for a round of champagne cocktails. "Sure. Just tilt your chin up."

  Mia and Nikki tilted, side by side.

  "Lower your eyelids. Do a little pout with your lower tip…"

  They lowered and pouted.

  "And when anyone speaks to you, give them a shoulder nudge and a short pause, lifting your eyebrows if they've been terribly presumptuous…"

  Mia nudged, paused and lifted, feeling like a street mime.

  Veronica Silk appeared at the table. "What's with the facial ticks?" She air-kissed their cheeks and plopped into a chair, ripping off her shiny satin baseball jacket as if she hadn't a care in the world.

  "I'm teaching Mia to be supercilious," Nikki explained.

  "Ha! You both look like Mom when Frodo has left a gift on the rug."

  The adjacent women were appalled, but also fascinated.

  "Exactly." Nikki winked at Mia. "Practice. It'll come in handy when Jules brings you home to meet our mother. Not that I'm comparing you to a dog turd!"

  "Perish the thought," Mia said. She wasn't looking forward to the meet-the-parents step, on either side.

  "Jules hasn't brought a girl home in years, but it could happen with Mia." Nikki leaned toward Very. "She made Jules late for work, if you can believe that."

  Very blinked. "Wow. Then it must be serious. Or you're really, really good in bed."

  "Both," Mia said with a modest smile.

  The sisters looked at each other and laughed. "Isn't she perfect?" Nikki said. "Jules has finally found a woman with pizzazz instead of the social climbers and fame whores who are usually panting after him." She leaned forward to address the neighboring table. "You know the type."

  The eavesdroppers twitched snooty noses and pretended great interest in their salads.

  Very
nodded. "Now there's supercilious."

  Mia cast the women a glum look. "That'll never be me. I can't be … cool."

  "Thank God," said Nikki. "I couldn't take it if Jules wanted to marry the Petra Lombardi type."

  Mia's ears perked up, but it was Very who jumped in. "What? I thought Petra was your new best friend, getting you the job and all."

  "She's just sucking up because of my name. Her eyes are on either Julian or a better position within the company, I'm not sure which." Nikki turned to Mia. "Do you know Petra?"

  "I've worked with her…"

  "Oh yeah. I forgot about the cover shoot. How did she treat you?"

  "Um, well, I don't think she paid a lot of attention to me." Not until Petra had seen her out with Julian. "But there's something there. I don't know exactly what." Although her instinct said Petra wanted Mia's man.

  The drinks arrived. "I realize that it's kind of early for alcohol," Nikki said as they lifted their glasses.

  "Says who? I could use some hair of the dog." Very clinked rims. "To Nik's new job. Her first job. Cheers!"

  "Cheers." Mia took only a small sip. "Congratulations, Nikki. Am I going to get an advance peek at your first article?"

  "I brought a copy with me. But I should warn you, the editor said that I should expect a heavy edit to suit the painted-fashion layout you'll be doing for them. I'm just happy that the piece will be printed at all, in any form. From what Petra said, even Julian's approval wasn't enough."

  "I'm sure you did a wonderful job," Mia said. She'd booked the Hard Candy layout that very morning. "If it wasn't Julian, what happened to change the editor's mind?"

  "Well … Petra hinted that it was her good word that turned the trick. She said something about how the magazine was only interested in stories about celebrities having sex, or whatever, and I got the feeling I was supposed to be very grateful to her for convincing them to take on my article."

  "Do you believe that?"

  Nikki shrugged. "I have no reason not to. To tell the truth, I thought I'd either be offered a position just because of my connection to Silk Publishing, or else I'd be turned down flat because Jules had learned about my intentions and laid down the law at Hard Candy. He swears he rarely interferes with editorial decisions, but…" She shrugged.

  "I think you'll find that Julian's becoming more flexible," Mia said. "He does want you to be happy, Nikki. I don't see him forcing them into this layout and article, though."

  Very took a big swallow of her drink. "I believe I can shed some light on the puzzle." She reached down to shuffle through an overstuffed gym bag. "I was on the train and picked up a paper that had been left on the seat…" She lifted out a pair of boxing gloves and set them on her empty plate. "Ah, here we go." She popped back up, opening the folded tabloid with a rattle. Her gaze went to Mia as she folded the paper over. "You haven't seen this, I'm guessing."

  Instinct gave Mia goose bumps. Her mouth went to cotton. The pink ruffle of Very's retro-punk hair flopped over onto her forehead as she passed the paper across the table, looking sort of … wary.

  Nikki and Mia huddled over the page of newsprint. The top half of the page was devoted to a premiere of a new movie, but below that was a photo of Mia and Julian leaving the restaurant the previous night. Beside it was a reproduction of the Peachy Keen ad that had caused so much controversy. Mia's eyes went to the headline: "Silk Mystery Date Laid Bare."

  "Oh shit," she said.

  Very shrugged. "No big deal. You're a celebrity now, for at least fifteen minutes."

  "I don't want to be a celebrity." Mia glanced over the paragraphs about Julian's latest conquest, big on innuendo, but also packed with gossipy tidbits about her "sexy" career in body painting, all made to sound as titillating as possible. There was even mention of the upcoming Hard Candy cover. "And I really don't want to be famous for getting schtupped by Julian Silk. No offense to Julian." She'd never considered herself one of the crowd. Not to mention how appalled her parents would be.

  Very swirled her drink. "None taken, I'm sure."

  Nikki was noticeably quiet. Eventually she set the paper down and looked up at them, her expression bleak. "What does this mean?"

  "Just the usual gossip," Very said.

  "No." Nikki gulped. "The timing, and—and—"

  Assuming that the girl referred to her new job, Mia reassured her. "I'm sure they wanted to hire you regardless."

  "Petra must have known about this article. That was why she made the reference to celebrity sex gossip. But that's not the worst of it." Nikki gulped, looking at Mia with apology. "I never meant for this to happen, but I have to tell you. A lot of these details—" She waved a hand at the paper. "They're straight from my article, after I sexed it up on Petra's advice."

  "Oh, I see." Mia frowned, but she couldn't blame Nikki for being manipulated. "It's okay."

  "But how did the paper get a hold of your article?" Very said, outraged. "You should sue them!"

  Mia shook her head. "Most of this stuff is public knowledge. It's just that no one was ever interested enough in me to dig it all up."

  "I'm so sorry," wailed Nikki.

  Mia gave her a one-armed hug. "Hey, stop that. It's only a trashy newspaper. I'll survive." Her parents were another matter. "You didn't do anything wrong."

  "But Hard Candy is a national publication," Very pointed out.

  "My love life isn't that interesting," Mia said. "Even

  Julian—he's not famous like JFK Jr. was, or, I don't know, some celebrity athlete or actor—"

  Nikki interrupted. "You underestimate the power of being named one of Celebrity Gossip's hottest bachelors. I saw the huge volume of fan mail he got after that. And the media has been after him ever since."

  "In today's world, a person doesn't have to do anything special to be a celebrity," Very said. "Jules is famous for being rich, handsome and successful."

  "And for schtupping a lot of gorgeous women," Nikki added with another apologetic smile for Mia. "On the other hand, maybe that was what the editor meant about heavy editing. There definitely won't be any mention of your dating Julian. That part wasn't in my article." She tapped the newspaper thoughtfully. "I wonder.

  Mia leaned closer, curious about Nikki's suspicions. The women at the next table did, too, obviously hoping not to miss a word.

  Nikki dropped her voice. "Do you think Petra is involved?"

  "What would she have to gain by embarrassing me?" Mia asked, mystified. "For all she knows, I love the extra publicity."

  "But Julian doesn't."

  "There's nothing to sweat over. If the Hard Candy article isn't appropriate, Jules can nix it—" Very snapped her fingers "—like that."

  "Sure, and if I have to go to him to clean up the mess, I'll be right back where I started." Nikki sat back with crossed arms. "After this fiasco, he'll return to threatening to make me the mail-room girl at Knitting Pretty."

  Mia felt bad for Nikki. She knew a little about beating expectations. "Don't let him blame you on my account. I made my own bed—I'll live through this gossip. Maybe it'll die down quickly." And it wasn't as if this was the first time she'd disgraced the family name.

  "You might even benefit," Very pointed out. "You'll be the most famous body painter in the world now."

  That was not how Mia had planned to procure the position. With some dread, she thought of the upcoming expo, only a week away. Maybe the notoriety would fade by then, particularly if she stayed away from Julian in public. The body-painting exhibition would turn into a circus if she didn't.

  Nikki had brightened. Mia didn't want to bring her down again, so she nodded as if she were seeing benefits to the situation.

  "I just don't know anymore if I want to work at a magazine that didn't really want me, only my family connections. Especially if someone there was responsible for releasing my article to create buzz." Nikki sighed.

  "Take the job," urged Mia. "Show them how valuable you are. Make a real name for yourself."
r />   "Just stay away from Petra," Very put in, although her scowl made her look more like the fighting type.

  Nikki looked at Mia with admiration. "You're so sure of yourself."

  "I guess I am. But it didn't come easily. I had my own inner demons and doubts to overcome."

  Ones that had seemingly popped up again. She looked at the newspaper again before crumpling it in her fists. Her parents wouldn't like her appearing in Hard Candy either, but the tabloids seemed worse. Maybe because it was happening right now, in bold print. Julian would understand if she stepped away from their involvement

  A temporary reprieve. A cooling-off time.

  Her pride hurt to admit it, but perhaps he'd even welcome a little distance. Deep down, she knew that was unfair. But it was easier to accept than the possibility that theirs was only a short-term fling—a superhot flash fire that had been suddenly doused with a hard cold bucket of reality.

  Several days later, Mia bit the bullet and called her mother. The conversation didn't go well, not when she tried to explain her tabloid appearance, nor how Jules was different than his public persona, and especially when she refused once more to give up her career in body painting. She'd thought of offering her parents a couple of tickets to the expo so they could see she was making art, not lewd soft porn. But when her mother could only speak of how disappointed she was in Mia's continued obstinacy, Mia decided there was no point. The funny thing was that for the first time, She was actually involved with a man who could provide what the Kerrigans wanted for their daughter—marriage, children, a solid home, even extreme wealth—but Mia couldn't share that. Not now.

  Thus far, Julian was accepting her brush-offs. She'd told him that she was busy with work. When he called again, her excuse was that she had to devote every moment of spare time to her tableau for the expo, which was looming near. The third time, she admitted that perhaps it would be better for them both to stay out of the limelight for the time being.