1
“Hello?”
“How did your job interview go honey?” my mother’s soft voice asks on the other end of the phone. “It looks promising. They said they’ll call me in two weeks,” I say as I maneuver my car out of the parking lot.
I’ve been job hunting for the last three months with no prospects at all. I got fired from my last secretarial job when Mrs. Donald caught Mr. Donald trying to seduce me. Allan Donald is a true gentleman… that is, he was before his usual cocktail concoction of gin and brandy for breakfast… then he became a little comfortable. It wasn’t the first time I had slapped his hand away, but this time, Carla Donald was there to witness it and fired me on the spot.
“I called because Patricia’s back in town and wants you to join us for lunch at The Four Seasons.”
Patricia Tatum is my godmother as well as my mother’s best friend since they were in diapers. She married Hugh Tatum, a very well-known import/export business man who is also a major financial backer for Hollywood blockbuster films.
“What time? It’s almost noon.” I glance back at the clock on the dashboard.
“Well, yes, dear, we need you to meet us right now.” My mom sounds a tad urgent.
“Sure. See you in a bit.” It’s almost lunchtime and my stomach growls.
A simple lunch at The Four Seasons would just be super!
What could possibly go wrong?
My appetite, apparently, as my godmother announces the reason behind this sudden lunch date.
I blink a few times, taken aback from what has just spouted off her rouge-tinted lips. “Excuse me? Did you just say Drake’s thinking of marriage?” I look at Patricia like she’s just offended me.
Well, I suppose anything that involves Drake I would find offensive. Good or bad.
“Yes, and to a monstrous, gold-digging, horrible woman!” Patricia dabs the sides of her eyes. The woman was a complete mess when I joined them five minutes prior and she has only slightly calmed in the time since.
Her words sink in, slowly and start gnawing inside me. Drake Tatum’s planning on marriage? No shit?
I don’t know if I should be happy or cry a freaking dam of tears to that news. Drake Tatum used to be the center of my universe. He was my first love and the first man I ever made love to… as well as the very same man who walked away like I was diseased the very day after he took my virginity.
Drake’s two years older than me which means he’s now engaged at the age of twenty-eight. Isn’t that a bit early for a well-known ‘man whore’ to marry?
Oh yeah, Drake’s long line of women are quite known around Hollywood. He dates up and coming actresses, models, musicians and so forth, his notoriety is legendary. He’s working alongside his father. After spending a lot of his time studying in Columbia, then staying around New York after he graduated. He comes to Los Angeles periodically from what I’ve gathered from my mother and Patricia. Not to mention, what I know from Google… I couldn’t help searching for the man every once in a while.
“…would that work for you, Dear?” my mom, Hope, asks. Both women looked at me like I had the answer for salvation.
“Huh? Sorry my mind went off somewhere…” Yeah, somewhere that shouldn’t have Drake in it. He’s the epitome of a player; an insensitive jerk and a two-timing prick to boot! The absolute worst of the worst.
“I was asking if you would be Drake’s personal assistant for a while. His recent one just quit because his fiancée, Shannon, drove the poor girl crazy.”
HUH?
“Me? I don’t want to work with Drake. He and I hate each other for crying out loud!” Everybody knows it. I haven’t even laid eyes on him since I was eighteen and I want to keep it that way.
“Please, Lily, my son’s future is on the line here. All I need for you to do is report to me about Shannon and make her a little jealous.” Patricia stops me before I can object. “I’ve met her and she’s nothing but fake. I know you and Drake don’t get along; however, please, can’t you do this? Hugh and I are desperate here.”
“Even Hugh hates her?” How is that possible? Hugh loves everyone, as long as they’re not against him in the business arena; he’s all hugs and kisses.
Patricia nods. “Will you do this for us honey? You’re like a daughter to me, Lil. I would appreciate it if you could lend us a hand.”
Man, she used the ‘you’re like my daughter’ line. How can I say no to that? If I ever had a second mom, it would be Patricia. I did grow up with them treating me like I was their own. Hugh and my father became close over the years as well. My father’s death when I was seventeen only made our bond with the Tatum’s even stronger.
I finally concede. “Okay, I’ll do it for you and Hugh.”
Patricia gets up and hugs me. “Thank you, Lil! I knew I could count on you!” She kisses my forehead and squeezes my hand before going back to her chair.
“Now all you have to do is try not to kill each other before fixing this problem with Shannon, hmmm?” My mother quirks her dark eyebrows at me.
“We shall see,” I murmur.
I spend another hour with them, but skip the spa ritual that Patricia and Mom always indulge in after lunch; wanting to be alone. They do this once or twice a week and won’t miss me, anyway. My thoughts keep wandering around Drake; ever since Patricia mentioned him, I have been having a hard time getting him off my mind. Drake and I grew up together. We were inseparable and I worshipped the ground that he walked on from about the age of eight, I think. I suppose I loved him so much that I didn’t see any of his flaws back then. Even at that young age, Drake was already a handsome kid. His clear, grey eyes never failed to capture and hold me in a trance.
Everything changed the summer after I turned eighteen, though.