Paid Companion

by Nia Forrester

  “I’m already talking to a therapist,” Blake said firmly. “All I need from you is to just … you know …”

  “Yeah, but I’m …”

  “I try to help with your job situation, so you think you need to help me fix my life?” he asked. “I don’t need you to do that, okay? There’s no quid pro quo here. I don’t need you to fix anything anymore. Just … be my friend.”

  “Wow,” Lia said. “You Morgans are really messed-up. This, Blake, is what friends actually do. Ask about each other’s lives, and talk through stuff that needs to be talked through. And I’m not asking because you’re trying to hook me up with a job, I’m asking because I happen to give a shit. I’m not your paid companion anymore. You’re here because I want you to be. And if you don’t believe that, then you can just get the hell out of my apartment right now.”

  He said nothing for a moment then finally, he gave a quiet laugh. “Like anyone would be mad about being kicked out of this shitty-ass apartment,” he said.

  Lia smiled, shook her head, and let Blake pull her against his side. She leaned into him, and they watched television for the rest of the evening without talking.

  ~21~

  Nicki’s house was at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quiet, suburban neighborhood in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Kevin always thought of the house as aspirational of the life she wanted rather than reflective of the life she had. It was a family house, in a family neighborhood populated with moms in yoga pants, wearing FitBits and running along the sidewalk pushing three-wheel strollers.

  When Kevin pulled up to the house, a stately four-bedroom Victorian, he had to maneuver carefully to park between the other luxury cars in the driveway. When he had called his sister earlier that evening, she was talking a mile a minute, high-strung and nervous about this, her very first dinner party. She had invited the few friends she had in the area and their plus-ones to come over for a buffet dinner and cocktail party because she was finally, publicly introducing them to Gabriel as the man in her life.

  Kevin was happy for her. Since they’d all returned from Florida, he’d had a chance to see Gabe and Nicki together in their natural habitat and it was obvious that they were seriously into each other. He and Blake had a bet going about how long it would take before they were married. He thought a year, but Blake has his money on it being much sooner. Gabe’s eyes scarcely left Nicki, and her hands never seemed to not be touching him. It was sweet. Now, Nicki was ready to expose the rest of the world to the … ‘sweetness’.

  Getting out of his car, Kevin checked its position between a BMW roadster and an Audi SUV, making sure he wasn’t so close that either would tap his bumper if they wanted to get out. Then he walked up the path toward Nicki’s front door and prepared himself. Blake had given him the heads-up that he was coming with Lia, and Kevin congratulated himself for feeling almost nothing when he heard the news. He knew that Blake had been hanging out with her as well, and he felt almost nothing about that, either.

  She had all but ceased to exist for him when he heard about what she’d done, who she really was. She wasn’t a model, but a receptionist at the agency he had hired, and had lifted the booking for her own personal gain. The intricacy of the deception was what bothered him most. That she could be so calculating. Kevin had had more than his fill of calculating women to last a lifetime.

  The other thing that got to him when he first heard about it was the fact that she hadn’t just told him. When he was spilling all his family’s secrets, and Blake was confessing his deepest most closely-held truth; and when Nicki was exposing her relationship to Gabe, wouldn’t that have been the time to come clean? Instead, she stood there, and pretended that she was so fucking pained to have to pretend to be Blake’s girlfriend, that she just couldn’t abide the pretense …

  Making a sound of disgust, Kevin rang Nicki’s doorbell.

  Whatever. He was definitely over whatever the heck that fling had been with Lia.

  Nicki flung open the door and hugged him, and Kevin felt her frenetic energy immediately. She was beautiful in a pink halter that plunged low in the front, and swirled about her knees in a light fabric that swirled about her knees. Her color was high and flushed, and her pupils dilated with excitement.

  “You’re here,” she said. “Thank God.”

  Kevin didn’t ask why his arrival was cause for her to be thanking God, but instead kissed her on her cheek and let her lead him toward the rear of her house where about a dozen people were milling with drinks in hand, and nibbling on miniature-sized versions of more hearty foods—little sliders, tiny bits of fried chicken displayed on little waffles and the like.

  “Let me introduce you to everyone,” Nicki said.

  She took him around the room and Kevin met them one by one, all of them uniformly fashionable with a conservative look, but with that one quirky element added, in that uniquely Washington DC manner. One guy wore a bowtie with his seersucker suit, another woman had an enormous poufy flower affixed to the shoulder of her otherwise plain white dress, and a young man who was stuffing his face with goat cheese and cranberry on a cracker had pants that were obviously tailored short so he could show off his neon orange and black striped socks. The names flew right out of Kevin’s head as soon as they were spoken, until they got to the woman in a blue dress, floor-length and close-fitting, though not tight. She had large hazel eyes, and long reddish-auburn hair which was full, and swept to the side, resting on and spilling over her shoulder.

  “This is Kimba,” Nicki said. “She’s my comrade-in-arms at the publishing house. Always crusading with me to sign more authors of color.”

  “Hello,” Kimba said. “Nicki’s always talking about her mysterious brother, Kevin. I’m surprised that since you live in the area we haven’t met before now.”

  “I’m surprised too,” Kevin said, taking her hand. He held it slightly longer than necessary, but only slightly.

  It was long enough for Nicki to notice and she smiled. Instead of moving Kevin along to meet the next person, she said, “Why don’t I just leave you two to talk? I have hostess duties to attend to.”

  “So, what do you do, Kevin?” she asked, with slight emphasis on the word ‘what’.

  He smiled. “A little of this, a little of that.”

  Kimba’s head fell to one side and she appeared bemused. “You’re becoming more mysterious by the minute,” she said, her eyes fixed on his.

  “I don’t mean to be,” he said. “I like think of myself as an open book.”

  He didn’t pride himself on any such thing. It was a line. But it made Kimba smile, and gave her the opening to deliver a line of her own.

  “I look forward to reading you, then. Chapter, and verse.”

  And it was at that moment that Blake entered. Late, and as usual; and as always, with noise and bluster.

  “Where’s my sister?” he announced, as though speaking to a room of hundreds.

  Just as Kevin looked over his shoulder to witness the entrance, a grin on his face, Nicki was crossing the room to greet Blake with a hug and kiss. But they only had Kevin’s attention for a half a second, because with Blake, as he had known she would be, was Lia. She had another woman with her, who was taller and fairer. Both Lia and her friend were smiling and waiting through Blake’s and Nicki’s hug.

  Lia was wearing the yellow maxi-dress she had worn in South Beach that first night they’d all gone out to Cuba Libre. But it looked no less stunning on her now than it had then. In fact, it was more so. Because Lia had cut her hair. All of it. Now, she had a close boy-cut, almost completely shaved on the sides and back, but tapering on top into a small mass of natural, kinky curls. It was an edgy, modern Mohawk style that few women would be able to pull off. But it lengthened Lia’s neck, highlighted her small, pixie-like features and drew the gaze to her large eyes and perfectly-shaped lips.

  Kevin felt something in his stomach quake.

  Aw, crap.

  “Who is that?”

  “Huh?” Ke
vin returned his attention to Kimba, standing next to him. “Oh, that’s our brother, Blake.”

  “No, I know Blake,” Kimba said in a ‘duh’ tone that irritated Kevin a little. “I mean the striking young woman in yellow.”

  Striking. That was the word. The one that he could not seem to find, though his mind had been grappling for it. Lia looked striking with her hair that way, and he resented her for it. What the hell was she trying to prove? Although she had undoubtedly not been thinking of him when she got her haircut, it felt directed at him, like she had to have known how he would have reacted.

  With her hair so short, it was impossible not to focus on her face, her eyes. It was impossible not to remember what it was like when he was on top of her, inside her … and how those eyes clouded over in pleasure, the lids fluttering shut. And the way her lips looked when they were moist and slightly parted, just before he kissed her.

  Lia was laughing now, at something Blake said, and pulling her friend forward to meet Nicki. Gabe had joined them, and was leaning in to kiss each of the women in greeting. This was his cue. The entire family was gathered together in that little cluster and by rights he should head over and greet his brother as well, but instead he turned his back to them and refocused on the beautiful and clearly willing Kimba.

  “That’s a good friend of my brother’s,” Kevin said in answer to her question. “Lia.”

  “He’s obviously not going to come over and talk to me, so I guess it’s up to me to be the bigger person,” Lia whispered into Stephanie’s ear.

  While they had been saying hello to Nicki and Gabe, she had been hoping that Kevin would come over. Instead, he glanced their direction and then turned pointedly away, causing a sharp pang in Lia’s chest.

  “It was always going to be up to you, Lia. You’re the one who lied.”

  Lia shot her best friend a scathing look. “Fine. But I have to wait until he’s way from that woman. I can’t apologize with her standing guard like that.”

  Steph gave her an amused glance. “Jealous, are we?”

  Lia had finally broken down a few days earlier and told Stephanie the entire story. About how she and Kevin had shared one very hot, passionate night on the beach, under the stars having completely irresponsible, but mind-blowing sex. Stephanie had taken the news in stride, saying that from what she remembered, Kevin Taylor was exactly the kind of man that would “make a girl want to ‘ho out for a minute.”

  Yeah, he is, Lia said. But it felt like, I don’t know, more than that.

  Since then, she had reconciled herself to the fact that it had probably not been more than that. Because even though she had omitted information, Kevin hadn’t been moved to reach out to her, even though his brother had. She had even gone to lunch with Nicki since then, and once to the mall in Tyson’s Corner for a day of shopping, just as a bonding thing between girls since Nicki hadn’t the will, and Lia hadn’t the resources for any real shopping.

  There was no way that all through that, Kevin hadn’t heard her name spoken by one or another of his siblings. He could have reached out, and chose not to.

  “There’s no point in my being jealous.”

  “Is there ever a point in being jealous? But the heart wants what it wants.”

  “Stop being all philosophical and let’s get something to drink,” Lia said.

  “Sure, but I wouldn’t wait for the woman with him to go anywhere. She’s stuck to his ass like a barnacle, you watch what I’m sayin’.”

  Stephanie was right.

  Lia made her best effort to enjoy the party, sampling all the beautiful, aromatic appetizers that circulated throughout the room held aloft by white-gloved wait-staff, and drinking copiously (though not too copiously) of the crisp, delightful white wine selection. By the time Nicki announced to the room that dinner was ready, and everyone filed into the dining room to join the buffet line, she was mellower, but still not enjoying herself.

  Stephanie was being chatted up by some guy in brightly-colored socks and Blake was fending off the attention of two or three women who alternated taking their shot at gaining his interest. And Lia hung mostly at Nicki’s side, helping her quiet her hostess fears, and reassuring her that Gabe did not look at all like he was suffering through the party.

  In fact, Lia would even hazard to say that Gabe was enjoying it, being on the inside of Nicki’s entire life for a change, instead of on the outside, guarding against intruders. He wrapped his arm around Nicki’s waist a lot, kissed the side of her neck or her temple, and Nicki accepted it with all the comfort of a woman who is used to her man’s public displays of affection. Things had changed for Nicki, and were still changing, fast. Lia tried not to feel envy when she watched the couple.

  When standing in line waiting for people to coo and exclaim over the food selections grew too tiresome, she put down her plate and went out to the now-deserted sun-porch, on her way, capturing another glass of white wine from a server. She leaned against the back of a sofa and looked out into Nicki’s garden. It was resplendent with blooms in bright colors, and the grass was almost unnaturally green, like looking at the picture of a garden, rather than a real one. If she had her coals, Lia would sketch it. Sometimes the challenge of sketching was to reduce something complex to a series or lines and curves, forcing the mind not to be distracted by the color. Secretly, artists like her, who worked only in black, white and shades of grey, were snobbish about the lack of color in their work.

  “Nice haircut.”

  She didn’t turn at the sound of his voice, though her skin tingled on the back of her neck and she yearned to look at him, up close for the first time in weeks.

  “Thank you.”

  “How’ve you been?”

  At this question, she braved a glance, because it sounded so sincerely asked, like he—possibly—was no longer angry at her. His face was smoothly-shaven and he looked as handsome as he had that first day she spotted him standing outside of Johnston & Murphy in National Airport. She got a whiff of his scent under his cologne and her nostrils flared. That, she recognized was his scent. Something uniquely Kevin. It was the way he smelled when they went swimming and he got out of the water and was dried by the sun. Or when they were on that blanket, naked and wrapped around each other in the grove.

  “I’ve been fine.” She shrugged a little.

  He nodded.

  “I’ve … wanted to talk to you,” she began haltingly. “To explain. And to say I was sorry I didn’t tell you.”

  “Why didn’t you?” he demanded.

  “It seemed so small and irrelevant at the time.” And when he opened his mouth to protest, she rushed on. “But I know it wasn’t the nature of what I was hiding that matters. It’s the fact that I was hiding anything at all, when I was there, preaching to you and Blake and everyone about telling the truth, and …”

  “Being authentic,” Kevin corrected her, his tone sardonic. “Wasn’t that the word you used? Authentic. It had a lot of impact when you said it.”

  Lia let her eyes drop. “I know. That was …”

  “Hypocritical,” he supplied.

  Lia said nothing, but looked at him again. His jaw was set, his eyes hard. “You know everything about me,” he said. “Everything. Everything about my family. And yet you didn’t see it as relevant to tell me that you were there on a lie?”

  “The entire mission was to lie,” Lia said, feeling the sudden urge to defend herself. “We were all liars on that island. Every single one of us, in every single thing we did.”

  Kevin’s eyebrows lifted. “In every single thing?” he repeated.

  And Lia knew he was referring to their night together. The things they did, the things they said. “I don’t mean …”

  “Well look … I’m glad you’re well,” he said, cutting her off. “And that you and Blake are still friends, and that Nicki seems to have found a friend in you as well. Take care of yourself, Lia.”

  He walked away, and she emptied her glass of wine, which had gone
warm, and a little bitter.

  “You know what we never did?”

  Kevin was on his way toward his car when Blake intercepted him at the front door. “What? What didn’t we do?”

  “We never talked about Christina.”

  Kevin exhaled, his shoulders heaving. “And you want to talk about her now, why?”

  “You know why.”

  “No. Tell me.”

  “Because you’re taking out everything you felt towards Christina then, on Lia now.”

  “Blake, starting therapy doesn’t make you a therapist.”

  His brother chuckled. “Yeah, okay. That was a fucked-up and low blow, but I’ll take that. Maybe I even deserve it. For not being direct with you back then when you deserved that from me. As a brother.”

  Kevin hesitated, his hand still on the front door. Despite what he was telling himself, there was part of him that wanted, had waited to hear this.

  “I’m sorry, man,” Blake said. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I ever said that.”

  “You never did,” Kevin confirmed. “But you did plenty of justifying, explaining, telling me how thankful I should have been that you exposed her.”

  Blake’s head dropped, and then he looked up again, nodding. “I know. And at the time, I think I believed all that. I was going through my own shit … asking myself some tough questions, and not liking the answers … But it’s no excuse. I’m just … I’m sorry.”

  “This doesn’t have to turn into some big heart-to-heart …”

  “What are you two doing out here?”

  Nicki had spotted them. She glanced at Kevin’s hand on the doorknob, so he let it fall away.

  “You’re not leaving already, are you? Kev, you haven’t even tried the food.”

  “Nah, we’re not leavin’,” Blake said putting an arm around her shoulder. He glanced at Kevin. “You’re gon’ be askin’ us to leave, right Kev? I fly out in a couple days so I definitely need to get my fill of some brother-and-sister time.”