Page 41 of The Dancer and the Dark
“I would love to see you, but I highly advise not coming here in the summer.” She’d caught the Saint Charles streetcar from her dance studio in Touro, so it was only a short walk home, but it was still summer and the sun was barely setting. “Do you see how much I’m sweating?”
His face got huge on the screen for a second. “Ew. Now I do. Yuck.”
Audra laughed silently, and Chloe rolled her eyes.
“You look great too. Thanks.”
“I mean, of course you look beautiful. Blah blah blah. Newly engaged woman happily in love with her hunk of a filthy-rich Scotsman and all that. Of course you look fierce and breathtaking. But… I’m just saying your hair is bigger than usual.”
“Oh my God, it’s so big, right?” Chloe shook her head and felt the mass of her curls swaying around her. “It’s like, crazy big.” She had yet to master a hair routine that would last through Southern Louisiana humidity. “I don’t know what to do with it. I may end up just doing braids or something.”
“Ignore me!” Arthur waved at someone off camera. “I like the hair, but also braids would be super fun. Everyone misses you. How’s your mom?”
Chloe shrugged as she sidestepped orange cones marking torn-up brick walkways. “She seems okay. I was hoping with everything that happened, she might be a little more…”
“Not herself?”
“That’s the thing, isn’t it?” Chloe waited for a line of cars to pass on Coliseum. “We had next to no relationship before, and losing my father didn’t bring about any great reconciliation. I’m not surprised, but I’m kind of disappointed, I guess.”
Arthur stared at her through the camera.
“What?” Chloe asked.
“I just wish you were home right now. I can’t be your pest of a best friend when you’re so far away. Also, I cannot give you hugs and that’s annoying.”
She pressed her phone to her chest and kissed the screen. “Any better?”
“No. Ew. I love you, but you’re so sweaty.” Arthur waved at someone else. “Drew and I are going to his fancy friend’s house in the Hamptons this weekend, and I am so grateful I didn’t listen to all my bitchy friends who gave me shit about hooking up with a banker, because none oftheirhusbands or wives have fancy friends with fancy houses in cool places by the beach, do they?”
“Gavin has a house in Bali, but I haven’t been yet. Can you believe that? Bali.”
“Fine! Your husband is way way way richer than mine—you don’t have to rub it in.”
She smiled. “We’re only here for six months or so. But we are probably going to do the wedding down here because Gavin’s aunt wants to host and she’s all excited and since I don’t like planning events, I just want her to do everything and I’ll show up. As soon as we have a date in the fall, I’ll tell you.”
“I cannot believe I didn’t know Gavin has a fabulous Black aunt in New Orleans who speaks French and runs the most amazing burlesque club in the Southern United States.” Arthur looked like he was jumping up and down. “I mean, this explains so much.”
“What does it explain?”
“Oh!” Arthur waved at someone else. “Okay, I’m at B&J and I have to go.” He blew a kiss at the screen. “We need to talk about your dress next week because I’ll murder you if anyone else designs it and no one wants that. Hi to Gavin and be good and I love you.”
Arthur disappeared just as Chloe turned the corner onto Chestnut Street.
“So Arthur seems…” Audra waited at the gate. “Exactly like Arthur.”
“Yep.” She waved at Audra, who was living in a rented house a block away with Gavin’s other security staff. “See you tomorrow.”
“Let me know if anything changes; just text.”
“Will do.”
Chloe punched in an electronic code to open the wrought iron gate, using her hip to wedge the door open while she carried her workout bag and two sacks of groceries from the green market.
Gavin’s property in New Orleans was surrounded by a high hedge that shielded the palatial house from prying eyes. It had a wraparound porch and two second-story balconies to accommodate the discriminating wind vampire.
The night air smelled of lilac and myrtle from the two enormous bushes that framed the kitchen door. A slow-moving draft followed her up the steps and into the kitchen door, teasing the back of her legs.
Chloe smiled; Gavin was awake and knew she was home.
