Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno #1)(33)

From time to time over the years, Julia had indulged herself in thinking about the old orchard behind the Clarks’ house, in reliving her first kiss with Gabriel and some of what came afterward, but mostly she did so in her dreams. She rarely, if ever, thought of the morning after and its tears and hysterics. It was far too painful a memory. It was a memory of betrayal she revisited only in her nightmares…and unfortunately for her, that was all too often. It was the reason she had never sought him out.

Just then, her cell phone rang, interrupting her homework.

“Hey, Julia. Do you have plans tonight?” It was Rachel. Julia could hear Gabriel talking gruffly in the background.

Immediately she hit the mute  button on her computer so that he wouldn’t hear Mozart over the telephone. She waited with bated breath to see if he had heard…

“Julia? Are you still there?”

“Yes, I’m here.”

From the sounds of Gabriel’s muttering, Julia couldn’t tell if he was angry or simply complaining. Not that either behavior would have surprised her.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Yes, fine. Um, no plans. No plans tonight.” Julia bit her lip as a wave of relief washed over her. He hadn’t heard the cd. Or so it seemed.

“Good. I want to go to a club.”

“Oh, come on. You know I hate those places. I can’t dance, and it’s always too loud.”

Rachel laughed heartily. “Funny you should say that. Gabriel said almost the same thing. Minus the dancing part. He thinks he can dance — he just refuses.”

Julia sat up very straight on her bed. “Gabriel would come with us?”

“I have to fly home in two days. He’s taking me somewhere nice for dinner, then I want to go to a club. He isn’t happy about it, but he didn’t say no. I thought it would be fun if you joined us after dinner. So how about it?”

Julia shut her eyes. “I’d love to, Rachel. But I don’t have anything to wear. Sorry.”

Rachel giggled. “Wear a little black dress. Something simple. I’m sure you own something that would work.”

At that instant, the doorbell rang, interrupting the call.

“Hang on, Rachel, someone is at my door.” Julia walked out into the hall, noticing a deliveryman standing outside the front door to the building.

She opened the door. “Yes?”

“Delivery for Julia Mitchell. You her?”

She nodded and signed for what turned out to be a very large rect-angular parcel.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, sticking the parcel under her arm and shifting her cell phone to her ear. “Rachel, you still there?”

Rachel sounded as if she was laughing. “Yes. What was that?”

“Some kind of delivery. For me.”

“Well, what is it?”

“I don’t know. It’s a big box.”

“Open it.”

Julia locked her apartment door behind her and put the box on her bed. She propped her phone between her ear and her shoulder so that she could still talk while she opened the package.

“The box has a label on it — Holt Renfrew. I don’t why someone would send me a present…Rachel, you didn’t!”

Julia could hear peals of laughter over the phone.

She opened the box and found a beautiful violet-colored, single-shouldered cocktail dress with crisscross panels. Julia didn’t recognize the name on the label, Badgley Mischka, but it was probably one of the most feminine dresses she’d ever seen.

Nestled in a shoebox next to the dress she discovered a pair of black patent leather Christian Louboutins. She looked incredulously at the red soles and the very high heels. The shoes had a pretty velvet bow on each toe, and Julia knew that they were probably worth about a month’s rent, at least. Tucked into the corner of the box, almost as an afterthought, was a small beaded handbag.

Julia felt momentarily like Cinderella.

“Do you like everything? The sales clerk put it all together. I just asked to look at purple dresses.” Julia could hear Rachel’s hesitance over the phone.

“It’s beautiful, Rachel. All of it. Wait a minute, how did you know what sizes to buy?”

“I didn’t. You looked as if you were the same size as you were in college, but I had to guess. So you’ll have to try the dress on and see if it fits.”

“But it’s too much. The shoes alone…I just can’t…”

“Julia, please. I’m so glad we’re friends again. Apart from running into you and being able to get close to Gabriel, nothing good has happened to me since my mom got sick. Please, don’t take this away from me too.”

Rachel really knows how to lay on a guilt trip.

Julia inhaled slowly. “I don’t know…”

“It’s not my money. It’s family money. Since Mom died…” Rachel trailed off, hoping that her friend would derive her own (erroneous) conclusion.

And that’s exactly what Julia did. “Your mom would have wanted you to spend her money on yourself.”

“She wanted everyone she loved to be happy, and that included you.

And she didn’t have much of a chance to spoil you after…after what happened. I’m sure she knows we’re talking again and she’s smiling down on us. Make her happy for me, Julia.”