Page 50 of Always

She took a cab to Gallow Green. Marco had asked her to meet them there, since he wanted to drive his father.

She took the elevator up to the top floor. As the doors slid open, she saw the space was more like a vast greenhouse than a restaurant. The paneled glass ceiling was strung with ropes of lights. All around the room and between the tables stood trellises, thickly carpeted with leaves and vines. Potted trees overhung the tables, and rows of lush green shrubbery formed the walkways for the waiters and the guests. Small lanterns glowed amongst the greenery, and candles flickered on the bare wooden tabletops.

Before she could finish giving her name to the host, Marco waved her over to their table. He had reserved the best spot, or perhaps charmed the host into giving it to him: a table right against the window, secluded beneath the boughs of a lemon tree, offering a stunning view of the sparkling lights of the city laid out below.

Dominic stood up to greet her, though Anika wished he wouldn’t—he looked gray and drawn, much thinner than the last time she’d seen him. But he was elegant as ever, his thick black hair combed back off his brow, and a silk square tucked in the breast pocket of his suit jacket. He took Anika’s hand and kissed her on both cheeks.

“So glad you could come, my dear,” he said warmly. “You look gorgeous as always.”

“She absolutely does,” Marco said, kissing her lightly on the lips and pulling out her chair for her.

“How have you been feeling?” she asked Dominic. She was afraid she could see the answer to that herself.

“My dear, there is nothing less interesting than another person’s health woes,” Dominic said. “Suffice it to say, I’m extremely glad to be here tonight.”

Dominic asked Anika a number of questions about the Red Line, and the upcoming celebratory dinner. He said he’d like to attend if he felt up to it.

They talked about Marco’s work as well—the celebrities he had locked in for the next round of advertisements (younger and trendier than the ones Dominic and Bennet had been wont to choose): Kylie Jenner, Zendaya, and Brie Larson. Marco also wanted to shift their focus from traditional advertisements in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, over to sponsored streetwear that would be deliberately photographed by paparazzi, as well as Instagram “candid” shots posted by the celebrities themselves.

“Whatever you think is best,” Dominic said placidly. “You’re in charge now Marco. I trust your judgement.”

Marco glowed with pleasure.

He had plans to open another retail store in Las Vegas, in the Crystals retail district, again to target a younger demographic.

Anika looked at Dominic to see how he would respond to this. She knew he considered Vegas tacky and gauche. He had always been protective of the refined image of Bennet Knight. But again, he only nodded.

“We have to keep progressing and improving,” Dominic said. “There’s growth and profitability, and there’s the moral side of things as well. We’ve stopped working with those unlicensed shops in Asia—we’ve got to keep on in that direction. Because it won’t be socially acceptable anymore, and also because it’s the right thing to do. Anika here, she’s always been a good influence on us. She was the first the voice that concern. She’s always been the warm heart of Bennet Knight, the one to remind us of our ideals and our responsibilities.”

He reached across the table to pat Anika’s hand.

“She’s a wonderful woman,” he said to Marco. “I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to see you settling down. There was a time that I worried about you, son. You can’t be a great man without a great woman beside you. I don’t like to criticize your mother, but we were not good partners to each other. Neither of us, I believe, reached the potential we could have. I’m relieved to see that won’t be your fate.”

Marco squeezed Anika’s thigh under the table. As she looked at his happy, handsome face, she thought that perhaps they really could accomplish great things together. Marco was ambitious, and they were part of the same world. She had her own ideas for Bennet Knight, not that she had ever shared them with her father or sister. But she could share them with Marco.

For a moment, she could see their future laid out in front of her: bold, vibrant, full of achievement and every possible pleasure. But as she looked into his dark green eyes, she couldn’t be certain if he was envisioning the same thing.

The dinner went on in perfect accord. Marco looked happier than she had ever seen him, and even the fact that his father ate very little didn’t seem to trouble him.

As they finished dessert—a wickedly rich flourless chocolate cake which Dominic left untouched—Dominic thanked Anika again for coming to meet them. As they parted at the bottom of the elevator, he placed his hand on her cheek as if in blessing.

“I wish I could take you home,” Marco whispered in her ear. “But I have to see him safely home.”

“I know,” Anika said, kissing him. “I’ll see you on Saturday. I’ll come home with you after the dinner.”

“I can’t wait,” Marco said.

* * *

18

To Anika’s great surprise, Bennet and Stella decided to attend the Red Line dinner, something they had never done in any previous year. To Anika, this showed the lengths to which Bennet was willing to go to stay on her good side, now that he believed his fate rested in her and Marco’s hands. Perhaps Stella felt the same, or perhaps she simply couldn’t stand to be left out anything if her father was going.

They all rode to the dinner together, in a car Bennet had ordered. Her father and sister were far more polite than usual. Bennet even mentioned an article in the Times about the growing number of Red Line graduates.

“It’s good press,” he said. “This whole venture might all be paying off after all.”

Yet, somehow, it all rang a bit hollow to Anika. She couldn’t take any pleasure in her power over them, and she found that their approval didn’t bring the satisfaction she had always imagined it would.