Page 82 of Stars and Scars

“Um, that sounds great, Mr. Wyatt, but I–”

“Mr. Wyatt?” he sputters in mock outrage. “How dare you! I’m not Mr. anything.”

He gestures emphatically during his denial, sloshing champagne onto the floor.

“I’m just plain old Wyatt. I’m nobody special. I certainly haven’t won any awards from the city.”

For a moment, his face flashes with dark, deep-seated anger. It’s gone so quickly I almost think I imagined the whole thing. Wyatt gloms onto me and starts escorting me around the party.

I try to smile and make nice with all of his weird artist friends, while going through different excuses to get away from Wyatt. I don’t want to make anyone suspicious, but on the other hand I can’t look for Gray while Wyatt has me in his clutches.

Wyatt leads me into a side room, where someone has set up an outdoor slide leading from the gallery down to the ground floor. The slide ends in a swimming pool filled with very sudsy water. As we enter, a topless woman hollers as she careens down the slide and lands with a terrific splash in the pool. I wipe suds out of my hair while Wyatt cackles with delight.

“Isn't this magnificent? Do you want to take a turn on the slide?”

“Um, no thanks. Actually, I was looking for the bathroom–”

“Oh, hey, there’s Thelonius! I haven’t seen him in ages. Let’s go see what he makes of the Westworld guy playing him in that movie…”

“I really need to–”

Wyatt literally drags me by the hand over to talk to another of his friends. And another. I check the time and find I’ve been his escort/captive for over half an hour, and still no sign of Gray.

Worse, I’m not where Gray left me. He could have returned from his recon already. Now he might be wandering around, worried about me just like I am about him.

It’s all so frustrating, and Wyatt doesn’t seem to hear anything I say other than the first couple of words. His drug-addled posturing is more than just inconvenient. It has me on the verge of panic, because I can’t find Gray anywhere.

At last, I pull my hand out of Wyatt’s grip and give him a sheepish smile.

“I really need to visit the little girl’s room,” I say.

He blinks several times, and then frowns.

“All right, but hurry back. There’s so much more I want to show you.”

Anxious urgency drives my stride as I head back to the main ballroom. I go back to my pillar in case Gray is looking for me. After less than five minutes, I get antsy and start looking for a way past the bouncers again.

I’m getting close to a full-on panic. The longer I go without seeing Gray, the more worried I get. I decide it’s time for drastic measures. I tug my dress down to show a bit more cleavage, and arrange a vacant look on my face before walking right past the bouncers.

“Where are you going?”

I give the bouncer a look like he’s just asked the stupidest question ever.

“Look, honey, I’m supposed to ‘entertain’ some important folks back there. If you want to piss off big man Wyatt, you be my guest. In fact, why don’t I go get him right now?”

I turn as if to leave.

“Wait,” the guard says. “Go ahead. Do you have a business card? I could use some company later.”

I give him a wink full of promises I’ll never keep.

“I’ll come find you later, big boy.”

As I walk down the hallway at last, my triumph is matched by my inward cringe. Big boy? What year is this? Gray definitely makes this spy stuff look a lot easier than it actually is.

I pull my dress back up as I turn the corner and find myself in a maze of hallways. I have no way of knowing which way Gray went. I remember reading inCosmothat if you want to get out of a maze, you stick to the left wall and you’ll eventually make it to the end.

I take a left, and then another left, wandering darkened hallways. I pass by a couple of closed doors with the sound of drunken partying on the other side. I’m pretty sure at least one of the rooms features a live sex show. I’m too worried about Gray to be scandalized, though.

---