CHAPTER 4
T
he next morning, I entered the Hilton and saw Adam strategically seated so that he could see the lobby doors. He was working on his laptop and seemed oblivious to the admiring glances cast his way. His fingers traced his firm jaw, while his blue eyes remained riveted to his computer screen. Not only did Adam teach computer courses at the University of Wisconsin, but he also ran his own Internet consulting business out of his home in Eau Claire.
Although we'd grown up in the same hometown, we hadn't become friends until the previous year. Adam often joked about how he'd come to New York to “find himself.” Instead, he found several new clients and friends, and fell in love with Daniel's ex-boyfriend. Although he and Jeremy lived in Eau Claire, Adam flew to New York at least once a month to maintain ties with his East Coast clients. We would often get together to work out, go out for dinner to talk, or meet Gretchen for drinks so we could all complain about our business lives. I always insisted that we go out. Adam maintained a room in Martin's apartment in Daniel's town house, and I'd never chosen to hang out with Martin, even during the best of times in my relationship with Daniel.
Adam glanced up as I approached him, snapped his computer shut, and stood to give me a quick hug. “I'm glad you could make it. Have you eaten?”
“No. I was hoping I could join you.”
We made small talk over breakfast in the hotel café. Jeremy was doing well. Adam was working like a dog, as if he knew another way. His mother was organizing her PFLAG chapter's march in the Madison Gay Pride Parade. He'd seen Sheila the day before, and she'd updated him about her wedding plans and the ongoing assaults from gossip columnist Lola Listeria.
Adam was at the convention to meet one of his clients, Bonnie Seaforth-Wilkes. I'd met her before, at functions that Daniel and I had attended, since she was not only an executive producer of
Secret Splendor,
but one of her company's products, Fiberforth, was the primary sponsor of the show. I could still hear the ad that always made Daniel and me laugh.
Fiberforth: Because sometimes nature needs a little helper.
I didn't know if Bonnie would remember me, but it didn't matter one way or the other to me.
After breakfast, we made our way to the Hilton ballroom, where Adam found Bonnie standing alone as if she was Nefertiti awaiting a barge. Every time I'd seen her, she'd been wearing the same Egyptian-inspired garb, though she apparently had her outfits made in a million different colors and fabrics. I wouldn't have been surprised to see that her purse was actually a canopic jar. Adam reintroduced us, then we wandered through the maze of exhibitors. Bonnie was probably looking for some jewel worth more than my annual salary.
Behind me, I heard a commanding voice say, “Blaine.”
I turned to find I was face-to-face with Lillith Parker. “Lillith! What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question, but instead I'll answer yours. My gemstone therapist tells me that it's a good time to surround myself with aquamarines, so I'm here to find some. It's not my stone of choice, as it's a bit too watery for my taste. But then, I only eat broccoli because it's good for me.”
“I guess I can't argue with that,” I said.
“You could, but it would be a mistake. Taurus is supposed to watch his step with superiors today.”
I wasn't sure what to say to that, so I was glad when Adam turned to see who had my attention. I introduced them and Adam said, “Nice to meet you.”
Lillith shook his hand saying, “Gemini. Nice energy.”
“How did you know that?” he asked.
“How could I not?” she answered.
He looked befuddled. Bonnie, who'd been hovering over a table of stones with a jeweler's loupe in her eye, turned around. The loupe dropped from her hand and dangled from a chain around her neck.
Adam said, “Bonnie, this isâ”
“Lillith,” Bonnie said.
“Bonnie,” Lillith countered.
Neither woman extended a hand, or any warmth, to each other. I glanced nervously at them, wondering what would warrant such a chilly greeting.
“I'm not surprised to see you here. You never could keep your hands off valuable stones,” Lillith said.
“You're not still harping on that, I hope,” Bonnie said. “You stole that amulet while my family was mammoth hunting and yours was cowering in caves.”
“So you say. Our tribal leaders made an even trade. You had no right to take it from my sarcophagus because it was shiny and pretty.”
“You promised my grandfather you'd never sell me at the Athens slave auction,” Bonnie snapped. “You betrayedâ”
“You want to talk about betrayal? You slit my throat.”
“That was in the fourteenth century!”
“Be that as it may, it still hurt my feelings,” Lillith answered, lifting her chin and looking down her nose at Bonnie. “You duped my father into believing you were going to marry me just to get the amulet back.”
“And two hundred years later, you traded me, your own
child,
to a band of gypsies to get it. Then you claimed it was lost,” Bonnie accused.
“No, I claimed it was stolen. I'm sure we both know who was responsible for that. Lifetime after lifetime, and you're still pillaging.”
They subsided into icy silence. Adam and I exchanged a look, and he mouthed,
Meet me in the lobby later.
I nodded. I wasn't sure what shocked me more, that I took Lillith's arm or that she allowed me to lead her away. When we were a safe distance from Bonnie and Adam, she seemed to recollect herself.
“Aquamarines,” she said, as if the confrontation had never occurred.
I followed her when she approached a semiprecious gem dealer called Facet Expressions. The booth was small, its back panel encrusted with small garnets, amethysts, aquamarines, and citrines. The woman inside the booth introduced herself to Lillith, who almost immediately began to haggle over the price of a small group of aquamarines that she wanted delivered to her hotel room.
After Lillith struck a deal without making the vendor cry, I tentatively repeated the suggestion I'd made to Frank of hiring Adam to oversee the IT aspect of the company's move, then suggested that he also take over our Web site.
“Despite his affiliation with Bonnie Seaforth-Wilkes, I trust him because of your apparent confidence in his abilities,” Lillith said. “I leave these details in Frank's hands. I have an appointment at a spa in SoHo.”
I watched as she floated through the throngs of people untouched and without any further altercations. When I reconnected with Adam, he greeted me with a look of disbelief.
“Apparently, those two have been at odds for centuries,” Adam said, looking around nervously.
“Lillith didn't seem to want to talk about it, so I didn't dare ask questions,” I said. “What are you looking for?”
“Bonnie,” he replied. “Or Lillith. And I half expect Shirley MacLaine to show up, too. Bonnie found what she came for: a necklace with a rock the size of my hand. I guess she hitched a ride with the armored car that's delivering it to her apartment, so I seem to be free for a while. Want to get out of here?”
“Let's go back to my place,” I answered, already leading the way out of the hotel. “I have to change before I go to my office for a meeting.”
Outside on the sidewalk, we began winding our way through pedestrians toward my neighborhood. “I miss this,” Adam said with a broad grin.
“Miss what?”
“Every time I go home, it's too quiet now,” Adam replied, dodging a messenger on a bike who raced past us while blowing on a whistle.
“You were the one who gave up city living for a farmhouse in the country,” I stated. “Why don't you and Jeremy live here? You've already got the clients. Not to mention all the contacts you'd ever need.”
“And I have friends here,” Adam said, gesturing to me.
I remembered Daniel's angry accusation that I only had my friends because I was dating him, as if our friends couldn't make up their own minds. Although Adam had known Daniel first, he was such an affable person that I was sure he could stay friends with both of us. I hoped that was what he wanted. Although I appreciated my friendships with Gretchen and Sheila, as well as with Jake and Josh, I'd grown accustomed to the camaraderie of my gay male friends. When I began to accept my sexuality, it was a relief to learn that there were other men who could relate to me in a way that was uniquely ours.
“Look out!” Adam barked.
I felt his hand on my shoulder, pulling me back to the curb. A gust of wind rushed over my face as a truck resembling a huge box on wheels zoomed by, inches from my nose. I held my breath and stood frozen until it rattled and rumbled down the street. Then I stared in shock at an enlarged image of Sheila on a building mural across the street. She was in her mermaid garb, reclining on her back with a fin in the air and applying lipstick.
“Holy buckets, that was close! Are you okay?” Adam asked, still holding my shoulder.
“Yeah. I think so,” I replied, shaken. “Thanks.”
“I've probably been saving your ass for centuries,” Adam joked.
“Then you must owe me an enormous karmic debt,” I said, affecting Lillith's imperious tone. “Let's get moving.” This time, I looked both ways before crossing the street. Even though the traffic could only go one way.
“Although Jeremy's family is here,” Adam went on, continuing our previous conversation, “and regardless of everything else I mentioned, we're happy where we are. He just got his teaching credential and has a chance at a part-time instructor's position at the university. He doesn't have the advanced degree that they wanted, but I guess they took his experience on stage and television into account. People still remember him from the sitcom he was on. He even gets asked for his autograph.”
“Good for him,” I said, meaning it. I liked Jeremy. Admittedly, I liked him better after he got over Daniel and became Adam's boyfriend, but I'd always wished him well.
“Plus my father would never let him go,” Adam went on. “Jeremy's the only one who can get my mother to back down when she gets going on one of her rants. She says she's no match for a boy with beautiful eyes. I can't argue with that. Or his ass. Anyway, I like things as they are.”
Once inside my apartment, I went into my bedroom after telling Adam to help himself to something to drink. I changed from slacks and a sweater into a navy Armani suit, then packed a bag with workout clothes, all the while thinking about my brush with the truck, gemstones, past lives, friends, change, and the future.
I returned to the living room to see Adam staring out the window while drinking from a bottle of Poland Spring water.
“Looking for someone?” I asked, knotting my tie.
Startled, Adam turned around and replied, “No. Not really.”
“Daniel's still out of town shooting his
Lifetime
movie. If that's what you're wondering,” I offered.
“No,” Adam said coolly. “That's not what I was wondering. I was wondering what you've done with Sheila's old room. But now I'm wondering why you're suddenly bringing up Daniel.”
“Oh,” I said, sliding my Mont Blanc pen into my shirt pocket. “I haven't done anything with Sheila's room yet. I was thinking about turning it into a nursery.”
With the bottle of water still poised on his lips, Adam's eyes bulged as he tried to swallow a gulp of water without choking. “A what?” he asked, after he regained his composure.
“Made you forget about that Daniel comment, huh?”
“I'll say,” Adam agreed. “What's going on, Blaine?”
I sat down and explained Gretchen's proposal that I father her child through artificial insemination. Adam's face remained passive while he listened to me, though he kept running a finger over his lips. I didn't know what that meant.
“What do you think?” I finally asked.
“If you haven't decided whether or not to do it, I don't think I should state my opinion on the subject,” Adam said. “In fact, either way, a good friend would say
, That's great,
and stay out of it.”
“Let me piss you off then, so you'll give me a real answer,” I said, growing frustrated. “Are you not answering my question because of Daniel?”
“What does Daniel have to do with this?” Adam asked.
“Nothing, as far as I'm concerned. I've just spent several weeks wondering about people's loyalties.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I'm talking about how Daniel moved your best friend, Blythe, into the town house so he and I wouldn't have to move in together. Then swore all of our friends to secrecy so I wouldn't find out. Of course, I did. I don't know how he could've thought I wouldn't. Especially with Martin running loose in the city.”
“Blaine,” Adam began slowly, almost cautiously, “I didn't know anything about that until after it happened. Blythe sent me an e-mail about it
after
she'd moved in. I'm pretty sure she had no idea you wanted to move into the town house with Daniel.”
I walked up to Adam and stared hard into his eyes. He returned my gaze, not moving his head or darting his eyes away, but obviously wondering what I was doing. I relaxed and said, “I believe you.”
“Good,” Adam said. “I didn't want to have to beat some sense into you if you didn't.”
“I'd like to see you try,” I said, raising my fist and lightly punching his jaw before I gave him a fraternal hug. I released him and went to the kitchen to feed Dexter before I left for the office. “You don't think it's a good idea, do you?” I asked as I opened a can of Fancy Feast. Dexter immediately appeared out of nowhere so he could try to trip me while I moved around the kitchen.