William glanced back at her. “Didn’t I tell you not to say that word ever again?”
“Man,” Joy finished her sentence. “You’re my sugar man.”
William could do without thesugaraltogether, but he got her point. “Now get downstairs so you don’t keep Adele waiting. And will you please let me pee in peace?”
Joy kissed his neck, got off his back, and happily threw on her discarded clothes and made her way downstairs.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
They stepped out of the limousine at the Eddington Golf and Country Club with a heavy doze of reality on Joy’s part. Because her heart was hammering. It was one thing to be alone with William in his world. He made it easy navigation. But it was another thing altogether to be around his peers in his world. She felt sorely out of place.
William could feel her trembling as he held her hand and walked with her through those august doors that just twenty years prior refused to admit people of color. He joined after that period, but it bespoke a lot about the culture.
“It’s okay,” William said in a low voice as he squeezed her hand. “I’m right beside you.”
“It feels like another world,” Joy said. “Nothing like your house.”
William smiled. “No, it’s definitely not like my home.”
“Welcome back, Mr. Skeffington,” the maître d said as they entered the club’s lobby. Then he bowed toward Joy. “Madam.”
“Hello.”
“How have you been, Allan?”
“I’ve been very well, sir. Thank you for asking. I haven’t seen you in over a month now.”
“I was out of the country.”
“Of course sir.” Then he motioned. “I will escort you and your lady friend to the sitting hall until your table is ready. If that is alright with you, sir?”
“That will be fine,” William said as he placed his hand on Joy’s lower back and they followed Allan into a very formal, austere sitting area with huge high-back chairs and massive fireplaces and the feel of what Joy would call the antebellum south even though they were decidedly up north.
William sat Joy in one of the chairs that seemed to swallow her, and then he sat beside her, thanked Allan, and opted to wait to order drinks when their table was ready. When Allan left, he looked at Joy. She wore a sleeveless pencil dress that hugged her body the way William hugged it: Affectionately. With her hair in an up-do that highlighted her attractive face and smooth brown skin, and as she sat in that black chair in her white dress, she looked irresistible to him. He adored her style.
But she kept moving around in that big chair as if it was the worst.
“It’s not that bad,” he said to her. “Is it?”
“I feel like I’m sitting in the arms of a giant Cabbage Patch doll,” she said and William laughed. “But other than that it’s cool.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“Sure about that?”
“Positive.” He crossed his legs and pulled out a cigar. “At least the music is nice, right?”
Joy listened to the music. There were a group of people dancing much further over on the dance floor. “Who’s that singing?”
“Coldplay.”
“Who’s play?”
“Oh Lord,” William said. “Surely you’ve heard of Chris Martin? What about ‘Clocks?’”
Joy had no idea what he was talking about. “What about them?”
“It’s a band, Joy,” William said and then lit his cigar. Joy stared at him. “You never smell like you’re a smoker.”
