“Fine. Don’t blame me if you feel like shit tomorrow.” Iain gave him the bottle of whiskey. Watching his brother drink, Iain shook his head and walked away to the balcony before pulling out his phone. “Mom?”
“Iain. Do you know what time it is?” she said, her voice heavy with sleep.
“Yeah, I know. It’s about Mark.”
“What about him?” She sounded sharper now, more awake.
“He got badly drunk. I brought him home safe and sound, but somebody should check up on him tomorrow.”
Ceinlys sighed impatiently. “I see.”
“Mom, don’t be so hard on him.”
“I’m not. I’m disappointed. That’s all.”
“You know… He’s been drinking because of Hilary.”
“What did she do?” Ceinlys asked sharply.
“She left him.”
A short pause. “Is that what he told you?”
“That’s what his drinking buddy told me. Mark’s a grown man. You shouldn’t try to run his love life, trying to break up his relationship.” He didn’t need to have the whole scenario explained to know his mother had had a hand in the mess.
“It wasn’t supposed to be this complicated.” She sighed. “He wasn’t supposed to care.”
“I think he really loves her.”
“But why
her
, Iain?” She sounded confused, like somebody had told her the sky was actually green. “She’s not even all that pretty. I don’t understand what the attraction is.”
“Well… Can anyone really understand what’s in someone else’s heart? He likes her. Isn’t that enough?”
“He think he wants her now, but… They’re going to end up hurting each other. There simply isn’t enough to hold them together.”
Iain dug his fingers into the back of his neck.
“She’s older than he is,” Ceinlys continued. “Not that well educated. He’ll lose interest soon enough, and regret he ever tried to convince anybody he really cared for her.”
“If he changes his mind, I’m sure he’ll leave her.” But Iain had a feeling Mark wouldn’t. This wasn’t just another of his infatuations. He knew his brother, and could tell that he hadn’t approached Hilary on impulse, or just to avoid getting set up with Katarina, no matter what he said.
“No, he won’t.” Words tumbled out quickly over the phone line. “He’ll stay out of some misplaced sense of pride. He’ll stay because he’s told everyone she was different…that she was somehow special. But he’ll be miserable, and he’ll stray. When she finds out—and she will inevitably find out—she’ll be hurt, then angry…then miserable and desperate. She’ll try to change him, until one day she realizes she can’t. Then they’ll both be old, and remain together simply because that’s what they know and are comfortable with.” Ceinlys sniffled.
“Mom…”
“I don’t want any of you to be unhappy. I want all of you to have the kind of contentment your father and I never had.”
“Mark isn’t just Dad’s son,” Iain said quietly. “He’s your son too.”
He heard tears on the other side. “Of course he’s my son. All of you are mine.”
Iain rubbed his chest, that particular spot that never really stopped aching. “Have faith, Mom.”
On Sunday afternoon, Hilary sat in Jo’s condo and went through a list of rental possibilities while Jo commented. “I don’t know. That’s a convenient location, but the buildings are pretty shitty. Amandine’s assistant used to live in the neighborhood.”
“But it’s really cheap,” Hilary said. “And available immediately.”
“True.” Jo cradled her chin in her palm. “What’s the deal here, though? You seemed okay with living with your aunt. What’s this urgency with looking for a new place?”
“I can’t do it anymore. I just… I don’t think it’s good for me to be there. It’s so full of my past. It ties me to it.”
Hilary had already gone through and crossed out most of the listings since the disastrous Fourth of July. Mark thankfully hadn’t tried to call her. But then he probably saw no reason to fake an interest in her when she knew what was really going on. For all she knew he was now in bed with Bebe, doing the same things he’d done with her.
She took a deep breath. She needed to stop or she’d get sick and start crying again. Jo had been out until Saturday evening and missed most of the tears, thankfully.
So yes, Hilary had been stupid…again. She’d made herself believe…and hope. But no more. Mark didn’t deserve another bit of her mental energy. She had to harden her heart and move on if she wanted to survive this.
“You okay? You seem really odd ever since you went to that family party with Mark. Was anybody there nasty to you or something?” Jo asked.
“Nasty? No. It was more like…instructive. I was able to see how things are quite clearly.” She needed to cut all ties with her past if she wanted to move on. If she hadn’t been living with her aunt, would Bebe have been able to find her again so easily?
The only thing Hilary refused to do was leave the city. L.A. was her home, and she wasn’t going to flee her friends or her job. She was going to do whatever she could to hold onto those—sometimes, they were all that kept her sane. And she needed them now more than ever before to remind herself she was not like Bebe or her mom or aunt.
“How about this one?” Jo said, pointing at a complex about thirty minutes away from the OWM headquarters. “This isn’t too expensive, and it’s been newly renovated. And they seem okay with pets, in case you want to get one.”
Hilary snorted. “You think I’m going to be a cat lady?”
“Or a dog, but dogs are pretty high maintenance. You have to walk them and stuff.”
“Working for Gavin keeps me plenty busy. I don’t think I need to add more to my life.”
Jo frowned, then sighed, then opened her mouth, then closed it. Hilary scrawled
GP
for “good possibility” across the apartment listing and said, “What? Just say it.”
Jo sighed again. “Mark called me.”
Hilary tensed. “What did he want?”
“He wanted to know where you were, so…I said you were staying with me.”
“That’s all?”
“Yeah.”
“Wonder why he bothered. It can’t be to send me bribes.” Tim had always brought gifts to smooth things over when he’d screwed up. Her mother had forgiven him for the price of a cheap box of chocolates, but Hilary wouldn’t bend for something that ridiculous. Nothing would change her mind, not even the most ostentatious yacht in the world. She would never be with a guy who could jeopardize her financial security and independence.
“He sounded pretty bad. Come on. I can sense this weird vibe from you. And him too. It was so palpable I could feel it over the phone.”
Hilary closed her laptop. “Ceinlys threatened to get me fired.”
“What?” Josephine laughed her signature “what an idiot” laugh. “Gavin would never fire you. And he doesn’t even like her.”
“That’s not the point. She found out that I lied on my job application.”
That wiped out the mirth from Jo’s face. “You did?”
“Yeah. It asked if I had ever done any drugs, and I said no.”
“And this is a problem because…?”
“I was, uh, a little wild when I was younger. And there were a few times when I did some ecstasy with Bebe when we were out clubbing.”
“Well, yeah, okay. But you aren’t doing it now, are you?”
“Oh, hell no. I haven’t touched anything like that for years.” Hilary had lost the stomach for it after her mom died of overdose.
“See? He’s not going to get rid of you over something that happened like forever ago. I bet the statute of limitations has run out.”
“He wouldn’t want to, but he’d have to. You remember about seven months ago, he fired three people from the firm?”
Jo frowned slightly. “I think I heard something about that.”
“They lied on their application. So he fired them, even though they were really good at their jobs. He said the firm won’t tolerate people who can’t be honest.”
“Oh shit.”
“Ceinlys promised to locate them and have them sue for wrongful termination and discrimination if he didn’t fire me. He wouldn’t be able to win the lawsuit, and it would cost him lots of money and bad publicity. He’d
have
to let me go.”
“God. She’s such a bitch. But how did she find out? You didn’t get busted or anything, did you?”
“Of course not. If I had, it would’ve shown up during the background check. Bebe spilled the beans.”
Jo slapped the tabletop. “I knew she was trouble!”
“Well, yeah.” Hilary took a deep breath. Suddenly she couldn’t keep it inside anymore. “And that’s not all.”
“What else did she do?”
“You remember that whole thing with Walt’s fiancée?”
“The ‘News at 11’ incident? Kind of hard to forget.”
“Yeah, well, that wasn’t his fiancée. It was an actress Bebe hired. She promised to film it and put it on YouTube for exposure, and the actress went for it. She faked the whole thing.”
“Oh. My. God!”
“I know. And I was so furious and nasty to Walt.” Hilary buried her face in her hands. “I owe him an apology.” And the heirloom bracelet. She’d called him a few times, but he hadn’t answered. Either he was unavailable or just really pissed off at her. Probably both. It wouldn’t surprise her if he tried to sue her like she’d dared him to. She’d messed everything up.
“Do you want me to kill her? Because I will. For free!”
“Don’t. I should thank her in a way.”
“How?”
“She helped me see how stupid I was about Mark.”
“What did he do?”
“He knew.”
“What?”
“He knew everything about my mom, aunt, Tim and Bebe and Freddie. She went to his restaurant and told him everything. Apparently this happened in his private office, and knowing Bebe, I can only imagine what she offered him in addition to the story.”
“Eww,” Jo said, scrunching her face.
Hilary rubbed her temples. “When I confronted her, she said she’d proposed a threesome.” She sniffed and blinked away the tears. She’d shed plenty already. “What man wouldn’t want to do it with twins? It’s such a typical fantasy, you know? And Bebe and I are basically sisters. We have the same father and our mothers share the same DNA, so we’re pretty close to that little male fantasy. And we look alike. Why wouldn’t Mark be tempted?”
“Oh come on, Hilary. Surely Mark can’t be that bad.”
“I think he can be that bad. He ignored me for days until he and Bebe had a chat. After that it was all solicitousness and sweetness. I thought…” She started when a tear landed on her hand. Impatient, she wiped her cheeks. “I thought he was real. I thought he wasn’t like other guys.” She swallowed a sob. “I thought he was different.”
“Oh hon.” Jo pulled her into a big hug. “I’m so sorry.”
“I wanted him to be different,” Hilary sobbed, unable to hold it together in the face of her best friend’s understanding and sympathy. “I wanted it so bad I got stupid about it. I should’ve known better. I’m not a good judge of men.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Hilary. None of us can read people’s minds. If Mark screwed you over, it’s on him. He’s the bad guy, not you.” Jo pulled back and handed Hilary a tissue. “Life’s unfair and shitty from time to time, but look at the bright side. You have a job. And Ceinlys probably won’t follow through on her threat if you aren’t seeing Mark. Everyone knows all she wants is to marry him off to some snotty heiress she found. You and Mark just weren’t meant to be. But there’s some other guy out there, waiting for you. And hey, you always have me. I don’t care what happened when you were growing up. You’re always going to be my best friend, and I’ll always be there for you.”
Hilary sniffled and wiped her face. “Thanks. You’re the greatest friend anybody could ask for.”
“I know,” Jo said, making Hilary laugh. “Now let’s forget all about that jerk and have some ice cream. I got five flavors in the fridge.”
* * *
“What in the name of heaven
is
this smell?”
“Agh.” Mark squeezed his eyes shut as bright light flooded the room. He kept his head down so it wouldn’t fall off his neck and waved a hand feebly. “Hi, Mom,” he mumbled into the couch pillow.
“Good god.” He sensed his mother walking around the living room floor of his penthouse. “Did you drink all this?”
“Think so.” Iain had helped him with the whiskey over the last two—or was it three?—days, but Mark didn’t think his brother would appreciate being ratted out. A lot of things were sort of fuzzy right now.
He felt a warm, soft hand on his face and an instant later smelled his mother’s signature Chanel No. 5. “Do you need to go to the hospital?” she asked gently.
“No. I’ll be fine.”
“Someone who is fine does not keep his face buried in cushions or smell as rank as you.” Ceinlys sighed and helped him up. “Come on. Sit up.”
His head felt like it’d split in half, but worse than that was the way he felt inside. He wished he could throw up, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that Hilary had eviscerated him. Just cut him wide open and ripped out everything inside him and deemed him unworthy.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, cradling his head in the crook between her shoulder and chest. “Talk to me. I’m here for you.”
“It’s Hilary.” He felt his mother tense underneath him. “People just hated her for being with me.” He squinted up at his mother. She was still as beautiful as ever, but she looked so tired despite the smooth skin and artful makeup. He sort of wished he could go back to the simpler times, when he’d just been a child, unaware of life’s problems. There was a reason why people said ignorance was bliss.
“I don’t think Hilary is the kind of woman you want to be with for any long period of time. She’s not like us. Did she tell you about her boyfriend’s fiancée?”
“No.”
“She was a hired actress.”
His head was so stuffy, Ceinlys sounded like the teacher from old Charlie Brown cartoons he used to watch. Finally his brain registered her words, and he scowled. “What? Who hired her?”
“From what I gathered, Hilary’s cousin.”
His jaw slackened. “But why?”
“I don’t know, but that isn’t important. Hilary managed to use that to gain your sympathy, and you started going out with her so that she could save face.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “That’s not true. I’d been interested in her for a while. I just never had a good excuse to get, you know…personal. Besides, she didn’t know I was coming by, so she couldn’t have possibly staged it to get my attention.”