Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 526(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Most of all, there always seemed something held back with her.
Mystery was hard to deny, it drew you in, and the longer it took to get answers, the more hooked you got.
But it was this, that throaty laugh, the wide mouth exposing perfect teeth and highlighting how full and magnificent her lips were, her eyes lighting to the point they sparkled.
This was not only why she was attached to the most important people of any given moment, it was why she landed the most coveted men of any given moment.
It was, last, the first time since he’d met Genny that he wondered what it would feel like to kiss a woman.
No.
With Mika, he wondered what it would be like to taste her.
“You didn’t say anything,” she spoke, thankfully taking his mind from that last thought. “When your friend was off on one at the gallery, you didn’t say anything. I was worried you were like him. And I was disappointed. I knew who you were, and I thought I knew that on a deeper level, after what you did for your wife.”
Tom was confused. “What I did for my wife?”
“That casting couch thing. How you nipped that in the bud.” When he silently stared at her, she assured, “It’s quiet, Tom, but you must know it got around.”
“You’re the only one who’s ever mentioned it to me.”
Her head tipped to the side. “Does that upset you?”
“I don’t really give a fuck how many people know that degenerate got called on his bullshit. What I give a fuck about is if it affects my wife and her career, because she’s worked very hard to get where she is.”
She righted her head and decreed, “So you’re a good one. So far, I’ve only met three. Not including the gays, that is. The gays rocket the numbers into scores.”
“Sorry?”
“A good guy, Tom,” she explained.
“I hope so.”
“Did you like my piece?”
She was talking about her microscope.
“I hadn’t decided,” he admitted. “I hadn’t been able to view all seven of the slides.”
“Seven,” she said in a strange voice.
“Yes, seven. Aren’t I right? There were seven slides?”
“There were, it just touches me that was what? Two, three years ago? One piece in an installation of thirty, and all the life you’ve lived in between, and you still remember there were seven slides.”
“Join. Sharing. Sky. Brotherhood. Dreamer. And…”
“Life and us,” she said softly.
“Sorry, I forgot the last two,” he muttered.
“No, five out of seven isn’t bad.”
“But I would have liked it, if Andrew hadn’t been acting like he was, and I’d been able to experience it without that negativity.”
Constant eye contact from Mika, always, including when she said, “He’s not a good guy.”
“I learned that at the gallery.”
“No, Tom, he is not a good guy.”
More eye contact, heavy with meaning, before he murmured, “Fuck.”
“Indeed.”
“You?” he asked, remembering how Patsy noted he’d made a pass at Mika.
She shook her head.
“Someone you know.”
She nodded her head.
“Should I…is there something I should do?” he inquired.
Now there was eye contact, but she was blinking.
“Do?” she queried.
“I’m on the circuit, as is he…but even if I wasn’t.”
“Tom, stop.”
“What?”
“Stop.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re happily married, and I am not.”
He shut up.
“There’s nothing you can do anyway,” she went on. “It’s up to her, and sadly, I don’t think she has the courage. I don’t blame her. If she breathed a word, him and the machine around him would chew her up and spit her out. The caliber of your sponsors is impressive, but his aren’t shoddy.”
Tom felt his neck getting hot.
“It’s a long road we’re on, and while we traverse it, we have to pave the way so the women can speak,” she noted.
“I’ll keep an eye,” Tom stated, the words so heavy, they landed like stones, so she couldn’t have missed it.
And she didn’t.
“He doesn’t do it out in the open.”
Very slowly, Tom repeated, “I’ll keep an eye. And an ear.”
For a moment, she said nothing.
Then she repeated, “Yes. You’re a good one.”
* * *
Several hours later…
Eleanor’s dinner was done, and considering the fact that Mika and he were younger than anyone there by approximately forty years, after a hurried digestif, the end of dinner ended the party.
This meant now they were in a bar and Mika was laughing.
“It sounds like you’re going to need to keep an eye on her,” she noted.
They were talking about his oldest, Chloe.
“She’s a pistol,” he agreed. “Just like her grandmother, which both relieves me, because she’ll suck the marrow out of life and I love that for her, and terrifies me, because she’ll stop at nothing to suck the marrow out of life, no matter who she has to steamroll to do it.”
Mika just smiled at him.
“And Matt is her opposite,” he continued. “Quiet. Watchful. At first, I thought it was because Chloe overshadowed him. She’s such a big personality, his couldn’t shine through. But that’s just how he is. It’s almost a blessing for him. Chloe can grab all the attention, which means he can be off on his own, doing his thing.”