Chapter 58

Standing in the event room looking over more than three dozen SSCS agents, all awaiting her instructions, Tanvi couldn’t help but think of herself as a general preparing to go to war.

She was aware of the moderately absurd grandiosity of such a thought, but even for that she had training to fall back on. At some point in their first year of classes, every SSCS agent would hear the phrase, “Cynicism is an anchor around your neck.” The lesson behind that statement was that it was certainly possible to view concierge service in a negative light, but that choosing to do so only made it harder to do your job. If you could embrace the grandiose, the arch, and the corny, it would actually make your life much easier.

And the truth was that SSCS’s work was important - even when it was just organizing a party and making sure than four hundred members of the Stone family had a good weekend in New York City. Because the truth was that this was Nick’s chance to make a real first impression on many of them - to make his case that they should throw their lot in with him instead of one of the other very rich members of their family. The world would change for better or for worse depending on how well Tanvi and her team kept things running smoothly. They were an army, and they were there to fight against chaos and localized entropy and grifters and people who would harm their client and his guests.

At precisely six AM, she stepped up to the podium at the front of the room. “Rosangela, Grietje, and Sioned will be arriving in New York this evening. Other than those three, is there anyone assigned to this team who isn’t in this room right now?”

There wouldn’t be and there wasn’t. Regardless of the level of the role, working this weekend was a plum gig at SSCS and it went to the very best agents. No one would dare oversleep or leave their on-time arrival to chance. Plenty of the agents had probably slept in the guest rooms upstairs. Those which hadn’t undoubtedly left themselves plenty of time for contingencies. The question was less a request for information and more an opportunity to remind everyone that, even though they were competing for individual recognition by Tanvi or possibly even Nick himself, they wouldn’t advance in the Service with working as part of a coherent team.

After a moment in which the team looked around, double checking that the people they thought they’d seen were actually there, Tanvi went on. “We have two hundred eighty-nine members of the Stone family coming in from out of town this weekend and one hundred twenty-two already in the city all joining us for one or more events between this evening and Sunday morning. It’s not inconceivable that we could have two hundred additional guests show up without having RSVPed. There are six official events planned and the possibility of many, many more unofficial events. This is a remarkably complex undertaking and we’ve called in every field agent we believe can handle this level of complexity. You’re here because the Service believes you’re the best at your respective levels.” She paused and looked around. Only the senior-most agents looked at all concerned. Most of the best and brightest hadn’t been around long enough to see a well-run event go truly pear-shaped. Those more junior agents just lapped up her praise. Once she was sure she had their attention, she added. “That belief will not survive if you fuck up even once this weekend.”

That got their attention. Many of the agents in the room were factotum tracked and Tanvi remembered the near-constant fear of losing that status with even a single incident. In truth, that fear of sudden, abrupt, and total failure had never entirely gone away. But for the first time in her career, it was fading fast. She’d screwed up with Nick - in a worse way than she would have imagined before actually seeing it unfold and not only had she not lost her position, she was as close to him now as she’d ever been to another person. After their liaison in Paris, she’d been prepared for things to more or less go back to normal between them, but she’d instead been invited back to his bed repeatedly in the past week and treated every bit like a girlfriend who also happened to work for him. It made her feel safe in a way that her job never entirely had.

With the room’s full attention on her, she reviewed the itinerary for the weekend. It was already spelled out in the Service’s systems in excruciating detail, but there was reinforcement in having it spelled out verbally. There would be a reception tonight for local Stones to meet with others that arrived in time. Tomorrow was a brunch, then parallel events - one group would go see Hamilton, but people hadn’t stopped RSVPing when the tickets ran out, so there would be a pre-party for the ones who had come without a promise of seeing the show. Tanvi reminded the team that it was extremely important that this event not seem like an afterthought just because none of the guests of honor were likely to be there. Afterwards, the two groups would have dinner in a different part of the same event space, then merge into the main party. The next morning, there would be another brunch at the Loft by invitation only in order to see Verity off to Switzerland again.

“We’re breaking this up into events, but that’s an artificial distinction,” Tanvi pointed out. “Siao’s team is already on call to start handling check-ins and requests from early-arriving guests even though we don’t expect any before ten am. Our hospitality duties are pretty much constant until eighteen hundred on Sunday. It’s all one big party.”

She paused again, knowing that this would be the hardest message to get through to a room full of SSCS field agents. “With this many moving parts, there is a high chance of one or more wicked problems arising. To avoid and/or address those, I need every agent who is on-duty to be completely optimal. You are all expected to get at least sixteen hours of sleep during this event. If for any reason you find your capacity for service becoming suboptimal, you are to take yourself off duty immediately and contact the call center. We have six agents on active standby for the entire event. They’re not doing anything except waiting to be called into duty. Nick takes sleep very seriously and mistakes due to tiredness will be treated as unforced errors. Zola, Siao, and I will be shift captains and either Rosangela or Sioned will be joining the rotation when they arrive. All of us will be getting enough sleep and we expect you to follow our lead.”

To the team’s credit, there was no muttering or cross-talk. Still, it felt to Tanvi that the whole room had raised a single, doubtful eyebrow as one and directed it at her. She countered with words that, to an SSCS field agent, were like an incantation. “These are client instructions.” She let that sink in. “Rely on Central Services for anything you can. Your job is to pay attention to the guests and make them feel like they are all SSCS clients for the weekend. Many of them will be some day. If we do our job right, Nick will be making some lifetime alliances this weekend and those he chooses will be on the fast track to positions of importance in the Stone family.”

SSCS field agents didn’t slouch, but everyone sat up a little straighter at that. It was news and not the sort of thing one would share with a room full of people, but they were Nick’s plans and he’d okayed sharing them. Still, no one broke ranks to ask questions, but Tanvi could tell she would be spending a lot of time talking to individual agents once this meeting broke up. She pushed on. “To that end, it’s especially important that we have a complete and accurate list of anyone Nick or Pilar invites to Sunday brunch. Also, we have another big event coming up in less than two months. If you hear any resident of the Loft invite someone to the Halloween party, note who was invited and who invited them. That event will be much more exclusive than this one. Additionally, when you’re not involved in providing a specific service, we expect you to be in observer mode - who dances with whom, who fights with whom, who leaves with whom - the usual information, only it will be coming at you faster than any time outside of a family wedding.”

Seeing that everyone understood, she went on to break up the staff into teams based on the itinerary. It was a given that unknown unknowns would arise during the event, but there would be no failure to predict what could be predicted.

After that, she spoke to each team in turn, answering specific questions and talking to individual agents. She’d met most of these people before, trained with some of them, slept with more than a few of them. They were as close to a circle of friends as she’d ever had before coming to serve Nick. Several of them still called her “El” from the years when she’d gone as Eleanor at the call center. Nearly to a one, she saw a new level of respect from them. When she’d washed out of the factotum program as an ISOC, she’d gotten a fair amount of gentle, unspoken pity from many of them. Now, she held a position they all envied - personal assistant to one of the richest of the Stones.

Of course, more than a few of them were evaluating how to topple her from that role. To the factotum-tracked, it was widely assumed that Nick would eventually need a full factotum, not just a sullied ISOC to help him. Tanvi was confident Nick wouldn’t make such a distinction, but the idea that someone else might have to take the lead in serving him had become much more real this week when he’d revealed his plans for “succession insurance” to her. He would offer the women closest to him a chance to have his children if he died without issue by freezing and storing embryos with them. Even before Tanvi had heard the plan, Ainsley and Pilar had talked him into modifying the arrangement so that they could choose to have his child as soon as two years from now regardless of Nick’s possible mortality or fatherhood.

Just this week, Nick had again teased Tanvi that she didn’t ask him for enough for her own sake and ordered her to ask for something at least once a week. She planned to ask to be included among the list of “women closest to him.” Having a child of Nick’s would mean the end of her active field service, but it would fulfill so many of her dreams at once, it would be worth it.

She was still answering questions when the first member of Olivia’s team had to break off and leave to meet a flight at Islip, but most of the teams took that as a sign to disperse to their appointed tasks.

She dismissed the remaining teams that didn’t have tasks preparing the event space and headed upstairs to check on Gibraltar’s command center - a converted conference room on the seventh floor. If this was a war against creeping chaos, Gibraltar were the front-line troops against less ephemeral and frequently more active threats. As she left the event space, Valerie Acton fell into step with her.

Valerie was a legend at SSCS. Nominally retired after a full seven years as a factotum, she was now a most-favored contractor in event staffing. In her public persona, Valerie was every inch the proper upper-class English lady. There were all sorts of rumors about members of the peerage approaching her with plans of marriage, but she’d remained faithful to her client through the entirety of her service. He’d been so grateful that he’d arranged a damehood for her as a retirement gift.

She was also the first person Tanvi had ever had sex with. As a teenager, Tanvi had been madly in love with Valerie and probably still was more than a little. Having seen behind the curtain of public persona, she knew just how much Valerie had put aside to be the perfect factotum. Valerie was living proof of how much you could transform yourself by willpower alone.

“This one’s a fan of sleep, is he?” she asked as they crossed the lobby.

Tanvi smiled. “He understands its importance better than most.”

“Good for him,” said Valerie. “You’re doing well by him, I think. Taking advantage of your fallen status?”

Tanvi laughed before she could help herself. “Please tell me it’s not blindingly obvious?”

Valerie shook her head. “After twenty years of working with field agents, you learn to see the signs. I doubt any of these youngsters can spot it. Good on you, though. It was the height of foolishness to waste you on call center, Tanvi. You’re better at this than half the factotums working today.”

Tanvi blushed a little at the compliment. Valerie had been the one to convince her to take herself off of the factotum track, advising that it would kill her to know she was holding back something from service. The older woman would know. Even though many people had assumed she was her client’s wife based on how well she ran his house and interacted with him, neither of them had the proclivity to seek that closest of comforts in the other. Valerie had been an incredibly effective beard to cloak his preferences - so much so that people still thought he hadn’t married because he was pining for her.

Even in retirement, Valerie had chosen to be open about her preference for women in large part because it kept the weight of his secrets on her own shoulders. Choosing poorly in love was an entirely acceptable tragedy for an English duke. Tanvi touched her hand. “I learned from the best.”

“Yes, well ... I have missed you, Tanvi. I don’t suppose you’ll have any time for an old friend once this event is complete?” Valerie suggested.

“I ... that depends on how long you’ll be here.” Tanvi pulled out her iPad and flipped to her own schedule for the weeks to come.

“I know. Duty ever calls.” Valerie gave her a soft, understanding smile. “I should be here for several weeks. I’m looking to buy an apartment.”

“Investment or residential?” Tanvi switched immediately to business mode.

“Mostly residential, although I do need to move some assets. I’m retiring for real this time.” To Tanvi’s skeptical look, Valerie added. “I mean it. No one should keep working after forty if they don’t have to. And besides, the doctors I need to see are here.”

“Oh.” Tanvi felt her stomach drop out. This was the first time she’d heard Valerie was ill. “I’m sure I can get some time next week, Val.”

Valerie gave her a stern look. “You won’t upset the client?”

“I would never.” Tanvi reminded her primly. “Nick is remarkably generous with his friends.”

“And you two are friends, then?” Valerie didn’t let skepticism stain her voice. She didn’t have to.

Tanvi had used the word on purpose. “Those are client instructions, but ones I’ve been very happy to follow. I like Nick a lot, Valerie.”

“I’m pleased for you, but it sounds very messy.” Valerie suggested.

“It is ... and it will be. And there’s an unusually high chance that it will degrade my efficiency of service, but it’s what we both want and I don’t believe we could have continued without it,” said Tanvi. Each word was a bit of heresy against SSCS, spoken to one of the Service’s exemplars. But just like Nick was more than a client, Valerie was more than a mentor. She was one of Tanvi’s oldest and dearest friends.

“Well then, you’ll just have to live your life and try not to set anything on fire.” Valerie’s words were from a very early lesson at SSCS. From another agent or even to another agent who only knew the public Valerie, they would be a reprimand, but Tanvi knew that Valerie carried the anchor of irony around her neck like it had been awarded to her by the Queen herself. Service was less of a vocation for Valerie and more an exercise in bloody-minded determination and self-discipline.

“There might be a few fires along the way,” Tanvi acknowledged.

“Well, fires do keep things interesting,” Valerie offered.

Tanvi badly wanted to ask what was wrong with Valerie that she needed very specific doctors for a long enough time that she needed a semi-permanent residence here, but to ask now would be crossing a line that even they didn’t cross while working. It would have to wait until Tanvi was officially off-duty. As they rode up in the elevator, they spoke about details of staffing and the upcoming party and neither allowed even the slightest hint that anything might be wrong.

Nick Coyle was learning the new rules for waking up gracefully. Rule one was not to use names before he was fully awake. While using another woman’s name at the wrong time lacked the level of peril it carried in monogamous relationships, it was still embarrassing and awkward.

It wasn’t always necessary to open his eyes to put a name to a shape. Emily and Tanvi were distinct in their sizes and Pilar’s hard muscles just below the soft curves were a dead giveaway although, with the aggressive dance training she’d been giving the others, they were becoming less and less so. In addition to the dancing, Max’s personal trainer had pretty well established herself as everyone’s personal trainer while he was away. He was already starting to think he should have put aside more space for the gym on the third floor.

This morning was a perfect example. The woman in his arms felt like Kiki, but smelled like Pilar. Nick was hardly a connoisseur of perfumes, but this one had a distinct citrus and spice aroma that was unmistakable. But, he had vivid memories of the night before and Pilar hadn’t been there. She’d spent the night with Lev, leaving Nick to Arwen and Kiki’s tender ministrations. He opened his eyes into a mass of strawberry-blonde hair. “Arwen?”

Arwen cuddled deeper into his chest. “Mmm? Breakfast time?”

“Not for a while longer, I think.” Nick kissed the top of her head. “You’re wearing Pilar’s perfume?”

Arwen opened her eyes and looked up at him. “I’m wearing L’Occitane Citrus Verbena - which Pilar also wears to bed sometimes. I really liked smelling it on her and she recommended I try some. Do you object?”

“I don’t know.” Nick ran his hand down his friend’s spine. “Wearing another woman’s fragrance is kind of ... I don’t know, it seems kind of personal.”

“Well, she has been fucking my fiance, so I think I’m allowed.” Arwen kissed Nick’s shoulder. “Do you like it on me?”

Nick lowered his head to smell the crook of Arwen’s neck. “I do, actually.”

Arwen looked past Nick to the woman curled against his back. “How about you, Keek?”

“Mmm?” Kiki burrowed into Nick’s back. “What?”

“Do you like the perfume I was wearing last night?” Arwen laid her head on Nick’s shoulder to look past him.

“Pilar’s lemon-smelling thing?” Kiki asked. “I was thinking I might try some myself. I’ve liked how it smelled when I wound up wearing it through contact.”

“What do you think Nick? Should we just choose one fragrance for all your women - as a way to identify us? Maybe you could have one custom-made?” Arwen asked sweetly.

“Kind of like how cats pee on their territory?” Kiki suggested.

Nick knew he was being teased, but decided to play along. “To the contrary, I was thinking I might mandate that you each choose a distinctive fragrance and stick with it. I’ve been having a hard time telling you apart in the dark and I need all the help I can get.”

“Do you think Kiki’s tits and mine are the same size?” Arwen asked, seemingly out of the blue.

Accustomed to Arwen’s abrupt subject changes, Nick just went with it. He was wary of comparing the women he was sleeping with to each other, but this seemed pretty safe. “Yeah, pretty close, why?”

“I always wanted bigger tits growing up,” Arwen answered. “All the hottest girls in school had big tits, but Kiki, you’re hot as hell.”

“There are many roads to hotness, young padawan.” Kiki answered sagely. “The Kiki method is eighty percent attitude and maybe five percent tits.”

“Does that mean my tits aren’t hot?” Arwen leaned further over Nick to expose herself to Kiki.

“It means your tits are as hot as you choose to make them,” Kiki yawned behind Nick. “Hide them under baggy, unflattering clothes, they’re not hot. Show them to their best effect and they’re amazing. Mine are a big part of my career success.”

Someone knocked at the apartment door. Nick, glad to have an excuse to get out of the middle of what had suddenly turned into a sticky conversation, slipped out from between his lovers. “I’ll get that.”

Even though it was almost certainly an SSCS field agent, he stopped long enough to pull on a pair of sweatpants. He still wasn’t as comfortable being naked in front of the staff as they seemed to be around his nakedness.

They knocked again as Nick was crossing the living room. “Hang on!” he called out, wondering if they’d been knocking for a while and he just hadn’t heard them. He pulled the door open.

“You asked to be awakened at eight.” Raoul’s pretty sixteen year-old daughter stood in the doorway, holding an iPad.

“I asked SSCS to wake me at eight.” Nick looked up and down the hall. Jake was his newest and so far only intern at the ACCD fund and already proving to be a bit of a handful in her desire to be at the center of things, but Nick hadn’t expected her to go as far as to just show up at his door first thing in the morning. “What are you doing here, Jake?”

“Olga was busy dealing with out-of-towners and I volunteered.” Jake said. “I’ve got a few action items to go over with you when you’re ready.”

“You ... haven’t joined SSCS since yesterday, have you?” Nick asked confused.

“I saw an opportunity to be helpful and I took it,” said Jake. “You haven’t exactly given me anything super-challenging to do, so I thought I would pitch in where I could. Tanvi and Zola and all of your senior staff are getting ready for the party.”

“I’m glad you want to be helpful, Jake. I’m not sure wake up calls are ... appropriate for you to be doing, though.” Nick suggested.

“Why not? You have pants on.” Jake pointed out.

“I almost didn’t.” Nick sighed. “I expected a field agent.”

Jake rolled her eyes. “I can take whatever they can. I’m not some sheltered American schoolgirl.”

“No, you’re not.” Nick had heard Raoul’s story of fleeing rural Colombia with his thirteen year old daughter three years ago. “But your father does prepare all of our food and I’d like to not be poisoned for corrupting you.”

“Papa wouldn’t poison you. He says you’re a blessing sent by God.” Jake stepped past Nick into his apartment without waiting for a more formal invitation and sat on the couch.

“That interpretation would require a certain ... selective reading of the situation here.” Nick frowned as a thought occurred to him. “Why are you here so early? The workday doesn’t even start for an hour.”

“Just getting an early start.” Jake brought up her iPad again and swiped. “Would you like to address these now?”

“No - no addressing things before coffee.” Nick grumbled. “I’m going to get changed and have a shower before breakfast. Thank you for my wake-up call, Jake.”

“Of course.” Jake was reading something on her iPad and didn’t look up.

Back in the bedroom, Arwen and Kiki were curled together in the spot he’d vacated. Arwen’s hands moved slowly down the other woman’s back with obvious intent, but she paused as Nick re-entered the room.

He shook his head. “Don’t stop on my account. You just ... might want to keep it down. Jake’s in the living room.”

Kiki learned back at him over her shoulder. “Raoul’s kid?”

“The same. I think she wants to be a concierge or something.” Nick stripped his sweats off again on his way into the en suite bathroom.

“She’s got it bad for you,” said Kiki.

“Too young,” said Nick automatically. “And, as you pointed out, Raoul’s kid.”

Kiki rolled on her back to look up at him directly. “So, I shouldn’t make out with her?”

Nick suspected she was teasing, but Kiki was Kiki and he recognized the trap in her question. “You’ll do what you choose to do, Kiki. I know better than to try to tell you what to do or not to do.” He squatted down by the bed to kiss her. “You’re as free as the wind and I love you for exactly who you are.”

Kiki pouted at him. “I’m starting to suspect you really mean that. It drains a lot of the fun from acting out.”

Nick kissed her again, more deeply this time. “I accept the fun deficit I have created and look forward to making up for it.”

Kiki rolled and then closed her eyes. “Later, please. I need sleep if I’m going to keep up with the non-stop party people this weekend.”

Arwen had rolled to sit up. “I should get moving, too. I’ve got a ton of work to do before the reception and I know half of it is still going to be sitting on my desk come Monday.” She gave Nick a dirty look. “Slave driver.”

“I’m a terrible boss.” Nick agreed and headed into the bathroom. Shortly after he started the shower, Arwen followed him into the room. He considered reminding her that they had work to do and shouldn’t dawdle, but the truth was that he didn’t want to. He gestured for her to join him.

As he wrapped his arms around her from behind and drew her close to him under the pounding spray of hot water, she laughed. “Seriously? Haven’t you had enough of me yet?”

“Not remotely. Let me chain you to the bed and have my way with you for a month and ask again.” Nick pinched her nipple.

Arwen pressed herself back against him and stretched out. “I’m pretty sure Lev would come looking for me after a day or two and any number of people would come looking for you. As much as I’ve fantasized about being held captive by a billionaire mountain man in his remote cabin, I don’t think it’s going to happen.”

“Pity...” Nick reached past her for the soap, lathered up his hands, and started to wash her shoulders and neck. “I actually do own some really nice cabins in Montana.”

Arwen let him wash her without speaking for a while. As she rinsed off, she said, “I know this can’t last forever, but I’m glad we have it for a while at least.”

Nick turned her so that she was facing him, still held in the circle of his arms and kissed her forehead. “I just ... I’m afraid someone who cares about me very deeply right now is going to hate me eventually. I’ve just been spreading myself very thin. There are going to be hurt feelings.” He sighed. “Jazz is going to be at the reception tonight. I haven’t even seen her since Milan.”

Arwen smirked. “Are you afraid she’s been pining for you, Nick?”

Nick paused. “She doesn’t have to be pining to feel neglected, Ari.”

“No, she just has to get less of you than she expects.” Arwen suggested. “You don’t think we all expect to be your girlfriend, do you?”

Nick thought about what she was saying long enough that she went on. “Do you feel like you did something wrong by flying off to Australia with Pilar and Emily so soon after you and I started sleeping together?”

Nick shook his head, “Not wrong, specifically. It did feel like I left things unfinished, though.”

“Unfinished is good.” Arwen had taken the soap from Nick and used it to wash his chest now. “I don’t want us to be finished, Nick.”

“That wasn’t...”

“I know. And it’s not really the point. You’ve been very open about what you want, Nick. If anybody expects something different, it’s not because you failed to spell out what you were offering.” Arwen kissed him. “It works both ways, you know. If I thought you wanted me to be your girlfriend, I don’t think any of this could have happened. I’m trusting you not to try to replace Lev in my life. If you were single or only had one girlfriend, that would be more of a concern.”

“Hey, I just threatened to drag you off to a cabin in the woods and chain you to a bed for a month,” Nick protested. “What does a guy have to do to get some credit around here?”

Arwen laughed. “You didn’t threaten. You just said you wanted to. And I want you to want that, Nick. I want it, too. And I want to spend a month there with Lev. I want more time with Pilar than I’m going to get. Wanting more time than you get with someone is a sign that a relationship is going well ... or at least better than the alternative.”

Nick allowed himself a low chuckle. “I hope you’re right, Red. I still worry about neglecting people.”

“And that’s why you probably won’t.” Arwen hugged him. “You’re too neurotic to be a proper asshole, Nick.”

Nick hugged her closer and kissed her. For the next few minutes, they let the hot water cascade over their bodies, kissed some more, and caressed each other. Things could easily have progressed if either of them had indicated a desire for it to do so, but eventually they stepped back from each other, finished rinsing themselves off, and left the shower.

As she was toweling off, Arwen asked casually. “Is there anybody you think Lev and I should meet this weekend?”

“Pretty much everyone,” Nick answered. “I wouldn’t have invited these people if I didn’t think they were worth meeting.”

Arwen gave him a look. “I get that, but is there anyone you’d like a closer connection to? I’m not promising anything obviously, but if there’s somebody you think we would like enough to spend some time with...”

Nick wasn’t sure he was hearing the question right, but Arwen kept eye contact until he couldn’t really doubt her intent. “I, uh ... hadn’t really been thinking in those terms. But, there’s Opal from Australia ... and Threnody’s aunt and uncle, Giovanni and Gianni. He looks a lot like Oberyn Martell, but...”