The Desert Rose (18 page)

She expected him to come tearing past, with a few cops chasing him, but he didn’t and she just drove on to Mel’s house. Mel must have been watching from some vantage point because he came out in the driveway grinning at the sight of the Buick, which was probably the ugliest car that had ever been anywhere near his house. “Love your car,” he said and leaned in and gave her one of the little kisses at the corner of her mouth. Then he sniffed a little and asked if she had goats for pets, so she told him about Myrtle and Maude.

Mel was in quite a good humor. She expected him to be revolted by the appearance of the Buick but Mel didn’t care at all.

“Why there’s no reason why the most beautiful girl in the world shouldn’t drive the ugliest car,” he said. “I like the beauty and the beast effect.” The car had so much goat hair in it it did sort resemble a beast.

“It looks like a gorilla died in it at some point,” Mel said. “What’s your mood today, Pepper?”

It was kind of impressive, the way he looked at things. He pointed out that he hadn’t always been a rich man, he had endured a few scuzzy cars himself along the road to riches. He said he definitely wanted to meet Myrtle at some point, she sounded like a character.

They had a swim and then Pepper told him about the whole day. He got a great kick out of the fact that she had made Woods play hooky, he thought Woods was super-bright okay and was very close friends with his parents. Mel liked to listen and had smart things to say about whatever she told him. She got the impression he was quite a bit smarter than Gary, who was definitely a great listener but sort of had so many theories about things that whenever
she told him something usually it would remind him of a theory. Unless they were just talking about fashion Gary could never keep his mind on whatever the subject was.

The thing with Mel might seem a little unreal when she wasn’t with him but once she got back in his house and sort of told him a few things it started feeling real again and she felt she could trust him, she didn’t think he was gonna spring any tricks. Also she didn’t feel she had to hide anything, if she had an anxiety she could just mention it. She tried that out while they were resting from the swim. She said, “I want to know why you want to
marry
me. I’d live with you, you know.”

“Nope, that’s too low risk,” Mel said. “I’d rather marry you and see if I can keep you. A lot more’s at stake that way.”

“Such as what?”

“Such as a lot of my money. Not to mention my ego. If I don’t manage to keep you my ego’s going to take a beating.”

“Were you ever gay?” she asked, she thought now’s the time to hit him with some of the big questions.

Mel laughed, he liked it. “Now I’ll ask you one,” he said. “What had you rather: that I’m gay or that I’d rather drag your mother out of the supermarket some morning and fuck her.”

“That you’re gay,” she said, that was no choice, the thought of her mother getting him was revolting.

“I think we’ll get along great,” Mel said. “I’d much rather have you than your mother.”

“You didn’t say if you were gay,” she reminded him, it was just as well not to forget that issue.

“I’m a voyeur,” he said. “A real one. I’m very visual. I’ve had my gay interludes but I’ve never found anyone I like to photograph as much as I like to photograph you.”

She could believe that. He asked her if she was in the mood for a little posing, she thought why not? He shot her topless in some old panties that came up to her navel, plus he had a couple of very lovely nightgowns he wanted her to try on. For the first time he stopped using the movie camera and took still photographs. He had set up some lighting equipment just for that purpose, but it wasn’t a long session or boring. He was very sensitive about when she had maybe had enough. When they finished he took her into his bedroom for the first time. It was very stark, the TV was built into the wall, there was a big white bed and one glass wall with a great view of the desert and the mountains. On the other wall was a huge blow-up of a shot of her in the blue bra, taken from one of the movies. It was sort of flattering, it was the only picture or decoration in the room. She was used to pretty messy bedrooms—Buddy’s looked like a battle had been fought in it, he had never closed a drawer in his life.

“Do you think it’s too austere?” Mel asked, he could tell she was kind of startled.

Pepper shook her head. It wasn’t depressing or anything, it was just that she had never seen a bedroom so cleaned out. She was just beginning to understand that Mel’s house was the one place where you didn’t have to look at anything ugly. Everything in it was well designed, it had never been a big deal to her but then she had never had an opportunity to see that much well-designed stuff. Mel’s couches were certainly a far cry from the one Myrtle had, for example—Myrtle’s had been a bright blue until Maude had started eating the foam rubber out of the cushions. Now it was so covered with little crumbs of foam rubber that Wendell had to brush himself off every time he sat on it.

“I like it,” Pepper said. It was just a little scary, such a big room and sort of empty. She was still wearing the silly panties and one of the old nightgowns and Mel asked her if he could just get one more shot, he wanted her to sit
right in the middle of the bed. She said sure and he shot for about a minute, getting her from several angles. Then he slid back a wall and disappeared for a second into a giant closet. He came out with a white fur in his arms—she thought he must have bought her a fur coat, which would have been weird, but the fur was like a bedspread, it was very thin. He made her lay down and got on the bed with her and pulled the fur over them—it was nice because she had been a little chilly from the air conditioning. Mel lay beside her and caressed her for a while and while that was going on she got sleepy and dozed off, it was very comfortable under the fur. It was just a little nap, then she woke up with the yawns, which Mel didn’t mind at all.

She asked him about the Stardust again, if they were going to marry maybe he wouldn’t want her working till all hours.

“Take the job,” he said.

“Yeah, but what’s the reasoning?” she asked. “Why do you want me to?”

“Oh, maybe to see what a little stardom does to you,” he said, he had a nice grin. “We’ll find out how ambitious you are and that’ll be interesting. I don’t think you’re all that ambitious but I could be wrong. Maybe you’re going to want to be world famous.”

“What if I do?” she asked, she had never thought about it much.

“Well, it will depend on how good you are,” he said. “You won’t get world famous here in Vegas. You’d have to go to New York or L.A. if you turn out to have that in mind.”

Better L.A., more sunshine she thought, but it wasn’t the major question.

“Would you come?” she asked.

“Nope,” he said. “I’ve done my time in those places. I’m staying here.”

It was nothing she planned to worry about, she hadn’t
even started work yet. Mel was caressing her again but he seemed sort of friendly, not too turned on, she kept yawning and once in a while when she yawned he would kiss her, he liked slipping into a yawn which was okay. Her basic feeling was he was a little too weird to figure out, but nice, very nice, he wasn’t going to start dragging whips and chains out of the closet or anything. He did like playing tongues a little when she yawned.

“Hey, what’s the schedule, are we getting married any time soon?” she asked.

“What about three or four weeks?” Mel said. “My parents can’t come this month, my Dad has the spring swim meets to get through.”

That was a surprise, she had just thought they’d go down on the Strip to one of the little motel chapels and do it, she hadn’t been thinking about parents.

Mel noticed how surprised she was—it would have been hard to miss.

“I love it when you look startled,” he said.

“Why would they need to come?” she asked, she felt a little nervous about that.

“I know we had an unusual beginning, but I want to marry you like I would any girl I fell in love with,” Mel said. “I want my parents to come and my sister, and I’d like to meet your mother. Maybe we can have your mother over to dinner on Sunday sometime and Myrtle and your father too, for that matter. You’ve never mentioned him, I don’t know if he’s around.”

“He lives in Reno,” Pepper said, she had no memory of him at all. Meanwhile she was freaking at the thought of her mother and Myrtle having dinner at Mel’s house. It had never dawned on her he would go in for scenes like that, getting a lot of parents together and stuff. She was so freaked she was ready to forget the whole idea, her mother in Mel’s house would just never work. It was hard to imagine—after
all they were lying on his giant bed under a fur that probably cost more than her mother made in ten years, plus Mel was giving her a little feel through some panties that were about forty years old, it was definitely all out of the ordinary, and now he just wanted to bring in the parents, including her mother. She didn’t know what to make of it but she was freaking which turned out to be a big turn-on for Mel.

“God you’re beautiful when you’re startled,” he said, he soon had the panties off and they had to kick the fur away, it got much too hot. It was a surprise that he got so passionate suddenly, it was a day for surprises. She didn’t really get into it, which Mel noticed, he was perfectly aware that she didn’t come but at least he didn’t want to discuss it, which Buddy would always do. Buddy felt it must mean she was mentally deranged or something but Mel was very sweet, he kissed her a lot and then suggested they go in the Jacuzzi. He hugged her for a long time. Obviously he could tell she was upset about the parents but he didn’t freak out like Buddy did when she was upset, he just held her and sort of waited for it to pass.

When they were in the Jacuzzi it finally did pass, maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal if his parents came and his sister. He pointed out that it couldn’t be just them and the servants all the time, there were other people in the world and sometimes they would show up. Besides, he said his parents would adore her, they had no prejudice against his marrying a younger woman or anything.

“Do you think I’m smart or is it just the way I look that interests you?” she asked, she had been wondering if it was just the looks and nothing else that did it. Despite wondering she felt very safe with him, she could doze right in his arms and not worry about a thing, it was just that when she woke her mind started jumping around and she felt a lot of anxiety, mainly the anxiety of realizing she
couldn’t figure Mel out—he was mysterious. Everything he said sounded okay, but he was still mysterious, it wasn’t like she was dealing with Buddy, whose whole personality could be understood in about ten seconds.

“Oh, you’re smart,” Mel said. “Why do you keep trying to figure out the key to my attraction? Why wouldn’t I be attracted to you? I have been from the moment you walked in, you know. I totally ignored those good-looking guys.”

That was for sure, Fritz had never forgiven her, either. She saw him at discos once in a while and he wouldn’t so much as say hello, his vanity would be about a decade recovering from that one.

“You don’t need to figure out why I’m attracted,” Mel said. “There are a lot of elements in it. For one thing I’m not that interested in maturity.”

That was odd, he seemed a lot more mature than anyone she knew.

“I like it that you have terrific looks and a good brain and almost no experience,” he said. “I mean I know you’ve had boyfriends but it’s been basically a sort of crude experience you’ve been offered so far. You don’t even know anything about sex, although you depend totally on sex appeal and get worried if nothing happens when you think it’s supposed to. Your instincts sort of operate at the speed of light, and yet they have no experience guiding them, they’re just pure instincts. I find all that very exciting.”

It was no thrill to be told she didn’t know anything about sex, although probably it was true none of her boyfriends had been such great lovers, mainly getting high had helped with most of them.

Then he began to kiss her, she liked that, really liked to kiss him, she would sort of stop thinking for a while when he kissed her.

“You want to talk about the big point?” he asked, when they were out and wrapped up in the giant towels.

“What big point?”

“The big point is that you’re afraid I’m going to be attracted to your mother,” Mel said, he made it sound like a perfectly normal worry.

“I don’t even think you want me to have her over here for dinner,” he said. It didn’t take a genius to notice she had reacted badly to that one, but it was good he mentioned it.

“She has horrible taste,” Pepper said. “You’ve seen her in those outfits, why do you have to have her over here?”

“Because she’s your mother,” he said. “Just because she wears loud blouses doesn’t mean you have to disown her.”

Pepper could feel some anger coming, she really didn’t like it that he was taking up for her mother, every male in the world seemed to think they had to do that.

“Yeah, but you don’t have to live with her,” she said. “She has horrible boyfriends, one’s a criminal. He asked me today if I gave blow jobs.”

Mel didn’t seem surprised, he was hard to surprise.

“That’s her misfortune,” he said. “I guess she has bad taste in men and clothes both. But not everyone has wonderful taste like us, Pepper. My father dresses just as badly as your mother. He wears white shoes and every coat he owns has checks in it. But he’s a decent man and I respect him. It’s too bad you don’t respect your mother.”

“I don’t want her to come here!” Pepper said. “I won’t marry you if she comes here.” She felt too angry, she was ready to blow it over that point. No doubt her mother had flirted with him at the supermarket, that made her madder, just thinking about it.

Mel smiled, he didn’t seem to take the threat seriously, but he was wrong, she was ready to head out.

“I want this to be private!” she said, what he didn’t know was that the duplex was like a bus station half the time, plus it was messy, her mother never really had the
energy to clean, she mainly sat around in the afternoon. Pepper liked it that she had a place to come to that was totally private.