She Sins at Midnight (26 page)

Cyn stammered, “No, no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh at you.”

“Which time?” he inquired.

Cyn explained, “Either time. It’s just that when I looked at you, I thought your name must be Barrington or something equally pretentious and the thought made me laugh. And then when you said your name was Barry, I couldn’t help but think I was right and I laughed again.”

Insulted, Barry retorted, “Well I’m so glad that you explained.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you.”

Barry asked, “So you’re not a horrific snob?”

Stunned by the irony, Cyn exclaimed, “God no! I’m not a snob, I’m from white trash.”

Barry asked, “Reverse snob then?”

Cyn really felt bad and encouraged, “Please, let’s start over. My name is Cynthia Flynn and it’s very nice to meet you, Barry.”

Barry seemed to believe her sincerity and agreed, “It’s very nice to meet you too, Cynthia.” Then added, “And FYI, it’s not Barrington.”

Cyn asked, “Then what is it?”

“Bartholomew Stratton.”

Playfully, Cyn inquired, “The third or fourth?”

Barry seared her with a cool look and answered, “The fifth if you must know. Look, are you sure you don’t want me to move?”

Before Cyn could dig her way out of another social blunder she saw someone who may or may not have been Lila. On the off chance that it was her friend she had to hide. She was at a total loss as to what to do. Before she realized what was happening, Cyn got off her chair and launched herself at Barry’s lap. The brunette was still coming toward her so Cyn made the bold decision to hide her face by attaching it to Barry’s.

At first she kept her lips firmly closed as she had no real interest in kissing this country club boy, but after about five seconds of contact, she realized that he smelled delicious and had the softest lips imaginable. It must have been the combination of the coconut scented suntan oil and mild sunstroke because before she knew it she was fully invested in her endeavor.

Barry was stunned speechless. Not that he could have actually said anything with the tiny, adorable blonde stuck to his face. But this was not something that occurred everyday at the club. “Or heck,” he thought, “maybe it did.” Maybe he had been away for so long that the place had finally gotten interesting.

Several passionate moments later, a stunned and disheveled Cyn pulled away and apologized, “I’m really very sorry about that.”

It took Barry a couple of beats to regain his composure, “Really, why?”

Cyn explained, “It’s just that I didn’t mean to kiss you.”

Barry was amused, “You mean you accidentally flew over here and laid one on me?”

Cyn flushed bright red, “No, it’s just that I thought I saw someone I knew and I didn’t want her to see me.”

With a big smile on his face, Barry replied, “I see. So instead of say, covering your face with a towel or rolling on your stomach, you thought a better plan would be to kiss me senseless. I applaud your choice.”

With a look of surprise, Cyn clarified, “Kissing you was the only option that occurred to me at the moment. I’m really very sorry.” Then a horrifying thought occurred to her, “Oh my god, you’re not married or anything are you?”

Barry laughed, “Not married or anything. And please don’t apologize. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.”

A bit disconcerted by the exchange, Cyn asked, “Could I have my towel back, please?” When she attacked Barry, she inadvertently took her towel with her and it was currently draped across his lap.

Sheepishly, he asked, “Would you mind if I held on to it for a moment?” And with a meaningful look added, “I’m afraid that if I gave it back to you now, we’d both be embarrassed.”

It took Cyn a second to realize what Barry was talking about but when she did, her cheeks flamed an even brighter shade of red, “Oh my, well, then, of course.”

Barry laughed and asked, “So, what’s a white trash girl like you doing in a place like this?”

“Nice line.”

“Hey,” he said, “I would have never even guessed you were white trash unless you told me first.”

Rather indignantly she replied, “Well, for your information, I’m not anymore and I’m here visiting a friend. What are you doing here?”

He explained, “My parents are members. I just came home for my fifteen-year high school class reunion.”

Cyn immediately realized that Barry and Lila must have gone to school together. “Let me guess, you were football captain, prom king and voted most likely to succeed.”

Barry raised an eyebrow and asked, “Not a snob, huh? To put your mind at rest I played basketball, didn’t go to the prom and was voted most likely to have beautiful strangers kiss me for no reason.”

Cyn rolled her eyes and declared, “I’m going to read my book now. Please give me my towel back when it’s convenient.”

Barry leaned into Cyn one last time and said, “Cynthia Flynn, I’m afraid that as long as you’re sitting next to me, I’m going to need it.”

Cyn tried to ignore him, but entirely against her will, a small grin crept over her face. She fought it though because unlike Arabella, she was not going to fall for a rich boy.

A
fter the scene with Melinda that morning, Oscar decided to lock himself in his room and read. He hoped that by escaping into Melinda’s ridiculous romance,
She Sins at Midnight,
his brain would clear up a bit and he’d have a better idea what to do about the current love triangle he was caught in the middle of. The further he got into the story, the more engrossed he became. Even though he was nothing like Julius Hunkster, he certainly found himself identifying with the Viscount. After all, Julius was in the midst of his own amorous difficulties, thoroughly in love with one woman while being ruthlessly stalked by another.

While reading, Oscar realized how very alike Jessica and Vivian were. They were both refreshingly sweet and lovely. And even though Jessica had been badly hurt by her husband, she still possessed a hopeful innocence he found irresistible. What he loved most about her was that she wanted him for who he was, not what he could do for her. Having lived in Hollywood for so many years, Oscar couldn’t remember the last time he was wanted for just himself. He suddenly felt ancient when he realized how long it had been since he had really and truly loved and been loved. Yet the down side of this emotion was that he would be left absolutely devastated if it went away. He just wasn’t sure he had the intestinal fortitude to gamble his heart again.

Oscar continued to read until he dozed off into a fitful sleep. He dreamt that his mansion in The Palisades was burning to the ground right before his eyes. Standing completely still, he watched everything he had built disintegrate into ash. Oscar felt no emotion as he watched his world crumble; no sense of loss, no sense of emptiness, nothing. Then like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Jessica walked out of the rubble right toward him. She was wearing a slinky white dress that was reminiscent of a wedding gown and she carried a bouquet of white roses. She glided toward his side and whispered in his ear, “Just say yes Oscar, just say yes…”

Oscar felt his heart leap in his chest. He felt such love and affection for this woman he thought he would burst from it. He leaned in toward her to give her a tender kiss when suddenly she morphed into Melinda, but not the Melinda of today, the Melinda of forty years in the future. He stared in horror at the garish woman in her sixties. Her breasts were enormous and her lips had been injected so many times with collagen they looked like butt cheeks. When his mouth pressed against hers, his entire face got swallowed up by the fake pillows and he felt like he was being suffocated.

Oscar woke from his dream in a cold sweat. His heart was beating a mile a minute like he had just run a marathon. That’s when he heard the sound that must have awoken him to begin with. It was the shriek of a banshee, a loud, shrill piercing screech that propelled him out of bed in fear for the person on the receiving end.

A
fter breakfast Melinda started to pursue Jessica like an infectious disease. Everywhere Jessica went, Melinda followed, and she didn’t do so quietly either. Her goal was to irritate and annoy Jessica as much as humanly possible. It was working, too.

Jessica had finally had enough and decided to go for a walk around the property. She figured that even Melinda had better things to do than to trail her step-by -step over six acres. She was wrong. Melinda was not going to let her nemesis out of her sight. She started taunting, “You know Jessica, you’re not Oscar’s type at all. He likes his women young and sexy and you’re nothing but a washed up old hag.”

Jessica ignored her. There was simply no way that Melinda was going to bait her into an argument. So she continued to walk and paid no attention what-so-ever to the bimbo behind her.

Melinda was relentless. She knew that if she kept going she would eventually find Jessica’s weak spot. “He doesn’t like spoiled, rich princesses either.” No reaction, so she tried, “The only reason that he evens talks to you is because he feels sorry for you. You know, the same way he’d feel for a dog at the pound.” Melinda kept digging but for the life of her, she couldn’t find Jessica’s Achilles heel. Finally, she tried, “I overheard Creigh tell Cynthia you were getting divorced. I’m not surprised. You aren’t the type of woman who could satisfy a man.”

Melinda didn’t notice but Jessica’s step faltered. She continued, “Actually, that’s probably how you got to be in your thirties and are still childless. After all, who could get a frigid woman pregnant?” Not realizing the very thin ice she was skating on, Melinda added, “Oscar wants children of his own you know, so he’s not about to marry some barren old crone. One look at you and he’d know you could never give him a baby.”

Before Melinda could finish her sentence, Jessica spun around and screamed like the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels. In the recesses of her brain, she heard the sound but her mind and body seemed to have splintered about from one another. Jessica felt like she was standing on the sidelines as she saw her physical form lunge at the starlet.

Melinda stopped dead in her tracks when she realized her quarry had turned on her. Then she took a step to run away from the threat but she was too late. Jessica grabbed hold her hair and pulled it back so hard that Melinda’s feet shot out from under her and she hit the ground with a bone-jarring thud.

Jessica was not through with the movie star though. Melinda tried to scramble to her feet, even though her scalp was on fire, but Jessica dove for her ankles and pulled her back to the ground, all the while screaming like a demented fish wife. The only distinguishable words she got out were, “You goddamned filthy whore! Slut, trash, demon, filth!!!” Jessica kept repeating the litany until Oscar came running out of the house across the lawn toward them.

Melinda saw Oscar running to save her and cried, “Hurry up! She’s going to kill me!”

Yet when he arrived, he didn’t go to Melinda’s aid. He went straight to Jessica and took her in his arms and crooned, “Its okay Jessica, I’m here. Everything is just fine now.”

Melinda shot to her feet and screamed, “Oscar, I’m the one she was clawing at! I’m the injured party, not her!”

Oscar turned to Melinda and demanded, “What did you say to her?”

Indignantly she replied, “I didn’t say anything. Why in the world would you think that I said anything to her? She’s a lunatic!”

Still holding Jessica, Oscar said, “Go into the house Melinda, we’ll discuss this later.” In a huff, she glared at him and stormed off across the lawn to her car.

Very gently, Oscar whispered into Jessica’s ear, “Are you okay now?”

Jessica let her knees buckle and she slunk to the ground as tears came streaming down her face. Melinda had finally penetrated her calm exterior by throwing her most painful moment in her face when she called her childless and barren. Jessica had wanted to shout that she wasn’t childless. That she had had a child and loved a child and it wasn’t her fault her baby never had the chance to be born. Jessica had felt like less of a woman since the day of her miscarriage. She felt horrendous guilt that she didn’t protect the life within her. Unable to get a hold of herself, she continued to sob noisily into her hand.

Oscar had no idea what Melinda said that caused Jessica to react in such a way. So he just held her and rocked her all the while whispering soothing words into her ear. It was an unbearably tender moment when he realized that Jessica had been hurt as much as he had. More than anything, he wanted to make her pain go away.

Oscar was still comforting Jessica when they heard the squeal of Melinda’s tires peel down the driveway. The sound effectively jarred Jessica out of her moment of anguish. She gently pushed away from Oscar and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

He reached for her hand and replied, “You have nothing to apologize for. Melinda has a way of driving people to drastic measures.”

Standing up, Jessica brushed her slacks off and offered a half smile, “You can say that again. Listen Oscar, thanks for being there for me but I need to be alone for a little while and sort some things out.”

He told her, “Jessica, I will always be there when you need me. I hope you know that.”

She answered, “I hope you mean that. Maybe that’s something you should think about.”

Before he could respond, Jessica walked across the lawn and into the house. She left him standing in the grass wondering how his life had gotten to the point it had, standing in the middle of Illinois, watching the woman of his dreams walk away from him.

M
elinda was so mad at Oscar she almost blew a gasket. How dare he help Jessica and not her? After all, she was the one missing a fist full of hair, not that country club floozy. She tore down the driveway with no plan other than to get away from Oscar as fast as humanly possible. That somehow led to her sitting in a bar in The Bentley Commons and ordering one Singapore Sling after another.

During her first cocktail, Melinda tried to figure out why Oscar seemed to be losing interest in her. During her second, she wondered why Creigh hadn’t fallen under her spell, and by her third, she decided she didn’t care and began eyeing the bartender.