Loving Mr. July (18 page)

Holly tapped at the phone. After a few
minutes of swiping, she looked up at Cynthia. “Where did you find
these guys? You’ve got some hotties in here.”

Cynthia shrugged. “Patty’s an amazing
photographer. We’re lucky to have her.”

“That may be,” Holly replied, “but you got to
start with decent raw material.”

“If you want to see Kurt’s final shot, he’s
Mr. July.” Cynthia took a sip of her coffee. She grimaced. It was
cold.

“Oh, she is good.” Holly looked up and smiled
at them. “He looks uber sexy, but not so much like a porn star
after she finished with the cropping.

She handed the phone back to her aunt and
gazed at Cynthia. “I think you know more about that shot than
you’re letting on.”

“She’s in the studio for all these shots, you
know.” Marjorie put in.

Cynthia threw up her hands and laughed.
“Okay, I give up, uncle, whatever.”

“So you’ll tell us?” Marjorie sat forward in
her chair. “Because Kurt wouldn’t say a word.”

Cynthia sighed. “God, this is
embarrassing.”

“Just get over the fact that she’s his
mother.” Holly waved a hand at Marjorie.

“Yes, do.” Marjorie added. “Because I can’t
wait to hear it.”

“You saw the progression of shots.” She waved
a hand in the general direction of Marjorie’s purse. “We weren’t
getting what we wanted. Kurt was in a seriously bad mood.”

“He probably felt stupid,” Holly said.

“Oh he definitely did.” Cynthia nodded,
frowning a bit. “And the more Patty tried, the worse it got.
Finally she started cracking jokes. And we got better shots.”

“But they still weren’t sexy.” Holly rested
her head on one hand.

“Not even close.” Cynthia toyed with a ring
on her hand. “So I walked up to him, told him to imagine his
fantasy woman, and planted a kiss on him.”

She looked up at the two women, who stared at
her with rapt attention. “The problem was, afterwards, I wasn’t
sure who he was imagining I was.”

Holly exchanged a look with Marjorie, who
raised one brow. “Okay, spill it, Auntie.”

Marjorie put a hand to her chest and affected
a wide-eyed look.

“Don’t act all innocent,” Holly said, waving
a fork at her aunt. “You know something. Your eye is
twitching.”

Marjorie started laughing. “Okay, I admit it.
I talked to Patty.”

She turned and winked at Cynthia. “She told
me she was close to suggesting you two get a room. So I don’t think
my son was imagining anything.”

Cynthia couldn’t think of a thing to say at
that moment.

Holly gave Cynthia a sympathetic glance.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to her.”

Cynthia found her voice. “If you already
knew, why did you ask?”

Holly raised a brow at Marjorie.

“It’s not like I knew
everything
,”
Marjorie told them. “Patty just said you’d laid one on him and that
it got pretty hot.” She took a sip of coffee. “I wanted to hear
your side.”

Cynthia stared at them both for a moment, and
then started chuckling. She held up a hand, shook her head. “Okay,
this ranks as one of the weirdest brunches I’ve ever had in my
life. And I would be completely mortified, not just partly, if I
didn’t suspect somehow that you all are on my side.”

She looked to the other two for
confirmation.

Both women nodded.

“So my question is, why?”

Holly looked at her aunt. “You want to tell
her or should I?”

Marjorie, having just taken another bite of
profiterole, waved at Holly to continue.

“It’s like this,” Holly said, turning to face
Cynthia. “We all love Kurt, I mean who wouldn’t? But some of the
women he’s brought home in the last few years? Not so much.”

At this point Marjorie rolled her eyes. “How
about not at all?”

“I was being nice,” Holly said. “And it
seemed like he wasn’t happy. But he wasn’t doing anything about
it.”

“He let all those money-grubbers find him,”
Marjorie put in.

“They weren’t all money-grubbers,” Holly
chided her aunt.

“Maybe not, but a lot of them seemed
artificial.”

“So when Kurt started whistling, being all
cheerful, and leaving the office on time for once, Auntie and me
wanted to know why.”

“He was leaving the office to workout with
me,” Cynthia said. “Supposedly he wanted to get rid of the donut
around his stomach.”

“Uh huh.” Holly chuckled. “Cynthia, we’re
talking a man who hadn’t left work before 9 pm for the last two
years. I think it was more than wanting to get rid of his stomach.
I’ve never seen him so eager to leave the office.”

“Seemed more like he was trying to punish me
for the calendar.”

“That may have been his initial thought,”
Holly said, “but I don’t think he cared all that much.”

“I would never have guessed from the way he
acted around me.”

“He’s pretty good at hiding his true feelings
under all that charm,” Marjorie said. “He’s friendly to most
people, but his close friends, the people he trusts? Those you
could probably count on a hand or two.”

“So when Auntie told me she thought she knew
who the woman was, and that she approved. Well, I had to meet
you.”

“Hence this brunch?”

“Partly,” Marjorie admitted. “But I knew
Holly and you would hit it off. And now that I know why you and
Kurt haven’t been speaking, I’m happier than ever that I invited
Holly along.”

“Me too.” Cynthia smiled at both of them.
“And I hope that some day I’ll be lucky enough to call you
family.”

“Oh you will, my dear. You will.” Marjorie
gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Kurt looked around the room at all the
expectant faces. Rumors about the company going public had abounded
in the last few weeks. It was time to set the record straight.

“So first of all, I gathered all you managers
here to apologize. I know I’ve been a little rough on you all
lately.”

He heard muffled laughter.

“Okay, I’ve been a real ass,” he admitted. He
held up a hand to silence the now loud laughter. “But there’s a
reason.”

More than one reason, he admitted to himself.
But he wasn’t about to talk about his other reasons in front of
this group.

“We’ve finally got the financial numbers that
warrant taking the company public, an event I know many of you have
worked very hard to achieve.”

His managers started clapping.

Kurt held up his hand again. “Before you get
too excited, I need to let you know that the hard work is only just
beginning. Some of you have been through something like this
before. Some haven’t. And those of you that have realize that we
need scrupulous financial records.”

He flicked a switch to lower the projection
screen. While it came down, he clicked to the appropriate
presentation on his laptop.

“The executive staff selected our investment
banking partners, who have poured over our financials and concur
that we are ready to go public. We’ve had our lawyers help draft
the prospectus, and some of you have worked to scrub our outward
bound communications to make sure we aren’t doing or saying
anything that could be misconstrued.”

He smiled at Mario, his communications
director. The man had gone above and beyond the call of duty, and
he was going to get a raise very soon.

“In a few weeks, we’ll file our registration
statement with the SEC, and then in the coming weeks, we’ll tap a
number of you to accompany us,” Kurt said, motioning between Blake
and himself, “on our road show for prospective investors.”

Kurt shut down his presentation. “Any
questions?”

He looked around the room of mostly happy
faces. No one spoke.

“Well that has to be a first. Remind me to
always hold meetings right after lunch when you all are
comatose.”

After the laughter died down, he said, “Okay,
you’re free to go tell your groups. Remind them of their
responsibilities and direct any questions you aren’t completely
sure of the answer to either Blake or myself.”

As the managers began filing out, he turned
to Mario. “Can you stay for a minute?”

Mario nodded and sat back down.

Kurt waited for all of the other managers,
and his brother, to leave the room. “So I have a favor to ask of
you. A deeply personal favor.”

Mario looked a little surprised. “What’s
up?”

Kurt took a breath. “You’re going to laugh at
what I’m going to ask of you. And believe me, if I could figure out
another way to do this, I would, but it’s my best plan at the
moment.”

“Okay, now I’m really curious.” Mario sat
forward in his chair.

“And I’m also asking you because I know I can
count on your discretion.”

“Thank you.”

“At the same time, I’m warning you that if
you laugh too hard, I may have to punch you.”

Mario sat back, his eyes wide. “Okay, now I
know it involves a woman.”

Kurt smiled. “See? You know me well.”

“I should think so. How many years were we
roommates before I found my wife?”

“Too many.” Kurt gave him a playful jab on
the arm. “And this favor includes borrowing your wife.”

“Excuse me?” Mario stared at him. “You know
I’d do almost anything for you, Dude, but hey, my wife’s off
limits.”

“I don’t mean borrow as in sleep with her or
something, you dumbass.”

“I don’t think calling someone a dumbass is
PC.”

Kurt gave him an exasperated glare. “I meant
I need her help too.”

Mario chuckled. “Oh man, you are in bad
shape. I never thought I’d see the day when you’d be all twisted up
over some woman. It’s kind of humorous.”

“I said you couldn’t laugh.”

“Okay, okay.” Mario held up a hand. “What’s
her name? When’s the big day?”

“Never at the rate I’m going.” Kurt raked a
hand through his hair. He quickly explained the situation with
Cynthia. “I need to prove to her that she’s the one.”

“You sure about this, Dude? I mean, she sort
of sounds like a piece of work.”

“But she’s not. When you meet her, you’ll
understand.”

“Okay.” Mario didn’t sound convinced. “So
what do you need me and Stella to do?”

“You guys free on the 18th?”

“Need to check with Stella for sure, but I
would think so. We don’t get out much these days.”

Kurt thought about Mario’s three rowdy little
boys. “I guess you need a sitter too, right?”

Mario shook his head. “Nah, Stella’s mother
is over every chance she can get. I’ll check with her, but I’m
pretty sure it’s fine.”

“Great. Because I need you to attend the
Bocher Foundation auction,” Kurt said, rubbing his hands together.
“And here’s what I need Stella to do.”

Cynthia surveyed the ballroom with no small
degree of satisfaction. True, the room hadn’t come together solely
through her efforts, but her hand was in just about every detail.
What had been a boring hotel ballroom now looked like the inside of
a Roman ruin.

Hiring those local high school art students
to paint the trompe l'oeil backgrounds with night scenes amidst
broken columns and arches had been pure genius on Sharon’s part,
Cynthia thought, as she moved one of the large flower displays a
couple of inches to the right to better cover a seam in the painted
fabric. And the place settings put together by the high school
culinary arts students would have done Martha Stewart proud.
Marjorie took the credit for that idea, while Cynthia mentally
patted herself on the back for keeping the costs down to an all
time low. Mrs. Bocher would be pleased by how much profit they
would make off the event this year, Cynthia was sure of it.

Flicking on the projector, she checked the
background photographs. For the first few, Patty had created some
mood pieces to go along with the Roman theme, using her talent with
photography and Photoshop. The dark, night-themed artwork would
serve as a backdrop during the dinner, making the stage appear less
prominent. For the speeches portion of the dinner, Patty’s slides
included a photograph of each speaker to the right of the podium,
while behind the podium, simple patterned color would complement
the clothing and coloring of each person.

For the auction, Patty had created a short
slideshow for each gentleman. It started with a simple headshot,
which would display while the man’s business accomplishments would
be detailed. Then it progressed to photographs of their fantasy
weekend locales. And the final end cap to the presentation was the
calendar shot chosen for each man. Patty had taken advantage of the
enormous screen available in the ballroom to display much larger
than life images. The effect was rather startling, because Patty’s
skill at taking the photographs made it look, from almost every
corner of the room, as if the men stared directly into your eyes.
Cynthia was sure the effect would be increased bidding amongst the
wealthier single women.

She waited while the band performed a sound
check. Holly had found the band through her many connections. When
they began rehearsing their first number, Cynthia smiled again.
They were good. Better than good. Yes, the event was going to
surpass all of the previous years, Cynthia could just tell. With a
final tweak of a few place cards, Cynthia finished her survey of
the room and headed for the exit.

Now her personal preparations needed
attention, for she aimed to look the best she ever had in her life
tonight.

~ ~ ~

The keynote speaker droned on and on. Cynthia
made a mental note to suggest ditching the whole idea next year.
Most people that came to the auction knew what the foundation did.
And if they didn’t, this bore wasn’t doing the foundation any
favors.

She tuned him out, while she wondered who had
switched the place cards on their table. For now Kurt sat next to
Marjorie, who was across the circular table. Holly had plopped
herself in the chair to Cynthia’s right, where Kurt’s place card
had been this morning. And a grey-haired gentleman whom Marjorie
had introduced as her date was on Cynthia’s left. As she gazed
around the table, making sure not to catch anyone’s eye, she
realized that all of the couples had been split up. Holly’s fiancé
was next to Sharon, and Blake was next to Marjorie. And Marjorie
had been avoiding her all evening. What the heck was going on?