by Piper Knox
“Would you?”
“Depends on the question?”
Okay. I wasn’t expecting such honesty in not revealing the truth.
“Did you give your family any other information than the mock-up book?”
“No. That was all I gave him.”
“I’ll not punish you if you did.”
“I’m telling the truth. Anyway, wouldn’t you know if I did?”
“You didn’t send him any other sketches?”
“No!” she straightened her back.
“Funny, because Lyndell’s launching a new collection that looks exactly like KMVH’s.”
Her brow furrowed, “I thought you said those sketches were fake?”
“They were, but someone leaked the real ones to them.”
“It’s not me!” She slid forward and took hold of my hand, “You have to understand that I’m telling you the truth. What can I do to convince you?” Her lies sounded so honest and convincing, I wanted to believe them. It was clear I would get nothing out of her. I tried another tactic.
“I have another question,” I said, “Would you tell me the truth if I asked where you were living before we got married?”
Her eyes widened at the question. “It seems you already know the answer to that question.”
“Why where are you living there?”
She shrugged, “I didn’t have any money.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?”
“Seems like whatever I say you don’t trust, so why bother.”
“Were you cut-off?”
“Not exactly.”
“I’m listening.”
“I didn’t want anything to do with their money. I wanted to get out on my own.”
This time I laughed. She flinched like I had offended her. “Come on Hailey, You want me to believe that the spoiled princess of Manhattan wanted to become independent?” She crossed her arms against her chest. She was serious. “Have you met my family? I didn’t want to associate myself with that name. After I found out what my father did, I could no longer square myself with spending his money. It felt tainted.”
But then you ended up working for him against me. I didn’t say that part aloud. “What about your friends? You could have stayed with them.”
She gave me a baffled stare. “My old friends from high school hated my guts and enjoyed watching me fall. My newer friends were more like party friends. They liked me as long as I had money. And since I no longer had any and was no longer throwing parties, well, they disappeared.”
“You should have called me. I would have done something.”
She laughed, “So you could enjoy watching my downfall. ”
She was wrong. I would have done something. I hated her, yes, but not that much. I let the issue rest. There was no use arguing over could haves.
31
The next day I went shopping for Caiden’s birthday present. It felt right since he had given me one and I hadn’t. And I felt I had to give him something to say, I’m sorry. A “sorry I spied on you” token. His birthday was exactly two weeks after mine, a fact that was always at the back of my mind.
I didn’t know what to get for him. What does one give a man with everything? My first instinct was to go to the Cartier store. I’ve never seen him with a watch, so I guess that was the one thing he didn’t have?
An attendee immediately greeted me and showed me the pieces they had on offer. The watches were expensive, I should have expected that. The best ones had astronomical price tags. In another time, I would have bought any of them easily, but not now. I was still deciding on what I should do when I heard two familiar voices behind me.
“Hailey!” One said before I could make myself disappear. I turned around and put on my best smile. “Sophie. Dana. Fancy seeing you here.” Ever since I learned about what I had done to Sophie, I had been trying to find a way to apologize to her. Now I had met her again, and without having done so.
Dana peeked behind me and spotted the Ballon Bleu Tourbillon diamond watch. The attendee was showing me.
“Wow. Is that what you’re thinking of buying for Caiden?”
I had to suppress my laughter. The watch cost a cool million. Money I definitely didn’t have. I shook my head, “Sadly, it doesn’t seem to be the type of thing he would want.”
The attendee, hearing me, took away the watch from the counter, clearly disappointed, and stored it away.
“You were looking for his present?” Sophie asked.
I nodded. I would no longer buy one. An idea for the perfect present had popped into my head when they were coming over.
They both looked at each other. Some communication passed between them, then Dana said, “what do you think of coming to a party, the both of you, over the weekend.”
Caiden had mentioned something about not being in the country then. He would go back to Paris to finalize the deal with Marco.
“Caiden won’t be around, unfortunately.”
“He doesn’t have to come,” Sophie said, “It’s more of a girls’ thing anyway, and some of our old friends wanted to catch up with you.”
“Really?” Something was off about this invitation. A little voice in me was telling me to say no.
“We would love it, if you could join us,” Dana said. She sounded sincere and didn’t seem to have the former malice that I had seen in her before. What could go wrong?
“It’s a costume party.”
“Oh?”
“You know, like the ones we used to do in high school. Slutty saints and sinners.” I knew the ones. I had hosted most of them.
“They say it’s not a party if Hailey Lyndell isn’t there,” Sophie added.
If they were expecting Party Girl Hailey, I was going to disappoint them, but what would the harm in it be, anyway. It was just a party. And it might be a great opportunity to apologize to Sohpie.
“Sure. Why not?”
They both beamed. “Perfect,” Sophie said, “you’re gonna love it.”
◆◆◆
“Where are you going?” Caiden asked when he saw me dressed in my slutty devil outfit. I had finished putting on my makeup when he filled my bedroom door with his presence.
“A party.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Dana and Sophie invited me.”
If his eyebrow could be raised further, it did.
“What?”
“You’re partying with Dana and Sophie now?”
“It’s not partying the way you’re saying it. They invited me to a thing. I said yes.”
He watched me for a minute as I pretended to fuss with my hair as I stared into the mirror. His presence was making me feel uncomfortable, and I couldn’t figure out why he was still hovering there. I took one last look in the mirror. My makeup looked good. It was mostly red hues. Red lipstick, rouge and red eyeshadow to go with the red costume I was wearing. I completed the look by putting on glitter horns Sophie had sent me. All the ‘sinners’ were supposed to wear it, apparently.
Satisfied, I turned to the door to see that he was still standing there. I pretended not to notice the way his eyes had grown heavy lidded with lust. At least that was evidence that my outfit looked good.
“Are you going to stand there, or let me through?” I said as I grabbed my coat.
“I’m coming with you.”
“Weren’t you supposed to be out of the country?”
“I was, but it got postponed.”
I shrugged as casually as I could, even though part of me was a little excited that he was coming too. But knowing him though, he probably thought he was coming to make sure I wouldn’t embarrass him in his absence. “You can come if you like, but I don’t think we can get you a costume in such short notice.”
“I don’t care. I’ll go as myself.”
We arrived at Sophie’s condo at a time I was sure everyone would be there. Late, but not too late. Her Tribeca apartment was located opposite the Hudson river and as the elevator sho
t us up the glass walls afford you a beautiful view of the river. I was feeling a little nervous as I was nearing the place. My outfit felt a little too tight in parts, and I adjusted it as I took a deep breath.
“Nervous?” Caiden said when the elevator stopped.
“I don’t know where the nerves came from,” I said and walked out. I felt a hand clamp on mine and I turned back at Caiden.
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
“We’re already here. It’s fine.”
His hand fell, and he stepped forward, leading me to the door at the end of the corridor. He rang the doorbell. It was immediately answered by Sophie.
“Oh, hi!” she said with a bright smile. The first thing I noticed was that she wasn’t wearing a costume. Were we early? But she also had a champagne flute in her hand, and I could hear music and people. “Caiden? Hailey,” she glanced at me then back at him, “said you wouldn’t be coming.”
“I had a thing that was canceled.”
She smiled, but I could see that it didn’t reach her eyes. Her voice was shaky when she said, “Great. May I take your coats? Wow Hailey!”
“You like it. I hope it’s not too slutty?”
“It’s perfect.”
As we went further into the apartment, my stomach sank. An incredible wash of embarrassment filled me. As we strolled in further and people kept gawking at me, the more I wanted to run and hide. I had been played. It was a costume party alright. But the only ones in costume were people who had trays and served people. They were wearing the same red devil outfit I was wearing. Not all of them. Other servers had white angelic outfits. Just the servers. And me, of course. Everyone else was wearing evening clothes.
32
Even though it was not obvious, I could tell that she was breaking inside. Yet she presented this facade of aloofness that threatened to crumble. “Hailey.”
“It’s fine.” Her eyes were shiny with tears she dared not spill. “Were you part of this?”
“What? No!” Her telling me about the party earlier this evening was the first I had heard of it. I had thought that something was off when she told me that Sophie had invited her. That was why I had wanted to come. Had I known that they had planned to pull off a childish prank, I would never have let her come.
“Good to know.” She looked like she didn’t believe me.
“I’m not lying. If I had known, I would have—”
I was cut off by Dana, who came over to us and handed an empty glass to Hailey, “Here. I need a refill.”
People laughed. Some snickered. I looked around and realized that everyone’s attention was on us. On Hailey. She was the guest of honor at this horrid party. Sophie had a wicked smile on her face. Distaste filled my mouth. I grabbed Hailey’s hand, ready to rush her out of here when she softly wiggled my hold and took the glass from Dana. She went to the nearest server, took a glass of champagne and replaced it with the empty glass. “Here you go, Dana,” she said as she handed her the wine, “Anything else?”
Dana was so flabbergasted that she simply said a small ‘no’ and took the glass. After she had walked away and rejoined her friends, I turned to Hailey. She was stiff as a board, but the tears were gone now.
“Let’s get out of here.”
“No,” she said, “I was invited. It would be rude.”
“You don’t deserve—”
“I do.”
I couldn’t help but feel sad for her. Another odd feeling settled in; admiration. She held her head high as we strolled around and chatted with a few of her old friends. After a while, people stopped paying attention to her and it returned to a sort of normal party. That’s when she said, “Can we go now?”
“Lets.”
When we got back home I said, “You shouldn’t go to parties,” trying to make a joke, “you seem to have a terrible track record with them.” She had been quiet since the ride back, and I had been trying to cheer her up.
Her eyes widened, then a shadow of sadness passed under them, “you’re right.”
She made her way upstairs when I grabbed her hand to stop her. “I didn’t mean it like that.” I drew her close, “I’m sorry they did that to you. It was so… childish.”
“I thought you’d have enjoyed watching me getting humiliated.”
“Why the fuck would I enjoy that?”
She didn’t believe me. She looked like she didn’t believe me. I took her into my arms. I wanted to show her my sincerity, and I didn’t know how. Moments later she was sobbing. We stood like that until her sobs turned into sniffs.
“Let’s go to bed.”
She withdrew abruptly, as if I had struck her. Her face was contorted in disgust and resignation. Did she think I wanted to have sex with her?
“To sleep. Just sleeping.”
“Okay.”
I lifted her in my arms and went to my bedroom. There I laid her down on the bed and took in one look of her costume. It was beautiful. It hugged her curves well and made her look like the most devilish angel on earth. Slowly, I began to peel it off. She stilled my hand. “You don’t have to.”
“It’s okay.”
I continued taking off her costume. Once I was done, I put her in bed and laid down next to her.
“Sleep,” I said when she kept staring at me. For once, she did as I said and closed her eyes. For the first time in a long time, I felt like getting revenge, not against her, but for her.
33
The dream came to me again. This time it was more vivid. I was in the car. Next to me was Liam. Driving.
“Put on some music,” he said.
I obliged by jabbing at the buttons, but my vision was too blurry for me to focus on the right button. Somehow, I turned it on. Arcade fire was playing. I tried to change the song and was failing.
“You’re too drunk to function.”
I laughed. “And you’re not?”
“Hailey, watch out!”
Suddenly he was no longer driving. The steering wheel was now in my hands. I looked to where he pointed. All I could see was white light. I tried to get away from it. My hands felt heavy…
◆◆◆
I woke up with a start, my back wet with sweat. I glanced at the unfamiliar surroundings until I remembered I was in Caiden’s room and not mine. The bed was empty and his scent was all over. I looked down at my clothes. Of course. I had his shirt on. And then all the events of last night came rushing back. I should have known they would humiliate me. Looking back, it was obvious. But what had surprised me the most was Caiden. He had been, well, on my side. I don’t think I would have been able to walk out of that horrid party, had I gone alone. I wanted to thank him, but he must have been gone by now.
I waddled downstairs on heavy legs expecting an empty apartment. Only it wasn’t. From the staircase, I could hear the sound of sizzling food and voices. He wasn’t alone. I made it to the landing and saw Ax with him. They had their backs to me and must not have heard me come in. I was about to announce my presence when Ax said, “I’m surprised you want me to go instead of you, that’s all.”
“It’s nothing you can’t handle, the deal is almost done,” Caiden said.
“I’m not talking about the deal. I’m talking about your roommate.”
Caiden’s back stiffened. “What about her?”
“I hope you know what you’re doing”
“I do.”
“Do you? Cause from my vantage point, it seems like you two have gotten a little cozy. Cozy enough for you to make breakfast for her. ”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“You make breakfast for the girls you like.”
“I don’t like her.”
“You love her then.”
Caiden bellowed out with laughter. “Trust me, there’s no way I would ever fall in love with Hailey Lyndell. She’s just a warm body I fuck.”
Hearing that stung. I shouldn’t care if he loved me or not, I didn’t love him. Whatever little
connection we had was only sexual.
“Okay, that’s a definite no,” Ax said.
“Yes, it is. Can you please get out of my kitchen?”
Ax moved away, but not before he grabbed a piece of bacon from the pan. I made myself known then.
