Chapter Seventeen

Wil led her behind the stage to the models’ changing room. The models were long gone and there were only a few people left cleaning up the area. Wil stopped a tall woman with a tattoo of Betty Page on her forearm. “Teresa, we had a little accident here. Can you help us out?”

Teresa was in the process of carting out a large rack filled with clothes from the show. She looked Nicole up and down, mumbled something about a size eight and pulled an outfit from the rack. The vibrant red tank with a Love symbol in black would work, but the short shorts she gave Nicole to go with it were out of the question.

“Try that,” Wil suggested, pointing to a black slip-on skirt in jersey material. It was shorter than she would have liked, but at this point Nicole had to take what she could get.

She went to change behind an Asian panel screen, vowing to never wear white around Wanda again. Even her panties had taken a hit, so she peeled them off, too.

Wil peeked behind the screen, discovered her stark naked and let out a low whistle under his breath. He went to her, eyes dilated, and devoured her mouth.

“I’ve wanted to do that all night,” he said, stroking up and down her body.

Nicole wanted to touch him, but she didn’t want to wrinkle him or muss his hair, so she kept her arms around his neck and played with the ends of his hair.

“You don’t know how much I’ve missed touching you,” he whispered.

Nicole had a pretty good idea judging by the bulge in his pants.

“Do you need me for anything else, Wil?” Teresa asked, sounding way too close for comfort.

“I’m good, thanks,” he said, slipping a finger inside Nicole without taking his eyes off her face.

“We can’t do this here, Wil.”

He moved his finger deeper into her while running his lips up and down her neck. Her breathing quickened as she moved against him. Then she heard, “Wil, you in here?” and footsteps that came closer. A guy’s head popped around the screen.

“Whoa!” the guy said, pulling back.

“What the hell do you want, Danny?” Wil said, clearly irritated.

Danny made a big production of clearing his throat. “Mr. Simian is leaving. I thought you might want to see him out.”

The muscle in Wil’s jaw twitched as he withdrew his hand from between her legs. “I’ll be right there.”

Nicole was beyond mortified. The only saving grace had been Wil partially blocking her naked body. “I’ll get some clothes on and meet you out there,” she told Wil. He hesitated, looking torn and frustrated. “Go on,” she urged.

Nicole dressed quickly after he left, shoved her soiled clothes into her purse and slinked out, hoping no one had noticed that she’d been gone. Sure enough, Eric was the first one she ran into, asking where she had been. He looked her up and down. “That’s a good idea, dressing in the clothes to get a feel for them.”

She started to tell him that her inebriated friend had spilled wine all over her and that’s why she was wearing these clothes, but Nicole realized it was a much better idea to let the man who signed her paychecks believe she was working this whole time, instead of getting fingered in the dressing room by the man who paid Eric.

“I think I’ll call it a night,” Eric said. He clearly felt depressed about being stood up. “I should say goodbye to Wil first.”

They searched for Wil and found him surrounded by a large group of his family members. He definitely seemed more relaxed than before. When Eric told him he was leaving, Wil slung an arm around his shoulder and said, “So early?” even though it was going on one in the morning. “What happened to your date? Isn’t she with you?”

The question was asked before Nicole could give Wil the don’t-go-there signal. Eric mumbled something about having been stood up, and that he was going home to the only person who never let him down. That person being Pez, of course.

When Wil realized Eric was referring to his dog, he said, “I have someone I’d like you to meet, if you have a moment.”

He led Eric over to his mother. “Mom, I’d like you to meet Eric McGraw, the owner of the advertising agency I’m working with.”

In under a second, Eric had become the new poster child for Love at First Sight. He looked as if he had been struck by a thunderbolt and was deaf, dumb, and blind from the shock of it.

When Carmen took his hand and said, “Lovely to meet you,” Eric held onto it, stuttering and blinking. Wil broke the ice by telling his mother how much of a dog lover Eric was.

Carmen gave him a dazzling smile. “Really? What’s the name of your baby?”

“Pez,” Eric said, regaining powers of speech. “He’s a pug.”

“Ohhh, my first one was a pug, so I have a soft spot for them. They have a face that only a mother, or in your case, a father could love.”

Eric whipped out his wallet. “I carry a photo of him if you’d like to see it. You don’t, by any chance, have any suggestions for how to handle the terrible twos?”

Carmen let out a whoop, grasped Eric by the arm and said, “Let’s get a drink and I will tell you what I’ve learned, because I have a Chihuahua now that’s giving me all my gray hair…” And off they went, two dog lovers talking about what they loved most: their children.

“How did you know they’d hit it off?” Nicole asked Wil.

He winked at her. “It’s a gift. Just like I knew with you and me.”

“Give me a break,” she said, playfully swatting him on the shoulder.

He put his hands around her waist and pulled her closer. “Seeing you wearing my clothes is turning me on.”

“I distinctly recall me not wearing any clothes turned you on also.”

Wil threw back his head and let out a big laugh. He was still holding onto her. She glanced up, sensing eyes upon them. His family was staring, with an amused and slightly bewildered look on their faces.

Wil said to them, “It’s all good. I’m in love with this woman.”

Before Nicole could see or hear any reaction from them, Wil whisked her away to the bar on the other side of the room. He ordered two shots of tequila for them, with lime and salt.

“How many of these have you had?” she asked, suddenly understanding why he was way more relaxed and uninhibited.

“A couple. The main people I needed to impress have left, so I can enjoy myself at my own party.” He licked his hand, poured salt on it, licked off the salt, pounded the shot and sucked hard on the piece of lime. “Your turn.”

She eyed the shot warily. “This is to-kill-ya, not tequila.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never had a shot of tequila before.”

“Of course I have.” Fifteen at one time to be exact, in college, and she woke up in the middle of the football field, but he didn’t have to know that. Nicole followed Wil’s lead with the salt, shot back the tequila and almost gagged, then sucked on the lime for dear life in an attempt to stop the burning.

After one more shot she was actually able to let go of the disconcerting fact that Wil had told his family he was in love with her. All things considered, he probably wouldn’t remember it in the morning, and with any luck, neither would his family.

Wil went up to the DJ and requested some salsa.

Isn’t that how it all started? Nicole thought, feeling warm and affectionate like she always did when she was very tipsy.

“Come, my love,” he said, leading her to the dance floor.

“Speaking of, where is Sonia tonight?”

He grinned, pulling her to him in a tight embrace. “You’re my only love and, she’s home sick with the flu. Now dance.”

They danced in sync just like they had that first time until sweat ran down their backs. When a slow song played, Wil held her while she rested her head on his chest, breathing in his scent and feeling completely content. She was vaguely aware of someone taking pictures of them, and when she saw that it was Ian, her body relaxed.

“You have to be exhausted, Wil.”

He looked down at her. “I am, but I’m running on a combination of adrenaline and praise.”

“You did a great job tonight. I’m proud of you.”

Wil took her hand and led her off the floor. They sat down on a couch next to a running fountain, filled with floating red lotus flowers.

“The decorations are unbelievable, and all these flowers…” Nicole shook her head in amazement.

Wil reached into the pool of water for a lotus flower. “Do you know that almost every part of a lotus plant is useful? It grows in muddy pond water.”

“I’m sensing a metaphor coming.”

“You know me too well,” he said with a smile. “It rises from the mud to unfold into beauty, sort of like a person who manages to achieve success in life even if they come from a crappy background.”

She smoothed back some hair that had fallen onto his forehead and tenderly kissed his temple. “Like you?”

“Like me.”

Nicole was struck by an immediate feeling of sadness over the thought of Wil winding up with another woman other than her. If their relationship was going to end, which it was, then it meant this unique, amazing man would eventually go on to marry someone else—most likely someone closer in age. The thought made Nicole sick to her stomach. For the first time she wished she were fifteen years younger and meeting Wil for the first time. They could do things right: fall in love, get married, have children.

“It’s time to get Wanda home,” Paulina said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

“Jesus, you startled me,” Nicole told her. “Where did you come from?”

“I’ve been babysitting Wanda all night, but now she’s out of control and I can’t get her to leave.”

The music had turned fast again, and Wanda was on the dance floor with her hands on her thighs in a semi-crouched position, turning her head around in circles and watching her ponytail spin like a Ferris wheel.

Wil went over to Wanda, put his arm around her and led her off the dance floor. Her eyes were unfocused and glazed over. When she said, “I don’t feel so good,” Wil made a beeline for the ladies’ room, and waited outside while she threw up what looked to be eighteen bottles of red wine.

Paulina and Nicole cleaned Wanda up as best they could. Paulina, thinking of the backseat of her convertible, kept asking Wanda over and over again whether she needed to puke anything else up, because “red wine is a bitch to get out of carpet.”

“Nope, everything’s out, including the lining of my stomach.” Wanda groaned.

She staggered out of the restroom and Wil, ignoring her stench, swooped her up in his arms and carried her outside to wait for the valet to bring Paulina’s car.

“You are such a little hottie,” she slurred. “I told Nicole that the first time I saw you. If only I were twenty years younger.”

Into the backseat of Paulina’s car she went. Seconds later, she was passed out.

Paulina got into her car and opened her window. “Something tells me I need to keep all four windows down on the way home.”

“Will you be all right?” Nicole asked her.

“I’ll be just swell,” she said, rolling her eyes as she pulled away from the curb.

****

By the time Nicole and Wil arrived at his house it was after six in the morning. To say she was beat was an understatement. They stripped off their clothes and flopped down on his king-size bed. They didn’t even have the energy to talk.

Nicole began to rub Wil’s shoulders, because she knew they had to be hurting after all the traveling and working and partying, and within two minutes he was sound asleep. So much for their big plans. She curled up next to him, and in less than one minute, she was out.

Sometime in the middle of the night as she and Wil spooned, or rather, in the middle of the afternoon, he woke and began to lightly kiss her back. Nicole pressed into him, still half-asleep, her body responding to his touch. He reached between her legs and gently pushed himself into her. Slumber sex, she called it: slow, rhythmic lovemaking that mimicked the rocking of a rowboat on a lake.

They moved like that until both of them came, surprisingly at the same time, which almost never happened unless you’re truly in sync with each other’s body.

But this is not my real world; my world is the one filled with PTA and soccer games and to-do lists. How could this possibly fit into that? Even if things did work out and they were fine for a while, what happens when I’m an old lady using a walker and Wil is still young enough to be jogging by my side?