“I wish I had boobs like yours,” Elise said.
“You wouldn’t be able to stand up,” Kathy shot back, then put her hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”
But Elise and Olivia laughed and got up and went to the kitchen. Minutes later, they had a banquet of wine and chips and dip on the coffee table.
It had been a long time since Kathy had some good, old-fashioned girl time. Between her father and Ray, both of them men who demanded a lot—and got it—she didn’t have much of a chance for girl talks. To those two men, if it wasn’t something that would lead to making money, why bother discussing it?
Now these women were watching her in silence, waiting for her to tell them what happened. Elise had poured her heart out and Kathy knew she should do the same. But she’d never told anyone the truth about what had happened. But then, who could understand the power of Bert Cormac and Ray Hanran? The few times Kathy had tried to describe them to women friends, they’d thrown up their hands in horror. “You should get away from them,” they’d said. “Stand up to the tyrants.” “Be good to yourself.” On and on. Sometimes women’s “support” lacked understanding—or variety.
Kathy didn’t dare tell anyone that there was a part of her that loved the challenge, loved the fireworks that a life near those men created.
Fireworks, she thought. Yes, that described Ray exactly. In the rare moments when he was quiet, he was like an unlit bomb. And the endless attention he gave her—even if it was to find his lost papers—was exciting.
Kathy took a breath, picked up the glass of cold white wine that Olivia had poured for her, and took a sip.
“Poor Dolores,” she began. “It was one of Dad’s black-tie balls, two floors down in our building, and meant to impress his clients. Not that Bert Cormac would know a white tie from a clown’s bow tie. He left arranging the entire party up to me.”
She took another sip. “You have to understand that my father and my husband love each other. Father-son love. Fishing buddies love. Besties. Clones, actually. So when Dad realized that he had to go a black-tie event without Ray there, he had me send for him.”
“Wait,” Olivia said. “Ray said you helped him, but I didn’t realize you worked for the company.”
“You mean get a paycheck, dental, that sort of thing? I don’t. Bert Cormac believes in family—or that’s what he says. To him that means I do the work of three employees and never receive acknowledgment or pay. And certainly not any thanks.”
Olivia was looking at her in disgust.
But Elise was smiling. “That silk shirt you have on is Italian and retails for over a grand. And the stones in that necklace are real. I think you’re compensated.”
Kathy gave a slow smile. “I am my father’s daughter.”
At her tone, Olivia snuggled into the couch. “I think I’m beginning to like you, Kathy Hanran. So Ray was told to return from his business trip and he called a girl from Brooklyn to be his date.”
“Exactly,” Kathy said. “And I found her in the restroom crying. Not to be catty, but she should have cried. She looked horrible! She had on a purple polyester dress with a set of rhinestone jewelry that came from the Dollar Store. Literally. And her hair! Ghastly. But Ray had given her three hours to get ready—which included buying a dress—and she’d done the best she could.”
“Why didn’t she say no?” Elise asked.
Olivia spoke before Kathy could. “I have a feeling that when Ray turns on the charm it’s almost impossible to say no to him.”
“You’re right,” Kathy said. “The first thing I did was get her out of that public restroom. I had a key to Dad’s office and I kept a box of cosmetics in his bathroom. I thought I’d take a shot at repairing her face. I couldn’t fix that dress, but I could get rid of the purple eyeshadow.”
Kathy drank more wine. “I think I should add something about that night. I thought I had a boyfriend, Larry. We’d met a couple of months before and he was so attentive that he’d almost blocked Andy out of my mind.”
“I take it Andy is the unattainable one?” Olivia said.
“The one who never looked at me. His office was near Ray’s so I hung out nearby every time I went into the city. I was hoping that Andy would notice me. But he never did.”
When Olivia glanced at Elise, Kathy understood. “Let me guess. Ray told you I was near his office because I had a crush on him.”
Elise and Olivia nodded.
Kathy gave a little laugh. “I do know my husband. Anyway, that night I was feeling great, full of love for the world, so I wanted to help the girl. She was short, so I had her sit on the bathroom counter while I fixed her face and we began to talk.”
Chapter Twelve
“Ray won’t let me break up with him.” Dolores was sniffing. “I’ve tried. He agrees but then he shows up at my door and...” When she shrugged, the hideous dress nearly fell off her bony shoulders. She was only about five feet tall and didn’t weigh a hundred pounds. Next to Ray she looked like a lost child.
Kathy was using a Q-tip to remove the mascara from under Dolores’s eyes. “Ray is like my dad. He wants to win, no matter what the prize.”
Dolores looked surprised, as though she couldn’t believe someone like Kathy could know him so well. “That’s Ray, all right!”
Kathy began to replace the eyeshadow with four shades of brown, blending each color into the other. “What Mom and I used to do is figure out a way to make Dad do what we wanted him to. You need to make Ray stay away from you.”
“How do I do that?” Dolores looked like she was going to start crying again. “I’ve yelled at him. Slammed doors in his face. There isn’t a name I haven’t called him. But it doesn’t matter what I say because he does this thing to my ear, then it’s panties gone. It’s like they just drop off of me.”
Kathy’s eyes were wide.
“Now you’re shocked. I better leave.”
“No!” Kathy said. “I’m not shocked. I’m jealous. I wish my boyfriend did that.”
Dolores sighed. “That’s the way it always is. You want what Ray gives me and he wants me to be elegant and refined, like you are. You think any people who match ever get together?”
Kathy stepped back to look at her work. Much better! “Not that I’ve seen. Just to be clear, my boyfriend’s parents think I come from low-class working stock. To them, I’m one step up from being the garbage collector’s daughter. They’re surprised that I don’t eat peas with a knife.”
Dolores laughed. “You’re nice.”
“I try to be. What if you and I do something so awful that Ray has to break up with you?” Kathy wiped the red rouge off Dolores’s cheeks and put on some peach-colored blush. “Is there someone else at home who you like?”
“Yeah. Donnie. But he’s seen me with Ray so he’s too scared to get near me.”
“If this works, invite me to the wedding.”
*
Kathy looked back at Olivia and Elise. “We made a plan to wait until Ray was on the far side of the room, then she’d spill her drink on me—it was club soda—and she’d bawl me out. It almost failed because when Dolores said I looked at her like she was the garbage collector’s daughter who eats peas off a knife, I choked up. I had to leave the room so nobody would see me laughing.”
“If all that worked so well, what made you cry?” Elise asked.
“I...” Kathy took a breath. “This is a difficult memory to go back to.”
“And my story was easy for me? Leaving Alejandro? Hearing him tell me I still needed to make up my mind? That I should—?” She broke off at Olivia’s look. “Okay, sorry. But you need to confess.”
Nodding, Kathy took another drink of her wine. “I’d left my clutch in my father’s bathroom so I went back to get it.” She looked at Olivia. “Have you ever had a single moment in your life that changed everything?”