She Sins at Midnight

by Whitney Dineen

  It took Cyn a second to realize what Barry was talking about but when she did, her cheeks flamed an even brighter shade of red, “Oh my, well, then, of course.”

  Barry laughed and asked, “So, what’s a white trash girl like you doing in a place like this?”

  “Nice line.”

  “Hey,” he said, “I would have never even guessed you were white trash unless you told me first.”

  Rather indignantly she replied, “Well, for your information, I’m not anymore and I’m here visiting a friend. What are you doing here?”

  He explained, “My parents are members. I just came home for my fifteen-year high school class reunion.”

  Cyn immediately realized that Barry and Lila must have gone to school together. “Let me guess, you were football captain, prom king and voted most likely to succeed.”

  Barry raised an eyebrow and asked, “Not a snob, huh? To put your mind at rest I played basketball, didn’t go to the prom and was voted most likely to have beautiful strangers kiss me for no reason.”

  Cyn rolled her eyes and declared, “I’m going to read my book now. Please give me my towel back when it’s convenient.”

  Barry leaned into Cyn one last time and said, “Cynthia Flynn, I’m afraid that as long as you’re sitting next to me, I’m going to need it.”

  Cyn tried to ignore him, but entirely against her will, a small grin crept over her face. She fought it though because unlike Arabella, she was not going to fall for a rich boy.

  Chapter 33

  After the scene with Melinda that morning, Oscar decided to lock himself in his room and read. He hoped that by escaping into Melinda’s ridiculous romance, She Sins at Midnight, his brain would clear up a bit and he’d have a better idea what to do about the current love triangle he was caught in the middle of. The further he got into the story, the more engrossed he became. Even though he was nothing like Julius Hunkster, he certainly found himself identifying with the Viscount. After all, Julius was in the midst of his own amorous difficulties, thoroughly in love with one woman while being ruthlessly stalked by another.

  While reading, Oscar realized how very alike Jessica and Vivian were. They were both refreshingly sweet and lovely. And even though Jessica had been badly hurt by her husband, she still possessed a hopeful innocence he found irresistible. What he loved most about her was that she wanted him for who he was, not what he could do for her. Having lived in Hollywood for so many years, Oscar couldn’t remember the last time he was wanted for just himself. He suddenly felt ancient when he realized how long it had been since he had really and truly loved and been loved. Yet the down side of this emotion was that he would be left absolutely devastated if it went away. He just wasn’t sure he had the intestinal fortitude to gamble his heart again.

  Oscar continued to read until he dozed off into a fitful sleep. He dreamt that his mansion in The Palisades was burning to the ground right before his eyes. Standing completely still, he watched everything he had built disintegrate into ash. Oscar felt no emotion as he watched his world crumble; no sense of loss, no sense of emptiness, nothing. Then like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Jessica walked out of the rubble right toward him. She was wearing a slinky white dress that was reminiscent of a wedding gown and she carried a bouquet of white roses. She glided toward his side and whispered in his ear, “Just say yes Oscar, just say yes…”

  Oscar felt his heart leap in his chest. He felt such love and affection for this woman he thought he would burst from it. He leaned in toward her to give her a tender kiss when suddenly she morphed into Melinda, but not the Melinda of today, the Melinda of forty years in the future. He stared in horror at the garish woman in her sixties. Her breasts were enormous and her lips had been injected so many times with collagen they looked like butt cheeks. When his mouth pressed against hers, his entire face got swallowed up by the fake pillows and he felt like he was being suffocated.

  Oscar woke from his dream in a cold sweat. His heart was beating a mile a minute like he had just run a marathon. That’s when he heard the sound that must have awoken him to begin with. It was the shriek of a banshee, a loud, shrill piercing screech that propelled him out of bed in fear for the person on the receiving end.

  * * * * *

  After breakfast Melinda started to pursue Jessica like an infectious disease. Everywhere Jessica went, Melinda followed, and she didn’t do so quietly either. Her goal was to irritate and annoy Jessica as much as humanly possible. It was working, too.

  Jessica had finally had enough and decided to go for a walk around the property. She figured that even Melinda had better things to do than to trail her step-by -step over six acres. She was wrong. Melinda was not going to let her nemesis out of her sight. She started taunting, “You know Jessica, you’re not Oscar’s type at all. He likes his women young and sexy and you’re nothing but a washed up old hag.”

  Jessica ignored her. There was simply no way that Melinda was going to bait her into an argument. So she continued to walk and paid no attention what-so-ever to the bimbo behind her.

  Melinda was relentless. She knew that if she kept going she would eventually find Jessica’s weak spot. “He doesn’t like spoiled, rich princesses either.” No reaction, so she tried, “The only reason that he evens talks to you is because he feels sorry for you. You know, the same way he’d feel for a dog at the pound.” Melinda kept digging but for the life of her, she couldn’t find Jessica’s Achilles heel. Finally, she tried, “I overheard Creigh tell Cynthia you were getting divorced. I’m not surprised. You aren’t the type of woman who could satisfy a man.”

  Melinda didn’t notice but Jessica’s step faltered. She continued, “Actually, that’s probably how you got to be in your thirties and are still childless. After all, who could get a frigid woman pregnant?” Not realizing the very thin ice she was skating on, Melinda added, “Oscar wants children of his own you know, so he’s not about to marry some barren old crone. One look at you and he’d know you could never give him a baby.”

  Before Melinda could finish her sentence, Jessica spun around and screamed like the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels. In the recesses of her brain, she heard the sound but her mind and body seemed to have splintered about from one another. Jessica felt like she was standing on the sidelines as she saw her physical form lunge at the starlet.

  Melinda stopped dead in her tracks when she realized her quarry had turned on her. Then she took a step to run away from the threat but she was too late. Jessica grabbed hold her hair and pulled it back so hard that Melinda’s feet shot out from under her and she hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud.

  Jessica was not through with the movie star though. Melinda tried to scramble to her feet, even though her scalp was on fire, but Jessica dove for her ankles and pulled her back to the ground, all the while screaming like a demented fish wife. The only distinguishable words she got out were, “You goddamned filthy whore! Slut, trash, demon, filth!!!” Jessica kept repeating the litany until Oscar came running out of the house across the lawn toward them.

  Melinda saw Oscar running to save her and cried, “Hurry up! She’s going to kill me!”

  Yet when he arrived, he didn’t go to Melinda’s aid. He went straight to Jessica and took her in his arms and crooned, “Its okay Jessica, I’m here. Everything is just fine now.”

  Melinda shot to her feet and screamed, “Oscar, I’m the one she was clawing at! I’m the injured party, not her!”

  Oscar turned to Melinda and demanded, “What did you say to her?”

  Indignantly she replied, “I didn’t say anything. Why in the world would you think that I said anything to her? She’s a lunatic!”

  Still holding Jessica, Oscar said, “Go into the house Melinda, we’ll discuss this later.” In a huff, she glared at him and stormed off across the lawn to her car.

  Very gently, Oscar whispered into Jessica’s ear, “Are you okay now?”

  Jessica let her knees buckle and she slunk to the ground as t
ears came streaming down her face. Melinda had finally penetrated her calm exterior by throwing her most painful moment in her face when she called her childless and barren. Jessica had wanted to shout that she wasn’t childless. That she had had a child and loved a child and it wasn’t her fault her baby never had the chance to be born. Jessica had felt like less of a woman since the day of her miscarriage. She felt horrendous guilt that she didn’t protect the life within her. Unable to get a hold of herself, she continued to sob noisily into her hand.

  Oscar had no idea what Melinda said that caused Jessica to react in such a way. So he just held her and rocked her all the while whispering soothing words into her ear. It was an unbearably tender moment when he realized that Jessica had been hurt as much as he had. More than anything, he wanted to make her pain go away.

  Oscar was still comforting Jessica when they heard the squeal of Melinda’s tires peel down the driveway. The sound effectively jarred Jessica out of her moment of anguish. She gently pushed away from Oscar and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

  He reached for her hand and replied, “You have nothing to apologize for. Melinda has a way of driving people to drastic measures.”

  Standing up, Jessica brushed her slacks off and offered a half smile, “You can say that again. Listen Oscar, thanks for being there for me but I need to be alone for a little while and sort some things out.”

  He told her, “Jessica, I will always be there when you need me. I hope you know that.”

  She answered, “I hope you mean that. Maybe that’s something you should think about.”

  Before he could respond, Jessica walked across the lawn and into the house. She left him standing in the grass wondering how his life had gotten to the point it had, standing in the middle of Illinois, watching the woman of his dreams walk away from him.

  * * * * *

  Melinda was so mad at Oscar she almost blew a gasket. How dare he help Jessica and not her? After all, she was the one missing a fist full of hair, not that country club floozy. She tore down the driveway with no plan other than to get away from Oscar as fast as humanly possible. That somehow led to her sitting in a bar in The Bentley Commons and ordering one Singapore Sling after another.

  During her first cocktail, Melinda tried to figure out why Oscar seemed to be losing interest in her. During her second, she wondered why Creigh hadn’t fallen under her spell, and by her third, she decided she didn’t care and began eyeing the bartender.

  Melinda’s flirtations were interrupted when an attractively dressed woman in her mid-forties asked if she could join the movie star. Melinda waved her off, slurring, “Sorry lady, I’m not into chicks.”

  The woman answered, “Oh for heaven’s sake, neither am I. You just looked like you could use a friend to talk to.”

  Surprising herself, Melinda jumped at the offer and motioned for the woman to sit down. Two hours and four cocktails later, she had regurgitated her entire life story. She started at the beginning, when she was born Monica Funk in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She told about all of her years trying to make it in Hollywood, relaying story after story about the seedy affairs she’d been involved in and then admitted to being the blow job queen of the movie industry. She didn’t come up for air until she had relayed every detail of the huge fight she had just had with Jessica Wentworth in her lawyer’s front yard.

  The lady listened intently and offered comforting words throughout Melinda’s sad tale. Then she got up to use the ladies’ room. What Melinda didn’t notice was that her new friend never went to the bathroom. Instead, she walked over to the bartender and slipped him her business card. After whispering something in his ear, she continued out the front door.

  The bartender approached Melinda and told her that her friend had to leave but asked if he might join her.

  Melinda batted her eyelashes at him and answered, “Sure you can.” Patting the seat next to her, she drunkenly slurred, “Why donchoo jus come right over here and sit down?”

  Jim Farrel asked, “So what brings a famous movie star to a bar in Bentley in the middle of the day?”

  Melinda smiled sloppily, “I’m celebrating my freedom. I’m breaking up with my boyfriend, my agent and my lawyer. I’m celebrating!”

  Leaning in to nuzzle her ear, he asked, “Want some help?”

  She slid her hand up Jim’s thigh and purred, “Are you offering?”

  He enthusiastically answered, “You bet I am.”

  Not five minutes later, Melinda and Jim left the bar together. All the cocktails she consumed were seriously starting to affect her equilibrium. Melinda could always handle her liquor, but at only one hundred and six pounds, she was definitely feeling its effects. She wasn’t about to let that get in her way though. This was the first time in days a member of the opposite sex had paid her the slightest attention and she was going to enjoy it for all it was worth.

  Jim steered Melinda to his ancient Camry with the intent of taking her back to his grungy apartment and living out every man’s dream. After an eventful afternoon, he’d top off the day by calling the number on the business card and make himself some extra cash.

  * * * * *

  Barry Stratton could not stop thinking about the adorable blonde who kissed him at the swimming pool. She was unlike any of the other women he usually met. As the heir apparent to the Stratton Corporation, he found most of the women he talked to were more interested in his money than in him. But Miss Cynthia Flynn seemed to have no idea he was a global software giant and claimed not to be in the least bit interested in him, all the while nearly sucking the lips off his face.

  Barry thanked his lucky stars he had chosen this time to redecorate his house on Chicago’s North Shore. Otherwise, he would have been lying out by his own pool rather than the one at his parent’s club. Had he known The North Hills Country Club was attracting such an interesting array of guests, he would have joined the club himself.

  Barry smiled and wondered why he lied to Cynthia about his name. He had always like the name Barrington, but when she announced she thought it sounded pretentious, he made the snap decision not to antagonize her further. Plus, he was hoping to get to know her better. Happily that opportunity came when she attached herself to his mouth. Unfortunately, when the delightful exchange ended, she refused to talk to him and proceeded to read her trashy romance.

  Barry, who had been up till all hours the night before working on a new corporate acquisition, dozed off, and by the time he awoke, Cynthia was gone. He was disappointed he hadn’t found out where she was staying but was not going to let that deter him. Turning on the full wattage of his charm, Barry asked the girl in charge of the sign-in book who Cynthia Flynn was a guest of. Not only did he discover the name of her sponsor, but he got the phone number as well.

  On his way to his parent’s house, Barry laughed to himself and thought, “Who knew that all this time I was looking for a white trash girl from Kansas?” He decided he had better wait until their wedding day before he confessed his real name to her though. No sense courting trouble before he had to.

  Chapter 34

  When Creigh got back from Chicago, Jessica approached him in his library and announced, “I need to talk to you.”

  He looked up from his newspaper and said, “Sure thing Jessica. What’s on your mind?”

  “I need a good divorce lawyer.”

  They spent the next half hour together setting up an appointment for the following afternoon. Jessica learned that it was vital that she move back into her own house as soon as possible so that Charles didn’t do to her what she was planning to do to him, namely change the locks and establish the marital home as her own.

  After getting off the phone with her new lawyer, Jessica told Creigh all about her feelings for Oscar. She lamented, “When he finds out I’m not who I said I was, I’m afraid that he’ll think that I’m just another betrayal. Oh Creigh, what should I do?”

  Creigh assured her that he would do everything in his
power to smooth things over with their house guest. He encouraged her to pack her bags while he spoke to Oscar. Jessica agreed, but as she left the room, she ran smack into Oscar. Beyond nervous, she stammered, “Hello, Oscar. I’m…I’m sure you’re here to talk to Creigh, so I’ll see you later.”

  As she tried to pass him, he reached out and caught her hand, “No Jessica, I want you to stay. I think you should hear everything I have to tell your brother.”

  Jessica sat back down in the chair she recently vacated with her heart pounding in a nervous tattoo. Creigh stood and motioned Oscar to the chair next to Jessica’s, “Sit down Oscar. Your timing is perfect. Jessica and I have something we’d like to tell you as well.” He continued, “Why don’t you go first?’

  Oscar looked to Jessica and announced, “I wanted to tell you both that I’m breaking things off with Melinda, once and for all.”

  Astonished, Jessica asked, “You mean it? You’re really leaving her?”

  Oscar reached for her hand, “I really am and I owe it all to you. I would have never done it if you didn’t show me how deeply I could care for another person. You’ve shown me that life without love isn’t a life at all. You’ve also made me realize I would have never been happy growing old with Melinda.”

  Creigh cleared his throat and smiled, “Are you two sure you want me here for this?”

  Oscar answered, “Yes, Creigh. I want you to hear what I have to say to your sister.”

  Shifting uncomfortably, Creigh confessed, “Well Oscar, that’s what Jessica and I need to talk to you about.” Creigh proceeded to relay the whole story, including the truth behind the pictures of him and Melinda in the tabloids, and the fact that Melinda really did try to seduce him. Then he divulged how he recruited Jessica and Cynthia in his plan. He added, “I wasn’t really sure how things would play out, but I knew with Melinda under the same roof with two other beautiful women, she was bound to show her true colors.”