A stranger regarded me with shock in her eyes. She was tall, almost willowy. The black sheathe dress hugged smooth curves. Slit to the thigh on one side, revealing legs that seemed to go on forever. The pink elei-patterned border at the bust was the only color. Which made my neck seem even more graceful as it met the elegant coil of hair, adorned with the hot pink flower. Before I could react, Netta added a brush of rich lipstick to my mouth, a dab of blush. That wasn’t me, it couldn’t be?! Once unruly brows had now tamed themselves into curved arches. The deep-set eyes were still there, but now they glowed with a seeming endless allure, hidden depths of fire. There was a strange glow to the woman in the mirror. And I wasn’t sure that I liked it.
Nafanua walked in before I could pursue that unease. She smiled at me. “Leila, you are stunning. No-one could resist you tonight.”
I tried not to show how pleased I was at her compliment. Pleased enough that I even allowed her to convince me that I needed to wear the nightmare black stiletto heels with the wrap ties that went all the way up to my knees. I teetered all the way down the stairs, regretting my decision when I tripped and almost fell while I was getting into the car … shit!
Nafanua drove us in her car, regaling me all the way to town with talk of her day. Apparently she was having a few clashes with the science team here to study Samoa’s volcanic activity, the lead researcher in particular was proving difficult. I hid a smile in the darkness. Obviously it wasn’t often that a man refused Nafanua and it was driving her nuts.
“He’s just so stubborn, Leila. You wouldn’t believe it. I mean, I helped to fund this project and so I should have full access to his results, but no, he keeps fobbing me off with excuses, about professional integrity and how results can’t be released until the survey is complete, and he won’t make any assumptions without gathering all the data. All I want is for him to give me the courtesy of access to results I am helping to pay for! Typical male, he probably thinks he doesn’t need to update me on his progress because I’m a woman. Argh. I want you to spend time with him tonight, talk to him, put him at ease and forge a connection, do you hear me, Leila?”
There was a Coldplay song on the radio and I was only half listening to Nafanua’s tirade when her last sentence had me jerk upright.
“Now, I’m counting on you tonight Leila, to get through to this man. Maybe you’ll have more success with him seeing as how he’s American, so you two will have things in common to talk about.”
I interrupted, “Nafanua, excuse me? What do you mean? Did I miss something?”
“Please pay attention Leila, this is important. I told you, we’re having dinner with Dr. Williams and some of his team. And I want you to connect with this man, you know, befriend him. You look stunning tonight and I’m sure that no man in his right mind could resist you. Use any means necessary, I want you to get an invite onto the site and full access to the research, do you understand? ”
Before I could protest, the car slowed to a halt in front of Aggie Grey’s Hotel on the waterfront. The lacy white banister verandahs were ghostly loops in the evening and a full moon played on the black water rolling in softly against the seawall. I was still struggling for the right words, the right response while Nafanua hurried me inside ahead of her. She paused to smooth my hair, catch a stray strand of hair and then gave me a vivid smile. “You look amazing Leila, there’s no way he will be able to resist you. Do whatever you need to. I want that research data.”
I was in a daze of shock. My mother wanted me to ‘forge a connection’ with some man I had never met? Just so that she could get access to some volcano research? I half stumbled behind her as we walked to the restaurant fale where the main buffet and show was already taking place. A throng of people moved slowly down the line of tables, choosing from the delectable assortment of cuisine. Others sat at scattered dining tables lit with flickering coconut candles. Far off to the right of the restaurant was a massive swimming pool that gleamed silver-black in the moonlight and reflected its ring of palm trees and hibiscus bushes. A band was playing island music on a stage, a beautiful accompaniment to the hum of dinner conversation. I was having a tricky time with my heels and so had to walk with careful precision, following Nafanua as she moved through the restaurant, eyes searching for someone.
“Ah, there you all are!” she spoke with smooth velvet confidence as she walked up to a table where four men were seated. One of them, a large paunchy man with sweat beads on his forehead, couldn’t seem to stop staring at her, his jaw dropping as she leaned to give each of them a requisite greeting kiss. Beside him, a balding man wearing a Nirvana t-shirt barely looked up from his plate piled high with food. The other was an older man, possibly in his sixties, with silver graying hair and a tired demeanor. Dr. Williams. My eyes were taken first though by the third man. Young, maybe in his early twenties, blond crew-cut, blue-eyed, a white button shirt and khaki slacks, a gold stud in one ear.
“Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Leila. She’s just moved back here from the States to be with me.” Nafanua drew me to the blond-haired man with the piercing blue eyes. The one who looked like he belonged on a beach with a surfboard instead of in a science research team. He stood as I stepped to the table, hand outstretched to greet me. He spoke before Nafanua could complete the introductions.
“Leila, this is a treat for us. Not one, but two captivating ladies to dine with tonight. I’m Jason. Won’t you sit and join us?”
His handshake was firm and warm, and it lingered just the slightest bit longer than necessary. As I sat in the chair beside him, I could feel the admiration in his eyes as he watched me place my clutch purse on the table. I didn’t need a playbook to read this one. He liked me, I could tell. I wanted to laugh. Nafanua wanted me to bedazzle Dr. Williams? Well, I would throw a spanner in the works and instead, turn on the charm for this young one, Jason. It would send her mental with fury if I ‘connected’ with the lowly assistant. Ha, he was probably the gofer. Or the one who did the digging or something. I straightened in my seat with a thrill of fun. I was going to enjoy this. And it would serve her right for expecting me to prostitute myself with a stranger just so she could get information on a stupid volcano.
Nafanua had taken the seat beside the grey-haired man and was telling him her drinks order. I heard her asking for lemon water for me. I took a deep breath. I had nil experience with being alluring, but hey, there was a first time for everything right? Languidly, I reached back and unclipped my hair from its coil, shook my head lightly and ran my fingers through the brown waves. I gave Jason a sideways glance from behind a curtain of hair. His eyes were appreciative.
“Oh, I just hate having to get all dressed up for these things, don’t you? I much prefer my shorts and t-shirt but Nafanua will insist on me wearing this thing.” I pouted petulantly and let my hands run down the length of my body-hugging dress. I leaned forward with my elbows on the table, my chin clasped in my hands, with an imploring look in my eyes. “What do you think Jason? Isn’t it just so unkind of her to make me dress up?”
The man laughed. It was a warm, golden sound. He regarded me somewhat sardonically, as if he knew something I didn’t. “Leila, I’m in complete agreement with your mother. You are sinfully stunning in that dress and a treat for the eyes. However, I must add, that from where I’m sitting, I’m convinced that, had you worn shorts and a t-shirt tonight, you would still have been the most enchanting woman here,” he nodded to Nafanua, “present company excluded of course Nafanua!” Nafanua laughed back at him and raised her glass. “Thank you, Jason.”
I flushed. This wasn’t how I had planned the evening to go. Nafanua was still smug and self-satisfied. She should be getting mad by now. I gritted my teeth. Right, time to step it up a notch. I placed a hand on Jason’s arm, playing my fingers along his wrist.
“Jason, I’m starving, can you come with me to get some food?” I tried to simper. Like a Playboy Bunny. It was probably a hideous failure on a thug brown girl like me
but hey, I was trying! Jason seemed to like it though. Without hesitation, he stood and took my hand to walk to the buffet table, only releasing it to pass me a plate. We meandered along the length of the tables, choosing our dinner. I kept trying to remember to be a bimbo, be a bimbo … I smiled foolishly. And laughed at everything he said. Even if it wasn’t funny. I pretended to be horrified by the sea slugs, the palolo and even the crab. “Oooh Jason, that looks soooo yucky!” And the piece de resistance … I asked him for a taste of his lemon cheesecake, then stood with my mouth open so he could slip me a morsel on a spoon. Just like a dumb movie chick, I closed my eyes in pretend ecstasy, “Mmmm, oh Jason, that’s so delicious!” Inwardly I cringed, as I thought what a fool I must sound like. A fleeting thought of Daniel had me cringing even more. He would be thoroughly appalled by such an idiot if he could see me now, but then, he wasn’t with me, was he? And I was mad at my mother and was on a mission.
After dinner, Jason asked me if I wanted to go see the swimming pool in the moonlight. By then I was getting tired of being alluring and forever enthused. Gosh, how do real bimbo chicks do it? Stay so chirpy for so long? It was exhausting. And my feet were killing me in the black stilettos. I didn’t even try to slink as we went to the pool. I gritted my teeth and basically stomped my nightmare shoes on the cement paving. Once out of sight of Nafanua, I relaxed. Time for the charade to go to rest. With a groan, I slumped to sit in one of the pool chairs, muttering darkly under my breath as I struggled to take off my shoes.
“Damnit, stupid things, who invented such idiotic contraptions …”
Jason surprised me with a roar of laughter. He knelt down beside me. “Here, let me help.”
But I was in full thug girl mode now and in no mood for simpering. “No. I got it.”
I pushed his hand away but he was insistent. “I can help, here, you just have to unclasp this bit here.”
I shoved his hand away again and stood in full-frontal assault attack. “I said – I got it … aaaayyiii!”
I took two angry steps away from the overly helpful blonde, tripped over my own heels and fell. With a gigantic splash, right into the pool. I resurfaced to the sounds of more uproarious laughter. Which only had me madder. “Shit! Shit! I told you to leave it alone. I told you I could fix it myself!”
He looked down at me in the pool and shook his head. “Leila, you can’t even walk properly in those silly shoes let alone undo them by yourself. It’s a bit silly for a woman to wear shoes she can’t control. So typical.”
That comment was the most insulting of all. I didn’t care if I had been behaving ‘a bit silly’ all night, he needed to pay for that remark. I smiled up at him sweetly and put out my hand. “Oh Jason, you’re so right, could you please help me out of here?”
He leaned down to take my hand in his – whereupon I pulled with a mighty heave. And smartass Jason was in the pool too. And it was my turn to do the laughing as he spluttered and splashed his way up. I pulled myself to sit on the poolside, wringing out water from chunkfuls of my hair, still watching him with cautious eyes. In case he got any ideas about retribution.
The surfer dude swam over and climbed out to sit beside me, taking off his shirt to squeeze out water on the side. “Thank you Leila. I’m not sure that I deserved that, but I’m a gentleman even if you’re not a lady. So why don’t we call a truce?” He held out his hand. I stared at it suspiciously. Then shrugged and shook hands. Heck, why not. I wasn’t planning on ever seeing this guy again. Funnily enough, it seemed that with both of us wet and all splashed out, the pretences were removed.
“So tell me, Leila, why are you wearing such crazy shoes – which, by the way, are incredibly sexy – if you don’t like them and you, ah…find them tricky to walk in?”
I half grinned and wrinkled my nose as I considered how to answer him. I decided to go for the whole truth and nothing but the truth. “Well, if you must know, I was on a mission tonight.”
“A mission?”
“Yeah.”
“What sort of mission? To see how gracefully you could fall into a swimming pool fully clothed? And wearing stilettos?”
“No you idiot. A mission to make my mother mad.”
It was clear that wasn’t an answer Jason had been anticipating. The smile was replaced with puzzlement. “What do you mean?”
Now that I had started to confess, I felt awful at the awfulness of it all. I hung my head, ashamed. It had been childish. And pathetic even, to play up the whole simpleton routine.
He nudged me. “Go on, what do you mean?”
“Nafanua wanted me to dazzle the head scientist, You know, the old guy, Dr. Williams? She’s been going nuts because he won’t give her full access to all his data on the volcanic activity in the region and she said she wanted me to be nice and friendly because he was from America like me. And she basically asked me to lure him and fawn over him, get him to like me. She said, ‘Use any means necessary.’ I got so mad at her in the car for asking me to do such a despicable thing. I mean, you have to understand, she’s not really my mother. I mean, she is, but she isn’t. I only just met her a few weeks ago. Before that she was dead to me. And there’s a lot of stuff about her that doesn’t add up, doesn’t make sense. So we’ve been trying to get to know each other and then she has to go and do something stupid like bring me here all dressed up and tell me to be nice to some stuffy old scientist. Like I’m some sort of prostitute or something! What kind of mother does that to her daughter?” I halted abruptly, uncomfortably aware that I had probably said waaay more than I should have.
Jason’s expression was unreadable. “Yes, what kind of mother does that?”
I rushed on, “So when I got here and saw you, I decided to try and dazzle you instead. You know, because you’re just a lowly assistant or the gofer or the dirt-digger or something, not the real scientist she wanted. I thought that way she would get raging mad and I could punish her that way…”
My words died away as I waited to see how Jason would take my confession. He smiled at some hidden joke. “I see. So that explains your dazzling behavior tonight ay?”
I bit my lip, “Sorry, I’m not really that much of a ditzy blonde bimbo … oops I’m sorry again, you’re blonde and I didn’t mean any disrespect. And I hope you’re not offended that I said you’re only a lowly assistant, a dirt-digger. I’m sure you’re a very good assistant, probably the best dirt-digger ever, very helpful to those guys over there …” I was babbling and Jason stopped me with a single finger to my lips.
“Hey, shush. Listen to me now. Let me see if I can get this straight. Which bits are true? Is your name really Leila Folger?” I nodded, “and you haven’t really been coming on to me tonight – that was just an act?” I nodded again and mouthed a silent sorry. He shushed me again, “And you’re not really a stiletto-wearing, slinky-outfit kind of woman after all? That was an act too?” I was too ashamed to even nod this time. I just hung my head, staring into the pool.
“Leila Folger, it appears that you have a lot to apologize for. You have misled me, you have mistakenly bedazzled me with artificial dazzle, and to top it all off you have gotten me soaking wet with a dunk in the pool.” He spoke severely, but his eyes laughed at me. “I think you owe this blonde bimbo lowly assistant big time - Leila the fake bimbo!”
Our eyes met and together we both burst out laughing. Sitting beside a shimmering pool under a moonlit sky. I realized that when you had no agendas, no love feelings for a guy, you actually could be relaxed with him. Like the pressure to perform was off. Like you could just be yourself and not worry if they still liked you or not.
“Jason, I apologize. For all the bimbo stuff. How can I make it up to you?”
“Hmm, let me think. You could promise never to wear those shoes in my presence again. They’re deadly objects. Aha!” His eyes lit up. “I know, you can come visit the research site tomorrow with me. See what an assistant does. When he’s assisting. And dirt-digging.”
I smiled warmly.
“I’d like that.” I said it without thinking, but realized I meant it. This Jason person was funny. And I could certainly use all the friends I could find these days. The thought of visiting the volcano was intriguing. Wasn’t I supposed to be the ‘chosen one of Pele the Volcano Goddess’?
Telesa - The Covenant Keeper Page 29
