“Or Putin.”
“What’s the difference? They both love fur.”
She hugged him.
“Believe it or not, I love you, Leana,” Harold said.
CHAPTER EIGHT
From the bar, Diana Crane watched the couple alight from the elevator and move through the crowd. She watched Celina laugh, watched the man at her side smile and watched their arms intertwine as they joined George and Elizabeth at the waterfall.
The man was tall and built, his sandy hair cut short, his face rugged and handsome. A few people recognized him along the way, but he didn’t seem to notice. She recognized him from the Journal article-Jack Douglas. His attention was on Celina and for that, Diana couldn’t have been more pleased-or thankful.
She turned to Eric and knew, by the surprised look on his face, that he had been watching them too.
“How’d you like to get out of here?” she said. “We’ve made our appearance, shaken hands with all the right people. George won’t miss us.” She took a sip of champagne. “By the looks of things, neither will Celina.”
Eric said nothing.
“I have a car waiting outside for me,” Diana said.
“I’m going nowhere with you, Diana.”
“It’s just for coffee, Eric.”
“I doubt that,” Eric said. “Unless you were planning to serve the coffee in bed.”
Diana’s eyes were like a light suddenly turned to his face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I’m tired of you chasing me,” he said. “If you think my seeing Celina with another man is going to make me want to jump into bed with you, you’re wrong. I’m not interested in you. Never have been. Never will be. Now, why don’t you do yourself a favor and get lost? I’m staying here.”
Diana placed her half-empty glass of champagne on the bar. “They’re a good looking couple,” she said. “I hope it works out for them.” And then she was gone, stepping into the crowd, ignoring Leana, who had been standing beside them, listening.
“What was that all about?” Leana asked.
Eric shook his head. “You wouldn’t understand.” He tipped back his drink and studied Leana over the rim. She looked beautiful tonight. “What do you think of the party?” he asked.
She couldn’t have heard him right. “What do I think of the party?” she repeated. “Eric, what do you think I think of the party?” She leaned beside him against the bar. From where she stood, she had a clear view of Celina, who was standing with her back to the waterfall, listening to Elizabeth, her red dress among the room’s stars.
“I’m sorry,” Eric said.
“Forget it.” She motioned towards Jack Douglas. “Who’s he?”
“Damned if I know.”
“I just saw them leaving the family elevator together.”
“So did everyone else. Think they’re seeing each other?”
“No idea.”
“Now probably isn’t the best time for me to find out, is it?”
“If by that you mean going over there and asking Celina in front of Mom and Dad, then, no, I don’t think now is the best time to find out. But I would ask her. You have every right to know.”
“Why haven’t you two ever gotten along?”
Before she could respond, lights in the lobby dimmed, the room fell silent and her father’s voice rose above the crowd. Leana skimmed the sea of heads for him and found him standing in the center of the dance floor with Celina at his side.
“Tonight’s a special night for me,” George said to the crowd. “Owning a building on Fifth Avenue has been a dream of mine since I was a boy. But dreams come hard and this dream wouldn’t have happened without the support of my wife and the help of my daughter, Celina.”
He looked at Celina. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be standing here right now. “ He touched his glass of champagne to hers. “Here’s to many more years of our working together.”
The crowd burst into applause. Just as Celina was giving George a kiss, Leana looked away and asked a barman for a bottle of champagne. When the man handed her one, she grabbed Eric by the hand and led him into the crowd.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
Leana’s answer was as clear as the hurt in her voice. “To get our minds off her.”
They walked down the hallway in silence, Leana slightly ahead of Eric, Eric glancing into the rooms that were on either side of them. They were in George and Elizabeth’s penthouse and as they passed one of the sitting rooms, lightning flashed, illuminating for an instant the family’s cat, Isabel, who sat poised and alert on an orange damask sofa.
They stepped into the room that was at the end of the hall. Leana stopped in the doorway. She gazed across the library at her father’s desk, which was illumined by a green-shaded lamp. “I thought I turned that light off earlier,” she said.
Eric brushed past her and moved into the room. He dropped into a chair and closed his eyes. Would the room never stop spinning?
Leana remained in the doorway. “I know I turned that light off.”
“Obviously you didn’t, Leana. The light’s still on.”
“I don’t care if the light’s on. I was here earlier. Before I left with that man from security, I know I turned that light off.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“What do you think I’m saying? Somebody has been here.”
“Big deal? It could have been Celina and her new man.”
She hadn’t thought of that. “Maybe.”
“Would you please just open that bottle of champagne? I’m thirsty.”
She crossed to where he was sitting and turned on the lamp beside him. Eric winced and brought up a hand to shield his eyes. “I think you’d better pass on the champagne,” Leana said. “You look like hell.”
“I feel like heaven.”
“Wait till tomorrow.”
She went to the windows that were behind her. In the city’s deep glow, sleek black skyscrapers loomed dark against the sky. Eric settled further into his seat.
“You know something, Leana?” he said. “You really are beautiful.”
“You know something, Eric? You really are drunk.”
“You know what my favorite memory of you is?”
She looked at his reflection in the window. “No.”
“You were fifteen years old, I had known you for maybe five months and you told me that you and your best friend at the time-what was her name? Asia Something-were planning on attending Christmas Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the nude. Wearing long jackets, of course.”
She turned away from the windows. “Her name is Asia Ward,” she said, smiling. “And we’re still friends. But cut me some slack. That’s your favorite memory of me? If it is, I’m more fucked up than I thought I was.”
“It’s one of them,” Eric said. “I can still remember you and Asia sitting between George and Elizabeth, red- faced, trying not to laugh, giving me the eye when no one else was looking. I remember thinking that Celina would never do this, and it was then that I knew you and I would become friends.”
Leana popped the cork on the bottle of champagne and brought the bottle to her lips. As she drank, she became aware that Eric was looking at her intently. “I have a favorite memory of you,' she said.
