She nodded, smiling. “I love it. Clean, minimalist, chic.”
Shai nodded, “Never more than three colors.” Shai’s designs were always steeped in classic with a modern edge that was so subtle it transported the attendee effortlessly to wherever Shai had chosen to send them.
“Meezie, thank you for this. I know you were wholly behind us getting to do this event for L9. We have been trying to work with them for years in LA and Brent Bolthouse has it totally locked up. This is our first time, so thank you.”
“I told Schooner there is only one person I would let touch this opening,” she rubbed his back.
“So, how do you know Schooner Moore?” Shai wanted the inside scoop.
Mia laughed and pointed to her belly,”Baby Daddy.”
Shai’s mouth and big brown eyes opened wide and Mia squeezed his arm, laughing.
“Isn’t he married to a tall, blonde shiksa out in LA?”
Mia nodded, still smiling, “For the moment.”
“You little tart, you.” Shai stood back and looked at Mia. “He’s very hot. How did you meet him?”
“He was my first boyfriend.” Mia confided. “The evil shiksa broke us up. And it took a couple of decades, but karma is a bitch.”
“Yeah, in the form of a short Jewish girl,” they laughed. “I love this. I am definitely doing your wedding.” Shai was looking intensely into Mia’s eyes, clearly happy for Mia.
“Baby, you’re doing the Bris, which might actually come before the wedding.”
“My pleasure,” he hugged Mia tightly (or as tightly as one could with her protruding stomach). “Now let me show you the rest of what we are doing here.”
Shai walked Mia through the rest of the space, showing her the details that made the ethereal space magical. People were setting up banks of multiple sized white pillar candles along the railing edge of each of the mezzanines and on the marble staircase. Wide white raw silk ribbon with a thick silk braided cord of royal blue wrapped the banister.
Mia spied Schooner and Charles talking over near the offices. “Have you met Schooner yet?” She asked Shai.
“Never formally. Just members of his staff.”
“Come, let’s change that. He’s about to head to the airport to pick up his son.”
Schooner was listening intently to something Charles was telling him as Shai and Mia approached, he was looking down and nodding his head. Mia couldn’t help but feel pride as they approached this tan, impossibly beautiful man. Schooner looked up at Mia, as if he could sense her approach. His eyes crinkling at the corners with his smile, “Hey, Baby Girl.” Wherever they were, it was only the two of them in the room.
“Schooner, I want to introduce you to the brilliance behind all of this beauty,” her arm swept the room. “This is Shai Tertner, the President and Owner of Shiraz Designs.”
Schooner put out his hand to Shai, “I’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time. This is beyond my expectations,” he motioned to the rotunda.
“I’m thrilled to have been chosen for this project. Thank you very much.”
“Mia and Charles both rave about you and I can understand why. I’m glad we have this opportunity to work together. Am sure it won’t be the last time.” Schooner flashed his All-American boy smile at Shai, who was clearly a new fan.
Schooner looked at his watch, “I’d better go get the car.” His hand stroked Mia’s hair and he bent down to kiss her. “I’ll see you out at the beach tonight, Baby Girl.”
Mia clasped his hand and he gave hers a tight squeeze and a long look in her eyes saying, “It’s going to be ok.”
CHAPTER 29
Yoli and Seth were pounding down Bombay Sapphire and Tonics while waiting with Mia at the beach house for Schooner and Holly to arrive with Zac.
“I wish you could drink, BBC.” Seth gave Mia a sad face.
Mia was clearly nervous, pacing around the lower deck. “Me too,” she muttered, looking at the dusky sky over the ocean and tapping the deck railing with her foot.
“Me three, you’re going to need it.” Yoli was very tense.
“I’m glad you two are here. Hopefully that will alleviate some of the family dynamic thing.”
Yoli shook her head, “Don’t count on it. He’s not going to give a shit who’s here. Mia, I know this is going to be hard, but try to keep telling yourself that you’re talking to CJ. You’re going to think you’re talking to a young Schooner, but you’re really talking to CJ. Try not to forget that, please.” Yoli was adamant.
“He really looks that much like him?” Seth asked Yoli.
“You know that waterfall picture in Mia’s office? Haircut is different and Zac is not as tall as Schooner. I’d say he’s maybe six feet tops and he’s a slighter build than Schooner. But his face, it’s that picture,” she finished her drink, “with ice blue eyes.” She made an exaggerated shivering motion and Mia and Seth just looked at each other.
“Why am I so nervous about meeting a freaking teenager?” Mia looked at the two of them, palms in the air, shoulders shrugging.
“Because he’s CJ’s devil spawn.” Yoli was on her next drink.
“You are not making me feel better.” Mia laughed.
They heard the front door to the beach house and voices. Mia looked at Yoli and Seth, eyes wide, lips in a tight line and muttered, “Showtime” as they walked into the house.
He was exactly as Yoli had described and although she had been warned, Mia’s face broke into a huge smile upon seeing Zac standing there. In front of her was the boy on the path to Brewster Hall talking with her mom, the same one who knocked over a pitcher of water to save her from the evil sniffer, the guy who pulled her close to him on a mountaintop to warm her up after a snowball fight, and never left her side after her attack.
“Hi Zac,” she greeted him with a bright smile and received an unreturned hug. She stepped back and looked at Schooner. “Wow, I know you said he looked like you, but wow. Flashback.” She was smiling brightly at Schooner, who bent down and gave her a quick kiss. She looked at Holly, who was clearly not breathing and Mia gave her a smile and wide eyes saying, “Rut roh!”
“Well, let’s get you settled, get your stuff put away,” and she turned to Schooner and Holly, “We’ve got reservations at Maguire’s.”
“Yes.” Holly fist pumped, “Lobster.” Getting a laugh out of everyone but Zac, who still had not uttered his first word to Mia, Yoli or Seth.
Mia turned to Holly, “Would you show Zac where his room is?”
“Follow me, Cretin.” Holly turned to Zac.
When they were upstairs and out of earshot, Mia walked over to Schooner and put her arms around his waist, he hugged her and kissed the top of her head. She looked up at him, trying to keep the tears out of her eyes. His eyes were tense and sad. “It’ll get better,” she whispered, trying her hardest to be positive for him, knowing he was in the middle of two people he loved. He wrapped his arms around her tighter and gave her a hug, burying his face in her sea-air unruly curls. He let go of her as soon as he heard Zac and Holly coming down the stairs and although she knew he didn’t want to exacerbate what was already a tense situation, hurt and disappointment slammed through her.
Yoli caught her eye and Mia could sense Yoli’s anger about ready to flare at Schooner. Knowing the Bombay and Tonics might make her already loose lips even looser, Mia asked, “Yoli would you help me grab our stuff from earlier off the deck?”
The two women walked outside and away from the view of the sliding glass door.
“Holy shit!” Mia turned to Yoli, her mouth hanging open.
“Rude, entitled little piece of shit,” she began, “and I’m going to rip his father a new one. What the fuck was that about.”
Mia grabbed her hand and squeezed it, “Trust me, I will take care of him… later. Sit next to me at dinner and we can kick each other under the table.” Mia laughed at her own childish behavior.
“I need to be in kicking distance of Schooner.”
Mia laughed, “Ok, that works for me, too.”
They re-entered the house with empty glasses and half eaten bowls of munchies from earlier.
“Everyone ready to go?” Schooner asked, clearly forcing a happy mood.
Seth shot Mia a look silently begging her not to leave him alone with The Moores again. She rubbed his back and walked out of the house with him.
As they walked toward town, Mia said, “So Zac, what does your voice sound like? I haven’t heard you speak yet.” Lines were being drawn and Mia was calling him out on his shit. Nice had not worked in the house.
He just looked at her, giving her an “are you kidding me look” …
Mia laughed, “Gonna be a fun week, huh?”
He shrugged.
“Stop being such an ass.” Holly smacked him in the arm.
“Ouch, Bitch,” he snarled at his sister.
“Zac!” Schooner finally came alive. About fucking time, Mia thought to herself.
“I owe you a Scotch!” Maguire’s manager Aiden greeted Schooner as they walked into the packed, loud restaurant. He leaned down and greeted Mia with a warm hug and a kiss, before turning back to Schooner, “You ripped it last weekend on the courts! What is it going to take to be your doubles partner next summer?”
“Free lobsters nightly!” Holly piped in.
“Totally doable,” he smiled at her, clearly happy to see the beautiful young woman. “This has got to be your son,” he turned to Zac.
Zac graced him with an All-American Boy smile (not as beautiful as Schooner’s, Mia noted), “Yeah, hi I’m Zac. Wow, great bar scene you’ve got here,” reaching out to shake his hand, charm turned up on high.
You little shit, Mia thought.
“Come in on Thursday, Karaoke night, you’ll get to see your sister at her finest.” Aiden laughed. Mia looked at a blushing Holly. Without Jared there, Aiden was definitely making his interest known.
He showed them out to their table on the deck overlooking the bay. Mia and Yoli flanked Schooner on each side. The women smiled at one another as they sat.
Pots of steamers arrived at the table as an appetizer and everyone got busy dipping the sweet clams into broth to remove any excess sand and then into small ramekins of drawn butter.
“I used to clam on these beaches as a kid.” Mia remarked. “We’d spend hours every day filling plastic buckets with clams.”
“I can’t wait to do that with the baby.” Holly beamed at Mia.
“We are going to have such fun summers out here. I can’t wait to teach him to body surf.” Mia was smiling ear-to-ear. She reached for Schooner’s hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. “So Zac, what was living in Zaragoza like?”
Zac shrugged, not looking up from cleaning his clam, “Like living anyplace else.”
Yoli rolled her eyes at Mia. “C’mon Zac, you can do better than that.” Yoli chided, sitting back and nursing her gin and tonic.
“What do you want me to say about it?” He leveled her a cold glare.
“Did you get laid?” She didn’t break her stare right back at him. Mia could feel Schooner tensing next to her.
Zac smiled at Yoli, a smile that did not come close to reaching his eyes. “As a matter of fact, I did. A lot.”
“Anyone meaningful?” Mia asked. His “are you kidding me” look returned. Mia ignored him and went on, “Actually Zaragoza is a place I would love to photograph.” She looked at Yoli and Seth and said, “It was founded by Augustus Caesar and originally named Caesaraugusta. It had a huge thriving Jewish merchant and trade community from about 1000 AD into the 1400’s.”
“How do you know this?” Seth asked.
Mia laughed. “Ok here’s a random Mia fact that even you didn’t know,” she was smiling at him, “When I was a little girl, my mom used to take me all the time to The Met,” she looked at Holly and Yoli and clarified, “The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” She went on, “We would enter through the Greek and Roman antiquities and I was obsessed with this marble bust of Augustus. I would just stand in front of it and look at him. And this started when I was really little. I would literally stand there, staring at him until my mother dragged me out.”
Seth laughed, “BBC? Marble stalking BBC. That’s a new one.” They all laughed, except for Zac who regarded the table with practiced disinterest throughout the rest of dinner.
Walking home, Mia reached for Schooner’s hand and slow her pace to ensure some distance from the rest of the group.
“You were right,” she began, moving her arm around his waist. His arm did not go over her shoulder, tucking her in to him in the way it always had since the first time he pulled her close walking along The Quad, after the incident with Beast in the Dining Hall. “This is not going to be easy and you really need to nip this in the bud.”
Mia looked up at Schooner and he was looking straight ahead. “Put your fucking arm around me, Schooner.” There was anger and hurt in Mia’s voice. She stopped walking. “I’m going to give you some time to be alone with your son and daughter tonight. You may not be able to fix the situation with him quickly, but I suggest you fix the situation with us immediately.” His face gave up nothing. He nodded and draped his arm over her shoulder, pulling her into him as they walked in silence the rest of the way home.
Mia was reclining on pillows propped up against the headboard on the bed, knees bent, another pillow on top of her swollen belly and her laptop perched on her belly/desk. She was still Skyping with Kami when Schooner walked into the bedroom. She gave him a big smile and went back to her conversation. He sat down in a chair facing the bed, kicked off his Sperry Made in Maine boat shoes and put his feet up on the bed.
“Well what did Shai say about that?” Mia asked Kami, who was going to need an amazing vacation after the event.
“He was not happy at all.” Mia could tell by Kami’s face that Shai was seriously not pleased with one of his vendor’s.
“Don’t sweat it,” Mia advised, “if Shai was unhappy, it will be taken care of immediately. Were the membership brochures delivered to L9 today?”
“Yes and they look good, but I’ll scan one and email it to you.”
Mia nodded, “Yeah, I want to see one and I want to get it into Yoli’s hands, so she can make sure the staff is properly trained.” She turned to Schooner, “Membership desk at the event is going to be staffed with people from LA, right?” He nodded and she turned her attention back to Kami. “It’s all LA people staffing membership, so they’ll be fine.”
“Yeah event night is not the night to make sure the NY team is properly trained on membership.”
Mia made a face of fright, “Yeah, I agree. Ok, well get some sleep, you’ve been putting in sick hours. I think we should all come out here for a week after the opening and be beach bums. Oh wait, Seth and I have been beach bums all summer,” they laughed and said goodnight.
Mia closed up her laptop and put it on the night table. She smiled at Schooner, “It’s all falling into place.” He just nodded. She extended a hand for him to come take and to come on the bed with her. He didn’t move and she could feel panic beginning to rise and her throat close. “Talk to me, Schooner.”
“I’m so stressed over this.”
“I know.” Mia nodded and moved to the end of the bed so that she could sit facing Schooner. She reached for his hand and took it between hers. “But the answer is not pulling away from me,” he didn’t respond, “you know that, don’t you?” Her voice was tight with tension. He removed his hand from hers, got up from the chair abruptly and walked over to the sliding glass doors, looking out into the black night.
Mia’s panic was descending on her like a thick fog. Oh my God, she said to me on the phone that he always goes back to her. She said that they were a family. He’s going back to his family. He’s going to leave me with a baby and a beach house. Oh God, the beach house was to assuage his guilt. He’s going back to her. They are going to be a family again. He can’t handle disappointing Zac.<
br />
Mia could feel her dinner starting to come up and got off of the bed as quickly as she could. She ran around the end of the bed with her hand over her mouth and made it as far as the bathroom, but not as far as the toilet before the heaving started, splashing around her feet all over the bathroom’s beautiful terrazzo floor. She sunk to her knees crying and the retching continued.
Schooner came flying into the bathroom, “Are you ok?”
She nodded, but really wanted to say, “What the fuck do you care?” but instead said, “Can you please close the door. I’ll clean this up.”
He looked down at her, clearly confused. “I’ll help you clean up.”
“Schooner, please leave and close the door.” He backed out of the bathroom and closed the door. Mia reached up and locked it, the lock creating a deafeningly loud click. She then sat back down on the cold, terrazzo floor, put her head in her hands and cried. CJ’s words screamed in her head, “He’s my husband, Mia and just like he’s done to you before, he’s going to come back to me. You are just a little mid-life fling. We’ve built a family together.” Zac would emotionally blackmail his father to ensure they remained a family.
Mia reached up on the wall behind her and pulled a towel from the towel rack on the wall and threw it down on the floor and started to clean. She unsuccessfully tried to stifle her sobs as she thought about the fact that she had not heard the words, “Baby Girl” since she was standing in L9, when he had no problem calling her that in front of business people. Yes, she told herself, I understand that we may need to dial it down a notch in front of Zac, but to act like there was no relationship at all, for Schooner not to show him how happy he was with her, Mia just did not understand that.
She wet a second towel and on her hands and knees washed the floor with hot water and hand soap. When she was done, she sat back and leaned against the wall and put her head in her arms. She was angry and disappointed in Schooner. Would this be another situation like after Interim, where he just couldn’t do what he said he was going to do? That thought, hitting a raw nerve even after twenty-four years, set off a fresh round of body racking sobs.
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