Read The Seduction - Art Bourgeau for Free Online

damn
sudden one, considering his obsession with teeny-teens in white
panties . . .
    "That's not the way it is at all," Missy
said. "She's just a friend from the paper who's trying to help
out." Which, ironically, happened to be the case.
    Lois nodded, not wanting, like some others, to rub it
in, but not convinced either.
    Missy, needing relief, not an argument, lowered her
tone and smiled. "Want some?" she said as she took the
cover off a matchbook and began to divide the white powder into lines
on the compact's mirror.
    "Maybe just a line," said Lois.
    "Like I said, this is what we've both been
working for, and we're both happy as can be. Oh, I'll miss him, sure,
but New York's just a train ride away so we'll see a lot of each
other and I'll get to meet a whole new group of people in New York,"
she said, rolling a twenty dollar bill into a tube and handing it to
Lois, smiling until she felt her face would crack. Crack . . . not
for her, for the peasants . . .
    "I must say, Missy, you're taking this a lot
better than I would," Lois said. "When you took Carl Laredo
under your wing he was a hick. Without you, he'd still be a pig's
ear."
    Even in her anger Missy knew this was not strictly
true. When they met, Carl had just come back from living in France
and knew more about food, art and wine than anyone she'd ever known.
Including herself.
    Lois, who had bent down to the powder on the
compact's mirror, looked at the rolled-up twenty and straightened up.
    "Don't you have anything larger than this? I
never like to snort with anything as small as a twenty. You can never
tell whose nose it's been up."
    Missy threw back her head and laughed a loud, genuine
laugh. "Lois, did anyone ever tell you that you can be a cunt?"
    "Only Justin, and that was in the heat of
passion," she said with a demure smile. "And speaking of
passion, or an approximation thereof, I saw Felix at Carl's table.
What do you think of him?"
    "He's . . . nice-looking but I didn't pay much
attention . . ."
    "Oh, well, I just thought you might have noticed
him. He's an old friend of Justin's from New Orleans. Made a fortune
developing real estate. I believe that's what he's doing here, some
big project or other. Of course there's more to it . . . his ex-wife
lives here and Justin thinks he wants to get back together with her."
    Missy had no comment, finished her cocaine and put
her compact back in her purse.
    Lois, though, wasn't finished on the subject of Mr.
Felix. "You probably know her . . . Susan Ducroit? She lives in
the Locust Towers on Fifteenth Street and owns the Pine Street
Charcuterie."
    Missy nodded abruptly, picked up her purse, took a
glance in the mirror to be sure her makeup was fresh and no telltale
powder was clinging to her nostrils, and started for the door . . .An
uneasy silence settled over the table, and she knew immediately they
had been talking about her.
    Once she was seated Carl leaned toward her. "You
okay?"
    Not looking at Laura, she said, "Of course I'm
okay. Aren't I always, darling?"
    Laura was looking at Carl. "It's getting late,
Carl. Don't you think we should go back to your loft to make sure the
caterer is finished? The crowd from the Spectrum should be arriving
any time now."
    "What crowd from the Spectrum——?" Missy
could have bitten her tongue. It was the damn cocaine loosening it.
    "The rock group Fraternization is playing there
tonight," Carl said uneasily. "They're coming over after
the show for a little get-together . . . Why don't you and Felix here
come around—"
    She and Felix? What a nervy thing to do. Well, she
wasn't someone to be laid off on a stranger . . . even one that
strangely moved her . . . like a three-eyed cousin. Not after all
she'd done for him. Lois was right—he was a hick, all the acquired
French culture notwithstanding.
    Truth to tell, below her anger she had never felt
more vulnerable in her whole life than at this moment. Mostly she was
the strong one, in charge, and the one time she needed