Twenty-four

“WHERE WERE YOU?”

“Huh? What?” I said into the phone. Kate pushed down onto me even though I’d automatically answered my stupid phone.

“We have a standing appointment on Friday mornings.”

“Oh shit. Clarice?” I yelped. Kate sat up on me, driving me the rest of the way into her. I gasped.

“Tony?”

“Oh. Sorry. You ... uh ... woke us up. We were so late with Jade last night that we slept in. I forgot all about our meeting.”

“Yes, I know. Don’t worry; I’m pulling your chain. I figured you’d just forgotten to tell me about a final exam or something. Until I got the pictures this afternoon. You’ve got to see this,” she said. “Can you hustle Kate around and have dinner with me tonight? You haven’t already eaten, have you?”

“Dinner? What time is it?” I looked at the clock. Six? Wow!

“Uh ... no ... we haven’t eaten yet. Where do you want to meet?”

“Come to Carmine’s at six-thirty. Can you get Kate here, too?”

“Yeah. She’s right here. We can make it.”

“Oh.” Shit. Clarice didn’t know our relationship.

“I’ll explain when we get there.”

Kate and I didn’t move immediately. She was working her hips back and forth, her breasts jiggling. I had to touch them. I tried to capture a nipple in my mouth, but Kate shifted into overdrive. She pumped up and down on me so fast I was over the edge before I knew it. Two more strokes and she whined out her own climax, falling on top of me.

“I could not have gone the evening without that!” she exclaimed.

We laughed and spun out of bed to shower the oil off our skin and make our hair behave. Nothing like a scalp massage with a little oil to do a great styling job on your hair. It looked great on Kate. We scrubbed and shampooed, dressed, and headed for Carmine’s.

Wendy was there to greet us with a chaste kiss and escort us straight to Clarice’s usual booth. There were already Cokes on the table for us and Wendy served appetizers.

“I ordered for you,” Clarice said. “I want to be out of here before the music starts. It gets too noisy. Now what’s going on here?”

“Clarice, Kate is our girlfriend. Our. She’s the girlfriend of Lissa and Melody and me. As it happens, Lissa and Melody are in Boston because of Melody’s dad’s death. I mentioned that to you. Kate’s been staying with me. Jade worked our asses off last night and we’ve been sleeping ever since. Okay?”

“You would think that after thirty years in this business I wouldn’t be surprised at anything anymore,” Clarice said. “Representing a new artist is a challenge. Representing one with an unusual home life adds a level of complication. Adding an affair with a fellow-artist on top of an unusual home life makes things more interesting by far. Don’t think it won’t come out. It didn’t take long for you and Melody and Lissa to become common knowledge. I’ll just have to figure out how to spin it.”

“It doesn’t have to be part of our promotion, does it?” Kate asked.

“No, dear, but after the show, people will start associating the two of you together. Bob Bowers started it. We just need to deal with it.”

Our salads arrived accompanied by a kiss on the cheek from Wendy for Kate and me. Clarice raised her eyebrows.

“Her too?” she sighed. We just laughed. “Well, speaking of the exhibition, take a look at this.”

She handed us a folder. Inside was an eight-page color catalog of our paintings with pictures of Kate and me in the studio. The cover was one of the pictures of me sketching Kate. The title above read, “The Art and Soul: Introducing the work of Tony Ames and Katarina Mirela.”

It was beautiful.

“Kate, I didn’t know you were using the name Katarina Mirela. It’s beautiful!” I said.

“You aren’t really very observant, Tony,” she giggled. “That’s how all my paintings are signed.”

Inside, were the pictures of our various works, titles, and a dollar sign followed by exes. Next to each picture was a short block of gibberish text. I pointed to it.

“What’s this?”

“This is the hard part, though you shouldn’t consider anything final yet. Jade was up even later than you last night. I don’t think she slept, as a matter of fact. The girl is as obsessive as you are. But that’s why I pay her what I do. After meeting you and working with you yesterday, Jade recommended that we have you write a few sentences describing your process and the work next to each picture. She’s brilliant. You have over the holiday to get it written.”

“Wow, thanks a lot. What are we supposed to write?”

We spent the rest of the meal discussing what we would be writing. When we could talk. Clarice had ordered a huge dish of cannelloni. I’d never had it before and it was impossible for me to talk while I was savoring this dish. Some of the tubes were covered in red sauce and some in white sauce. It was unbelievably delicious.

“This is why I ordered before you got here,” Clarice said. “It takes over an hour to prepare this dish in the kitchen. It’s one of my favorites.”

“Mine, too, now!” Kate beamed. “This is so good.”

“Well, don’t eat it every day if you want to keep that girlish figure. Just look at me.” We laughed. Clarice isn’t heavy as far as I can see. She might not have the figure of a twenty-year-old like Kate, but it ain’t bad for fifty. “By the way, Kate, about your contract...”

Kate visibly stiffened and I glanced at her. There was some communication between Clarice and Kate that I didn’t get.

“I just wanted to let you know that everything is fine. I went over the changes with your attorney and there is no problem as far as either of us can see,” Clarice concluded.

“You’ve got a contract?” I asked Kate. “What did it need?”

“Oh, just some things about my name and stuff,” Kate said. “And yes. I guess Clarice is now officially my agent.”

“Which would ordinarily call for a toast of fine champagne, but I’ve had Wendy get us a bottle of sparkling Catawba for dessert. We’ll save the champagne for when you are both over twenty-one,” she said.

Wendy poured our juice with the same flourish that she would normally use for a fine bottle of champagne.

“Come, come, dear,” Clarice said to Wendy. “It’s non-alcoholic so Carma won’t fire you for having a little toast. Pour yourself one.”

We raised our glasses.

“To a firestorm about to break on the art world,” Clarice intoned. “To Tony and Katarina!” We touched our glasses together and had a drink. It was really good.

“We need to get this for our next party,” Kate said. “Definitely have it at the opening.”

We talked to Melody and Lissa all the way home from the restaurant, Kate holding the phone while we both chattered on about the catalog.

“Only two days!” Melody squealed. “Less than forty-eight hours!”

“I can barely wait to see you, lover,” I exclaimed right back at her.

“You are both going to get so licked,” Lissa said, using Melody’s favorite line. “We’re thinking of renting a hotel room at the airport so we don’t have to drive back to Lexington.”

“Ooo, yes!” Kate said. “I miss you so much!”

“I hope you don’t mind that we’re practicing a little,” Melody said.

“You’ve probably been practicing with each other from the time Lissa got there,” I laughed.

“Yeah...” Melody drew it out. “There’s this other girl, though, that’s hanging around this weekend. She says she wants to come to the airport with us.”

“What? Who?” I asked.

“Hey, Pogo,” I heard.

“Dumpling? Are you seducing my girlfriends again?” I laughed.

“I’m not sure who’s the seducer and who’s the seducee,” Beth laughed. “The end result seems to be about the same, though.”

“How cool,” Kate said. “It will be nice to see you Sunday.”

“Well, it will just be at the airport,” Beth said. “I’m flying back to Nebraska Sunday afternoon about the time your flight is due in. Then I’ll see you all on Christmas.”