Exposure (10 page)

I took a deep breath as I prepared to make some more small talk with her, when the doorbell rang.

Marguerita went to answer the door, and my mouth gaped open when I saw who was coming through it. A 5’10” blonde, who was probably the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, was gracefully making her presence. She was super thin, with a delicate frame and even more delicate features on her perfect face. At least, her nose and eyes were delicate. Her lips, though, were full and pouty. She was dressed in a black one-shoulder dress that perfectly clung to her amazingly fit body, and it was short enough that it showed off her perfectly toned legs.

I felt a little bit nauseated as Amy addressed the new woman as Sophie, and I knew, for sure, that this was Asher’s ex-girlfriend. The two women hugged, and I immediately felt that I was out in the cold.

Eventually, though, Sophie looked at me. At first, she looked a little bit stunned, but she immediately regained her composure. “Hello,” she said, sweetly. “You must be CJ.”

“Guilty as charged,” I said, as I shook her hand. I felt so stupid saying that, though.
Guilty as charged? Really, CJ? Couldn’t you have come up with something better than that?

She gave me a fake laugh and said “Excuse me. I need to find Asher.”

I nodded and said nothing, but I was inwardly kicking myself.

I saw both her and Amy go up to Asher and Brent, and Sophie kissed both men on the cheek. She whispered in Asher’s ear, and he listened to her and nodded his head while looking at me.

I had no idea what they were talking about, and perhaps I really didn’t want to know.

At this point, I was standing, all by myself, feeling awkward and alone. I was really missing Scarlett at this point.

Asher saw me standing awkwardly alone, and he immediately came over. “Honey, come on over and join us,” he said. “Here’s a drink.” At that, he gave me a Tanqueray dirty martini. I took a sip and then breathed in deep.

“Okay, sure, I’ll join you guys.”

So, the five of us chatted for a little while, while we waited for Justin, who was a single guy who Sophie hadn’t yet met. The hope, of course, was that Justin and Sophie might hit it off, once she saw how well Asher and I were getting along.

That was the theory, anyhow.

We all talked about different subjects for a half hour, and we were still chatting when Justin appeared at the door. He was a handsome guy, of course, as all of Asher’s friends seemed to be unusually good-looking. He had copper locks, green eyes and one of the most magnificent smiles I had ever seen.

But Sophie took one look at him and then instantly gave Asher the stink-eye.

Oops. I guess somebody didn’t know about the set-up ahead of time.

Then, just like that, her face changed. She smiled sweetly at Justin and greeted him. Then she looked at Asher, and a tight smile was plastered on her face. I knew, right away, that she was boiling at the indignity of being set up without her knowledge.

Justin, for his part, seemed to know the drill. He didn’t look non-plussed in the least.

I had to admit that I was amused by the drama that was playing out in front of me. It was almost like looking at a particularly gruesome car wreck. Fascinating, and you know that you shouldn’t be slowing down to look at it, but you just cannot help yourself.

Sure enough, though, I saw Sophie cornering Asher in the kitchen when he walked in there to get some more ice. I watched the body language, and it looked like she was clearly reaming him a new one, and he wasn’t having it. She was getting closer and closer to him, and he was backing up. Then he would get closer to her, but he was openly hostile, as he was pointing his finger in her face while he was talking to her.

She finally stormed out of the kitchen. “You’re going to be sorry about this, Asher,” she was saying. “Just you wait.”

I looked away from her as she passed by me, as I didn’t want her to know how interested I was in their conflict in the kitchen. But she wasn’t going to let me get away with trying to ignore her. “You,” she said to me, as she took my arm. “We need to talk.”

Talk? What did she and I have to say to one another?

I found myself being forcibly led into the den, though, by Sophie. I looked back, and I realized that Asher was looking like he wanted to come into the den with us, but Brent was talking with him, so he didn’t look like he could get away.

We got into the den, and Sophie said “I’m not going to beat around the bush, because Asher will be in here at any moment to interrupt us. But you need to get away from him. He’s dangerous. You really know very little about him.”

Dangerous? Asher?
“Oh, okay. I suppose you have no ulterior motive for saying something like this about him. Besides, if he is so dangerous, how come you’re like stalking him?”

“I can handle him,” she said. “Because I know all about him. What he has done. Who he really is. You, on the other hand, have no idea. I can tell that.”

I lifted my chin. I had no idea what she was talking about, but I had to try to play it off as if I did. “There’s nothing I don’t know about him,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes. “Oh? Okay, then, tell me why his tattoo is in Cyrillic.”

I opened my mouth, but realized that I had no reply to this. I just figured, when I saw the tattoo, that it was no different than the tattoos that were on pretentious people who assumed that the avenue for looking cool would be to have something tattooed on their body in a different language. Case in point – Chinese characters. Every poseur had at least one Chinese character as a tat. Not that Asher was a poseur.

“I-“

At that, Asher came into the den. “Okay, CJ, you need to come with me,” he said as he shot Sophie a look.

We got back out to the entertainment room, which was what Asher called the fireplace room, and joined the others. They were all busy talking amongst themselves, so Asher leaned into me. “What did she say to you?”

I shook my head. “Something about your tattoo meaning something. She also said that you’re dangerous and that I need to stay away from you.” I shrugged. “Guess your ex-girlfriend turned current stalker would say something like that to me.”

I studied his face, but it was impossible to ascertain what he was thinking. He had a poker face.

I furrowed my brow. “That’s all it was, right? Ex-girlfriend talking shit about you so that she scares me off? Then she swoops back in to pick up the pieces. Oldest trick in the book. Right?”

“Of course,” Asher said, but I was unconvinced.

Huh. He certainly was acting weird about this. He wasn’t laughing or trying to make a joke out of it at all.

But I had to shake it off. Shake off the gut feeling I had that there was something more to Sophie’s words than the ramblings of a bitter ex-girlfriend.

Brent came back over and put his arm around Asher, and the moment was broken.

I sighed. I certainly hoped that there was nothing behind Sophie’s words, but, the way that Asher was acting, I wasn’t sure.

A
ll of us
soon sat down to dinner, which was catered in by a rather renowned chef who was friends with Asher. Everything was scrumptious, of course, and the wine was flowing freely.

Everyone was curious about me, and they were asking friendly questions. So far, they were softball questions, so I started to relax just a little bit.

“So,” Brent said, “Asher tells me that you’re a photographer and you got your degree at NYU.”

“Yes,” I said. “Right now, I’m a freelance photographer and I sell my pictures to various magazines.” I inwardly cringed at the two lies I told right there. One was a white lie – I was never actually a freelance photographer so much as I was a part of the paparazzi. I did sell my photos to different magazines, but one tabloid, in particular, was giving me a pretty healthy advance every month. It was healthy enough that I didn’t have to worry about money during that period of time.

The other lie was not a white one, and that was the lie that I was still doing the photography thing. I would imagine that Asher would not have told his fancy friends the truth about me, so I just played along.

“Where would you like to go with that?” he asked me politely.

“Well, I have always had the ambition to be a photojournalist. Perhaps that will be in the cards in the future.” I looked over at Asher, and he was smiling encouragingly. I smiled back.
This isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.

At some point, Amy told me that she worked with photographers at her job. That was when I found out that she was a much sought after runway model.
Figures.
She was so stereotypical in that regard, in that she barely touched her food, yet drank like a fish.

“Well,” I said to Amy, “I’m not exactly a high-fashion photographer just yet, but I do okay.”

Asher put his arm around me after we ate, as he rubbed his flat stomach. “That food was amazing. I hope you all agree that Charles is the best there is when it comes to cooking up a mean spread.”

“As always,” Brent said. “I’m always excited when you invite me to one of these catered parties, because I know that the food is going to be phenomenal. This evening was certainly no different.”

Asher tousled my hair, and breathed on my neck a little bit. I felt tingles just feeling him do that. “Well, this is a special occasion. I know that you guys are all shocked that I’m finally going to take the plunge, but, CJ is a very special girl indeed.”

“To CJ,” Brent said, raising his glass. Everyone raised their glasses and clinked them in the air.

Of course, Sophie wasn’t exactly my best friend. In fact, she was watching me the entire evening. I felt self-conscious, as I was hoping that my manners were impeccable. I could just imagine her snidely talking behind my back if I weren’t up to snuff. She probably would refer to me as a “rube.” She was the kind of person who would do that for sure.

We all had dessert, and Sophie got up to make herself another drink. When she got to the kitchen, she called Asher’s name. “Asher, you’re out of club soda. I’m dying for a Grey Goose and soda with a twist of lime.”

“I’m not out of soda,” Asher said. “I just bought a new liter today.” But he got up anyhow, and went into the kitchen and looked around. “Huh. I guess you’re right.” Then he called to me. “CJ, I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to have to go to the corner store and get some more soda. I’ll be back in about fifteen minutes, though.”

“That’s fine, Asher,” I said. “I’m having a good time getting to know your friends.”

“I knew you would,” he said. “I’ll see you soon, huh?”

And then he left.

At this point, Sophie finally opened her mouth to address me.

And what she said was something that I never, ever could have anticipated.

“
S
o
, CJ,” Sophie said to me. “Brent and everyone has been asking you all these questions, but, it seems to me, that they haven’t asked you the most pertinent one.”

I took a deep breath. I had no idea what was coming, but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be good. “What question is that?”

“Why aren’t you in prison for child endangerment?”

My heart started racing a mile a minute, and I started to shake. I had questioned that one myself, after what had happened. I never was prosecuted, I guess because the DA’s office had decided that I was suffering enough.

Brent stood up. “What are you talking about, Sophie?”

“You mean you don’t recognize her? You must not have been following the news about six months ago. She left her little brother in a running car with the doors unlocked. Somebody stole that car, with her little brother in it. It was found in the East River, with the kid still strapped in the seat.”

I was no longer listening. I started to feel the familiar squeezing in my chest. “Excuse me,” I said as I felt myself start to hyperventilate. “I need to get my-“ I was about to say that I wanted to get my inhaler, but, instead, vomit came forth and spewed on Asher’s gorgeous hardwood floors.

Amy made a face, but Brent and Justin looked sympathetic. Brent came over and put his arm around me. “Are you okay, CJ? You look really pale. Here, let me lead you to the sofa.” At that, he gently led me onto Asher’s leather sofa and he brought me a cool cloth. “That’s such a horrible thing to happen to you, and I’m really sorry that Sophie brought it up in such a way. She’s kind of a bitch, as you can tell.”

I just laid there, shaking my head back and forth. “No, I deserve it. I deserve to be humiliated like that. What she said just now is no different than what I tell myself every minute of every day. She’s absolutely right, too. I should be in prison for child endangerment.”

“That could have happened to anyone,” he said. “Look at all the people who just forget about their kids and leave them in hot cars to die. And you certainly are not the first caretaker to leave a kid in a car while you run in for something, and you won’t be the last. You were just unlucky, that’s all.”

I said nothing, but I looked over a Sophie. She had a smug look on her face. Amy was sitting next to her, and she just looked shocked. Sophie was talking to her, and Amy kept looking over at me, so I assumed that Sophie was telling Amy the entire sad story.

I just shook my head. There was no way that I would ever get over what had happened because of my carelessness. At that moment in time, I was in such grief and despair, I wanted to die. I was feeling like I did when it first happened.

And I knew that I couldn’t go through with my charade with Asher. The price to my psyche was just becoming too high. Between the feelings that I was having towards Asher – feelings that went well beyond like or lust – and the fact that he had an unfeeling cunt for an ex-girlfriend, I knew that if I stayed there much longer that I would be heading for a mental breakdown.

So, I just looked at Brent’s sympathetic and handsome face, and I said “I need to leave.”

And, just like that, I left.