She Sins at Midnight (7 page)

Lila let out a sigh of pleasure as moments later they drove up to Jilly’s wonderful house. She thought it was the most gorgeous home she had ever seen. It was a charming two story white structure with black shutters and window boxes hanging from every window. Lila noticed that the lawn was a little overgrown but there were flowers bursting with color as far as the eye could see.

Jilly slimed Trevor and Jack when she pulled them out of their car seats. She left Titty in the van and lined up Lila and the boys on the front lawn where she proceeded to turn the hose on them. In a fit of screams and laughter, she sprayed them down until they were clean. Then she handed the hose off to the boys so they could spray her, which they thought was the most fun ever.

Once everyone was de-gunked, she retrieved the baby and walked around the back of the house into the mudroom. Jilly stripped the boys and tossed their clothes right into the washing machine. Then she handed Lila a fresh robe from the dryer and instructed her to go upstairs and take a shower in the master bath while she got lunch started.

On the way upstairs Lila noticed that the house was a disaster area. But it looked so loved and lived in that she couldn’t help but think it was ideal. Jilly’s bedroom appeared to be in the worst shape of all. Clothes were strewn from one end of the room to the other and the bed was in a shambles. That’s when she noticed the economy sized box of condoms on the night stand. No wonder the bed was a mess! Lila decided then and there that Jilly’s life was exactly what she wanted; a gorgeous home, the perfect husband, three beautiful kids and all the sex she could handle. Maybe if she were getting some real live action of her own, she wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on romance novels to try to fill that hole in her life.

When Lila finished her shower, she put on the clean clothes that Jilly left on the bed for her. While the pink velour sweat suit fit pretty well, it was inches too short. She felt like that old Martin Short character Ed Grimley, dontcha know?

Letting her nose lead the way, Lila followed the delicious aroma of grilled cheese right into the kitchen. Jilly and the kids were already clean and in fresh clothes. Jilly flipped the sandwiches for the last time and Lila groaned in anticipation, “I don’t think anything has ever smelled so good to me.”

Jilly laughed, “I love grilled cheese too. But it gets a little old when you eat them every other day.”

Lila exclaimed, “I don’t believe you for a minute. It’s manna from heaven! How could you ever get tired of it?”

In ideal mom fashion, Jilly served her friend a perfectly golden brown sandwich that had been cut into gooey triangles. Lila ate like she had just escaped from a death camp. With warm cheese running down her chin she managed to indicate that she could eat another. Once she had filled her stomach to capacity, she was ready to catch up with her friend.

Jilly sent the boys upstairs to play, lay Titty down for her afternoon nap and then popped open a bottle of white wine. Over spritzers on the front porch, the girls began to reconnect.

Lila confessed, “You my friend, have the best life I could possibly imagine. I’d give my right arm to be in your shoes.”

Jilly looked startled and blurted out, “What in the hell are you talking about? I don’t even
have
a life. I’m mommy, soccer coach, PTA member and wife. I haven’t read a book or shopped for the thrill of it in over four years. And the last time I took a nap, Jack nearly tore the house down. I don’t even know who I am any more.” Then she burst into full blown tears and continued, “I want your life! I want to be single and unencumbered for awhile. I want nice hair and clothes and invitations to glamorous parties. I want to wake up in the morning and feel like a worthwhile, interesting person. I want what you have!”

Lila felt like she had just fallen back into bizarro world. She thought if Jilly had any idea what her life was really all about, she’d run screaming for the hills. So she tried to explain, “Jilly Sparks, you
do not
want my life. I work for an egomaniacal, sex-crazed, maniac agent with a Napoleon complex. If that isn’t enough, I live in a town where I’m considered fat and no man west of the Mississippi has ever taken me out on a fourth date. Melinda fricken Forrester has somehow become my arch enemy and even my eyebrow-waxer gossips about us!”

Jilly snuffled through her tears and muttered, “I want an eyebrow-waxer…I want to know Melinda Forrester…I want to live in sunny California.”

“You gotta trust me Jilly, California is like living in the book of Revelations. We’ve got fires, floods, mud slides and earthquakes. If you add all the egos to that, it just couldn’t get much worse. Sure we have nice weather, but heck, it’s not nice enough to put up with all the other crap.”

Jilly interrupted, “Then why do you live there?”

Absolutely stumped, Lila answered, “Truthfully? I have no idea. I think that’s why I came home. I feel like it’s time for a big change in my life and I’m hoping that a few weeks back here will help me decide what I should do.” As she spoke those words, she realized how true they were.

Looking like she had just been handed a life line, Jilly asked, “Li, why don’t you move back to Bentley? Wouldn’t that be great?”

As dissatisfied as she was with her life in L.A., moving home was not something that had ever occurred to Lila. But now that the thought was out there, she realized that she could come home if she wanted to. She felt like she had just experienced a major epiphany. Like the clouds broke open and the sun beamed down right on her. There was absolutely nothing keeping her in California except a job. (A job she was becoming more and more dissatisfied with.) She would definitely have to give this idea some serious consideration.

Lila and Jilly continued to talk and sip their drinks for another hour before Bill came home. He watched the kids while Jilly drove Lila back to her parent’s house. On the way, Lila called AAA to come and tow the SUV to the garage to check for damage and then prepped for the reunion with her parents.

Will and Elizabeth, a.k.a. Bitsy Montgomery, met at Yale when Will was in his third year of law school. It was the week before he took his bar exam and he was so exhausted from studying that he was totally running on fumes. As he walked down the street, not paying any attention to where he was going, he ran right into the woman of his dreams, literally.

Bitsy was on campus visiting her then boyfriend when Will bumped into her. Montgomery family lore had it that they fell madly in love and announced their engagement within two months. Will passed the bar on his first try, received a job offer that took them back to Bitsy’s native Chicago and their fairy tale began.

Lila thought about what a great life her parents had and was boggled at the idea that Bitsy was suffering from depression. The way she figured it, she could handle a little “my life is so perfect” kind of funk. It would be a novel change from what she had been living.

Once they pulled up the drive, Lila jumped out of the van promising to meet Jilly and the kids at the country club the next morning. She approached the front door with a little trepidation, wondering what in the world she would find this time. Would her mom be a blonde now, perhaps wearing a naughty nurse’s uniform? She shuddered at the prospect. Of course, the way things were going that was a definite possibility. Before she had a chance to run down the driveway after Jilly and beg her to take her back to the airport, Will came barreling out the front door and hollered out, “Well if it isn’t my beautiful baby girl come home!”

Lila ran to meet him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug to end all hugs. She was greatly relieved to see that her Dad didn’t seem to be following her mom’s lead, no toupee, no Grecian formula, no silk pajamas. “Dad, I missed you soooo much!”

With his arm around her shoulders, Will walked his daughter into the house and announced, “We’ve missed you too, baby girl. So much so, that your gorgeous mother is in the kitchen right now whipping up your favorite meal in honor of your visit.”

Lila laughed, “Which favorite meal? I have a few, you know.”

Will let out a booming laugh and answered, “Grilled cheese sandwiches of course!”

That was how Lila came to eat three grilled cheese sandwiches in as many hours. She decided that she really needed to get ahold of herself. Otherwise, she would wind up a size fourteen and then they’d never let her back into Southern California.

After eating dinner, the Montgomery family sat on the back porch and watched a family of deer enjoy their own dinner. It was such a peaceful scene that Lila decided to forgive the doe that caused her earlier mishap. She discovered that her dad loved retirement. He claimed to have been worried about boredom overtaking him, but assured Lila her mother was keeping him happily diverted. Lila thought she was going to be sick. Her parents had always been very loving and affectionate with each other but there had never been such overt sexual innuendo. It was more than a little disconcerting.

At ten o’clock, Lila went upstairs to take a bath while her dad ran into town to pick up her suitcases from the garage that towed her rental. When she got to her room, she realized Bitsy must have tried to cure her depression with shopping before she succumbed to swearing, because her whole bedroom had been completely done over. The once powder blue of her childhood retreat had been replaced with buttercup yellow and vibrant orange accents. Lila decided that if her mom ever got bored, she could have a real future in interior design.

When she went into her bathroom, she discovered that Bitsy’s redecorating had extended there too. The claw footed tub was now sporting bright orange toe nails. She filled the tub with hot water and went to retrieve
She Sins at Midnight
out of her purse. If ever she needed a great escape, this was the perfect day for it.

Vivian Ashwood was not looking forward to the Fenworthy’s garden party, even though it was one of the most sought after invitations of the season. She was tired of running into the same old people. Plus, what were the chances that she was going to meet the love of her life at a tame afternoon luncheon? Slim to none, she assumed.

Vivian strolled by the banks of the pond while she waited for her best friend Anna to join her. Anna was married to the Earl of Farnsworth and they were enormously in love. Jamie always gazed at Anna like she was the only woman in the world. Vivian hoped that she would be able to find a love as great as her friend’s. But the truth was, she was starting to think that lucky day would never come.

Julius Hunkster Rapscallion, eighth Viscount Hedgeworth, could not believe that he let his mother talk him into attending the Fenworthy’s garden party. Surely there couldn’t be an affair more likely to kill him from the mind numbing dullness of it all. On the plus side, his mother gave her word that if he joined her this afternoon, she would not ask him to attend any other events for the entirety of the season. What that meant was that she could badger him all she wanted about getting married and starting his nursery, but she wouldn’t be able to throw eligible young ladies into his path.

Julius sat down under a tree by the water and relished the thought of all the insipid young misses who would have to find husbands elsewhere that year. He had no idea why his mother would be willing to go along with a bargain so obviously slanted in his favor, but far be it from him to complain. Julius closed his eyes and enjoyed the soft breeze. Just as he decided that he better get up and join the party, else his mother cry foul, he found a very soft and feminine form plopping onto his lap.

Vivie couldn’t believe what she had just done! There she was, walking along minding her own business, when her foot landed in a gopher hole and sent her sailing through the air. She didn’t even notice the man sitting under the tree until she landed on him. She was beyond mortified! After a quick check to insure her pride was the only thing damaged, she looked up and found herself gazing into the most intoxicating pair of green eyes she had ever seen.

Julius gaped at the beauty in his arms and asked, “Madam, did my mother send you?”

Vivian, still mute from her unexpected landing, didn’t answer so Julius continued, “because I’m about to do something to you that she would never condone.”

M
elinda’s flight to Chicago was a sheer pleasure. She was so happy to be away from L.A. that she thought she would scream from the relief of it. Oscar was beyond infuriated when he read the article in “The Countrywide Inquisitor” that morning; so much so that she was a little afraid of him. Oscar’s first wife left him for her trainer and his second wife took off with the pool boy, so the thought of his girlfriend leaving him for a janitor was not a happenstance that he embraced too readily. Oscar Solomon had played the cuckold before and it was a role he was tired of. He actually made Melinda swear she wasn’t sleeping with the janitor at Amalgamated Artists, as if she would consider such a disgusting thing. Once he finally decided to believe her, he called his lawyers and started to talk lawsuit.

Melinda was so afraid of losing Oscar she told him the rumor must have come from Josh Furber’s assistant, Lila. After divulging that information, she started to worry he would find out about the private motivational meetings that she held in Josh’s office. That’s when she further compounded the story by saying that Lila was already spreading rumors that she was being promiscuous with her agent. By the time she left Oscar’s house in the Palisades, she couldn’t remember what lies she had told as there had been so many. Melinda knew that her reputation in Hollywood was pretty dicey. She also knew that if she messed things up with Oscar, she’d be hard pressed to replace him with another man as rich and powerful.

On the flight to O’Hare, Melinda drank an entire bottle of Cristal, took a nap and started a new romance novel. She laughed thinking that with as much sex as she had, she shouldn’t be the least bit interested in reading about it too, but the difference was that she had sex, not romance. Oscar was fifty-two years old with thinning hair and a paunchy stomach. As far as Melinda could tell, his idea of romance was brushing his teeth first. She didn’t kid herself. She knew that the only reason he was with her was because she was young, hot and one of the most recognizable movie stars of her generation. All she was to him was a pawn in the power trip of his life. Of course she really couldn’t complain. Truth be told, that’s all he was to her as well.