by Cherry Kay
There was a loud cheer from the other room. Mikey looked at the closed door with a sad expression.
“It's all right,” I said. “I can see you're busy. I better go.”
“No, no, no, no, no. Don't go. I don't even like the Giants. You know I'm a Bears fan all the way. You look kind of down. Let me clear a space for you to sit.”
He pulled the sheets over the bed and waved a hand for me to take a seat.
“Do I have to sit on your underpants, Mikey?”
“Oh, sorry.” He bent to pick them up off the bed and threw them across the room so that they landed on a pile of CDs. “It's okay, they're clean.”
“How would you know?”
“Grace!”
“I'm sorry.” I sat on the edge of the bed and he sat beside me.
“Tell your uncle Mikey all about it.”
“Mikey, I'm in big trouble. You know how I told you about my fiancé?”
“He wants to break it off with you – I'll kill him.”
“This isn't funny. It's the girls at work. They've gotten it into their heads that he's coming to the Christmas party.”
“I see?”
“No, you don't. They'll all be waiting for this guy called Red to show up with me and if I turn up on my own, they'll all know I've been making him up.”
“I told you, Grace. I told you lies would catch up with you.”
“Don't, Mikey. I can't face going in again. What if I call in sick and say I caught something off my boyfriend and we're both laid up in bed?”
“Or you could go in and tell everyone the truth, you made it up because you don't want to work Christmas and why you should, when you been working every Christmas for the last six years. No one can be mad at you for that.”
“Oh, Mikey. If only you knew what it was like. The girls would laugh at me, Damion and Ramon would use this against me for the rest of my life. That's it!” I got up abruptly.
“What's it?”
“I'm going straight out of here and I'm going to throw myself off the Brooklyn Bridge.”
“Gracie. Don't be so dramatic. Can't you find someone who can pretend to be your boyfriend for one night?”
There was another loud cheer from the guys in the other room. Mikey smiled, looked at the door and then back at me.
“Oh no. Not one of them.” I started waving my hands.
“Why not? I'm sure Frank would love to go to a party with you.”
“I'm sure he would, but they think my fiancé is white.”
“White? What did you tell them that for?”
“I didn't. They dragged this made-up guy out of me and he came out white with red hair, I call him Red but his name is Mikey. Mikey Kucher.”
“Wait a minute, he's got red hair and his name is Mikey. Grace, are you secretly obsessing over me?”
“Don't flatter yourself. You're not a redhead.”
“But, I'm a strawberry blond, you said so yourself. Do you want to marry me, Grace?”
“No I don't want to marry you but...”
“But what?”
“What about it, Mikey? You do it. You pretend to be him.”
“I can't, I'll mess it up. I've got terrible social skills. You know that.”
“Mikey, I wouldn't ask unless I was desperate. It's you or the Brooklyn Bridge. You decide my fate, Mikey. If you say jump, I'll jump.”
“Jesus Christ, Grace. All right, I'll do it. But you owe me, big time. You got that? And if it all goes horribly wrong, you've only got yourself to blame. Okay?”
“Okay!”
I threw my arms around Mikey and spotted a few broken corn chips in his hair. I flicked them away and kissed his cheek.
“Quit it, Grace. Now make yourself scarce. I've got a game to watch.”
“I love you.” I opened his bedroom door and blew a kiss. The other guys started punching Mikey in the arm, calling him a nasty freak and asking him to have his booty calls after the game in future.
I closed the door behind me and breathed a long, deep sigh of relief. I had a fiancé. All I had to do was get Mikey ready and presentable in two days. Another loud cheer went up in his apartment and I wondered what the hell I thought I was thinking. Mikey would never be ready.
4
“Mikey! Mikey. Can you hear me?”
I called Mikey on my way to work. I figured he'd already be on the site by now and heeded my warning about not taking too many days off.
“Grace. You're gonna get me fired. What is it? You know I can't take personal calls.”
“I know, Mikey, I'm sorry. I was up all night thinking about this party.”
“Don't worry, I'm all over this thing. I'll be the perfect gentleman.”
“That's the problem, Mikey. You don't know the people I work with. They can be highly critical. They'll ask questions about us. How we met, all that kind of thing. I don't think we can pull this off, not by tomorrow night.”
“What do you mean? It isn't Shakespeare in the round. I pick you up Thursday and we go over a few things. You just fill me in and I'll say what you tell me.”
“That's just it. We only have tonight to get our stories straight. You'll have to meet me here on Thursday straight after you get off the site. You'll have to freshen up, take your suit into work and be here by about 6.30.”
“Suit? No one said anything about a suit, Grace.”
“Jesus, Mikey. Don't you have suit or a formal shirt or anything like that?”
“You know I don't do formal, Gracie. Can't I just wear a clean t-shirt and some jeans?”
“Well, I guess so. But just make sure they're clean and don't forget to iron your t-shirt.”
“Iron my t-shirt?” Mikey sounded as though he was about to laugh or, worse, back out altogether
.
“Look do your best okay? I finish at three today so come over this evening and we can rehearse our story.”
“Rehearse our story? Ah, come on, Grace. Can't you just make up a profile for me and text it over?”
“No. We need to work on this Mikey. You're not gonna let me down now are you?”
“No, Grace. I won't let you down. I'll come over to you tonight. I'll bring us some beers.”
“Not too many, Mikey.”
I hung up and felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw Mr. Iglesias behind me with a big smile on his face.
“La Princesa Negrita. ¿Como estas?”
“Bien, Snr Iglesias. Muy bien, y usted?”
“Ah, bien, bien.” He replied. “You making plans with your fiancé?”
I looked at him out of the side of my eye and smiled.
“Mr. Iglesias, you know that-”
“That one day you will be married to the ideal partner and live happily ever after?”
“That's not what I was going to say. It's just that-”
“Don't worry, Grace. The Christmas party will be fine. You have nothing to worry about.”
We were at the staff entrance and Mr. Iglesias tipped his hat and carried on his walk to the main door. He had a small package in his hand, more last minute Christmas shopping, I assumed. Mr. Iglesias normally bought all his presents back home in Argentina and handed them out to his daughter and his son-in-law after having dinner with them.
This lovely old gentleman was, it would seem, my co-conspirator.
Later that evening the buzzer to my one-room apartment sounded.
“That you, Mikey?
“Sure is, and I come bearing booze.”
“Come on up.”
Mikey joked around all night. I was worried that he wouldn't retain any of the fake story I had given him, especially as he kept asking me to go over it 'one more time' for him.
“Look, it's easy. You work in marketing. You are a junior member of the team who is just learning the ropes. Mainly you have to sit in on meetings and do the coffee run.”
“Why can't my secretary make me coffee?”
“You don't have a secretary.”
“Wh
y not?”
“Because you're new to the firm and you work in an open plan office.”
“Is there a coffee machine?”
“Yes.”
“Well, why can't everyone get their own coffee? Why do I have to make it?”
“Because you're the junior member of staff.”
“Well won't my time best be served learning how to do marketing rather than making drinks all day? I've got a better idea. Why can't I just work in a bar? I know about drinks. Real drinks. I'd be much better as a barman. I've actually really been a barman, you know?”
“Mikey, please. This is serious. Are you taking this seriously? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Is that your underwear hanging over the bath in there?”
“Well who else’s, underwear could it be?”
“I just didn't realize you wore such sexy, lacy panties under that strict exterior.”
“Strict? I'm not strict.”
“So why can't I just work in a bar?”
“You are in marketing. Your name is Mikey, we've been together six months, and we met at the top of the Empire State Building, which was a set up by a mutual friend. You're vegetarian... Mikey? Are you even listening to me?”
“Yeah, but I'm just picturing you in that sexy underwear.”
“All right. I think we're done here. Just smile at anyone you meet and walk away. We'll stay half hour, tops. It'll be enough to convince them. Oh, and put your arm around me as much as you can.”
“Okay, got it. You gonna be wearing that underwear?”
“Mikey, I think it's time for you to go. Tomorrow show up at 6.30, clean, at the staff entrance and give your name to security. Got that?”
Mikey saluted me, kissed me on my cheek and left.
I figured nothing could go seriously wrong and then decided that we'd just stay ten minutes and say we're meeting his family for supper.
I didn't sleep a wink praying that Mikey wouldn't let me down. There was no going back.
Thursday was my day off. The Christmas Party was never a big deal. It lasted between six pm and nine pm and everyone was expected to attend, even for just a half hour if you happened to have to work a shift around that time. The hotel would operate on a skeleton staff and sometimes they would hire in a few agency people just so more of us could attend. There was always a DJ, a free bar and all the finger buffet food you could eat, all courtesy of the Great West International. Everyone made an effort to dress up and not look anything remotely resembling a busboy, a bell hop or a lift attendant.
I got ready slowly and with bated breath. My dress was calf length, a shiny, cherry red dress in a slinky 1950s style like I was Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones. I styled my hair in a 1950s movie star updo with large silver earrings, show-stopping red lipstick and with smoky eye makeup. My perfume was expensive, a present to myself when I was feeling a little down, but I'd never worn it until that night.
My heels were high and made a loud, clacking sound when I left the building and looked around for a taxi. I just hoped Mikey wouldn't let me down. What if I was all dressed up like this and he didn't show? I'd die of embarrassment. Or what if he showed up in his work clothes and forget to change before he got there? I only hope he was able to wash his face at least.
“Hey, Grace!”
Alicia and Suzette were right by the door as I pushed it open to enter the banqueting suite, each holding a cocktail.
“Look at you.” Suzette exclaimed. “You look like a superstar, girlfriend.” Her head rotated on her neck and her eyebrows were raised. “But where's lover boy? He not coming?”
“He'll be here,” I said. “He's still at work.”
With every ten to fifteen minutes that went by, either Alicia or Suzette would look at their watch and then at me and make an, “Mmm-hmm,” sound.
“He's coming,” I told them.
I went out to the bathroom to try to text him because it was now seven thirty and he should have been there nearly an hour ago. I got a text straight back from Mikey saying, 'I'm in the hotel, just on my way to the party.'
I was relieved but immediately panic stricken, because the moment had arrived. Mikey and I would have to put on the performance of our lives to convince the girls. If they sniffed a lie it would be all around the hotel by morning and I'd never live down the shame.
I made my way back to the banqueting suite and to the bar to line up a cold beer for Mikey when Alicia came running towards me.
“Now I know why you kept him hidden. That man is gorgeous! Girl, where you find a man like that and has he got a brother or a friend who looks just like him.”
“What do you mean?”
I turned to look at the door. I saw a tall, broad and good looking man with neatly combed, fair hair looking around for someone. His suit looked like Armani and his shirt and tie were from the Jean Paul Gautier collection I'd seen in a magazine. This guy spotted me at the bar and raised his hand. I turned around to look behind me to see who he was waving at and stopped in my tracks.
Turning back, slowly, I recognized him at last. It was Mikey. I could not understand how he could have appeared looking so well turned out, so smart and so darned hot. I never knew he could look like that.
He walked towards me like a model on a catwalk. One hand in his trouser pocket the other swinging confidently at his side. Everyone was staring at him and when he reached the bar his smile widened.
“Sorry, I took so long. I got held up in a meeting,” he said
“Oh, that's all right.” I stammered my words because I just couldn't get over the transformation.
Was that really Mikey? I never knew he was so tall and well built.
“You look beautiful. Grace. I love that dress,” He spun me around and Alicia gasped.
“I'm Alicia,” she blurted out.
Mikey took her hand and kissed it.
“I'm Mikey, nice to meet you.”
“I've been dying to meet you. Maybe I could steal you away from Grace for a while. I've got some questions I just can't wait to ask.”
“Sure, Alicia, but I haven't seen Grace all day and I just want to tell her how much I missed her if that's all right. And then I'm all yours.”
“I'll be waiting,” she said.
I was still in shock when Mikey led me out to the hallway.
“How did you manage all this?” I pointed up and down at his clothes.
“Shh, just go with it. I met this Spanish guy out on the sidewalk outside the hotel. He asked if I was Grace's fiancé and I said yes. He gave me a brown envelope and sent me to get fitted with a suit at some swanky shop across the street and said you'd arranged it with him.”
“Mr. Iglesias.”
“That's right, that was his name and he told me to tell you to have a wonderful night.”
“I swear he's like my guardian angel. Well come on, let's go back in. I'll have to thank him later. Now we got to convince Alicia and Suzette about us. I hope you remember your lines.”
5
Before I knew it, Alicia and Suzette had each grabbed one of Mikey's arms and whisked him into the bosom of the highly decorated banqueting suite. There was a large tree at one end of the suite which blocked most of a very extravagant window whose curtains were pulled back and looked down to the busy street outside. The noisy traffic couldn't be heard above the DJ who had turned up the music for the last hour and disco lights were flashing off and on, in time with the music.
I looked and saw Mikey dancing with Alicia. Where the hell he learned to dance I had no idea but he really knew how to move.
“So, you gone and taken yourself of the market?”
I turned around and Damion was holding a plate piled high with buffet food in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other.
“I'm sorry, Damion, if I waited for you to propose I'd be a very old lady.” I smiled at him with one eye on Mikey's moves.
“Well, I can't restrict all this to just one woman, Grace, it just wouldn't be fair.”
I looked down at Damion's extended waistline and thought there was definitely lots of Damion to go around. But Damion was certainly not my type. If I even knew what that was.
“So where did you meet this guy?” Ramon was next with the questioning.
“It was a blind date. We met at the top of the Empire State Building.”
