Authors: Tara McTiernan
“Hello!” Bianca sang, wearing a beautiful red and white dress with a tasteful floral pattern that was a wrap-style like Sharon’s, but on Bianca’s incredible body it was spectacular rather than just simply flattering. Bianca was steering Kate toward their table with one arm around her, long manicured fingers clutching Kate’s shoulder, which Sharon would have noted as excessively controlling if she hadn't been lost in shock witnessing Kate’s altered appearance.
Last time Sharon had seen her, Kate had been a pale skinny little thing with lank shoulder-length blond hair that clung to her face and neck from static. She’d been wearing a simple outfit much like Sharon’s that night: jeans and loafers and a large baggy bubble-gum-pink sweater. Now, her hair was short, bleached, and cut in a punky pixie that would look good if she had the kind of pretty fairy-like face necessary to carry it off. Instead, she had a largish nose and it looked much larger now. As well, her mild overbite seemed more pronounced. Longer hair hid a lot. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
Kate had been made up so much with red lipstick and heavy eye makeup that she looked clownish. Her always-nervous eyes darted around under long false eyelashes, looking at Sharon and then looking away as if embarrassed. And her outfit was a nightmare for her figure: a low cut blue dress that accentuated her bony flat chest and made her lower half look larger, dumpy even. What completed the ridiculous aspect of her appearance is that she was wearing black flats with this ensemble, even though it clearly called for heels. Even Sharon, who preferred comfort over appearance most of the time, had worn low heels with her dress.
“Sorry we’re late,” Bianca continued when they stopped in front of the table. “We were doing a little shopping, weren’t we, Kate? I’ve been helping Kate out. Don’t you love this dress on her? It really brings out her eyes, doesn’t it?”
Sharon looked into Kate’s blue eyes and thought she saw fear. Or maybe it was just anxiety. She had to admit Bianca was right; the color really did bring out Kate's eyes. It also brought out her butt, and not in a good way. “Oh, yes. It’s a very pretty color,” Sharon said.
Kate shrugged and looked down.
Bianca gave Kate’s shoulder one last squeeze and released her. “Come on, let’s sit,” Bianca said, as if talking to a child. Kate dutifully sat down and Bianca sat next to her. Bianca looked around with her heavy-lidded gaze that always seemed mildly amused and said, “Why are we here again? This place is for dates, isn’t it?”
Sharon glanced at the cowed-looking Kate before looking back at Bianca. She started to answer but then saw the scurrying of Café Luna’s waiters out of the corner of her eye as they rushed forward to wait on them. Within moments, three waiters arrived beside their table, all of them focused on Bianca.
“Madam? What can we get you?” asked the first waiter to arrive at the table, a little breathless after his scramble across the pavement.
“Do you enjoy champagne, madam? We would like to offer you a complimentary bottle tonight,” said one of the other waiters leaning over her.
The first waiter shot the second a dirty look, presumably for topping him. The third was trying to help Bianca by pushing in her chair. Only Bianca was already seated. She looked up at the waiter behind her and smiled, melting him glazed-eyed.
Sharon looked at the men and their greedy expressions. It really was amazing, the effect of this woman. Even though she’d witnessed it at Ibiza weeks ago, she’d convinced herself that the whole thing was exaggerated by her memory. Now she knew that it was not. She could physically feel the pull of the woman’s magnetism.
Below it was something else familiar to the last night she’d spent in Bianca’s company. Sharon could feel it too. Something dangerous, dark and glittery-sharp. Something that made her want to protect Kate - again.
The champagne was delivered minutes later with a flourish and poured, Kate brightening and giddy with a childlike excitement while Bianca received the offering as if it were her due. Sharon watched them both carefully.
Corona
"I'll just have a little sip?" Kate said, and lifted up the fluted glass filled with golden bubbling liquid to her lips.
Just one sip wouldn’t hurt. Champagne was a luxury and also very appropriate. How thrilling it was being with Bianca – always getting things for free as well as VIP treatment wherever they went. And today Kate had something very special to celebrate; something she’d announce in a moment and then sit back and enjoy Bianca’s astonished happiness.
Bianca had warned her, told her it probably wouldn’t happen naturally, not after trying for so long. She had said it kindly, her eyes sympathetic. She had suggested alternatives, was as helpful as a friend could be. Kate couldn’t wait to see how excited Bianca was going to be when she found out that, after all Kate’s fears, after all that time trying fruitlessly, she had gotten pregnant after all.
“Oh, Lord! Lord in heaven!” Kate had whispered that morning, looking at the confirming second red stripe on the pregnancy test in the bathroom.
Then she dropped the plastic-encased strip on the counter and ran downstairs to Grant, nearly falling on the stairs, her socks sliding on the wood, before she grabbed the banister, righted herself, and slowly made her way to the kitchen where their tiny television was showing the morning news and the smell of freshly squeezed oranges and toast was in the air. Soon the air was also filled with her screeches of delight and his loud whoops of joy.
Bianca was usually right, though. Take tonight. She’d warned Kate that the other women might be jealous of Kate's glamorous new look, that women were very competitive in Fairfield County. And Sharon’s reaction said it all. She was giving Kate the evil eye again, which made Kate despair over the friendship she had hoped was growing. On the night they’d met, Sharon seemed to warm to her later on in the evening: talking to her about her job and her new problematic boss. She actually hugged Kate before they all parted outside on the pavement close to midnight. After that, Kate had counted Sharon as a new friend.
Now things were bad again. It was obviously because Bianca's statements were true and Sharon - weirdly because, although she was somewhat older, she was also was far prettier than Kate – was jealous. Kate could see that Sharon was also jealous of Bianca, looking at her with those same dagger eyes, which made more sense.
Being friends with Bianca was nothing like any friendship she’d had before. Bianca’s intense effect on Kate had diminished a little, making her only feel that now-familiar nauseous energy for the first fifteen minutes or so in her company. Then Kate relaxed and settled in, enjoying Bianca’s flattering interest in her. And she was always interested. Particularly in Grant and their marriage in general. If Bianca weren't happily married with a little baby boy of her own, her interest in Grant would worry Kate: a gorgeous and likeable woman like that, peering with such curiosity at her husband. But no, Bianca was just a good friend, always interested in even the most mundane and pitifully boring things.
There was no other way to put it: Kate was Bianca’s pet project. In spite of two full-time jobs as both a mother and a pharmaceutical rep, Bianca had taken a lot of time off to help Kate. She'd overhauled Kate’s appearance, helped her pick out her new car, and invited her and Grant out to several parties and dinners with her and her husband, John - outings that dazzled Kate with all the beautiful wealthy people Bianca knew and the luxurious and exclusive venues where they mingled.
The last few invitations had been declined with an excuse, though, Grant saying he was tired of all of the fake people and just wanted to enjoy some peace at home. When Kate queried him, not knowing exactly what he meant by "fake", Grant just laughed as if she was teasing, which made her quietly embarrassed by her own naiveté. She really didn't understand; they all seemed to be decent people, made of flesh and blood like anyone else, just far more well-cared-for flesh and blood. To her, fake was used to identify people who had altered their appearance in an obvious way: an orange salon tan, gigantic gravity-defying breasts, a wind-tunnel facelift.
With all the time and energy that Bianca had put into Kate, particularly her appearance, Kate knew she should be grateful and not question her advice. Still, she was uncertain and uncomfortable at times with it; the whole glamour-thing was so alien to her. But Bianca knew the ropes and, thanks to her, Kate would fit in better now, not embarrass her children - once they got old enough to notice the difference between her and their schoolmates' mothers - by looking like some bumpkin.
The only area so far where Kate had drawn the line was when it came to shoes. She hated high heels, found them painful on her bony delicate feet. It was a problem between her and Bianca, a problem Bianca had just confronted her about again in the car on the way over, Bianca insisting on driving.
Sitting in the low-slung leather seat of her cherry-red Ferrari, Bianca stretched out elegantly and steered with a ruthless confidence. Kate, on the other hand, was uncomfortable. The seat forced her practically horizontal, her butt inches from the road as they roared along, and she had to strain her neck lifting her head anytime she wanted to look at her friend.
"Really, Kate. You're being silly. Some high-heeled shoes are like slippers they're so comfortable. Expensive ones usually. I can't believe you won't at least try."
"No? Please? I hate them?"
"It's just unlike you. You're so open to everything. Grant must love that about you."
Kate started to protest and then, hearing that about Grant, her mouth snapped shut and her head rested back against the buttery-soft leather of the seat. If there was one thing that Grant didn't love about her right now, it was that she was so open to everything Bianca suggested.
“What have you done to your hair?” he’d said, his eyes wide with shock after the Day of Beauty Kate had enjoyed at a local spa-slash-salon on Greenwich Avenue with Bianca. She and Grant had fought briefly and then Kate promised to let her hair grow back out, feeling secretly relieved as she preferred it shoulder-length anyway and now she had an excuse: Grant.
The clothes were another problem, particularly anything revealing, which seemed to embarrass him. Every new outfit led to a heated discussion with Kate usually being the one to relent and make some adjustment to please him. But the makeup had become the real battle between them, one she wasn't willing to let go once she saw the admiration in the faces of the girls that night after Bianca applied a little makeup to her virgin face. Kate was hooked.
“Just take it off,” he said the second morning she’d appeared ready to go to the office with her face fully "war-painted" as Bianca called it. “Please. Your face is fine without it.”
“My face is plain without it,” Kate said. “Really plain? Even Bianca says-“
“Bianca says. Enough about Bianca. I honestly wish she’d never walked into our office.”
“What? Bianca’s my best friend? Please? You don’t mean that?”
Grant sighed. “No, you’re right. I’m glad you have a friend here. It’s just…can’t she just leave you as you were? I loved the old Kate.”
Kate’s mouth dropped open as a pang of sadness hit her. Was he falling out of love with her? Bianca said it might happen, now that it looked like Kate couldn’t have a child. In a tiny voice she asked, “You don’t love me anymore?”
“What? No, honey,” he said and went to her and wrapped his arms around her. “I love you. I’ll always love you. I just…you just don’t need all this stuff. This crazy new look of yours. I loved how natural you always looked. So fresh. But...no…you wear your makeup if it makes you feel good.”
“It does?” she said, nodding into his shoulder and trying not to get lipstick on him.
Kate swallowed a mouthful of champagne, the bubbles tickling down her throat and looked again at Bianca with gratitude. What would Kate have done if she hadn't met her? Before Bianca, she'd been lost and lonely for friends. Now she had everything a girl could ask for: a loving successful husband, a good friend - scratch that - best friend and guide in this foreign frightening place, and a baby on the way. Baby! She thrilled again, shoulders rising and hand going involuntarily to her stomach while a smile crept across her face.
Bianca took a sip from her champagne glass as well and then said, "Well, this is nice. Though it's still a strange place for us to meet. This place is first-date heaven, not a social scene. Definitely not Chelsea's type of thing."