Blind Attraction (6 page)

“So, how was your date?” Taylor asked as soon as she walked into the store at just after one the next day. She looked impeccable in cream-colored linen pants and a matching silk sheath. A diamond tennis bracelet circled her left wrist, accentuating her graceful, golden arms. Her blond hair was flawlessly set in a smooth, chin-length bob and her perfect make-up made her glow.

Victoria
’s responsive smile answered the question; it was incredible. Even wearing blue jeans and a tank top and looking less put-together (a lot less put-together) than Taylor didn’t faze her, not after the previous night. And the heels she was wearing today were platform shoes with a little bit of a heel so her arches weren’t killing her and she still had the added height. “He took me to a little café just down the street….” 

“He took you to
Indulgence
?” Taylor interrupted, letting out an approving sigh and sounding impressed. Laughing, perhaps serious, perhaps not, she continued, “Maybe I should have shown up a little earlier yesterday – then I could have been the one he asked out.”

Victoria
smiled but it was a little fragile and she hated the little ripple of jealousy that Taylor’s words caused. Because she knew that if James could see, and Taylor was there, last night would have been spent with Ben and Jerry, and maybe Mr. Hershey. She didn’t want to dwell on those thoughts, though; they were too depressing. So she asked, “Ha… have you ever been there?”

“Guys take me there all of the time,” Taylor answered breezily, oblivious of
Victoria’s chaotic emotions.

“I’ve never even heard of it and it’s so close….”

“If you weren’t so busy working you would have known,” Taylor grinned. “I always order the Caramel Sex Blast; it’s like a gazillion calories of caramel and chocolate and heavy cream.” With a light laugh, Taylor added, “I can only eat like a bite before I’m stuffed and I end up bringing the rest home for Degas.”

“Ah, so that’s why your little dog is as wide as he is tall,”
Victoria teased, though her stomach tensed with mocking awareness. It was the inherent knowledge that it should have been Taylor last night instead of her; that was a very bitter pill to swallow.

“Are the two of you going out again?” Taylor
asked, a speculative gleam in her brown eyes. She leaned on the counter and watched Victoria with captivated fascination.

“We are,”
Victoria confirmed, feeling a little calmer as she realized that
she
was the one who experienced that
zing
; though that could have been some sort of electrical disturbance, or something. Yet, he was the one that said it seemed like he knew her forever, even if he looked horrified immediately after he said it. But, oh, that kiss…. “For our next date he asked me to go to a company party with him.”

“
Hm, interesting.” Taylor looked slightly disconcerted as she propped her chin up on her hand and studied Victoria. “Is it serious?”

“I don’t know,”
Victoria hedged even as the idea of it being more than casual thrilled her. But she didn’t want to get her hopes up too much, not yet, so she was going to keep it close to her heart for now. Taylor would be the first to know if it became serious.

“Well, did you kiss him?” Taylor grinned.

“We kissed,” Victoria said, unable to prevent the smile from forming at the memory of those kisses. The man could definitely kiss; and if he could see…. NO!! She wasn’t going to play the Devil’s Advocate game, not today. If he were to fall in love with her, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like. In theory, anyway. “He made me forget my name.”

“Wow,” Taylor murmured, her brown eyes staring at
Victoria too intently. “I’ve never been kissed until I forgot my name; there must be some chemistry going on.”

A little trill of pleasure tripped up
Victoria’s spine at the thought, but it was short lived; chemistry could be a fluke. Still, “We got along; he even promised to come up with something to top our first date.”

“Yet he invited you to a company party,” Taylor murmured
with a hint of disapproval. “Hmm, that doesn’t seem to be much of a step up.”

Victoria
smiled and shrugged, “It could be fun.”

“So, what’s his position in the company?” Taylor asked, letting the less-than-spectacular nature of the second date fade into the background.

Victoria frowned, not really sure. “We never actually got around to discussing what he does for a living,” she shrugged it off. “It doesn’t really matter.”

“Please,
Victoria,” Taylor implored. “You’re so sweet; you don’t want to get stuck with some third-tier executive just because you have some ‘chemistry.’ You have to hold out for a vice president at least.”

Victoria
laughed at her friend’s ridiculous statement. “It’s not like there are a whole helluva lot of executives knocking down my front door and lining up to date me, Tay. I’d be content with a poor philosopher if I loved him and he loved me.”

A delicate shudder ran through Taylor’s body at
Victoria’s announcement. “I doubt a poor philosopher would be able to get reservations at
Indulgence
. Your boyfriend was wearing a fairly expensive suit; however, he was running his own errands. It’s not a lot if information to go on; you have to find out before you become serious, Vi.”

“Because it’s just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor man?”
Victoria asked facetiously, rolling her eyes at Mrs. Danner’s favorite motto. She didn’t know how many times she heard that particular saying but in her case, it was awfully hard to fall in love with anyone, rich or poor. They always fell in love with Taylor and the thought of James being the same as any other guy was virtually a physical blow. She really liked him.

“Absolutely,” Taylor said with almost complete conviction.

“Then the hard part must come in making them fall in love with you,” Victoria grinned.

“Oh, that’s the easy part,” Taylor brushed off
Victoria’s comment as complete rubbish. Which, in Taylor’s case, it probably was. “Trying to get rid of them once they’ve become tedious is the hard part. And if you’ve slept with them? It’s nearly impossible.”

Taylor didn’t live in the actual world, she lived in Taylor-land where the same rules didn’t seem to apply to her; something that always fascinated
Victoria. Though Taylor wasn’t indiscriminate with bed partners by any means, she’d had several lovers and Victoria, being the best friend, always got the details, even when Taylor slept with Alex. The fact that it didn’t hurt nearly as much as it probably should have spoken volumes. In truth, Taylor saved her from making a huge mistake.

“That’s why I don’t sleep with them,”
Victoria said with a pretentious voice, tilting her nose in the air and lowering her eye lids. “They’re so very dreary when you no longer want them.”

“You’re horrible,” Taylor laughed, playfully slapping
Victoria’s arm. “Just watch; when your heart finally gets broken, whose shoulder will you be crying on?”

Victoria
gave a half-smirk, “Obviously yours. Though, I’m hoping it doesn’t happen.”

“Of course not,” Taylor agreed, lowering her chin in deference. “I’m just saying….”

“I know,” Victoria shook her head. As often as Taylor shared her troubles with her, Victoria never minded; she enjoyed listening to Taylor’s drama. She also never really reciprocated since she never really had relationship troubles; one had to be in a relationship for that to happen. Somehow, though, the thought of sharing intimate secrets regarding James seemed wrong. Was she a bad person because she didn’t want to dissect every aspect of her relationship with her best friend?

“Do you have time to go shopping this afternoon?”
Victoria asked after a few more minutes of teasing back and forth.

“I always have time to go shopping, Vi,” Taylor grinned. “What do you need?”

“I was hoping to find something to wear to this party,” Victoria was hesitant to enlist the aid of her friend. Even though Taylor had amazing style and impeccable taste, she also tended to have very expensive shopping habits. “I was hoping that we could hit the outlet mall and try to find something within my budget.”

“I hate going to those stores,” Taylor cringed at the mere idea. “How about if I go to one of the little boutiques and pick something out for you – my treat.”

“You’re far too generous, Tay, but I have to refuse,” Victoria half-smiled. “Now, if he were taking me to Milan for the weekend I might take you up on that offer.”

“He’s taking you to Milan?”
Taylor’s eyes widened in disbelief and excitement.

“No,”
Victoria said quickly, dashing Taylor’s hopes. “It was just a theoretical situation. No; we’re simply going to his company party.”

“Oh,” Taylor sighed, her shoulders sagging with disappointment. “That’s too bad; if he was taking you to Milan for a weekend trip, that would suggest that he is well-off financially and falling for him wouldn’t bring your social standing any lower.”

“I’m happy where I am, Tay,” Victoria smiled indulgently. “In fact, it would probably be better if he wasn’t wealthy; I don’t really have what it takes to be a trophy wife.”

“He’s too young to be getting himself one of those,” Taylor declared. “But you’d get to be the first wife and that’s the one that counts.”

“I’d prefer to be his only wife,” Victoria said, gritting her teeth. She and Taylor occasionally discussed their opposing views of marriage: Victoria believed it was about love and Taylor believed it was about influence and appearance and very rarely, if ever, about love, that love was found outside the bonds of marriage. But, then again, Taylor hadn’t had the best role models growing up where as Victoria’s parents were still happily married nearly thirty years later.

“Then you’re just
gonna have to kill him when he strays,” Taylor said in such a straight voice Victoria wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t joking. “You could hire a hit man; I think they advertise in one of those mercenary magazines.”

“Whoa, wait a minute, when did we start plotting his murder?”
Victoria asked with an amused grin. “I’ve had one date with him.”

The corners of Taylor’s mouth kicked upwards, “And if you play your cards right, you could be walking down the aisle before he gets his sight back.”

Victoria would be the first to admit that Taylor’s casual remark hurt. A lot. But she kept her smile in place and shrugged a shoulder, “Whatever.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Taylor rejoined. “You know you’re gorgeous; it would just be easier if the ring was on your finger before he could be
swayed by your looks.”

“You’re digging a deeper hole,
Tay,” Victoria grimly smiled, her confidence in this budding relationship wavering a bit. If only Taylor weren’t echoing her own thoughts!

“Vi, you have to admit that you lack a certain… polish,” Taylor tried again. “I mean, it’s nothing that money can’t fix; spend some time with the right people and they will be able to put you together perfectly; you’ll fit right into his world. That is, if he can truly afford to whisk you off to Milan for a weekend.”

“I think that I would be better off if he was just wearing a nice suit and then I wouldn’t have to worry about fitting into his world or losing him to a trophy wife when I’m thirty.”

“If you’re lucky,” Taylor scoffed. Taylor was a bit jaded since her father left her mother before she was born because of the not-so-secret secret scandal of Taylor’s mother’s affair with George Danner. Because Phoebe married George before Taylor was born, Taylor ended up with Danner for a last name, which was sometimes confusing because her older sister Vivienne remained a Moore. Taylor never got over it.
Definitely not the right role models.

Victoria
grew up with Taylor and the like and she still didn’t understand the workings within elite social circles. At times, it became almost incestuous – everyone sleeping with everyone else’s spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends. One almost needed a scorecard to keep track of all of the affairs. Maybe that was why she held on so tightly to her own virginity; in a world where she didn’t have much wealth, she had that. It wasn’t much, and once it was gone she wouldn’t be able to get it back, but it was something and it gave her a small sense of pride.

“Oh!” Taylor interrupted herself. “I forgot to tell you; Chandler is taking me out this weekend. We’re going to Park City for a few days of skiing.”

“You don’t ski,” Victoria frowned, wondering if perhaps Taylor had forgotten.

“Of course I don’t ski,” Taylor said, affronted that
Victoria should think otherwise. “It’s just that we’re going so I won’t be around to help out.”

Victoria
had to smile; again, Taylor lived in Taylor-land, a place Victoria enjoyed visiting. “If it’s any consolation, Marnie will be here; you know, just in case.”

“Whew, that’s good,” she sighed in relief. After a moment of silence, she shook her head, “I’ve
gotta tell you, Vi, I don’t know what to make of this guy. How do you know he isn’t looking for an easy lay?”