“You tell it better.”
“All right then.” Cassius leans closer to me while his other hand rests casually on my thigh. I like it when he touches me in possessive ways, his hand around the back of my neck or his arm wrapped around my chest while we doze. I sleep in his bed every night now. He says it’s so he can have me blow him without getting out of bed or calling my phone, but I think it’s because he misses me too.
“Lucia’s mother is a lovely woman named Camila who was hired by the Hoffmans as their in-home nanny when Darla Hoffman gave birth to their third child,” Cassius begins, and my eyebrows raise at what sounds like a scandal already. “Lucia’s mother seduced the man of the house—”
“I don’t know aboutseduced,” Lucia interrupts with a wave of her hand.
“Am I telling this story, or are you?” Cassius asks playfully and she motions for him to continue. “Anyway, the young and voluptuous Camila seduces Harry in his own home, under the nose of her mistress. And because Darla thinks her husband is being unfaithful, she insists on accompanying him to his movie sets, along with the children, and who does she bring along with them but the nanny? Now, Camila and Harry are fucking like rabbits across the globe while poor Darla is trying like mad to get rid of her post-pregnancy bloat.”
“Cassius, don’t be cruel,” Lucia says, laughing.
“When, lo and behold, Camila gets pregnant. And because of her strong Catholic beliefs, there’s no way she’d even consider an abortion, not to mention the paycheck that’s now forthcoming. And how is she going to explain the pregnancy to Darla? More importantly, how will Harry manage the affair now that his mistress is pregnant?”
“You make my father sound like a complete philanderer,” she says. “Trust me, he’s not.”
“What’s a philanderer?” I ask.
“A fuckboy,” Cassius says. “And maybe he’s not anymore at the ripe old age of 75, but 30 years ago, he was a real Casanova. Anyway, the temptress Camila convinces Harry to divorce his wife and marry her, and thanks to the power of the pussy, he does. Darla gets custody and half his fortune, and Lucia gets raised as a spoiled rotten only child.”
“Hey now,” Lucia says.
“Are they still together?” I ask Lucia.
“Twenty-seven years.”
“That’s so romantic.”
“Is it?” She squints at her champagne glass.
“He followed his heart. And your mother sounds just like Victoria Childs, when she seduced the wealthy landowner Beaumont Rivage to secure his investment in her new cosmetics line, only she didn’t plan on falling in love.”
“That affair lasted a long time,” Cassius agrees.
“Until that horrific skiing accident in Bear Mountain,” I remind him.
“We’ve been watching a lot ofSunset Cove,” Cassius says to Lucia.
“Been there, done that,” she says. “Sunset Covehelped me get over the worst breakup of my life.”
“I wish I could live in Sunset Cove,” I tell them both. “Fancy parties, lavish vacations, so much excitement and drama all the time. It’s so different from where I grew up, where everything was about being humble and doing without.”
“How tragic,” Cassius says. “But, darling, look around you. You’re having brunch with two fabulous people, ordering a twenty-dollar omelet, and gossiping about Hollywood scandals.”
I smile, realizing my good fortune. “Don’t you ever get sick of being right all the time?”
He shakes his head. “Never.”
“My mother was really poor when she came to America,” Lucia says.
“Where is she from?” I ask.
“Dominican Republic.”
“Do you know where that is?” Cassius asks to test my geography. I did pretty terrible in school. I’m someone who learns by doing. Cassius is trying to make me more sophisticated so that I can be a good conversationalist when in the company of important people. Just the other day he tried to explain the distinction between a Chianti and a Sangiovese, but I honestly couldn’t taste the difference. Even now I’ve forgotten what it is, something about the grapes.
“Is it in Central America?” I ask.
Cassius smiles, which makes me think I got it right. Lucia also smiles, but she’s shaking her head.
