“You wouldn’t believe it,” Stacy said to Veronica at dinner. Michael and Dino also sat at their table for four. “You’ve got to try it, Ronnie. I swear, you’ll be hooked!”
“Jump out of a plane?” The younger woman shook her head. “No thanks. I like my feet planted firmly on the ground.”
“You’d love it,” Michael said. “If I could convince Stace to go, I can convince anyone.”
“Sure enough,” Dino agreed. “It’s an amazing experience. I’ve only done it once, but it was a feeling I’ll never forget.”
“Well, maybe I’ll let you convince me sometime,” Veronica laughed. “I’m heading to the moonlight erotic readings. Any of you want to come along?”
Dino grinned. “I’m game. You guys in?”
Michael shook his head. “I want to dance.” He stood and held out his hand to Stacy. “May I?”
She smiled. He looked so regal in his tux. All the cover models were dressed formally for tonight’s dinner. They’d been on duty during the meal itself, but now that dessert was over, they were free for the evening. Michael and Dino had gravitated toward Stacy and Veronica.
Dino shared some of Michael’s sultry Italian features, but though Dino was a handsome man, there was no comparison in Stacy’s mind. Michael was the best looking man at the conference and on the planet.
“I’d love to dance, thanks,” she said. “But will you excuse me for a minute? I need to make a phone call.”
“Sure.” He brushed his lips against her cheek. “Don’t be long.”
Stacy left the ballroom, made a quick phone call to her neighbor to check on her cat, and then headed toward the bathroom to check her makeup.
As she walked through the hallway, Veronica’s voice rang out from one of the workshop rooms. Not one to eavesdrop, Stacy kept walking but stopped when she heard her name.
“…do that to Stacy.”
Do what to Stacy? Stacy stood near enough to hear as best she could through the semi-open door but far enough against the wall of the hallway so as not to be seen.
“His plan…” Dino’s words trailed off.
What plan. Was he talking about Michael? For a moment she wished for one of those ear phone things on late night television that allowed a person to overhear conversations.
“That’s horrible!”
Veronica’s shrill outrage was easy to hear.
“I’m not saying I agree,” Dino said. Then, unintelligible mumblings.
“Sugar mama?” Veronica again. “He did not use that term!”
“He did. He knows his career…. He wants to….the way he’s been living.”
Stacy tried furiously to decipher Dino’s meaning, until Veronica’s voice carried right outside into the hallway.
“Stacy doesn’t have any money!”
“Bestselling author… Grandmother….”
Stacy’s heart dropped to her belly. Money? Michael thought she had money? She made a decent living, but she was hardly rolling in it. She was a best-selling author, yes. A best-selling erotic e-book author. Hardly the bigtime. She was lucky enough not to work a day job, but wealthy she was not. She lived in a two bedroom townhome with her cat. She had a car payment and a mortgage and some months, when royalties were low, she ate a lot of hamburger and ramen noodles.
Had Michael been playing her? The sky diving, the lovemaking—had it all been a ploy to ingratiate himself to her so she’d take care of him? He wanted to be her “kept man?”
“Well, I’m not going to let him do that to Stacy.”
Veronica stormed out of the room, her full lips in a taut line.
“Ronnie, wait! You can’t tell him I told you—”