“See, Lilian, that is how you welcome a mother. At least your girlfriend has manners.”
I get another murderous look—I am a collector of them now.
The mother pats me twice on my shoulder, “Keep going, she can be stubborn this one,” she says. “Just like her father. Don’t let him get to you.”
“I have been warned,” I say with a chuckle. “I have endurance, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
The mother leaves when she sees a friend she must welcome.
“Well, that went well,” I say. Lilian doesn’t respond. She’s biting her jaw; I can see her jawline flexing.
“Breathe, Princess,” I say, and she closes her eyes. She is close to murdering me, which makes it so delightful for me to tease her more and more.
“Oh, there he is coming,” Lilian groans as her father walks up to us, a girl by his side who looks like she’s not even eighteen. I have prepared for the event by getting a list of everyone invited and learn their names and faces, but the girl was not on it.
“Lil,” he says, distantly, and gives her a formal cheek-to-cheek kiss without touching. “A shame with your company.”
“I’m already on the next project,” she says. “May I introduce you? This is Katerina.”
I hate when people use my full birth name, so I clear my throat, and Lilian adds, “Everyone calls her Kat.”
I wait for his initiation, and I know the very moment he disapproves. Not necessarily of me, but more of the fact that Lilian brought a woman.
Nonetheless, he stretches out a hand, and I take it. Firmly to show presence. I despise men like him, a mutual feeling.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr Knightley,” I say, and look around him to the girl shadowing him. “And that is—?” I want to find out how old she is.
“Aline,” he says, leans in to me and says, “Between us, she gives extraordinary blow jobs, but otherwise not the brightest.”
“Father,” Lilian hisses, but he meant to say it to test me; I can see it in his eyes. A male who needs to pee all over the place.
I say, “Well, you seem to be easily satisfied. I personally like to have someone use their intelligence to make my time worthwhile.”
I smirk. Lilian bites her lip to not do the same until her father chuckles deeply.
“Touché, Kat,” he says. “Let’s have a drink later. And Lil, the Tennis teacher, he is here, too. We should be around when he meets his predecessors.”
“Can’t wait,” she says.
The party goes exactly as expected.
“I don’t know how you do it,” I say to Lilian at some point, because all the superficial talking drains me, even as a role I play.
“Here,” she says and hands me a glass of champagne. “You drink. That’s how you survive.”
“Thanks,” I say. I never drink. I need my head clear. So I fake taking a sip and empty the glass into a plant in a moment of distraction.
Evening falls over the Hills, and I glance at L.A. illuminated by lights and a sky dipped in all shades of colors, reaching from blue to violet to orange to yellow. I have seen many things in life, and I still think billionaires shouldn’t exist, but this here, right now, watching the sky, the landscape, it’s…nice.
Lilian walks up to me and grasps my arm.
“You’re drunk,” I say in amusement as I glance at her. Her eyes are slightly watery, and she is way too affectionate.
She giggles. “I might,” she says, and hiccups slightly. “I also want to kiss you.”
“I thought no affections,” I say.
“Fuck that,” she says, and pulls me into a kiss, and who am I to turn down the woman of all my desires and dreams if she, for once, allows me some sort of closeness? Closeness I never knew I wanted.
