Beautiful People - Chapter 24: Chapter 24

"There must be some mistake," Vera said, adjusting the gold chain of her Prada purse around her wrist. "I was invited."
The bouncer stared at her, unimpressed. She regretted talking Jay into those cocktails at the hotel bar. Her skills of persuasion felt a little fuzzy. Straightening her back, she tried to look like she belonged among the crowd whose shimmering edges could be seen in bright glimpses through the windows of the restaurant, their laughter tumbling out between flung-open panes above the bouncy beat of music.
"You're not on the list," the bouncer said in exactly the same calm but unmovable tone as the first three times they'd said it. They folded thick tattooed arms across their broad chest. "Please step aside." Their sexy Italian accent did not make Vera's embarrassment any less acute.
Jay took Vera's elbow. "We'll just move over here and call the person who invited us and get this sorted out." He steered her through the line, collecting pitying stares as they went. "Excuse us."
"I was invited," Vera protested, but she let Jay lead her back to the side of the canal, out of the way of the cheery evening crowd strolling down the stone street. Moonlight shimmered on the dark water at the bottom of the steps.
"Who invited you?" Jay asked.
"I don't remember. Some Venician influencer."
He snorted. "Venician?"
"Venetian? I don't know! There was an invitation. I think it's their party. Or maybe they were just asking me to be their plus one."
"Did you tell them you were coming?"
Vera grimaced. "I don't remember."
"So you didn't."
"It's a party! Did you see how many people were in there? They have room for two more." Her heel caught between the stones underfoot; she would have face-planted into the street if Jay's steel grip hadn't kept her upright.
"Oh, sweetheart." Jay pushed her down onto a low stone seat outside a shuttered bakery. "Next time you should let me organize the celebration. Planning isn't your best skill."
"I am perfectly capable of planning things." Vera lifted her foot. The cobbles had thoroughly scuffed the skinny stiletto heels of her white sandals. She frowned and set her foot back down. She didn't want to think about that right now. Right now she wanted to find a party to celebrate that she had dressed Carmen fucking Juarez for the most important premiere of her career while arranging a matchmaking scheme that was going to save her own butt. Not that the plan was complete yet, or that any part of it had been flawless. But still. She knew it was going to work. She wanted to sip prosecco, make connections, and drink to her own success.
"The city is full of people here for the film festival. There are parties literally everywhere right now." She pulled out her phone. "Let me see what else I was invited to. Maybe someone I know will be in line and we can sneak in with them."
Jay wriggled his own phone out of the back pocket of his jeans. "I know people who are here in Venice. Some of them will be doing something fun."
They searched their messages, checked their feeds for evidence of ongoing parties, and texted people they knew. While they waited to hear back, Jay produced a bottle of wine from somewhere between his tasseled shirt and skin-tight white jeans.
"We can at least get our own party going while we wait," he said.
Vera looked around quickly, but no one gave Jay or his wine bottle a second glance. "Are we allowed to just drink that on the street?"
He laughed. "As long as we don't get drunk enough to try swimming in the canals, I'm pretty sure we're good."
"There is no danger of that. Let's find somewhere a little less busy, anyway. I feel weird doing this."
Around a corner and through a deep stone arch, they found a dim stretch of narrow street beside a canal where they could perch on the edge, their legs dangling several safe inches above the water. The bricks were still warm from a day in the September sun. From another impossible pocket, Jay produced a tiny corkscrew. He began to wrestle the bottle open, a difficult feat with a tool sized more for easy travel than effective use.
While he struggled, Vera checked out the coverage of Carmen's premiere. She flipped past commentary on the movie itself. The only thing that mattered was what people thought of her styling.
"It may not have been a Bhatia, but Carmen's look photographed like a dream," she said, admiring some watermarked red carpet photos. Carmen looked glorious, and gloriously happy, in every shot. In one picture, Carmen stood in the midst of Merry Sanders, her two co-stars, and the film's producers; they all faded into the background in the shadow of her dazzling brilliance.
"She really elevates anything she wears, doesn't she? I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much bratty behavior I can tolerate if I get to work with such a beautiful canvas." Jay wriggled the cork carefully, trying his best not to break it. "I appreciate that you've made people care about her again. It makes it so much more fun."
"Someone wrote, love it or hate it, this is one outfit that is going to get people talking. That's basically my mantra and someone wrote it in an article about our work!" Vera laughed giddily.
The cork finally popped free. Jay held the bottle out to her. "We make a good team."
"We do!" Vera put the bottle to her lips and took a big sip, then grimaced. "You had to get red?"
"Listen, this is my celebration, too. You don't have to drink it if you don't like it." Jay sniffed.
With a laugh, Vera passed the bottle back, too buoyed by success to worry much about the color of the wine.
On the other side of the canal, water lapped gently against the foundations of pale stone buildings. The windows above glowed, casting soft orange light over the rippling water. Laughter and voices drifted from the busier street through the arch behind them, but where they sat it was peaceful. Vera pulled in a long breath that tasted of brine and warm damp stone, then let it out slowly. She still had to survive the rest of the festival, but at least she had breakfast with Sharise to look forward to tomorrow. Her anxiety ebbed away with each breath she took. It would all work out.
"We do make a great team, don't we?" she mused, accepting the bottle again. "You have a great eye for color. When I start my fashion line, you should totally join me."
Jay raised both eyebrows and let his accent stretch out to mimic a proper southern dubutante as he said, "Is Miss Vera Kwan approaching me with a business proposal? I am so very flattered."
Chuckling, Vera shoved him gently in the arm. "Didn't you say people like us should stick together?"
"I have my moments of wisdom."
"You do, and I like working with you. It would be awesome to make something together. You know what would be fun? To do, like, bespoke clothing for people who can't wear straight sizes. Or maybe an affordable line."
"A plus size line?"
"Anyone outside standard sizes. Plus size, short people, guys with hips."
Jay's laughter rippled against the stones as smoothly as the water in the canal. "Those are all very different markets."
"I mean, we'd have to start smaller and grow, I guess." Vera shrugged one shoulder, wine hot in her throat. "If you think I'm so bad at planning, you could handle that part."
A smile dancing on his lips, Jay studied her. "You dream big. I like it. And I would totally be in. As long as I can still do my salon on the side."
His phone made a sound like a cat coughing. He thumbed the screen on.
"Party?" Vera asked hopefully, watching him read the text.
"No. It's nothing." He wedged his phone back into the pocket of his skin-tight jeans with some difficulty. A frown pulled his lips taut.
"That doesn't look like nothing."
"Lily wants to know where I am."
"Oh."
"Yeah." He tugged at the fine gold chain connecting his earlobe to a helix ring. "I feel a little bad after what happened with Carmen this afternoon, but she's a whole adult. She can find a way to amuse herself."
"Jay, you know I love you, so don't take this the wrong way. But I think you need to figure out what the hell you're doing with her."
"Vee, you know I'm working on it." Jay spread his hands, gold rings glinting in the dappled mix of moonlight and flickering streetlights. "This stuff is hard. I'd think you'd understand. Have you and Sharise even decided what you're doing? You're literally living with her but you act like you're still in the flirting stage."
Vera frowned. The warm night was peaceful and the wine tingled at the bottom of her belly. Jay's company was fun, but Sharise at her side was the one thing she was missing to make the evening complete. She had kind of hoped Sharise might invite her to the yacht party, as her date. She'd been trying not to think about it.
"I know exactly what I want with her," she said.
"To wife her up?"
That startled a chuckle out of her. "To be official. But she's not ready for that. And I get it. She's been hurt, and it's scary to take that step again. So I'm being patient."
"Patience is not one of your virtues."
"Shut up. I'm trying, okay?"
"Have you considered," he said, holding up one finger sagely, "that maybe that's your problem?"
Vera made a noise of confusion.
"Being patient isn't you. You're impulsive, and it works for you. Maybe that's what won Sharise over in the first place."
"What are you talking about?"
"I have eyes." He shrugged elegantly. "When you go all assertive and decisive, your girl turns to a puddle of goo. I'm not saying violate her boundaries, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to make it clear that you're in it for the long haul, you know?"
"I have made it clear."
"Have you, though?"
Staring down the moonlit canal, Vera ran a hand over her hair, which she was still wearing short and had even spiked up today, just for fun. Maybe Jay was right. Maybe with all her goofing around, her over-the-top lines and the silly pet name game, Sharise didn't realize that Vera was serious, that she would give up everything for her if she asked.
She looked at Jay again. "I'll do something about Sharise if you do something about Lily."
Jay opened his mouth, then closed it again. Finally, he said, "Fuck it. It's a deal."
They shook on it. She took a long sip of wine, then handed the bottle back to him. He tipped it up and chugged more than could possibly be healthy.
Soon Jay's phone coughed again. This time it was someone with a party invitation. They finished the last drops of wine, and he vanished the empty bottle back to wherever it had come from. Vera pushed to her feet, all the liquor rushing straight to her brain in a woozy wobble. He held out his elbow, and she gripped it for support.
"So tell me about this party we're going to," she said.
"You're gonna love it."
They passed back under the arch. This street was wider and patios lined the canal, music and chatter and delicious aromas wafting from each, string lights overhead lending a romantic ambiance. Vera tried not to picture herself and Sharise as one of those dining couples, knees pressed together under the tiny table, heads close in intimate talk like on their first date. When they were back in LA, she needed to make more time for dating.
"Oh, shit."
"What-"
Jay ducked into the entrance to one of the patios, dragging Vera with him. He huddled behind the narrow pole that supported the lights while Vera tried to find her balance. The host said something in startled Italian and gestured widely.
"I think he's saying they're full, Jay," Vera said, bewildered, as Jay peered back out into the street like he was being hunted. "What are you doing?"
"Yes, we're full," the host said, in English this time. "Try the next restaurant."
"Sorry, we'll be on our way now." Jay hauled Vera back out into the street just as a crowd of loud American tourists ambled by. He pulled her into their midst as though they were all together. A few steps later, he yanked her sideways, up onto an arching stone bridge with low walls.
"I can't walk this fast," she panted, heels clattering.
"Almost there."
They were only halfway across when someone behind them shouted, "Jaypal."
Vera stopped, out of breath and head swimming, but Jay tried to keep walking for a few more steps before he succumbed to the inevitable.
When Vera turned around, she immediately wished she'd kept running. Lily was hurrying up the bridge behind them. In her beige jumpsuit and too much highlighter, she looked like a ghost in the night.
"Why were you running from her? What about our deal?" Vera hissed.
"I didn't think I'd have to do it tonight!" Jay whispered furiously.
"Well, here's your chance."
Lily marched right up to them and put her hands on her hips. "Where have you been?" she demanded.
"Nice to see you, too," Jay tried. "We're going to a party."
"Oh, cool, a party." Lily must have been stewing about this all afternoon, because it took her about two seconds to go from zero to one hundred. "First you basically fucking fire me and then you run off to go to parties with Vera like nothing is wrong? I get it, you aren't willing to date me or whatever. But is it too much to ask you to treat me like I'm human?"
People on the restaurant patio were craning their necks to see what was the commotion.
"I didn't fire you yet," Jay started, holding up his hands palm-out.
"Yet?" Lily looked just about ready to explode. Vera could practically see the steam rising off her head. "You haven't fired me yet but you're thinking about it, huh? You are seriously the worst. You couldn't've had the decency to end it before you brought me all the way to goddamn Venice?"
"Calm down, babe. You're shouting." Jay took a step toward her.
It happened so fast. Lily dodged Jay's reaching hand. She tripped on an uneven stone and stumbled into Vera. Under the extra weight, Vera's left heel cracked, pitching her backwards. The backs of her calves hit the low stone wall. She toppled, arms flailing. Jay grabbed for her and missed.
A moment later Vera crashed into the dark water below with an enormous splash.