Authors: Tara McTiernan
Looking at Sharon and Chelsea, Bianca wanted to chuckle and shake her head in disbelief. She never thought that women would be the hard ones. Men had been the object of her ambition for such a long time, but they had always been fairly easy to manage and manipulate. Women, on the other hand, were far more slippery, far more keen-eyed, and they had one frightening advantage: female intuition. The problem was, while men rarely saw through Bianca, women sometimes did. Sharon seemed to be one of those intuitive women, which made Bianca wary. She would have to work harder with this one. Even the little digs, usually a sure-fire way to put a woman on the defensive, seemed to be backfiring by increasing Sharon's critical inspection instead of diverting it.
Kate returned to the table and sat down next to Bianca with a sad shuddering sigh. At that moment, another insect - a beetle, she was sure - crawled up inside Bianca's throat.
She coughed again, covering her mouth and half-expecting to discharge the black-legged wriggling thing, but only air came out, hot and dry on her hand.
"Are you okay?" Kate asked, peering at Bianca.
"Fine," Bianca managed. "Just a little something in my throat."
"Oh? Do you want a Tic Tac?"
"No, thank you, though," Bianca said and made herself smile warmly at Kate. The tickling crawl started again in her throat just looking at Kate. Of course there was no bug. There were no bugs. It was all imaginary.
The bugs started crawling, choking her, as soon as Kate said she was having a baby. Grant's baby. But that wasn't supposed to happen, wasn't part of Bianca's plan. And now Kate had opened her little mouse mouth and said the impossible: that a baby, a real threat, might be in the picture. For a moment, Bianca had wanted to simply reach over and strangle Kate, watch her turn red, then blue, then black. She might have done it, too, if they'd been alone, so it was good they weren't. Things like that got messy quickly she had learned. There were cleaner and easier ways to resolve problems. If the baby existed at all, Bianca would find a better way to deal with it.
Nothing could get in the way of her plans for Grant. Her need for him to see her, want her, only grew every time she visited his office, every night she spent in his company at the parties and dinners to which she had started inviting the couple. Even the slightest social touch between them - which she initiated often - sparked electricity that coursed through her and aroused her slumbering passion, making her feel truly alive again. She imagined it was Grant she was pressed up against when John insisted on having sex these days.
The fact that Grant seemed to be impervious to Bianca and her charms only heightened his desirability. She had to have him, would have him; she knew it. Even the bad moment with him in his private office a few days ago was just a rock in the road. She brushed it aside, refusing to think about it. No, she would get him. Grant would be her first lover, one of many "good" married men who, because of their idealistic morals and pointless shame, could be counted on to be discreet. John would never know and she could have the excitement she craved.
Part one of her plan had gone swimmingly as evidenced by not only Kate's worsened glammed-up appearance - one engineered to disgust Grant, who obviously preferred the homely yet natural look of his wife - but also by the wondering looks she had caught Grant shooting at Kate lately when she wasn't looking. Those looks betrayed the new doubts that were starting to cut a chasm between the two, a chasm Bianca intended to jackhammer wide open with parts two and three of her plan.
"Hi everyone," Lucie said, interrupting Bianca's reverie and limping up to their table. "Sorry I'm late. Time got away from me."
"Hi Lucie?" Kate yelped above the other girls' greetings.
Lucie, always perfectly turned-out and coiffed, was slightly disheveled and moist-looking. Bianca breathed in the scent of caramelized sugar and melted chocolate coming off of Lucie. She also saw a smear of dark brown, probably chocolate, on Lucie's neck.
"Lucie, darling, I think you missed a spot," Bianca said, tapping her own neck.
Lucie reached to touch her neck and twisted her lips in embarrassment. "Whoops! I'll have to go to the ladies; I'm still chocolate-coated. Thanks," she said, smiling warmly at Bianca, her sharp green eyes all friendliness again. All that it had taken was a simple phone call the day after their meeting at Ibiza.
"Hello?"
"Lucie. It's Bianca."
"Oh...hi...."
"I know. It was awkward last night. I just didn't know what to do. The last time you saw me was so horrible. You must think the worst of me."
"Oh, no. I-"
"No, it was a terrible time for me. I was all messed up. I had just lost my mother and she was my guiding light."
"Oh! You didn't tell me that! How terrible for you."
"She was like a saint. And always there for me. Losing her was like losing a part of myself," Bianca said sadly. Her mother was still alive and well and living in Florida. Her mother also had washed her hands of Bianca for the most part, discouraging visits except for once a year when she came home to see old friends. Even then, her mother focused on her son-in-law and grandson, not Bianca. Not that Bianca cared; the old witch was a pain in the ass more than anything. She was glad her older brother, Anthony, and his family lived nearby in Tampa and carried the load when her mother needed help.
Lucie's voice softened on the other end of the line. "I know exactly how you feel."
"Anyway, I'm ashamed that you saw that - that horrible night. I've regretted it ever since, had to live with what I did. And you, I lost you. You were a good friend and I let you down."
"I'm so sorry you went through all that. I had a feeling that maybe...that it was some terrible time in your life."
"It was," Bianca said, nodding and trying to keep the smile off of her face and out of her voice.
The only thing she was sorry about was that Al never left his wife. He'd "let her go" at Pinnacle and then put her up in a beautiful apartment on the water in Stamford, kept promising that he would leave his marriage for a full six months before she gave her ultimatum. That went exactly nowhere, and she was back to square one, nearly broke after running through the small inheritance she'd received upon her father's death and searching again for Mr. Right: a very rich and successful man who would ensure she would have every little - or big - thing her heart desired.
Lucie said, "Well, let's forget it. Water under the bridge."
"Thank you. You don't know how much that means to me."
Smiling at Lucie's slowly retreating backside, Bianca was glad she had played that one right. The old sympathy grab was practically sure-fire when it came to women. Maybe she would use it with Sharon? Or wait, even better: the supportive ever-thoughtful friend angle! How handy that part two of the Grant-and-Kate plan would have that side benefit when it came to Sharon, who had to be an unknowing participant anyway.
"Kate," Bianca said, turning to her and glancing at Chelsea and Sharon to make sure she had their attention. "I have exciting news. You're not going to believe it!"
Kate batted her ridiculous false eyelashes at her and said, "What? What happened?"
Bianca checked the other two women. They were both looking over at her with interest now. Good. "Remember how we did your resume? Just in case?"
"Yes? Thank you so much. I didn't know where to start?"
“Well, I was talking the other day to Pastor Grimes - he’s at the Second Congregational Church in Darien?”
“Oh? That pretty church? The stone one?” Kate said, brightening.
Bianca practically purred. “Yes. The pretty stone church. And they have such beautiful stained glass windows, too. Anyway, you’ll never guess.”
“What?” Kate asked, her voice going up an octave in building excitement.
“They have an opening for a teacher at their nursery school.”
“Oh! Really?”
“Really. And….they want you.” What Pastor Grimes wanted was the fat check Bianca was considering writing when they had their little talk about the repairs and supplies the church was trying to raise money for. Bianca had searched high and low for a nursery school with an opening, calling every place in Fairfield County before she found out that Second Congregational was looking, the previous teacher having died suddenly of a stroke. Then she scheduled the meeting, never mentioning the nursery school until she sat across from Pastor Grimes in his musty little office. It turned out that all he needed was a covetous look at Bianca’s checkbook and a cursory review of Kate’s resume to make his decision. Once he made his promise to hold the job for Kate, Bianca obligingly wrote the check.
Kate’s face slackened with surprise. “But...I don’t have experience?”
“Oh,” Bianca said, waving her hand in the air. “You have tons of experience. David, remember? In fact, they really loved that. Sometimes they have children that turn out to have developmental disabilities. So? Aren’t you excited? The job you’ve always dreamed of.”
“But?” Kate said, her eyes bright and lips trembling. “Grant?”
“Pshaw. You can easily get someone to fill in part-time. That’s all the job is: part-time. Just mornings. You could still handle the books for the office and just let someone else answer the phones and deal with reception. Anyone can do that. Chelsea? Isn't that right? Help me here.”
Chelsea nodded, looking serious for the first time that night – she’d been oddly giggly and nervous-seeming. “It’s true,” she said to Kate. “It’s a piece of cake to find someone like that around here, just answering phones and greeting people. It’s the ones that are smart that are hard to find.”
Bianca wanted to roll her eyes. Chelsea always referred to herself as a "smart admin". As if such a thing was even possible. Still, she was playing right into Bianca’s hand, so thanks for being so "smart", Chelsea!
“See?” Bianca continued. “And this is your dream. Don’t you think you deserve that? I didn’t think Grant was the type to stop you from doing something so meaningful and important to you.”
Sharon barked out a wry laugh. “You’d be surprised at the things men hide until they’ve married you. But,” she said, turning to Kate. “No matter what Grant thinks, if teaching is something you really want to do, why not? Especially part-time?”
“And the job is already yours,” Bianca said, leaning towards Kate. “All you have to do is show up.”
“Oh?” Kate said, looking back and forth at Chelsea, then Sharon, and then Bianca. “I guess you’re right?”
“Bianca,” Chelsea said, now looking as if she might cry. “That is so nice of you, finding a job for Kate. You’re always doing things like that.”
Bianca gave her a long look. Something was going on with Chelsea. Something fishy. But she didn’t have time for that now. She shrugged. “It was nothing. It just came up at church; they announced it during the service.”
“You go to Second Congregational in Darien?” Sharon asked. “Isn’t that a hike, what with traffic on I-95?”
“Occasionally. I like visiting various churches, even synagogues, with Sebastian. I want to open the doors for him religiously,” Bianca said, attempting a pious simper. She barely pulled it off. She was out of practice; she’d have to spend more time in places of worship around the types of people who made that face all day long.
“How wonderful!” Kate said, with devoted enthusiasm.
“Yes,” Sharon said, her tone sarcastic. “Isn’t it? Especially for a child so young. Didn’t you tell me he’s only nine months old?”
Bianca put on her most serious face. “Yes, actually just ten months. I also played Mozart to him when he was in the womb. Now you should see how he waves his arms around when classical music is playing. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up a famous conductor of a symphony someday.”
Sharon tilted her head back and forth and then nodded, giving her that. “Good point. They say that you can never start too young. Children’s brains are like sponges.”