Who Wants to Marry A Billionaire?(27)
The door opened, and Nina looked up, hoping to see Kennedy, but it was a woman about her own age with legs reaching from Boston to New Jersey. She was wearing a very tight, very short, red, bandage dress with a plunging neckline and a completely open back. That— Nina couldn’t help but think—is a gussied up tart. Still she tried to remember that this was her party and she should be a gracious guest of honor. She smiled at the woman, who started to pass her by without acknowledgement. The woman stopped, gave her the once over, and laughed haughtily with a hand on her hip, “Wow, it is you.”
Nina extended her hand, “Hi, I’m Nina.”
The woman ignored Nina’s hand. “How could Daniel ever be attracted to someone so…plump?” she mused to herself.
Nina was getting steamed. At least she didn’t look like a slutty broomstick, she thought to herself.
The woman went to the mirror and retrieved a lipstick from her handbag. She applied it carefully, then smacked her lips and looked at Nina sympathetically, “You know, of course, that he’s terrible in bed.”
“And with whom might I have the pleasure of discussing my fiancé’s sexual prowess?” Nina said sweetly.
The woman capped the lipstick crisply, “Paulina Pruitt, heir to the Pruitt Paints fortune, but you’re welcome to my sloppy seconds. He has money, sure, but…I have my own.”
Nina remembered what Elsa had told her about jealous women being catty and cruel. No doubt Paulina was someone Daniel had rejected. Batting her eyelashes, Nina said in her kindest voice, “You know, the latest scientific studies show that being a bitch takes years off your life.”
Paulina sniffed. “What are you doing hiding in here anyway? Catch Daniel bringing in some donkeys or lining up the clowns?”
“Oh there are some asses around, alright.” Nina was beginning to understand how it was possible to sock someone in the eye. “And the clowns seem to favor Hervé two sizes too small this season.” Kennedy would be so proud of her for recognizing the designer, Nina thought.
Stuffing her lipstick back into her purse, Paulina leaned over and whispered in Nina’s ear, “Just remember, he’s terrible in bed.” Nina involuntarily stiffened and Paulina cackled, “Oh my god, you really haven’t slept with him yet, have you? Saving yourself for marriage are you? Well, that’s going to be a disappointment.” Paulina sashayed out, just a moment before Kennedy, Rita and Boris came steamrolling through the door.
“How bad is it?” Kennedy was already threading a needle she’d taken from her micro-emergency seamstress kit in her purse. Nina cleared her throat, “Boris…if you don’t mind…”
“Sorry boss lady.” He turned to face toward the door but didn’t leave.
Nina stood up and turned around. Rita gasped. Kennedy tried to maintain her professionalism. “Okay, it’s not that bad. I can fix it. I can fix it.” It seemed to Nina like Kennedy was trying to convince herself. “But Nina, I need you to take the dress off.”
“Take it off? What am I supposed to put on?”
Wordlessly, Boris once again took off his jacket, dangling it behind him on a finger without turning around. Rita grabbed it, and Kennedy helped Nina shimmy out of the dress. Rita held Boris’s jacket for Nina as she slid her arms in, noting in a less than helpful manner, “Wow, you look like you’re ready for some kind of sexy lingerie photo shoot.”
Nina tugged at a garter. How had she ever let Kennedy talk her in to wearing something besides panty hose? All the fancy underwear was supposed to make her feel more confident, but somehow standing in a public restroom dressed in nothing but La Perla and a giant man’s suit coat was not making her feel confident about anything.
Kennedy wandered toward the door leading out of the lounge part of the restroom and into the interior room where the toilets and sinks were located. “I’ve got to go to where the light is better. Rita, come help me so I don’t get her dress completely wrinkled.”
Nina put an elbow on her crossed knee, and rested her chin in her hand. Everyone was going to start to wonder where she was...then just as she was getting ready to ask Boris to go tell Dominique what had happened, the door to the bathroom started opening again. Not sure what to do, Boris first started to block the door, then thought perhaps it was better to shield Nina, then slipped on a wet spot in the middle of the marble floor, his huge frame falling backwards.
And that was how Dominique and Elsa came to find Nina wearing nothing but lingerie and a man’s jacket, sprawled across a fainting couch, with Boris in her lap.
Dominique’s eyes fluttered rapidly as she started to hyperventilate. And for the first time ever, Elsa was absolutely speechless.
Finally Dominique found her voice, “Please tell me that my son’s fiancé is not involved in some tawdry affair with his bodyguard.”
Boris scrambled to his feet, “No, no, this is not what it looks like.”
Elsa put a hand to her chin as she surveyed the scene. “What it looks like is that once again Daniel has managed to collect a lively group of asses and clowns.”
Nina felt defensive of Daniel, and momentarily forgot how she would look trying to dress down someone while wearing nothing but her Jean Paul Gautier designed, deep plunge, silk ribbon soustache hand sewn over transparent tulle, nude bra and matching panties—with garters. “Don’t you dare criticize Daniel! This was all your idea Elsa!”