As impressed as Angela was with the car, I restrained myself from really letting it rip on the way to lunch at the place that Jimmy had taken me to that first time. Just enough speed to give her a rush, but not enough to get my blood pumping at all.
When we pulled into the lunch place’s parking lot, Angela took the opportunity to ask me to take a few pics of her with the car. In the driver's seat, leaning against it, stepping out of the driver’s side door, so on. I used her phone to snap the photos, and she seemed happy with the results.
After we were seated, Angela started acting funny. She kept touching my hand, and leaning in and acting coquettish- very flirty, smiling at me and generally acting like we were a thing. Eventually, I had to straight-up ask what was going on.
“Don’t look, but there’s a guy over there at that table off to your left and a little behind you. He’s one of Antonio’s friends. I want to make it seem like I’ve, um, moved on, and you’re my girlfriend now. Is that O.K.?”
“Oh, Jeeze,” I said. “I can understand where you’re coming from, and generally I’d be O.K. with that, but if there are any paparazzi and they shoot pictures of me flirting with you, it’ll be all over the tabloids. ‘Leah cheats on Emmy with Instagram model!’ will be up on TMZ by the end of the day.”
“I haven’t seen any paparazzi, but if you’re worried, I can stop,” Angela said.
“You know what? I guess it doesn’t matter. Emmy knows it’s all bullshit anyway, and I don’t really care what the gossip sites say, anyway,” I said, taking her hand in mine. We made goo goo eyes at each other all lunch long, even though we could barely keep from laughing. It was silly, but I’d had far too little of that sort of light-hearted meaningless goofing around in a very long time.
Eventually the guy left, and the giggles that Angela and I had been holding in finally broke free.
“You should have seen the look on his face!” Angela said. “That was great!”
“Do you think he’s still in contact with Antonio?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” Angela said, with a shrug. “But they know a lot of the same people, and word will get around, I’m sure.”
“I hope that this somehow doesn’t come back to haunt you,” I said as I paid the bill.
“Honestly, I don’t care. I’ve traded up, baby,” she said, batting her eyes at me.
Laughing as we walked out into the parking lot, I saw a familiar figure standing by my car.
“Dude!” Jimmy called out as we approached. “Duuuuude!”
“Wassuuuuuuup!” I replied.
“Nuttin’. Just watching the game, having a Bud,” Jimmy said as we bumped fists.
Angela watched the whole exchange with a look of complete ‘WTF?’ on her face.
“God damn, Liz,” Jimmy said, looking Angela over. “You’re married to the sexiest woman alive, and your side chick is just as smokin’ hot!”
“She’s a fitness magazine model,” I said with a smirk, not even bothering to try to correct his assumption.
“Angela Castro, right?” Jimmy asked, turning to her. “I follow your Insta.”
“That’s awesome!” she said, breaking out in a huge smile. “Let’s take a selfie!” she suggested, and the two quickly posed, snapped the photo and uploaded it, tagged and all in a mind-bogglingly short amount of time.
“Lizzie,” Jimmy said when they finished. “Out for a drive? I saw your car and was hoping we could maybe get a little driving in?”
“I’ve got time for a road or two,” I said, nodding. Then, remembering I wasn’t the only one involved, I asked Angela, “You don’t mind, do you?”
“I’ve got nothing else to do,” she said with a shrug.
“You lead the way, Jimmy,” I said, and we all climbed into our respective cars for a couple of hours of hooning up and down the narrow, winding roads of the Malibu Hills. Angela was a really good sport about it, but I could tell she was a bit out of her comfort zone a lot of the time.
Eventually we had to stop for gas and head home.
“How was that, Angela?” Jimmy asked when she got out of the Aston, a little bit wobbly.
“Mostly terrifying, but a little bit fun, too,” she said.
“You gonna join us tomorrow morning?”
“Tomorrow morning?” she asked, puzzled.
“We do this every Saturday morning. Me, Liz, and a bunch of other guys,” Jimmy explained while I pumped gas.
“Like what we just did?”
“Yeah, like that,” Jimmy confirmed.
“What if you guys crash?” Angela asked.
“Don’t worry,” Jimmy said, reassuringly. “You’re too pretty to die.” Of course, I almost spilled gas everywhere as I broke out laughing, but I managed to keep it under control.
After leaving Jimmy, we cruised at a mellow pace back to the apartment. About halfway home, Angela seemed as if she wanted to say something, but was having trouble finding the words.
“What is it?” I asked after she started to speak but then clammed up a second time.
“That guy, Jimmy, are the other guys you drive with like him?”
“Nobody else is like Jimmy,” I said. “Nobody.”
“What are they like, then?”
“One’s an actor, another one is a lawyer, I have no idea what Stein does for a living, and I guess I don’t know what Geoff does, either. I think Jimmy just mooches off his parents’ money,” I explained. “Most of the guys are in their thirties or forties, and seem like reasonably normal guys. At least, compared to Jimmy, anyhow.”
“But you all drive like that?”
“Some of the guys are faster, some a little slower,” I said. “Jimmy is maybe one of the slower in the group, which is why I had him lead.”
“It seemed like you wanted to pass him a few times,” Angela said, thinking back.
“Nah, I just wanted him to know I could if I wanted,” I said with a laugh. “Gotta keep him on his game.”
Angela remained silent for a while, finally saying what she’d been thinking about while we were in the elevator.
“You’re really, um, tough,” she said. “I mean, you race cars, you kickbox, you run your own company…” she trailed off, not sure what else to say. I didn’t say anything, just let her form up her thoughts.
Changing the subject, she said, “Jimmy called me your side girl. He thought we’re having an affair.”
“I doubt he actually does,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Jimmy just loves to say outrageous things to get a reaction.”
“Why does he call you Lizzie?”
“I have theories, but I don’t actually know for sure,” I answered with a laugh as we walked into the apartment.
After checking my email and grabbing a bottle of Perrier from the fridge, I told Angela I was headed to the new house to check on things. To my surprise, she asked if she could come along. I suggested that maybe she should change into something more appropriate for walking around a construction site, so she quickly threw on a normal pair of jeans and an oversized hoodie, doing a great job of hiding her amazing figure.
Stolen story; please report.
I didn’t expect to find too many guys working at the new house, so I was quite surprised to see it was extremely busy when we got there. I parked the M6 off to one side of the ‘motor court’, away from the workers’ trucks and far away from where the Bobcat was busily excavating for the new pool.
To my even greater surprise, Ned was there in person, overseeing the work.
“You guys are really going at it for a Friday afternoon,” I said as the three of us walked around the site.
“We’ll be here tomorrow, too,” Ned said. “Well, most of us, anyway. A few of the guys don’t want to work Saturdays, even though the pay is good. Can’t blame ‘em, a guy’s gotta do what’s right for himself, you know? But most of the guys are happy to take the extra green home.”
“How are the neighbors taking the noise and dust?” I asked.
“We’ve only had one complaint, and a promise to not make noise before eight on the weekends seemed to do the trick there,” Ned said. “Truth is, there’s so much work going on all throughout this neighborhood, it’s just background noise any more. Everybody’s gotten used to it.”
Ned showed us that all of the interior demo work was done and the new framing was almost complete and ready for inspection, electrical was coming along and the plumbing was roughed in, so things were humming along nicely. I had a few questions, but Ned had ready answers, which helped reassure me that he really was on top of things and wasn’t letting anything slip.
“I can’t believe this is going to be your house,” Angela said as we stood in the tower, watching some workmen install new low-e panes in the big windows that gave a three-hundred and sixty degree view. “It’s so… enormous!”
“That’s what she said,” I joked, and one of the window guys broke out laughing.
“But really, most of all of this is still going to be a video and audio production facility. Our house is only going to be, like, twenty per cent of this space. Honestly, it would have been a lot easier to have renovated this place and kept it as it was designed, and just bought the house next door to live in,” I said.
“Yeah, but that wouldn’t have been nearly as cool a project as this,” the window guy volunteered.
“No, that’s absolutely true,” I agreed. “This place is going to be amazing.”
Driving back to Century City, I said, “I’m really looking forward to moving onto the new place. It’ll be nice to settle down and make a home that feels permanent, you know?”
“You said you guys are renting the condo in the Century,” Angela said, confirming that we never intended to be there very long.
“Yeah, we needed a place while we found our footing here in LA, you know? But it seems as if we’re going to have our ducks in a row pretty soon.”
Back at the condo, I was going through the end-of-the week report from Michael when Emmy came home. She seemed tired, but happy, so I suggested we order in and just relax at home.
“Is Angela home?” Emmy asked as she sat on my lap and cuddled into my arms.
“Yeah, she’s in her room,” I said. “I haven’t seen her in a couple of hours, though. Maybe she’s taking a nap or something.”
“Will she want dinner with us?”
“I imagine so,” I replied. “I don’t know how much you guys have talked about things, but it seems like she’s pretty, um, reliant on us, I guess. She doesn’t have her own car, and from what what I’ve gathered, she really didn’t have much in the way of friends of her own here in Los Angeles, either. She was almost entirely dependent on Antonio in a whole lot of ways.” Thinking about it for a moment, I added, “I also think she might be worried about what she’s going to do when the new house is ready. I kinda think she’s worried that she’ll be out on her own then.”
“I have gotten some of those same impressions from her,” Emmy agreed. “I do not want to give the impression I think of her as a stray kitten that we took in and now must feed and care for, but that is not too inaccurate an analogy.”
“Yeah, I’m never gonna tell her that,” I groaned.
I went on to tell Emmy about my day, and how Angela and I had played it up at lunch.
“Do you think that man believed you and Angela were lovers?”
“I dunno,” I admitted. “I’m not sure it matters. If he did, then Angela has successfully communicated to that circle of Antonio’s friends that she’s moved on. If he didn’t, he’d realize that she was putting on a show for him to make the point that she’d moved on, right?”
“That almost made sense,” Emmy laughed, getting a smile from me.
“And then Jimmy saw my car in the parking lot and was waiting when we finished lunch,” I said. “That meeting went about the way you might expect.”
“Jimmy is a very funny guy,” Emmy said, smiling at the thought. “Was he with his sister?”
“No, no sign of her. Just him.” We sat in silence for a moment, then I said, “Oh, and we stopped by the new house. Work is coming along at an amazing pace. Ned’s really doing his best to earn that early completion bonus I promised him.”
“That is great!” Emmy said. “Did you ask him to prioritize the recording studio parts of the project so we can use the space soon?”
“I’d sent him an email about that a while back, but now that I’ve seen how things are going, I’m not sure that’ll really work. So much activity and noise is happening that I’m not sure you’d be able to do anything even if they got the recording studio finished tomorrow.”
A look of understanding and disappointment fell over Emmy’s charcoal-colored face at that. “That makes sense,” she admitted, crestfallen.
Hating to see her so downcast, I said, “Let me call Ned and talk to him. If the studio gets finished early and the soundproofing is good enough, you might be able to use it after all to practice and rehearse. Maybe you just don’t actually, you know, record anything until after all the workers have gone home for the day.”
"That could work,” Emmy said, hope lighting up her features. “We have given up entirely on the space we rented, and rehearsing at Lee’s house is difficult. The neighbors have complained several times now.”
“That sucks,” I said. “Soon we’ll have the new place, and you’ll have all the room and soundproofing you need to make as much noise as you want.”
“That sounds like heaven,” Emmy sighed. “Just like heaven.”
“Hey,” I said. “How about you take a nice, relaxing bath and I’ll call downstairs for dinner. Maybe we can turn on the tube and watch a movie or something.”
“That sounds like heaven,” Emmy said in exactly the same voice as before, making me laugh. “I’d like a California roll, and some edamame.”
Emmy made no move to get up off my lap, even when I gave her a little nudge to get moving.
“You gotta get up if you want that bath,” I said, gently.
“I do not want to get up. I am too tired,” Emmy said, leaning in to me.
“Do you need some help?” I asked.
“That sounds like heaven,” Emmy repeated one more time.
Smiling at my lazy little princess, I stood up, picking her up in my arms. She squeaked with surprise at the move, but failed to hide her smile as I carried her into the bedroom. I set her gently on the bed so I could untie the laces on the Doc Marten boots she’d taken to wearing almost every day. I slid her socks off her delicate feet, then unbuttoned her dress and slid it up and off. Her panties were last, leaving her bare. I took a moment to go start her bath water, splashing a little bit of the French jasmine oil in the water as it started to fill. I drew the shade about two thirds of the way closed, so the late afternoon light would be reduced to a nice, soft glow.
Returning to the bedroom, I scooped Emmy up in my arms, getting another barely-hidden smile for my efforts. I carried her into the bathroom, setting her gently on her feet next to the enormous tub.
The water level was just about right, so I shut it off as Emmy stepped into the hot, fragrant water, sinking down with a contented sigh.
“Thank you, Leah. This is wonderful.”
“My pleasure, baby,” I said as I knelt next to the tub and gingerly sank my hand in the scalding water to fish out one of Emmy’s feet, which I then began to rub, massaging the arch, the instep, the base of her pretty little toes, and so on. Groaning with pleasure, Emmy asked, “Why did I wait so long to come home? I could have been enjoying this hours ago!”
“I wasn’t home hours ago, either,” I said, stroking Emmy’s smooth calf. “But I would have come home if I’d known this was waiting for me.”
“Will you join me in the bath?” Emmy asked, hopefully.
“No, sorry,” I said. “I’ve got to call in dinner, and get back to my emails.”
“Work? But it is after hours on a Friday night!”
“No, not work, per se. I was just reading Michael’s weekly report, and it seems like things are going pretty well in the Midwest, but there might be some problems in Chicago. He wanted to know if there’s a possibility we might be able to put in an appearance. I was just working on a response when you came home.”
“What are you going to tell him?”
“Next week I can’t leave LA, but the week after, if it’s still necessary, I can fly out, and maybe you can, too.”
“I could take a few days off from work with Lee and Jackson the week after next,” Emmy confirmed.
“Also, Luisa sent me a bunch of pictures of how things are going there at the townhouse, and I was happy with most of it, but I had some questions I need to shoot to Erich and Charlie there in New York. Maybe if we have to go to Chicago anyway, we can head over there for a day or two?”
“How will you be able to miss school, since it will just be starting?” Emmy asked.
“I have class Tuesday and Thursday nights, so we’d fly out late night Thursday and make sure we’re back no later than mid afternoon on Tuesday. That gives us four full days back East.”
“That will give Luisa a chance to work on her portrait of you!” Emmy exclaimed, enthusiastic about the idea.
“Maybe she can paint one of you, too,” I replied. “That would be cool.”
Emmy laughed, and said, “And Angela, too! We will start a collection!”
During dinner, which we ate out on the balcony, Emmy asked Angela if she had any plans for the week after next. “We are going to go to Chicago and New York for a few days. Would you like to go with us?”
“Are you serious?” Angela asked. “I’d love to go!”
“Then is is settled. You will come with us,” Emmy announced.
Emmy fell asleep about halfway through La La Land, so I carried her to bed and tucked her in, giving her a little kiss before I went back out to the living room to clean up. Angela had gone to her room after dinner, so I had the place to myself, in a way. I wrote the emails to the designer and builder back in Manhattan, BCCing Luisa on both of them to keep her in the loop. I sent her an additional email explaining my concerns and telling her Emmy and I would be there in a week and a half.
I also finished my email to Michael, telling him we could put in a couple of days in Chicago. One more email to Ned, explaining to him that he should prioritize the work in the rehearsal and recording spaces and make certain the soundproofing was up to the highest standards. I complimented him on the progress, too, and told him I was very happy with everything I saw that afternoon.
Satisfied, I shut down my computer and wandered back out onto the balcony to relax and shut my mind off for a while. I sat there on that comfy couch, looking out over the city lights to Downtown to the east.