Summer Fling

by Jean Copeland

  “What’s going on?” Didi said.

  “Nothing much,” Kate said, still staring as her view of Jordan became obscured. “Jordan’s only about to become a rock star.”

  Viv grabbed Didi’s shoulders. “Oooh, girl, we gonna hang with Beyoncé.”

  “Kate, that’s so exciting,” Didi said and then paused. “Isn’t it?”

  Kate nodded, straining to seem unfazed as a vortex of record-company bodies swallowed Jordan up in their mass. The fog of uncertainty began lifting, allowing Kate a sharper view of where the road was leading.

  “So,” Viv chirped, cutting through the tension. “Looks like the party’s over in this joint. Wanna hit the road?”

  “Back to the hotel?’ Kate asked hopefully.

  Didi and Viv exchanged guffaws at the absurdity of her suggestion.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Hangover

  Absorbed in the hot, sweaty air of their next nightclub of the evening, Kate squinted against flickering strobe lights as her ears throbbed from the assault of house music. She and Didi waited behind Viv, who was procuring the first round of drinks.

  “We’re leaving after this one round, right?” Kate asked. “None of us are single so let’s observe proper dating etiquette and get back to the hotel at a decent hour.”

  “Uh, speak for yourself,” Didi said. “Do you know what Rhea said when I told her I was jetting off to LA for the weekend?”

  Kate shook her head.

  “Have fun. Can you believe it? She told me to have fun.”

  “How dare she?” Kate said, not sure what tone was appropriate.

  “Kate, she just let me go. Didn’t say, ‘Oh, honey, don’t leave me for a whole weekend’ or anything that at all indicated she gave a crap where I went or for how long.”

  Viv turned around. “Maia and I needed an extra therapy session after I told her.”

  Didi extended her hand as though thanking Viv for the support. “You see?”

  “I owe Viv an apology,” Kate said. “I’ve waited every day for your powder keg of a relationship to blow sky-high, but it’s not happening. The two of you are actually making it work.”

  “You mean the three of them,” Didi mumbled when Viv turned back to the bar to grab their cocktails. Kate snorted, trying to hold in her laughter.

  “I heard that, bitch.” Viv glared at Didi as she handed the martini glasses around. “I’d rather have the third party in my relationship be a therapist than some other woman like Rhea’s probably with now that you gone for the weekend. Or some ghost from my past,” she said, nodding to Kate.

  “Rhea’s not with another woman,” Didi said.

  “She ain’t with you either,” Viv drawled. “And that’s most of the time.”

  “Jeez, Viv, we were just kidding,” Kate said. “You didn’t have to come out swinging.”

  “You always messing with me about Maia. Maybe I’m getting sick of it. Yes, we had our problems in the past, but don’t anybody deserve a chance at redemption in your eyes?”

  Kate slumped, feeling like every bit of the schmuck Viv had intended her to feel. “Yes. Of course you do. I’m sorry, Viv.” She patted Viv’s back, glancing at Didi, who looked as punched with remorse as she felt.

  “I guess we didn’t think how it would make you feel,” Didi said. She led them to a tall table that had just been vacated.

  “To be fair,” Kate said, “none of us ever really bother to do that, so…”

  “Yeah,” Didi said. “Do we really want to start something new now?”

  “Aww, hell no,” Viv said, and lifted her glass. “Let’s get all banged up on these and then strut out to the dance floor.”

  “I can’t get banged up. I have to meet Jordan for breakfast at nine tomorrow.”

  Viv sucked in her cheeks. “That’s if she hasn’t met someone already at all these soirees that malnourished old white woman is dragging her to.”

  Kate joined them in their laughter, mostly to hide the pain of Viv’s innocent crack that irritated the wound of worry she’d been nursing all night. Instead of venting to them and bringing down the mood, she signaled a passing waitress to bring them another round.

  By the fourth round of cocktails, they were tangled together on the dance floor, arms flailing like they were stuck in the agitation cycle of a demon-possessed washing machine. During a house version of Alicia Keys’s “This Girl Is on Fire,” a woman had slowly maneuvered near Kate and was undulating provocatively close to her. Even in her bleary state, Kate knew the woman was up to more than just dancing. When they made eye contact, Kate noticed the woman was around her age—tall, slender, self-assured, wearing a striking slicked-back hairdo and figure-hugging black dress. Probably does something in show business, she thought. Former model or game-show prize girl. Or fashion designer. Whatever it was, she had an undeniable appeal and a self-confidence that defied anyone to take their chances with her.

  The woman wedged herself into their clique and undulated in front of Kate, never missing a beat of the throbbing music. Kate made eye contact with Viv and Didi over the woman’s shoulder as she moved in rhythm with her. They seemed confused, surprised at her behavior. Didi tried to signal her off the floor, but she stayed, closing her eyes and swaying with the woman, who was close enough now to exchange a breast brush with Kate. She slipped her arm around Kate’s waist and grinded into her pelvis. Kate thought of Jordan, wishing she was there, wishing they could go back to a hotel room overlooking the Hollywood sign and make love until they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  The wet softness pressing on her lips jolted her back to the mass of sweaty bodies and blinding strobe lights.

  “I’m Yvonne,” the woman said. Her hot breath was damp against Kate’s ear.

  “Thanks,” Kate said as she stepped rather ungracefully toward their table. Something in her wanted to stay, to continue the kiss, to forget that the woman she was in love with was somewhere in that strange city among beautiful, powerful people with the ability to make her dreams come true.

  “Why did you let that happen?” she said to Didi, eager to appoint a scapegoat.

  “Yeah, like I could’ve stopped it,” Didi said.

  Viv circled a finger around Kate’s face. “Woman, now you are officially off the relationship-advice roster, too.”

  “What were you doing out there?” Didi asked. “What if Jordan ended up here and saw you?”

  “She’s got other things vying for her attention right now,” Kate said bitterly as she checked her dead cell phone. “That chick out there, now that’s someone I should be with. She’s our age, sophisticated—”

  “That barracuda would eat you alive,” Viv said with an arched eyebrow.

  “You’re such an ass.” Didi scoffed. “You already have the greatest girl in the world who’s attentive and devoted. You want to switch with me so you can see just how good you have it with Jordan?”

  “Girl, you wasting too much life trying to figure this Rhea woman out,” Viv said to Didi. “Respect yourself enough to move on.”

  “Gee. That advice sounds familiar,” Didi said. She pinched her chin, pretending to recall. “Oh, yes, now I remember. We’ve only said that to you about a thousand times apiece over the last twenty-five years.”

  “Then practice what you preach,” Viv said.

  Didi glared at her. “You’re like the convict that finds Jesus and then suddenly wants to convert everyone.”

  Viv shifted her weight to lean toward Didi’s face. “That’s no worse than a bigmouth always giving advice but never following it in her own mess of a life.”

  “Whoa, whoa. Easy, girls.” Kate struggled to slide off the stool and land on her feet between them. “We have to leave now.”

  “Yes, we do,” Viv said, giving Didi a parting glare. She then indicated a waitress coming toward their table. “Right after this round of lemon-drop shots.”

  “I really shouldn’t,” Kate said, lifting the shot to her lips.

 
“Wait, wait, wait.” Didi raised her shot and stumbled into Kate. “What do we drink to?”

  “Our three beautiful ladies,” Viv said, “wherever they may be.”

  They knocked back the shots and then slammed the glasses on the table like cowboys in an old Western.

  Yvonne then appeared and drew Kate aside. “If you’d like to grab some lunch sometime, give me a call.” She pressed a business card into Kate’s hand.

  “Uh…” Kate stammered as she attempted to gather her wits. “I’m just here for the weekend. I live in Connecticut.”

  “Then come back to my house tonight. I’m not too far from here.”

  “I, um, don’t think that…”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not a serial killer,” Yvonne said, but her inviting smile was about to slay Kate right there on the spot.

  “I’m sure you’re not, but I’m here…”

  “If you came with your friends, I’ll make sure you get back to your hotel safely.”

  “It’s not that,” Kate said. “I have a girlfriend. She’s at a party.”

  Yvonne regarded her like she was awaiting the rest of the reason. “We can have a little bash of our own.”

  “I can’t,” Kate said. “As attractive as you are, I just can’t.”

  She leaned in and kissed Kate on the cheek. “As attractive as you are, I’d never choose a party over you.”

  Buzzed and confused, she stared into Yvonne’s penetrating eyes that locked onto hers. She might not have been a serial killer, but with the fixation in those black, gleaming stones, Kate wouldn’t have ruled out vampire.

  “Are you sure I can’t convince you?” Yvonne said.

  Before Kate could answer, Didi and Viv had a hand under each of her armpits and hauled her out to the sidewalk to wait for their Uber car.

  “Now I’m drunk,” Viv said, “but this bitch gonna need her stomach pumped.”

  Kate closed her eyes and leaned face-first into a thick wall of shrubbery lining the sidewalk in an attempt to outsmart her spinning head.

  “Kate.” Didi spun her around and slapped her face lightly. “You’re not gonna pass out on us, are you?”

  “Nooo,” Kate slurred. “Don’t be ridicalous. I’m not gonna pass out on you. But I am gonna throw up on you.”

  Didi lurched back, and the dense crowd waiting for valets to bring their cars around parted before Kate as though she were Moses vomiting over the Red Sea.

  * * *

  The muffled pounding on the hotel-suite door finally roused Kate from her slumber beneath a pillow. She pried open an eye. The digital clock read a blurry 10:34. Was that a.m. or p.m.? After she opened both eyes, the sun shining into the bedroom solved the mystery.

  Another round of pounding. Was that in her head or on the door? She sat up slowly and pushed her forehead into her palms.

  “Kate, I know you’re in there. Open the door,” Jordan called from the hallway.

  “Oh, no,” she said, fumbling to emerge from the cocoon of sheets and blankets. When she finally opened the door, Jordan’s look of fury melted like a watch in a Dali painting into bewilderment.

  “Good God,” Jordan said.

  “Hi?” Kate replied.

  “I think it’s safe to assume breakfast is off,” Jordan said after a moment studying her.

  “Jordan, I’m so sorry.”

  “Why didn’t you answer any of my texts?”

  “My phone died last night while we were still out, and I forgot to charge it before I went to sleep.”

  “I see you also forgot to set an alarm. Is there some reason why you’re not inviting me in?”

  “No, no, come in.” Kate stepped aside and scratched at her bed head. “I’m so sorry about oversleeping.”

  “What happened last night? And don’t say ‘nothing’ because you’re a wreck this morning.”

  Kate rushed to a mirror to assess the damage. “Holy mother.” Her hair looked like she’d been riding a motorcycle without a helmet all night and her face like a street with a hundred feet of skid marks. “We had a few cocktails.”

  “Where?”

  “Some bar in West Hollywood. I was ready to go home after your show, but the girls wanted to go dancing.”

  “Did you?”

  “Yes, we all did.”

  “With who?”

  “Jordan, I feel like I’m being cross-examined. What’s the matter?”

  “You flew all the way out here, allegedly to see me, yet it seems like you’re doing everything in your power to avoid it. You totally blew me off this morning.”

  “I didn’t mean to, babe.” Kate approached her and took her by the hands. “It was a strange night that began with the fatal error of allowing Didi and Viv to plan the itinerary. We can still grab something downstairs. It’ll only take me a few minutes to shower.”

  Jordan sighed as she slipped her hands from Kate’s grip. “I’m just gonna go. It’ll be noon by the time you’re ready.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her face tight with disappointment.

  “Please accept my apology, Jordan. I didn’t give myself the mother of all hangovers on purpose.”

  “Are you mad at me for coming out here and doing this?”

  “Mad? Are you kidding? This is so great. I’m so happy for you.” Kate enveloped her in a hug and felt Jordan’s tension release in her arms. As she kissed her, she sensed she’d be forgiven.

  “I love you, Kate,” Jordan whispered. “So much.”

  “I love you, too.” She held her tight and allowed herself to relish the sensation, to feel comfortable saying it back knowing she’d meant it. Maybe she’d been too reactive last night when she contemplated breaking up. It seemed rather drastic in the morning light.

  “I have an idea how I can make it up to you.”

  “This better be good,” Jordan said with the cutest pout. “I’m still mad at you.”

  A trace of vitality returned to Kate’s hangover-deadened limbs as she nodded toward the bedroom. “Why don’t you order up some room service while I jump in the shower, and then we can eat in there?”

  Jordan snaked her arms around Kate’s neck and sucked at her lips. “I’m starting to forgive you already.”

  * * *

  As the pilot leveled off the Gulfstream, Viv popped the cork on a bottle of pink champagne and topped off flute glasses half-filled with orange juice. Kate directed her attention out the window, as the mere sight of the bottle produced a nasty gurgle in her gut.

  Didi offered up two glasses for Viv to fill. “Aren’t you having any, Kate?”

  Kate slowly pivoted her head around. “I drank about six months’ worth of alcohol in the last two nights and somehow didn’t wake up in the ER. I’m gonna take the win and sip water for the rest of the day.”

  “You wouldn’t have been able to get hammered two nights in a row if you’d come with me to the dinner party last night,” Jordan said.

  “Babe, I already told you I didn’t want to intrude,” Kate said. “Besides, the girls would’ve been furious if I ditched them on the last night of our girls’ weekend.” She fired off a warning shot with her eyes to Viv, who looked as though she was about to make a smart remark.

  Didi handed Jordan a mimosa. “I hope you’ve forgiven us for luring Kate into an evening of debauchery Friday night and ruining your breakfast date.”

  Jordan smiled. “It’s hard not to be forgiving when you’re drinking mimosas on a private jet. It turned out better than expected anyway,” she said, tapping Kate in the leg with her foot.

  “So we heard,” Viv said with a grin.

  “I guess you’ll be getting accustomed to traveling by private jet soon enough,” Didi said.

  “I don’t know about that,” Jordan said. “It’s a nice idea though.”

  “When are they going to offer you the contract?” Viv asked.

  “Do you have an agent yet?” Didi asked.

  The sudden barrage of questions piqued Kate’s curiosity. She remained facing the wind
ow but kept her ears aimed at the conversation.

  “No. I don’t have an agent yet. Alexandra suggested I hire one and a business manager, even if the company doesn’t offer me a contract now.”

  “That sounds like good advice,” Didi said. “Kate, as a lawyer, what would you advise?”

  Kate looked over, feigning ambivalence. “I’m not an entertainment attorney, but I’m sure Alexandra has it all worked out for Jordan whenever you say the word.”

  “I still value your advice, Kate,” Jordan said. “What do you think?” It sounded like a challenge.

  Kate broke open a bottle of sparkling water. “It all depends on how actively you want to pursue this.”

  “The ball’s rolling,” Viv said. “Why would she stop now?”

  “Only you can answer that, Jordan,” Kate said. “You came out here to see where things would go. What if they don’t offer you the contract? Will you continue pursuing performing at a professional level?”

  “I honestly haven’t thought that far ahead.”

  “Maybe they’re going to offer her a contract,” Didi said. “Then this conversation will be moot.”

  Kate shifted in her seat. “Either way, you’ll have to think about it. You can’t go back to the way things were before you left—unless you don’t want to pursue stardom.”

  Didi gave Kate a look.

  “Stardom?” Jordan said. “Look, all I want to do is write and play music. I used to daydream about being a rock star when I was a kid, but that was a long time ago. I have different priorities now.”

  Kate was about to ask where she fit into that scheme, but after noticing the uncomfortable looks on everyone’s faces, she shelved it for a land conversation.

  “I think whatever’s meant to happen will,” Didi said. “No sense stressing about all the ‘what ifs.’ Let’s all just sit back and ride that rainbow wherever it takes us.”

  “Amen, sista,” Viv said. “And when this one hits the big time, we’ll all be flying high on her jet stream.”