Magic (11 page)

Xavier and Chantal spent that week in Paris together, catching up on work, projects, and each other. Chantal was doing research for her script so she could finish it, and Xavier had to see clients at the law firm. On Thursday night, they packed their bags, and on Friday, they left. They flew to San Francisco and spent two days in Yosemite National Park, taking long walks and looking at waterfalls, and then they drove back to San Francisco, picked up the Coast Road, and headed south, and stopped in several places along the way, a night in Big Sur at the Post Ranch, another in Santa Barbara at the Biltmore. They drove through Malibu, and watched a sunset and then arrived in L.A. Chantal had booked a bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel in all its 1950s Hollywood glamour. Their bungalow had its own pool, and Xavier dove into it with delight while she called her son. He was shooting on location that day for one of his movies, in the Valley, and he said that he and Rachel would meet her at the Polo Lounge at her hotel for dinner at nine o'clock. It was where all the Hollywood types, actors and producers and studio heads, met to make deals and be seen.

She reminded Paul that she had a friend with her, and he sounded startled.

“I forgot. Who is it again?” He never paid close attention to what his mother said.

“A friend from Paris. We've had fun driving down from the north.” Chantal bringing a friend seemed odd to him, and for some reason, he assumed it was a woman, and he never asked. And she knew he'd be surprised at dinner.

She and Xavier lounged at their pool for a while, and then walked around Beverly Hills. Xavier loved it, and Chantal was enjoying it with him.

“I've always wanted to live here,” he confessed to her. “It's so decadent, and innocent at the same time, like Disneyland for grown-ups with a twist.” She liked it there too, although she always thought that living there full time would be too much. But her son never tired of it. After thirteen years, he loved L.A. more than ever. And Rachel was from L.A. She had grown up in the Valley, moved to Beverly Hills as a teenager, and gone to Beverly Hills High, and then to UCLA. She was the classic Valley Girl. It always surprised Chantal that her son didn't want someone more sophisticated, but they had been together for seven years, since she was twenty-one and he was twenty-four. And they had lived together for all that time. Rachel wasn't the girl she would have chosen for him, but she had long since given up hoping that he would find a better one. Rachel suited him and the new person he had become when he moved to L.A. He was like a Valley Boy himself, and no one would have guessed that he had grown up in Paris and was French.

Xavier and Chantal got to the Polo Lounge before Paul and Rachel and were shown to a table in the garden. She had added high heels and a sparkly top to her jeans, which was the perfect costume for L.A. Charlotte would have fainted if she had worn it in Hong Kong. Chantal still had a lithe, trim figure and looked great in a bikini, and she looked sexy in her well-cut jeans. Xavier was wearing white jeans and a white shirt, loafers, and no socks, which was de rigueur here and looked great on him. And no matter what he wore, he always looked French to Chantal.

And then the young couple arrived, and Chantal almost laughed at the surprise in her son's eyes when he saw Xavier. She introduced them, and Rachel said “Bonjour” in painful French, and Chantal hugged her. By now, they were old friends. And Chantal and her son exchanged a warm hug, as she looked him over and was pleased. He looked happy, healthy, and fit, and his hair was longer than it had been six months before.

Conversation was awkward at first with the addition of Xavier, while Paul tried to figure out who he was.

“So, you two are working on a film together?” he asked, thinking he looked like a director or a cameraman, and Chantal laughed.

“No, Xavier is a lawyer, specializing in international copyrights. We met at a dinner in June.” It had only been two months, and one could sense the intimacy between them in a relatively short time.

“You're friends?” Paul asked, groping for a reason for their being together, and Xavier stepped in.

“Yes, we are. Your mother was referring to the White Dinner. Have you been to it?” he asked them, and both young people shook their heads. It struck Chantal that Xavier was only seven years older than her son, but was so much more mature. He was a grown-up, and Paul seemed like a kid. It was the high-top Converse he wore, the long hair, the T-shirt he had worn to dinner with a famous band name on it. And he still had a baby face. And Rachel could have passed for sixteen at twenty-eight, in a little baby-doll top that left her midriff exposed, and sparkly Mary Janes, with long Alice in Wonderland blond hair. She looked like a little girl.

Xavier described the White Dinner to them then, and they were fascinated.

“They ought to do it here,” Rachel said. And Chantal told them about the Chinese lanterns Xavier had provided, which was how they met.

“I think they've tried to copy it in other cities, but they modify it and it's not the same,” Chantal explained.

“I didn't know you went to stuff like that, Mom.” Paul looked surprised. And after they ordered, she told him that his sister was engaged and was getting married in May. Neither Rachel nor Paul looked old enough to drink and were carded when they ordered wine. Paul looked younger than all her children, even his baby brother.

“May?” he asked pointedly about Charlotte's wedding, and Chantal nodded as Paul glanced at Rachel and they exchanged a smile. She wondered if they were getting engaged too, after all these years, but the secret didn't come out till dessert.

“We're having a baby, Mom,” Paul said proudly, beaming at Rachel. “In March.” He said that Rachel was two months pregnant and they had just found out. Rachel explained that they had already decided to have a water birth at home with a midwife, which made Chantal nervous just hearing about it. Childbirth was not always as easy and trouble free as people hoped. She had had her share of scares herself.

“You might want to rethink that, in case some problem comes up. Rachel and the baby will be safer in a hospital, even with a midwife and a natural birth. You were born with the cord wrapped around your neck six times. Those things happen, and that can be a tragedy at home. But congratulations to you both.” It took her a minute to absorb the full impact of the news and all that they had just shared with her. And it shocked her to realize that she was going to be a grandmother, which she found embarrassing vis-à-vis Xavier. But the word was out now. She tried to look happy for them, but she was more than a little stunned. “Are you planning to get married?” she asked as an afterthought, trying not to sound judgmental, and realized that Rachel had taken only a sip of her wine to be polite. Chantal was wishing she could drink the whole bottle at the prospect of being a grandmother in seven months. Xavier had seen the look on her face when she heard the news and had to make an effort not to laugh, and keep a straight face when he congratulated the young couple.

“We don't need to get married, Mom,” Paul answered her question, and Rachel nodded. “That's so old school. No one gets married anymore.” Except his sister, who was as old school as it got, with an equally uptight groom. “It's just not necessary, it's all window dressing,” he said dismissively.

“Do you think you'll go to Charlotte's wedding? I think she wants you to walk her down the aisle,” Chantal said in response to his comments.

“Sure, the baby will be two months old by then. We can travel with him to Hong Kong, that'll be fun.” Chantal was not convinced it was the word she would have chosen for traveling that far with a two-month-old, and she wasn't at all certain how Charlotte would react to their having a child without being married, with her very conservative in-laws present. Chantal started getting nervous thinking about it, and asked Rachel how she was feeling. She said she felt great and had had no problems. She was still going to Pilates and spinning class and intended to keep it up throughout the pregnancy, and take Lamaze classes once she was further along. It made Chantal feel ancient as she listened to her and all the do's and don'ts they were mindful of, and they were going to talk to the baby in her womb and play their special music for it, and they were going to see it in a 3D Technicolor sonogram in two months and would know what sex it was. Chantal's head was spinning by the time she and Xavier got back to the bungalow, and he burst out laughing the moment they closed the door. Chantal looked like she was in shock.

“Oh, my God,” she said as she collapsed into a chair. “How did I end up with such crazy children? I'm feeling schizophrenic. Charlotte is marrying a man who looks like the headmaster of an English school in a movie, and they think everything has to be ultraconservative. Paul is having a baby out of wedlock, with a water birth at home. Am I crazy or are they? And if you stick around, you'll be sleeping with a grandmother in March, for God's sake.”

“I think I'll survive it,” he said, smiling at her. “You just brought up very individual freethinkers, and each one wants to be who they are.”

“Maybe I taught them to be a little too independent.” She looked dazed.

“Do you really care if they're married or not?” He was curious about that.

“Not really,” she said thoughtfully. “I've never liked Rachel enough to want him to marry her, and now she's going to be the mother of my first grandchild, if they don't drown it at the water birth. How ridiculous is that? I smoked, and drank a moderate amount of wine, and did whatever I wanted when I was pregnant, and they survived it. Things are different now, but they sound so crazy with all their modern ideas, and playing their favorite music, hopefully not rap, for a baby in the womb.” Xavier laughed at the whole idea, but it had kept them from asking too many questions about him. Until the next morning, when Paul called her to make plans for dinner that night.

“So what's with Xavier, Mom? Is he your boyfriend or just a friend?” She hesitated for an instant and decided to be honest with him. Why not?

“A bit of both. We've been having a good time,” she said casually.

“Isn't he about my age?” Paul asked, sounding shocked.

“No, he's older. He's thirty-eight.”

“You could be his mother,” he said disapprovingly, which seemed strange coming from him. From Charlotte maybe, but not Paul.

“True, but I'm not. He doesn't seem to care.”

“What's he after?” her son asked suspiciously, and fortunately Xavier was in the pool when he called, so he didn't hear the conversation from her end.

“Nothing, as it happens. We're just enjoying each other. I'm surprised you're upset about it. You and Rachel are having a baby out of wedlock, which is fairly untraditional, so I can't imagine who I'm dating is a big concern. And if he's younger, so what? As long as he doesn't mind, why should you?” She hit him with it right between the eyes. Turnabout was fair play.

“I'm not upset, I'm just surprised, that's all.” He was a little huffy as he said it. “Are you planning to marry him?”

“Of course not. I'm not pregnant.”

“Oh, my God.” Paul was horrified. “Could you be?…I mean could you still…” The possibility of that sent him into orbit.

“That's none of your business,” Chantal said bluntly. “But if so, at my age I'm smart enough not to do that.”

“Are you upset about the baby?” He suddenly seemed worried, and she sighed. They were such children leading grown-up lives.

“Babies are serious business, Paul. They last forever, and they don't stay babies. Having kids is a messy business. It can get complicated. It's a big commitment. Do you feel ready for that?” She wanted to be honest with him and share her thoughts.

“Of course I do,” he said without hesitating.

“Young people these days don't want the commitment of marriage, but they leap into the commitment of kids without marriage. Marriage is a lot easier—you can get out of it if you make a mistake. Kids are forever. The commitment doesn't get any bigger. And you'll be tied to Rachel for the rest of your life. Every decision you make for that child will have to be made with her consultation and consent, so you'd better be sure you like each other, or your life will be hell later, fighting with her about it.”

“We agree on everything for our child,” he said, trying to sound adult to his mother, but she wasn't convinced.

“You won't always agree, and you don't have to, but you'll have to come to reasonable compromises for the benefit of the child.”

“I know that. And you're not planning to marry Xavier?”

“No, I'm not.”

“Why didn't you tell me about him?”

“There's not much to tell. We're going out, we're having a good time, for as long as it lasts. If it gets serious, I'll let you know.” He still sounded shocked, he had never thought about her in that context. “You guys are all adults now. You're having a baby, Charlotte's getting married. There's no reason why I can't have a life of my own too.”

“Why do you need to be with a guy? Why do you need that?” It made no sense to him.

“Why do you need Rachel?”

“That's not the same, Mother. Of course I need Rachel.” He was incensed at the question.

“That's right. And Charlotte needs Rupert, and Eric has Annaliese. Why do I have to be alone just because I'm your mother? I don't comment on your choices, to get married or not married, have a baby, or who you're with. Why don't the same rules apply to me?” The question was stunningly reasonable, and an eye-opener for him.

“Because you're our mother,” he responded immediately.

“Maybe you need to think about that, and what that job entails for people your age. I'm always there for you, I love you, I'll always be here to help you. But why do I have to be alone while you lead your own lives in other countries and cities? What am I supposed to do?” He had never thought of it that way and the concept shocked him. Enough that he called his sister a few hours later and told her about Xavier. Charlotte called her mother immediately.