Page 5 of Stay Here Tonight
“The tray went that way.” Lydia pointed forward with her glass. “If you go now, you may able to catch the server before she has to reload.”
“Excellent. I’ll be in the other room. If you see Maxine and she wants to know where I am, tell her I follow the band.”
“Seems weird to not be at your own party,” Joanie muttered. “Most of the guests must be here by now. So where’s our gracious hostess?”
Lydia wanted to know the answer to the same question, but chose to keep her thoughts to herself, lest she be branded obsessed by Joanie. Instead, she drank champagne and hoped it would loosen her up enough to “mingle.”
“Oh, damn, girl.”
Lydia looked up. There, at the top of the staircase, stood Maxine Woodward accompanied by a man and a woman Lydia didn’t instantly recognize.
Maxine was the only one worth looking at, anyway. She leaned against the railing, surveying her property, her party, her whole world with two astute eyes. She did not wear one of the more classical pantsuits the other women in pants at the party wore. Maxine would never at herownparty. She would wear finely tailored black slacks, a pale pink blouse, and a strikingly burgundy jacket that had one red rose blooming on the right breast. Her hair was freshly clipped and styled to give it a razor’s edge. Her makeup was sparse but equally striking, with bold, red lips and black eyeliner that made her look more stern than usual.
Of course it turned Lydia on. How could a woman who was all limbs and attitudenotturn her on?
The other woman, a feminine beauty in the kind of yellow dress Joanie bemoaned not wearing, whispered something in Maxine’s ear. The hostess stood up and approached the grand staircase for her casual descent into the fray.
“I wonder who those people are.”
Why did Joanie have to so rudely snap Lydia out of her admiration?Maybe I want to spend a few more minutes pretending Maxine’s coming down to talk to me.
“Dunno. A woman as pretty as that, I assume it’s her girlfriend.”
Joanie scoffed. “You really don’t know much about Ms. Woodward, huh?”
Shrugging, Lydia drank more of her champagne. “Guess they look official.”
The man and woman stayed at the top of the stairs. The man moved enough to show the expensive camera in his hands. The woman continued to point at Maxine before throwing both hands into the air.
“They’re her PR manager and the photographer tasked with taking the official photos of this event.”
Both Joanie and Lydia glanced at the blond woman standing at the far end of the food table. A lavender dress clung tightly to the tall woman’s skinny figure as she lowered her torso to pick up a plate full of vegetables, crackers, and finely cut meats. She only stood up again to toss her hair out of the way. Had she been addressing the pair of friends only a few feet away?
“You working?” Joanie asked.
“Hm?” The blond woman turned toward them. “Oh, no. I used to arrange that sort of stuff for a living. It’s really obvious.”
“You are…?”
“Amber Mayview. You, uh, wouldn’t know me.” The blond hoarded her small plate of food to her chest and scurried away in six-inch heels.Why do tall women always gotta make themselves taller?Lydia further rolled her eyes to watch Amber hurry up to a feminine brunette who took command of her corner of the room with body language alone.
“That’s Adrienne Thomas,” Joanie said with slight reverence. “She’s one of the richest queers in America!”
“Huh.” Adrienne and Amber exchanged pecks of the lips. “Further proving my theory that only hot women get to date power lesbians.”
“You’re plenty hot.”
“I ain’t hot like Amber or whoever that chick Maxine used to be married to was.”
“Youreallydon’t know much about Ms. Woodward, huh?”
“What are you getting at?”
“Maybe you should try reading her Wikipedia page for once.”
Lydia wanted to say something testy, but the motion of the woman in yellow coming down the grand staircase distracted her. The PR manager looked around until she spotted Maxine speaking to someone who had returned from the dance floor. Couples slow-danced and twirled to the jazz music filtering from the other room. The photographer stood in the middle of the stairs and took a number of pictures.
The PR manager said something to Maxine, was rudely brushed off, and began looking around the room with determination in her eyes.
