I was a lady in crimson and perfectly disguised.
Sliding my speech into my large structured clutch, I left the hotel room.
The Fairmont was nearly full by the time I made it downstairs. My guess was Kevin had let me wallow upstairs a bit longer than he’d led me to believe.
“We’ve been looking for you!” Leighton cheered as she came into view, gesturing her arms around her wildly. “Char, it looks fantastic!”
I turned my head and tried to see what she and the other guests were seeing. I’d been envisioning this for over a year, so I of all people could appreciate how well it had come together.
Everything from the walls to the tables was draped in heavy black suede and red silk. It made the room feel rich and luxurious, as though somehow you’d wandered into somewhere forbidden and been allowed to stay. The lighting was low and moody to capture the mystery of a masquerade, and exquisite floral arrangements of matching hues lined every walkway throughout this floor of the hotel, as well as the dance floor and stage.
“And you,” she whistled low, “you look sultry!”
Only Leighton would use a word like sultry to describe someone in regular conversation, and I loved that about her. She looked heart stopping in a low cut black dress that showed off her petite frame and a tiny lace mask.
That had also been a theme to the event; all guest were required to wear black or red, as well as a mask. It was, after all, a traditional masquerade, and aside from the staff or those speaking, everyone’s identity should remain relatively anonymous.
It was then I noticed the male hand at her waist and her use of the word ‘we.’
“We?” I asked, eyeing the man next to her.
“Char, this is Morgan.” Her date reached the hand not affixed to her waist out to me. “Morgan, this is my best friend, Charleston,” Leighton said with unabashed enthusiasm.
I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Morgan.”
“Great event,” he praised, which was kind, and I responded with a, “Thank you.”
Leighton turned to him and smiled. “Would you grab me a glass of champagne?”
Her voice was breathy, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Which, in all honesty, wasn’t fair. I didn’t know Morgan, and I was judging him based on the other men who’d, for lack of a better word, screwed her romantically. I didn’t know anything about their, what I gathered to be relatively new, relationship, and I was critiquing it immediately.
I guess that’s natural for the faint of heart though. Those too damaged to give in to hope are all essentially judging books by their covers, even though we had no intention of reading any of them. Sad, I supposed.
“Sure, babe.” He kissed her cheek and disappeared into the slew of people surrounding us.
Hurling herself at me, she wrapped her arms around my waist and squeezed. “How are you doing? You okay?”
“I will be.”
It was the lie I told her every year, at every one of Henry’s galas, when she asked. Truth was, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ‘okay.’ I hadn’t been ‘okay’ for a long time.
Letting go, she pulled back and smiled softly. “Yeah.”
“Who’s the guy?” I asked, eager for a change in conversation.
She beamed, smoothing out her dress. “I met him at work! He’s a lawyer on the floor above mine and we met in the elevator.”
She would meet a gorgeous man in an elevator like a made-for-TV movie, and he was gorgeous. His skin was a dark chocolate, and it made the green of his eyes seem as though they saw through you when he spoke. He was taller than me, which meant he towered over Leighton, and even I had to admit she looked adorable tucked protectively into his side.
The jaded parts of me worried for her, but I learned a long time ago not to rain on her parade. Leighton was a big girl and she made her own mistakes. Instead, I smiled back at her and wished that maybe Morgan just might be her Page Six happily ever after.
“You two look cute together,” I offered, and she jumped up and down.
“Don’t we?” She sighed, and I felt a small pang of jealousy for her never depleting romanticism.
It never mattered like that for me.
I could never fall the complete way she did.
Of course, I was only human, and thus hope did get the better of me from time to time, but unlike her, I despised hope.
Hope tricks you into believing in a reality that doesn’t exist.