Stone Cold Fox (29)
“That’s not true at all. Bea is completely different from my exes. They’re not even on the same level, Gale. Bea is, just, everything that I’ve been looking for. Everything.”
“Oh, the hell she is, Coll!” Gale wailed. “I’m sorry, but I need to say this to you. Bea is just another opportunistic blonde with fake boobs who wants your money. She knows exactly who your family is and what that means. How can you not see that? She can’t be trusted.”
First of all, my breasts are incredibly symmetrical and pleasing to the eye, but they’re not surgically enhanced. In all honesty, they’re probably the only good thing I inherited from my mother. Technically two good things. Second, I was thrilled she said it. All about the money. It was only going to make Collin more loyal to me. He didn’t want to believe he was like the rest of them. I could relate to that, even though I thought he was ridiculous considering his privilege that he rarely recognized. He still thought he was better than most, just different, simply by virtue of loving someone like me, an outsider. Someone from the “fringe.” Benevolent Collin who could see beyond the bank account. Bravo, buddy. But of course he could. He could afford to. I didn’t have that luxury.
Look at us, a regular twenty-first-century Romeo and Juliet.
“I gotta be honest, Gale.” Collin took a deep breath. “I don’t think this has anything to do with Bea.” Was he going to go there? Was he going to say what had long gone unsaid? I could hardly breathe.
“What do you mean?” Gale asked Collin, knowing exactly what he meant.
I really thought he was going to tell her the truth. That he knew all about her feelings for him, for all of those years. And to finally reject the notion, reject her, to her face and put an end to it all. Part of me was disappointed. I wasn’t ready for the game with Gale to end. I thought it was just beginning, but she had brought this on herself. It should have been Collin anyway. He should have been the one to finish her.
“Never mind,” he whispered.
I wanted to watch him be ruthless with her, but that’s not the kind of man Collin was, for better or worse. Gale didn’t push him any further. She knew it wouldn’t end well for her. They shared a few more silent moments, Gale backing off, creating physical distance between them. “Good night, Collin,” Gale said, morose.
“Hey, Gale.” Collin’s tone was softer. Sweet. Supremely disappointing to me. It appeared my pleasurable little popcorn moment was over, goddamn it. Why couldn’t these two WASPs just go for it and deliver the drama we all craved as chaotic human beings? Ah, well. I had better get used to it. That was the life I was signing up for, and while painfully dull, I knew it would be worth it in the end. I could no longer see what was happening. I had to hide elsewhere with Gale on the move, but I listened closely. I imagined she turned around to look at him, hope in her eyes, wondering if he had changed his mind.
“Yes, Collin?” Gale said his name, almost breathless.
“I’m going to ask Bea to marry me this weekend. I thought you should hear it from me first.”
Ears all the way up! Well done, Collin Case, my future husband. Way to stick the landing with the surprisingly understated final stake to her heart. A slow burn that truly paid off. A kindness in Gale’s direction, laced with poison, at least from her point of view. How I yearned to see the astonishment on her face. I wanted to scream at the news with unbridled enthusiasm. Naturally, I bit my lip and stayed put, but on the inside I was soaring. Flying high, just hours away from an unprecedented victory. Sweet relief, utter joy and rarer still, some well-deserved peace in my heart. I did it.
I fucking did it!
Gale didn’t say anything in response to the information, leaving the scene to return to the guest room she shared with her employee. Hopefully whatever she paid “Luke Dunne” included intercourse of some kind because she’d be in dire need to shake off the embarrassment of the evening.
We didn’t see Gale or Luke for the rest of the weekend. Collin never told me what had gone on between the two of them that night. He said that Gale and her beau probably had other plans in town, but that we’d all see each other back in the city soon enough. Collin did indeed propose to me that Sunday night. We were out on the lawn at the romantic restaurant of the Castle Hill Inn. Fellow diners applauded, genuine smiles across their faces; it’s always fun to see someone get engaged. The best champagne was sent to the table and popped with delight. The bubbles were crisp and festive. And the sparkler in that red velvet Cartier box was so enormous, so positively gargantuan, that the white diamond solitaire covered the entire area of my ring finger below the knuckle.
Well, Mother, I must have done something right.
DEAN
SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA
MY BEDROOM AT Dean’s house feels like it was given to me by mistake. I perch every night in an ivory canopy bed, the room itself taking up the whole of the turret, accessible only by a single winding staircase from the end of the hallway, away from the rest of the house, away from her, with views of the whole city and the Golden Gate Bridge from the bay window, stacked with fluffy pillows atop a built-in bookshelf of young adult books. And The Runaway Bunny, but I tuck it away, spine facing in, not out. I want to throw it out the window, but I can’t. She told me she loved it so I keep it for her sake.