MOONGLOW

by

Charlie Romo

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Copyright 2011 by Charlie Romo

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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For Sonja

=<3=

CHAPTER ONE

Sometimes, when a dream lingered, one felt the waking world and the dream world were indistinguishable. Shell Dawes woke to one of those days and one of those mornings as her dream dissolved beneath her eyelids and daybreak greeted her with the palest sunlight she remembered in a long while. She peered through the traces of her fantasia and her rich blonde curls to see the tall, svelte silhouette of her lover who held court in the neighboring kitchen.

"It's about time you woke up," Rena Hilst said as she approached Shell with a coffee mug in each hand. "I debated bouncing on the bed if you snored any longer."

"I don't really snore as dramatically as you say, do I?" Shell asked with a Cultivated Australian accent as Rena set a mug on the ivory nightstand beside her and sat on the bed's edge. "I never used to."

"It depends how much champagne is in you. You were a drum roll all morning."

Shell's gaze traced the flawless line of Rena's profile. Her cheekbones, high and defined, were like rocks that peeked up from the fair, tranquil sea of her face. Her neck, long and thin, did not bounce or jitter but waltzed while her throat swallowed coffee. Her feline green eyes caught Shell in a vacuum of admiration as the gentle morning light made Rena and her shoulder-length blonde hair glow.

"How do you do it? It's hardly past, what? 6 A.M.—and already you look like you've risen up from some holy mold amidst angelic light and fanfare, no less."

Rena blushed and kept at her coffee.

"Rena, would you please do me a favor? Snag my saving grace from the dresser?" Shell referred to her hangover remedy of choice; a mild painkiller with anti-anxiety properties.

Rena thought that an odd request. Shell rarely spent time far away from her pills, no matter how distracted or drunk. Nevertheless, Rena hardly remembered the night before herself. Maybe she left her lovelies in the wrong drawer, the wrong room or both. so she set her mug on the windowsill and sauntered past the silk-draped bed as the satin of her forest-green robe glided over her body like breeze through dandelions.

With Rena out the room, Shell dug into her nightstand's drawer and produced a small ornate tin that housed some periwinkle capsules she washed down with coffee. She sighed relief and waited for the calming wave to hit as she thought of the day's schedule. In about an hour, she had to be downtown for the final day of Resort Fashion Week.

The day would begin in the Fiona Wallan Building that traditionally housed Fashion Week shows in Moonglow City. One of the industry's most exciting designers, Paolo Saavedra, a Spanish designer who mused incessantly over Rena, would show first. His collections usually went over without a hitch but they were elaborate enough to require extra care. Hence, Shell had to be there just to make sure everything was one-hundred-percent for her clients. As the top talent agent at Moonglow Model Management, Shell injected herself into the event coordination process with friends like Paolo who filled their shows and campaigns with Moonglow talent near exclusively. She was a sweetheart, though, more of an extra set of analytical eyes. She knew she could be a professional pain in the ass sometimes but she did not know how to leave things up to others in the spirit of teamwork. She was there—involved—which helped make anything that involved her clients exquisite.

Rena was the most notorious of her flock. Despite her good sense that dictated never to mix business with pleasure, she and Rena had mixed those, emotions, saliva and other bodily fluids for the past four years. Shell didn't consider herself a hyena or anything. Her relationship with Rena evolved in a natural way. They just happened. It may have been proper to avoid the situation, but she learned long ago never to battle the beat of one's own heart.

Rena began modeling at thirteen. Wise beyond her years, she navigated the business with well-forged armor. Before MMM, the most prominent mother agency in her area represented her, courtesy of her well-to-do family that instigated her discovery before the candles cooled on her first teenage birthday cake. From there, New York rapped at her chamber door. Soon after, she graduated to greener pastures in Moonglow City.

Rena went to MMM at sixteen after she moved to Moonglow City on the support of her artist and entrepreneur parents who purchased her a corner-condo on 331st St. & Sali Lane, walking distance from the agency. With its rotunda, panoramic view and full, private amenities, she moved from one lap of luxury—Old World New York City's historic Soho district—to another.

It took little encouragement for MMM to welcome her with open arms. She signed her lease before she even met with the agency because she knew someone would sign her and be the better for it. She had confidence in her looks, brains, savvy and ferocity for the business. She also rarely took no for an answer.

Over-confident? Perhaps. However, Rena believed those qualities proved she was born to be a supermodel.

Viv Ives—a manager and mogul considered one of the industry's most senior, celebrated figures—originally represented her at Moonglow Model Management. He died of natural causes about two years after Rena joined and willed—yes willed—his short but spectacular list of clients to Shell Dawes. He admired her for her professionalism and dedication to those she represented. He also felt she knew how to keep a secret as she kept several of his very well for many years.

Shell was thrilled for the honor but nervous at the same time because she knew that Rena and she shared a common interest—other women. Two months into their professional relationship, at a champagne-fueled after-party, Rena kissed Shell under a moonlit gazebo and the rest was history.

Rena emerged from the pearlescent-framed threshold to the bedroom, decorated in a waterfall diamond necklace and a tall, shining-light style diamond tiara that dazzled when she flounced into the daylight. Shell's heart fluttered when Rena bobbed toward her, hands on both sides of the tiara as she modeled its radiance.

"I knew you were up to something! Have you any idea the kind of Thank You you're gonna get for this?" Rena asked through a smile that took up half her face.

Shell said nothing, stunned at the complete image of Rena as she glided through her condominium that looked like something out of a fantasy film set with its abundant opalescent trims and borders, alabaster white walls and marble floors, ornate glass and crystal furnishings. Rena looked like a princess as she strode up the middle of it all.

She arrived at the foot of the bed, lowered herself onto her hands and crawled up to Shell on all fours. "It's only taken four years for you to decorate me the way you do this place. You didn't have to redefine extravagance, ya know. A card, caviar, cunnilingus… these things work just fine," she said as her hand crept under the sheets, her face inches from Shell's.

"They aren't loans either. In my forty-three years on this planet, I've never given anyone gifts like these. I wanted the best in the world for you and for keeps."

Rena straddled herself over Shell's lap in a way that kept them intimate and close, yet allowed her hands free reign under the sheets. She caressed and gripped Shell's upper thighs. The outer sides of Rena's pinky fingers alternated with her thumbs to massage the crease in Shell's flesh where her hips became legs. As Rena's hands worked their magic, they kissed lightly, rubbed noses and grew closer even though they were already so close they looked like one person.

"You could probably guess that I would love it if you accompanied me to the Borgo-Seely Costume Ball," Shell said between Rena's smothers.

"So you finally want to show me off to all your haut monde pals?" Rena licked Shell's lips and stared into her eyes as she fondled her sex with gentle, circular caresses.

"It's more than that, so much more. The first year, who could know if this meant anything?" Tingles of ecstasy pulsed through Shell's body. "Second year is a waiting game. We wait for the worst to happen. We're stupid and happy if it does not."

Rena slid a finger inside her lover and leaned in even further to caress the side of Shell's face with her own while her warm breath fell over Shell's neck and shoulder.

"Third year, it's either an admirable example of tolerance or a sure hint one has found something special. Onto fourth year?" Shell let out a sigh as Rena garnished the kiss to her lips with a teasing touch from the tip of her tongue—warm, wet and soft.

"Happy Birthday, Reenie. I love you."

Their eyes locked as their lips touched and Rena returned, "I love you too."

Rena's Andromeda chimed and interrupted the moment as it vibrated against the tiled kitchen counter. They sighed and snickered a bit through annoyed groans as Rena's forehead collapsed onto Shell's shoulder.

"You should get that. It's a big day today, could be important."

More rings. More clatter. Rena didn't budge. When she pulled her face away, Shell saw her glee dissipate with every ring. Her face iced over. Her breath paused. Shell tilted her head and peeked under Rena's eyelids to see the sorrow swell.

"Sweetheart? Reenie?" The continued silence gave Shell a few more moments to gauge Rena's feelings. Her body language said it all. She continued to slump into Shell's lap, her hands out from under the covers and folded over each other between them. Sadness made Rena look so much younger than her twenty-two years. She looked like a scolded child sent to time out.

Rena lifted her head and tears rolled down her cheeks. From that angle, sunlight dissolved the child inside. True to the chameleon form of a top model, Rena's appearance shifted on the drop of a dime and a young woman made a bit older by the way loss aged the soul remained.

"Not in the mood for well-wishers, are we?" Shell asked.

"I don't know what to say to anyone just yet! I'd choke on a Thank You if I tried. It's different with you. I don't have any masks to wear. They wouldn't work on you anyway. But I can't hear the condolences right now. I can't hear people insist the show must go on," Rena said as her face fractured.

"Ali insisted on being the first person to wish me Happy Birthday every year. Always a crack-of-dawn kinda girl, she did her very best. Even when she wasn't the first, I told her she was. That really made her smile. She knew I was full of shit but she played along. It was just a thing between us. When I woke up this morning, I just about forgot she was gone. I expected to hear her ringing…"

Shell sat up a bit and enveloped Rena in her loving arms. What else could she do or say other than offer the comforting silence of love?

Ali St. Michael and Shannon Sadoveanu were Rena's best friends in the whole wide world. School and wealthy culture thrust them into Rena's childhood, and they were inseparable from the start. As time and hormones went on, Ali and Shannon became a couple. Even though Rena had eyes for Shannon, she respected fate and minded her place.

As tragedy would have it, a drug deal gone sour claimed the lives of Ali and Aber Rolston, (Rena's favorite fashion photographer to work with), about a month before Rena's birthday. Police found a grizzly nightmare after Aber's neighbors reported gunfire that chilly morning.

As spoiled socialites, Ali and Shannon sailed through life and school as they made a bit of a name for themselves within the drug-saturated nirvana of the celebutant scene. As Rena's best friends, they made and maintained contacts that sustained their addiction to constant partying amidst the upper crust of society. Aber Rolston was one of many famous faces they kept high and happy. Indulgence was a dangerous game, they knew, but Rena felt they were always cautious enough to stay alive. For Ali, the steely pre-dawn hours of a typical morning a month previous shot all that down.

Rena lost loved ones before. At twelve, one year before she began professional modeling, her grandfather Alfred drank himself to death at the age of sixty-three. At eighteen, her great-aunt Alice lost her battle with cancer at sixty-five. While painful and sad, a period of preparation preceded those deaths.

The loss of Ali ached beyond any pain she ever feared to feel. Ali was like her sister. So was Shannon. The three of them were the definition of best friends. She never imagined a member from the principle cast of her life would vanish so suddenly, so tragically. Even so, she had to be the birthday girl and remain strong for Ali's memory. On top of the duty she felt to Shannon, she had to glow as bright as ever for the final day of Resort Fashion Week.

=>.>=

Rena did everything possible to be there for Shannon over the past month but Shannon retreated more and more. Who could blame her? She lost the love of her life, her soul mate. From her perspective, she lost everything.

No words, actions or trips down memory lane made a bit of difference. She barely ate, developed an allergy to the outdoors and shut herself off to most of the world. Rena counted herself lucky that Shannon still granted her an audience but she remained somber and detached. Rena wondered when, if ever, Shannon would live again.

The situation sent her worried mind into hyper-drive as she stood in a backstage mirror at the Paolo Saavedra show. A chestnut-haired young woman made a last minute adjustment to the back of Rena's lavender and silver floor length dress with subtle blue hues set deep in the fabric's pleats that made it look like alien ocean waves.

"That should do it but this came close, Rena," Charlotte Helpling said as she wound some thread around her hand. "You haven't eaten a thing since what happened, have you? Don't tell me you're at the laxatives…"

Rena threw her darts for eyes. "You know I don't do that Charlotte. I've never stooped to that."

"Just checking!"

"It's the stress. I've eaten well enough but…"

Charlotte packed up her needles to move onto another station and, at the same time, a tall African American man in a white silk shirt and long braided hair went at Rena's forehead with a face brush for one final touch-up.

"I don't know how to describe how I feel," she said as she gazed at herself in the mirror. "That scares me."

"You're class!" the makeup artist said as he strode away. "Time to front up the line, girl!"

"Focus, Rena. Enough of that." With that, Charlotte cut through the crowd, onto another station.

Rena watched herself a little longer. Sometimes emotions served the runway well but Rena never experienced the internal disaster she felt with Ali and Aber on her mind. It distracted her so much she couldn't sort herself out so she intended to leave the somber person that stared back at her inside the mirror while she took care of business down the catwalk. When the music blared over the loud speakers out front and the backstage noise escalated, she knew it was time to separate herself from her problems. It was show time!

A catwalk glowed in the subtle darkness that blanketed a full house of fashion's loyal subjects. The runway protruded from an expansive wall that shimmered with aquatic hues, flanked by holographic water that flowed from thin air and splashed against authentic mountain stones.

Heavily percussive music that played throughout the venue abruptly ended. Then the thumps of electronica erupted with a crescendo. The room came alive with a cascade of white lights and the runway ignited in gentle blues and greens that rippled across it like a tide on its way to shore.

Rena opened. The stress of her birthday and battered emotions plagued her energy but she knew she had to keep it together. As The Runway's Ray of Sunshine, she couldn't allow anything to scar her reputation, especially on such a festive occasion.

Years ago in training, her first time out on a runway felt like a skydiver's virgin jump—impossible to step forward, even more impossible to stay still. She remembered what the man in high heels who schooled her in matters of the catwalk advised: Breathe. Project outward. Take that tumble forward. Let your soul do the rest.

With that life lesson in mind, Rena propelled herself from behind the backdrop and down the runway with her trademark stride. As the fan pleats of her dress swayed, she looked like she pranced on water and camera flashes glittered like fireworks from every direction—that was Rena's favorite part of it all.

She made her pivot at the end of the runway and marched back as a gentle melody rose amidst the techno's rhythmic beats. She glanced to the right and caught a glimpse of her favorite people in the world among the note-jotting masses. Shell sat front row beside J.D. Staley, her close friend and favorite designer who gave Rena an I Love You sign with his left hand.

Rena reached the end of her walk and disappeared backstage. True to form, she put her issues aside and walked the walk with amazing grace.

After Rena walked arm-in-arm with Paolo at show's end, she hurried backstage and shed her high-fashion attire for a green tank top, khaki jeans and tan boots. Just as she tucked her personal effects into her bag, thin hands reached from behind her head and covered her eyes.

"If suddenly there was no light at all and the only eyes you had were those of your mind, what would you see?"

"Waxing poetic again, are we?" Rena asked through a playful smile.

"Come now. Play along!"

"I'd see… my parents. We're at the beach in Corpus Christi, Texas. Dad is fishing out at the first sandbar. Mom is sitting with us kids making sand castles. After that, I'd see my first New Year in Moonglow, standing on the catwalk spraying champagne over everyone as balloons and confetti rain down all around me. I was pretty drunk. That was the best party of my life."

Rena gently grabbed Shell's wrists and said, "I'd see you."

She lowered Shell's hands and revealed the sincerity in her green eyes.

"Would you really?" Shell asked with a sarcastic-yet-playful tone as their eyes met trough the mirror they stood before.

"How you looked the first time we kissed under that moonlit gazebo in J.D.'s garden…" Rena trailed off and turned to face Shell with a gentle smile.

"You looked great out there today. Even in grief, you stir the world awake."

Rena just smiled and pulled her hair into a ponytail.

"Paolo says he'll have an Ocean Dress out to you in a week."

"Fantastic! And thanks for letting me off. I could use the rest before the Ball."

"Don't mention it. Fayina and Miracle are splitting the opportunity to sub in for you. You need to be at your best tonight. Why don't you use my place to recharge?"

"Thanks, but I need to unwind at home and just get centered, ya know?"

"Right, right," Shell said as she caressed Rena's arm. "Did you want me to have Charlotte drop off some wigs?"

"No, that's all right. I'll stop at Angelo's later and have my hair done."

"As you wish."

Rena moved in, softly kissed her on the neck and started toward the back exit.

"See ya tonight!"

=^-^=

There's no place like home, Rena thought as she gazed at the Moonglow cityscape through the glass walls of her corner-unit rotunda and realized how much she missed her glorious, surreal view. The early afternoon light brought to life every detail of every building and every car on the air-lanes. The view coupled with the gin and tonic she nursed gave Rena the opportunity to reflect on how far the world around her had come.

Moonglow City. She was a panorama of human advances to behold, from the air-lanes that wound through her jungle of modern architecture to skyscrapers that no longer simply dotted the city—they were the city. In Moonglow, most structures whose heights were close to the ground were still under construction. No longer were buildings primarily rectangular either. There were as many spheres as there were ovals, pyramids as there were hourglasses. Some structures even took on organic shapes, such as the Malendart Museum of Art's towering flame structure and the Vassey Parkway Hospital in the visage of a dove.

The City of Moonglow was one of twenty-seven cities newly founded by the Global Community, a corporate and governmental organization to which almost every country on the planet belonged. For everything international powers disagreed on, most found common ground in the fact that the world needed more livable space, which led to manufactured islands and upward expansions of existing cities.

Moonglow became a fashion hot spot in no time at all. In under a hundred years, her notoriety rivaled that of New York, London, Milan, even Paris. With a population of twenty-one-million and infrastructure in an eternal state of expansion, the city gave no hints at slowing down. Migration rose, new residents increased, businesses expanded and—where Moonglow was concerned—the heart of the entertainment industry transplanted. Harliss had its share of flare but when it came to fashion, Moonglow became the only place for the hip and nouveau.

Every sip of that gin and tonic reminded Rena she drank too much—not enough to threaten her health but when she was in the zone and at the booze, she took no prisoners. She knew Shell disapproved of her loudest, most forgetful spells but old habits indeed died hard.

She thought about what this costume ball meant to her relationship with Shell. It was one of those snooty upper-crust soirees where a simple invitation took a miracle. Due to her relationship with Moonglow Model Management's founder, Sir Ben Sibelius, Shell had graduated to the guest list twenty-four years ago, the year after she started to work under Ben's wing as his personal assistant.

Considering her seniority, the fact that it took Shell so long to invite Rena suggested one of two things—either Ben had the clout to move continents with a wave of his hand or Shell really was a cautious lover. Rena suspected both.

While she knew Shell shared in her spirit of hopeless romanticism, Shell often let her head lead her heart as a defense mechanism. She took the future with a grain of salt because she was older and experienced more heartache. Her dry wit and understatements made her seem far too slick at times, perhaps even shrill, but Rena knew the truth. Underneath all that lived a wide-eyed girl infatuated with fashion and fantasy, in love with being in love.

The fact that Shell invited her said much of Shell's attitude toward their relationship. Rena knew in her heart of hearts that Shell loved her more than anything. Her kindness, patience, gentleness and understanding suggested as much. Rena knew she could be a bit much sometimes but even after four years, they rarely raised voices to each other. Even with their age gap, there just wasn't much for which to fight. Some annoyances sure, but nothing a witty remark did not remedy.

Rena knew she had something special with Shell. If anyone told Rena she'd be head over heels and happy with a woman twice her age when she was fifteen or seventeen, she would have heckled the prospect. However, their fourth year together broke down many doubts and all that remained was love.

One truly never knew what the future held.

Rena took her ponderings to her green sectional sofa and fell into its plush cushions, eyes on the ice in her glass as it collapsed. Part of her wanted to dump the remainder of her drink so she would not drag too much ass at the Ball. After a final deliberation, she guzzled it and curled up on the sofa to nap her buzz away.

Her time to shine arrived several hours later. Rena made a quick stop for an impromptu hair session at her friend Angelo Bisset's penthouse in Paradis District. Afterward, it took no time at all to reach Shell's building. Rena pulled up to the one-hundred-and-twenty-first-floor docking bay in a luxurious black car, right on time, where amber lights dazzled across a triangular wing that protruded from the side of the building as cars came and went.

Rena emerged from the car in a golden, Victorian-style ball gown that visibly stunned a uniformed attendant who plugged her ride into a nearby terminal to recharge. She approached a succession of glass lobby doors where vending machines and advertisement kiosks cast a cornucopia of lights across Shell's exquisite birthday presents. Her reflection in those doors looked like it wore a tiara of rainbows.

The most brazen of all advertisements in the pre-lobby led her to a dark maroon counter lined with a variety of candies and trinkets under glass. She noticed the clerk—a middle-aged man with a scrawny build and thinning hair—had his eye on her as she browsed a myriad of sweet treats of all shapes, sizes and colorful designs.

"Something interest you, Miss Hilst?" he eagerly asked.

She smiled and tapped the glass over a set of rigid chocolate cubes covered in vivid orange and green drizzles labeled Trifecta.

"Hi! Yeah could I please sample one of those Trifectas?"

"Surely!" He slid the display case open, removed a treat with silver tongs and placed it on wax paper for her, atop the glossy, gold-trimmed counter-top. With thanks, Rena daintily scooped it up between two fingers, bit half and chewed slowly to savor the initial rush of lush dark chocolate. Bursts of fresh, zesty orange peppered her taste buds as she reduced it to pulp and made her mouth water from the cascade of citrus. Cool, minty crispness chased down her throat and filled her olfactory system with wintery pleasantries as she swallowed.

"Wow! That was amazing!"

"Yeah it's crazy. I'm not too sure how they do it but the company putting 'em out plans to release a series of flavors over the next year."

"Really?" She popped the other half in her mouth. "Can I order these directly?"

"You sure can, company is called… One sec, excuse me."

He made his way to the register, rummaged through some literature and returned with some rather unappealing full-page flyers and business cards. He gave her the paperwork with a self-satisfied grin. One would think he passed her a treasure map. "Here ya go, Miss Hilst! Place is called Covington Yummies—in Switzerland! They ship worldwide too."

Rena glanced over the ad, then the card. She considered them crying shames compared to the mesmerizing product they advertised.

"What's your name again?"

"Reb, Miss Hilst. Nice to meet'cha."

"Rena's fine, Reb," she said as they shook. "Nice to meet you too! I figure you know my first name since you recognized me right off the bat."

"Well, yes but… See, you're my favorite celebrity. I'm always so impressed with anything you do. I've seen almost all of your shows and your commercials for the Homestretch Cancer Foundation. Truth be told, I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen!"

Shell nearly pushed open a lobby door when she saw the blushed giggles between Rena and Reb. She waited a bit and watched Reb nervously ask something. Rena animatedly agreed to whatever it was which prompted him to produce a blank paper. Not only did she sign it, she kissed it, which—by his reaction—seemed the highlight of his life.

"Wow! You don't know how much this means to me!" said with his eyes focused on the pale pink impression of her lips staggered beside her flamboyant, energetic autograph in thick blue marker. "This is why I applied for this job—so I could meet and talk to famous folks. I knew your girlfriend lived here so I hoped I'd catch you sometime. I wanted your autograph all by its lonesome so I could frame it but I do keep a notebook full of other autographs. I used to work for the Psi-Ivy Hotel on Fifth and Aveena so I got a lot there. But this! This is just…"

"You have that book? I'll sign it too!"

"Really?"

"Absolutely!"

Reb darted through a door behind the register and emerged in no time with a pastel stripe and polka dot covered notebook in hand. When Rena signed it for him, he nearly fell over with glee.

"Oh, Miss Rena…" He smiled at the autograph, closed the book with care and looked to her with sincere joy. "Thank you."

"You betcha, Reb. But one thing…"

"Anything, Miss Rena!"

She leaned in and pointed at the Trifectas. "Could I get another one of those?"

He chuckled and set another candy on the counter as Shell crept up from behind.

"Isn't that just like a model!" she said, which startled Rena so much she spun around on her heels with the widest eyes, candy clutched in hand. "Left unattended, it takes no time at all for them to go scampering about for candies and carbs like hogs at the trough!"

"You scared the shit out of me!" Rena said before she laughed it off.

"'Evening, Miss Dawes," Reb greeted.

"Good evening, Reb." Shell sauntered up to Rena and reached over to straighten the waterfall diamonds on her necklace. "You look radiant, sweetheart."

"You look enchanting yourself," Rena said. She looked Shell up and down to admire her regal gold and green dress with a dark green cape and thin black feathers crested at her neck.

"Here baby! Taste this!" Rena said with the Trifecta held up to Shell's lips.

"You know I don't have a sweet tooth."

Rena popped the Trifecta in her mouth and turned around as if to walk away. Shell started to follow when Rena spun back around, propelled forward and locked mouths. She initiated a French kiss and thrust the candy into Shell's mouth with a firm shove of her tongue. Then she backed off and laughed as Shell glared at her and chewed.

"So that's how it's going to be tonight, is it?"

Rena nodded and spun around while Shell caught up.

"This is rather good, actually," she said as they walked to the car together.

It took twenty minutes to reach the Marshall Dean Tower in St. Jude District where they held the Borgo-Seely Costume Ball every year. Being far north in Moonglow City, close to the Frost County Line, the sector was the wealthiest of all with buildings that had more uniformity than other sectors.

The Marshall Dean Tower was the most exclusive residential building in the city. It was also the tallest, most lavish of several pyramid-constructions amidst a majority of traditional rectangles. Made mostly of shimmering blue glass, a faint orange glow dazzled from inside the Tower's seams, cracks and cavities.

It was like another world inside Marshall Dean's lavish penthouse, scored by synth-tinted baroque music. A dim foyer gave way to a white marble-floored ballroom canopied by an enormous drop-chandelier and flanked by two winding staircases filled top-to-bottom with guests in a cascade of period costumes in every color and design. All eras of frills and tights attended—Renaissance, Victorian, Elizabethan, Edwardian, even some fantasy dress. Most carried or wore some type of mask.

They wound through the masses toward a wide, ornate threshold. It didn't take Rena long to spot the vast horseshoe shaped bar at the center of the adjoining room beyond it.

"Wow! That's the bar?"

"You were expecting something of the Tiki variety?"

"Come on! I haven't had a G-and-T since this afternoon!" Rena said as she gripped Shell by the wrist and dragged her on.

One of the half-dozen bartenders behind its pale white and yellow glow appeared before them as they bellied up.

"Welcome to the party," he said with a fatigued baritone voice. "What'll it be?"

"Gin and tonic please!" Rena said. "Make it a double and double lime."

He nodded and looked to Shell. "And for you?"

"Same."

He rose into the air and glided across a long structure above the bar lined with bottles of every spirit and wine imaginable.

"Drinking my drink?" Rena asked, somewhat surprised. "What's the occasion?"

"I figured if we're both on our asses, I won't have to carry you out for a change."

The bartender's pirate-style shirt gently billowed as he descended with a blue bottle of gin and a green-labeled bottle of tonic water in hand. He reached under the bar, produced two tumbler glasses, four lime wedges and fixed their drinks in record time.

"Enjoy," he said with a lazy smirk that made grooves of his middle-aged smile lines and crow's feet. He moved onto other patrons as Rena took a deep breath.

"KANPAI!" she shouted with her glass raised to Shell.

"Sometimes I think the only thing you took away from working in Japan is that word," Shell said as they toasted.

"Not true!" Rena said before she downed a generous gulp of booze. "He mixed this so perfectly, it actually reminds me of Tokyo! I had the best gin and tonic ever there. Reminds me of that time I went into this Akachochin in North-West Tokyo. I was swilling these and saké when I saw this young girl in a red dress and sneakers just sobbing away with her head buried in her arms on the table. I could just tell she was American. I was feeling tipsy and talkative so I went over to her and sat down. I asked her what was wrong and she gave me a look like, What do you care? —but after some sniffling, she said this Japanese boy she adored broke her heart 'cause she wasn't grasping his language fast enough."

Shell eyed her wryly and sipped on her drink while Rena drained hers and ordered another round.

"So I said to her… When we truly fall in love, we don't need language to communicate. When it's real love, we speak with our hearts. So we talked all night, drank saké, ate Karaage…"

"Naughty girl, having at that sort of thing. You're always so allergic to grilled treats when out of supervisory eye!"

Rena rolled her eyes as she played with a piece of ice in her mouth.

"And what, pray tell, could you possibly take away from that? Beside her underwear, I'd imagine?"

"I'm not a piranha! It was a nice night! We just talked, solved the problems of the world."

"I'm just joking Reenie."

"Well, what I learned from that is nothing beats cheering folks up. Makes me feel alive."

Shell noted the self-satisfied smile that blossomed across Rena's face.

"Did I ever tell you how terribly corny you are?"

"Only every time I get blasted and tell you how much I love you four billion times."

"How many did it take to propel her down memory lane this time?" J.D. Staley asked from behind the pair. They spun around as he stomped up to them, champagne in hand, dressed in a steel blue Neo-Edwardian-jacket, frilled white undershirt and gray peg-top trousers tucked into dark blue boots.

"J.D.! This look is so you!" Rena said as they kissed on both cheeks.

"He demanded your tiara, you know," Shell said. "I had to fend him off with a wet stick!"

"And I'll never forgive you!" he said as he kissed Shell on both cheeks as well.

J.D. smoothed over his short gray hair and asked, "So what do you think of our eccentric soirée, Reenie?"

"So far, so good. I can't believe this bar!"

"You should have seen her beeline here," Shell said. "I got whiplash on the drag over."

"Well, you know how much I detest splitting one heart in two but I'm taking Reenie away now, sugar. Best she makes the rounds before she's three sheets to the wind."

Rena drained her drink and smacked her glass on the bar with her eyes locked on J.D. as her mischievously curled lips smirked with the sting of alcohol.

"Onward!" Shell said with a raised glass.

J.D. swept Rena away through the masses of fabric and flesh. His excitement annoyed Rena because he rushed her on like a parent who wanted their child out a toy store as soon as possible.

"Now get a champagne. You want to look swank!"

She scooped up a glass of bubbly off a Harlequin-dressed server that carried a tray of drinks before they made their first stop. J.D. rested his hand on the shoulder of a tall, large-framed woman who resembled Quentin Massys' painting of The Ugly Duchess.

After brief small talk with her—one Lorena von Reyn—Heiress to a series of estates and resorts, J.D. led Rena on a grand tour of high society. She met Carter Gee, owner of several five-star restaurants worldwide, (a grand event for her considering her affinity for all things culinary). She also met Chieftainess Hialea, head of the re-established Native-American territories that were currently one of the world's largest suppliers of some of the fashion industry's most delicate and sought-after textiles. She met architects, politicians, scientists, filmmakers, so many different influential people that the experience nearly overwhelmed her composure.

Finally, she met Inoue Eiji, the lead project manager and head designer of Japan's automaton-fashion-model program. Rena knew it neared the final stages of development, soon to alpha. She was less than gracious to Eiji thanks to four glasses of champagne she extinguished during her tour, in addition to her exertions of gin before. She shook well, smiled well—even bowed well in accordance to Japanese custom. However, she couldn't contain the disapproval in her eyes when she said, in Japanese no less, "So you're the one out to make us extinct!"

"Excuse me?" Eiji asked in his native tongue.

Attack-mode took over Rena's demeanor. She could be a happy drunk until provoked, upset or annoyed in any way. Eiji's very presence indeed annoyed her.

"You can't replace us. Ever. Especially not with some fucking doll,"

"I know about you," he said, as he looked Rena up and down. "With your drugs, your drink… Look at you now."

He stepped forward and leaned into her, almost at ear's touch. "You're replacing yourself."

With that poignant slap, he excused himself and trotted away while Rena seethed.

"I can't take you anywhere, can I?" J.D. asked.

"How smug!"

"Calm down. This isn't the place."

She took a breath and tried to swallow her pride.

"Only 'cause it's you and only 'cause it's here."

"I know how you feel—I agree!—but that sort of thing is far from finished and light years from reality. You'll be fat, retired or dead before it even matters to your daily life."

"I want another drink…"

"Reenie… When are you gonna knock it off?"

"I remember where the bar is! You don't have to guide me everywhere."

"Order singles! If I have to carry you out of here, I'll leave you at that Italian's doorstep wrapped in bows and tinsel!"

"So mean to me on my birthday!"

Rena and J.D. made their way back to the elaborate bar. Two translucent wings that shimmered with all the rainbows of oil and water pooled in sunlight stood erect from the back of a young woman's costume that caught Rena's attention as they approached. The young woman with flowing blonde curls threw her head back with laughter as time slowed down and Rena's insides rose on the wings of butterflies.

J.D. looked back to her, then to the girl, then to Rena and knew what he saw.

"Oh no…" he said but it was too late. The girl's statuesque face and svelte frame had Rena mesmerized.

"Wow, who is that?"

"Back, succubus! That's Marshall Dean's granddaughter, Katherine."

"She's beautiful."

"You're so terrible! She JUST turned eighteen!"

"I'm not gonna kidnap her! Why does everyone act like all I do is prowl?" she said with a huff as she marched off toward the bar.

"Because you're so misunderstood in your time!"

When her pace slowed to a sashay, the same bartender from before tended to her needs. J.D. caught up and ordered a drink of his own as Rena spied on the couple of young women next to her—Katherine and an alabaster skinned brunette with the most striking violet eyes Rena ever saw.

"Come on, let's go to the other side and dance already! You're so loaded, any more of anything will pop your heart like a tic!" the girl beside Katherine said.

"Does grandpa know where you're at, Lil Miss?" Rena asked.

Katherine's eyes bulked up defensively.

"Who the fu—" she began but stopped at the sight of who stood beside her.

"Oh wow! Rena Hilst!" she said with shocked guffaws as she clutched onto Rena's shoulder, other hand over her heart. "I've always wanted to meet you!"

"Rena, this is Katherine Dean. Katherine, Rena Hilst," J.D. said as he put his hand on the brunette's back. "And her third tit here is Lilly Morgan."

Lilly frowned at J.D. and smacked him on the arm. She pointed a finger at him with an I'm-gonna-get-you look as he held his hands up in a mockery of fright before he perched himself on a barstool.

"Call me Koko! Everyone does!" she said as she and Rena shook.

"Never to outgrow that nickname, are you?" J.D. asked

"Told ya, it's gonna be my stage name too!"

"Stage name? Do you act?" Rena asked.

"I want to. Gonna do some modeling meanwhile. I hope to meet with Ludavine Management sometime next week."

"Ludavine? Why Ludavine?"

"My grandpa's connections!"

Lilly pawed at the ends of her hair that were tip-dyed black and noticed Koko's admiring gaze directed at Rena. It added a glaze of quiet distress to her face.

"I see," Rena said. "Did you ever think of Moonglow? Pretty sure your grandpa's strings pull from far beyond just Ludavine."

Koko paused, unsure how to answer. Truth-be-told, she never considered any other agencies. With a polite smile, she said, "Well, never know what the future holds."

"Come on, Koko! Let's go dance! —Nice to meet you, by the way," Lilly said as she tipped her chin up at Rena with a forced smile and thin eyes. Rena picked-up on a level of possessiveness but it didn't seem Koko had any idea it existed.

Koko seemed tugged in two directions. "Would you two like to dance with us?"

"Sorry, sweetheart! I left my boogie-pumps at home," J.D. said.

"We wouldn't want you to throw out your hip, J.D. We know you just got a new one!"

"Bitch!"

"What about you, Rena?"

Oh, how Rena wanted to say yes! Rena didn't necessarily want to attack and disrobe her or anything. The girl radiated a youthful vigor, a fun and sweet air. However, she knew it would be inappropriate, especially with Shell in attendance.

"Next time, Koko. J.D. and I have mysteries to solve."

"Okay then," she said with a disappointed smile that made Rena want to either kiss or adopt her.

Koko dug through her handbag. She pulled a lavender card from it and offered it to Rena with that irresistible smile. "Look me up. Maybe we can hang out sometime soon?"

The way her head tilted to the left and her long, thin fingers pawed at her handbag sent Rena all the right signals. After a second thought, she took the card.

"Sounds like a plan!"

Koko skipped away with Lilly but looked back from amidst the crowd to met Rena's gaze with mutual interest. Koko held eye contact as long as she could before Lilly shoved her off and threw Rena a final, purse-lipped glare.

Rena hoisted herself up on a barstool beside J.D. and played around with Koko's card a bit while she looked it over:

Koko D.

26267 Vanilla Glade

Moonglow City 58-D.12-USA

moonglow\KoKoD

Rena smelled it. "Lillisette… She has good taste."

"Shell's ears are on fire right now. I bet she thinks its scarlet fever resurrected from the bowels of history."

"Gimme a break, J.D."

"You know I won't say anything. It's just that sometimes I think you run with the wind at your back, you know?"

"I know. But it's not like I'm plotting this grand, sinister affair. I just met her!"

"Who needs planning when Mother Nature herself annually drops snatch in your lap?"

"I hate that word… I really hate that word!"

"Isn't that what the one guy you ever slept with called it? That Italian whose place I'm gonna leave your drunk ass at?"

"Two and yes."

"Reenie, Reenie, Reenie. Whatever am I to do with you?" J.D. asked with a tender look as he rested his hand over hers.

J.D. and Rena had been confidants since she was sixteen. Perhaps it was astrological but they just gelled. The night before she walked her first J.D. Staley show, a girl broke her heart. When J.D. found her in tears right before the show, he sensed something special and comfortable about her. He took genuine interest, consoled her. After she cried on his shoulder, he hugged her and gave her some of the best advice she ever received.

"You see these tears? If you have no other place to put them, wear them," and he gestured with his head to the runway, "out there."

The runway. Rena learned to embrace it over the years. That day, she walked with the attitude and extravagance only pain could inspire. It was one of her best shows ever.

Rena looked to J.D. and saw that same care and concern she did the day they first bonded. She knew she could trust him just as she always had.

=C.C=

Shell slipped away from an unending slew of elbows long overdue for a rub and found herself in a bit of a sanctuary designed like an outdoor sunken garden. There were towering oaks, evergreen trees lit by cone-shaped garden tea lights, ferns and elephant ears scattered everywhere. She always enjoyed that section of the Ball because she honestly hated huge parties and nature relaxed her, even the manufactured kind.

Shell followed the sound of a jazz quintet up a stone path lit by pale-blue step lights that wound through the foliage, a single gin and tonic in hand. She arrived at a clearing where a massive, three-tiered fountain stood and water cascaded down its towering glass design, into a hauntingly lit pool that surrounded it with serenity.

In a pavilion across the fountain, that quintet played—trumpet, piano, trap set, upright bass and synthesizers. Shell looked up to the holographic skybox and marveled at how authentic the nightscape appeared. The rich blanket of black seemed to go on forever, glittered by countless twinkling stars and a robust, radiant full moon that glowed ghost-white. Marshall Dean always had it set to the Moonglow City sky since the light noise of the metropolis made star gazing difficult to impossible in the open outdoors.

Shell looked back over the band and her heart sailed as the trumpet yearned. She took a healthy drink, closed her eyes and wrapped one arm under her breasts, her trademark self-hug. As those gentle synthesizers massaged her soul and the gin warmed her insides, she pictured the people around the pavilion with their lovers or spouses. They talked and laughed, toasted and flirted and Shell realized that, even though J.D. had only led the tour a short time, she missed her Rena terribly.

Shell realized she was clingy for her age. She had been all her life, never one for casual affairs. If she was not in a serious, long-term relationship, a relationship did not exist. It made her teenage years difficult because, at the time, most girls she dated still had some soul-searching to do. She kept her hopes up no matter what. When Rena entered her life, she felt she had it all, even though she put up with something for which most called her crazy. She knew Rena's eye wandered and that she might prowl around as a free spirit while on assignment abroad but she didn't hold it against her. Rena was young. They were serious lovers since she was eighteen. It stood to reason that someone as wild and adventurous as Rena would stray a bit. She still had so much living to do.

Shell didn't like to think of Rena with other people. Bottom line, she had no proof and didn't want any.

She loved Rena very much. Rena loved her in return. They were happy. Shell needed no other assurances in life.

"Already in recess, are we?" a frail English voice that jerked her out of her reverie asked.

"You startled me!" Shell said through a gasp, hand-over-heart. "To think! The day I drop dead, I never got to see you in period dress"

She referred to the fact that Sir Ben Sibelius never worse a costume to the Ball. He skated by with a conservative mask on a stick every year, a dark suit and his white hair so slicked back it looked painted on.

"I'm jealous my days of looking better than you in such a frock are long gone." He kissed her on the cheek and took her glass away, sniffed it and gasped.

"Gin?" He scowled at it as if it were jet fuel. "That girl rubs off on you more and more by the day!"

"She's here, you know," Shell said as she took her drink back. "J.D. should be wrapping up her grand tour as we speak."

"Why didn't you do it?"

"I'm too old for show and tell."

That squeezed a hearty laugh from Ben's eighty-two-year-old lungs. "Remember when I led you through that snake-pit back then?" he asked as he inched his way to a nearby table.

"Like it was yesterday," she said as they sat.

"Twenty-five years ago… Shell, I wanted to discuss something with you."

"Concerning?"

He took a moment and collected the courage to speak. "I'm old, Shell. I have no children, no living family remaining. Frederick has been dead for almost seven years. I haven't seen Anna and the girls in about that long. I fear what would become of our agency if anything were to happen to me. Without me, Moonglow would be a barracks for beautiful people—a petting zoo!—instead of what it is today. A family. A vision realized.

"Shell, you've been with me more than half your life. You're like a daughter to me. You're the best manager we have! The best in the business, all around! You're the only person I truly trust anymore. You're all I have left. If anything were to happen to me, I'd very much appreciate if you took over."

She just about sprayed a mouthful across the table as she choked on her drink.

"I'd also prefer if you didn't choke to death on rotgut!"

The manner in which she stared at him embodied bewilderment. Even though her cough gradually settled, her brain remained stunned to its very stem. "You're serious?"

"Quite."

"Well, it begs the bigger question… What's the matter? Ben, are you ill?"

He didn't answer at first. There were a thousand words inscribed in the cracks of his old face, yes amongst them. Even though he wouldn't admit it, Shell knew that grave look he wore and it broke her heart.

"Not at all," he said with a forced smile.

"You're lying. What is it?"

"I'm fine, I said! Foresight is critical in this life. I'm simply planning ahead."

On the verge of tears, Shell could only stare at him. He had been like a second father to her since she began internship at Moonglow Model Management twenty-five years ago. She was eighteen then, a self-described levelheaded dreamer looking to get her foot in the door of the fashion industry. With statuesque looks and height just shy of five-foot-ten, Shell always heard what a stellar model she would make but that type of limelight never suited her. She felt most comfortable behind the scenes with the levers and pulleys. She had a mind for methodology, tact, negotiations and the like. She always saw herself as an entertainment agent of some sort. She loved fashion, loved reading the magazines and oogling over the shows. She had a nurturing heart that wanted to help people navigate the business.

Shell busted her ass as she studied for a degree in International Business and felt internship at Moonglow Model Management would be a perfect stepping-stone for her goals. Pity they weren't hiring when she inquired but Shell tried anyway. As the best of the next-generation agencies, she had to give it a shot. The day she barged in to apply all those years ago. Sir Ben Sibelius—founder of the agency—happened to have business with the receptionist in Human Resources. Something about her tenacity impressed him. Unhappiness with eternally sick, late or pregnant personal assistant made that Shell's lucky day. He hired her on a trial basis after hardly a week.

Thin hands crept around Shell's head from behind and covered her eyes.

"If suddenly there was no light at all and the only eyes you had were those of your mind, what would you see?"

It was Rena. She grinned and winked at Ben, who shot back a weak smile.

"I'm a bit drunk to think of anything remotely clever for this," Shell said.

"Don't be clever, then. Be honest."

"All right… I'd see you. Only you. You're all I see when I wake up. You're all I see when I go to sleep. You're all I see when I dream. After all this time, I don't know how to see anything else… and I don't much care to."

Ben groaned and rose as Rena pulled her hands away from Shell who instantly developed the sniffles thanks to the ocean of emotions Rena had just invoked.

"Off out, Ben?" Shell asked.

"Indeed I have no place in the chorus line of drunk, lovey-dovey lesbians! That aside, I'm tired. Goodnight ladies!"

With a polite smile, he turned to walk away, hands behind his back.

"Ben!" Shell shouted with a severely scattered look on her face. She wanted to rush him, hold him, cry a river the way one does when one sees a loved one off on a plane.

"We'll talk tomorrow, okay?"

"We'd better," he replied with a wink and nod before he walked away.

"Everything okay, Shell?" Rena asked as she gripped her lover's shoulders.

"I don't know. You're not going to believe this… Let's go home."

Silence rode with them back to Shell's flat. She promised to explain everything once they were home but said nothing else. Rena knew better than to press her because was delicate and difficult to console when something bothered her. Everything worked out best when Rena gave her space.

Shell instantly retreated into her first-floor master bath for a shower. Rena tried to speak to her through the restroom door with no success, so she changed into something cozily casual and headed to the kitchen for some after-party digestifs.

Inside Shell's modern style of wine cellar called a Wine Closet, Rena perused the vast selection of beverages. Rena's bare feet tip-tapped against the iridescent light-panel floor as she narrowed her choices, and finally settled on one of Shell's favorite champagnes.

The door slid shut behind Rena as she carried her champagne and two glasses to the booth. There, she found Shell with damp hair, in a black bathrobe, consumed by sniffles.

"Like a moth to flame, huh?" Rena asked.

"You know I want nothing to do with your handbag. That champagne, however… I'll have that bottle and a straw."

"Baby, what is it, already?" Rena asked as she sat across from Shell. "You've had me on pins and needles since we left."

"It's Ben! It's the agency! It's the future… I hate for you to see me in such shambles."

"Shell, I love you. I can help if you just tell me what happened."

"I think Ben is ill, Rena. I mean, I don't think. I know. He was grave tonight. I asked him flat out. He said no but was so defensive."

"But what did he say to make you think this way?" Rena asked as she sat upright, downed her champagne in one gulp and poured another.

After a bit of a pause, Shell spilled it. "He insisted I take over Moonglow if anything were to happen to him."

Rena's mouth fell open. "You're serious?"

"My words exactly. Considering I lost my dad quite early, Ben has been like a second father to me. He's been there for me—with me! I can't imagine a world—my world—without him!"

Shell's reddened face and wet eyes conveyed a fear Rena had never seen before. She rose and fit herself in beside her lover.

"Baby, don't cry anymore. I'm here," Rena said as she wrapped her arms around Shell. "I'll always be here no matter what."

Rena felt at her best in that moment. She wasn't a perfect lover, she knew that, but whenever Shell needed her, she was there. That went for her previous relationships and friendships, as well. J.D. always said she was all heart; that she had too much love inside her. He also called it a character flaw that needed experience to learn how to manage. He always said some people had to first do wrong to know what's right.

Of course, he spoke of Rena's infidelity.

They made some of the most intense, passionate love ever that night. As they rode on the emotions of the evening, everything felt enhanced, from the fluttering feeling of making out to the warmth of sweaty flesh against flesh, breasts against breasts, to the tingling, electric rush of orgasm.

After it all, Shell lay asleep atop Rena, her head between Rena's breasts. After a few sleeping pills, Rena began to fade as she gazed at Shell's blonde curls and felt complete with her warm breath against her chest. It was then that Rena promised herself never to sleep around on Shell again.

CHAPTER TWO

"You said mango, right?" Lilly Morgan asked as she stood before a wall-embedded glass-door freezer in the spacious kitchen of her northeast side suite.

"Yes please!" Koko said over the kitchen intercom, part of a Psionic-powered system that became a common trend in wealthier homes and businesses. Mental sensors throughout the units registered thoughts. People wore a special cap that scanned and registered them as approved users of any unit's system. All one had to do was think say to such-and-such room and one's words would channel there. While tricky at first, people learned to be more intuitive and focused because of the way mind-control technology evolved.

She carried two push-up style popsicles past a photo cutout in the slate-gray wall of the foyer that displayed a picture of her younger-self and father in a living room setting, back-dropped by warm summer hues of undulating light, and pressed a camouflaged button near a slim, half-inch port beside the cutout. The image changed to a three-quarter shot of her and her thirty-seven year old dad in a cheek-to-cheek embrace, dressed in thick winter sweaters. The ambient light of the holo-photo also shifted to a cool color-scape of blues, whites and purples.

Holo-photo technology was all the craze. Scenes captured from various angles were composited into a fully realized, three-dimensional snapshot of life. The photos resided in pic-cubes, which were cube-bases of varying sizes from which the actual images projected. They were fantastic for gifts and portable displays but most homes opted to install the technology in walls or furnishings.

Koko didn't hear when Lilly stepped into the master bedroom, covered in sketches of various dresses, prints, suits and undergarments. She sat on the floor, on a huge navy blue cushion, her jeaned legs criss-crossed as she strummed an acoustic guitar. Her white, draped-back top left her flesh entirely exposed, much to Lilly's glee as she pressed a frosty popsicle into Koko's spine.

"Shit, that's cold!"

Lilly sat across from her and handed over the offending treat. "Remember when you'd sneak all my chocolates away and leave drawings of snickering people in my candy boxes?"

"I'd hide and watch you open them. So funny!"

"Yeah, well, that's what you get. You earned your freezer burn!"

Koko and Lilly had been best friends since they were toddlers. Lilly's father was a real estate developer for low-income neighborhoods that met Koko's parents on the after-party circuit of some of the same foundations to which they donated. He had a lovely young girlfriend but after Lilly was born, she vanished and left behind only a note that lamented motherhood.

The Deans had a daughter Lilly's age so they gladly offered to care for her when Markham Morgan had to be away for work. The girl was in good hands and Koko had a playmate. It was a win-win situation.

"Koko?"

"Yeah?"

When Lilly said nothing else, Koko looked up from her popsicle and asked, with an oblivious smile, "What is it?"

Lilly's gaze lingered. It should have been easy to tell her best friend anything. It wasn't. How could Lilly tell hers that she loved her? She always loved her. Ever since they reached the age of frisky, Lilly dreamed that Koko would want to be more than just friends. It didn't seem Koko felt that way, though.

Koko eventually confessed a crush when they were twelve, but not on the person who wanted it the most. Unfortunately, Koko went on about Brandy Patterson in their homeroom, how cute she was, how soft her brown curls were, or what perfect teeth Daphne Cleeridy had and how funny she was. The more and more she went on and on about everyone else, the more Lilly felt splinter-sized and torn apart.

Six years later, nothing had changed. Every time Lilly meant to initiate conversation about it, Koko spoiled it all and went on about some girl she saw or met. Lilly didn't want to cause Koko any upset, so she sucked it up and humored her at every turn. It fortified their best friend status but ate away Lilly's emotional sanity. Koko confided everything to her, from her first kiss with Sadie Delany at fourteen to sex for the first time at sixteen with Rebecca Town, one of the most popular, beautiful, red headed seniors at their high school.

Lilly wondered if her reticence made her a coward. What if Koko thought of her more as a sister and wanted it to stay that way? What would happen if Lilly confessed to her silent love? Would Koko completely turn her away? Would life become awkward enough to lose the reason she woke each morning? Lilly couldn't risk it. Therefore, she adapted to a painful life of longing after something she thought she couldn't have.

Lilly fished in her soul for the courage to say what she wanted for so long. Before her mouth could motion to speak, the opalescent Andromeda Koko wore banded on her wrist chimed. Her sleek blue eyes erupted in excitement as she drew a small, tailed disc from it, placed it just inside her right ear.

The joy Koko radiated as she spoke into her wrist phone was little consolation for Lilly. She almost came out with it! Interrupted! All confidence drained from her face as she slumped into her cushion and resumed her traditional position: idle at Koko's side.

"That's great! Thank you! Okay! Tomorrow at ten! See ya then! —Lilly!" she said as she removed the disc from her ear and latched it back in place. "After a final review of my package, Saffron Fellows himself wants to take my meeting tomorrow!"

In classic form, Lilly poised herself with a smile but the defeated look in her eyes was impossible to mask.

"You're coming with me, right?" Koko asked.

"If you want me to, sure."

"Of course I do!"

That smile. Her oblivious, innocent smile bullet riddled Lilly's heart. Sometimes she wondered if Koko did it on purpose. She never thought of her best friend as a sadist but how could anyone be so unaware? Did she figure out Lilly's feelings a long time ago and choose never to mention them in the hope they would just go away?

Part of Lilly wondered why she tolerated it. The other part of her knew why—she loved Koko, no matter what.

=>_>=

They began the next morning with a jog through Dovenshire Park, one of the most lavish and authentic botanical preserves ever constructed. The quality of its nature trails, campsites, birds, some wildlife, even a vast lake made Lilly's building high-demand real estate.

As usual, Lilly dressed Koko for her meeting. She always had a natural knack for sketching and sewing, so she loved to design her own clothes and Koko's too.

Lilly knew something obsessive about her admiration for Koko existed. With so much pleasure in details, Lilly took full advantage of being so close to her. She studied her. She knew Koko like the back of her hand. She knew her measurements, her body's quirks and perks. She knew how many beauty marks Koko had and where. How she stood, how she leaned. How she slept. How her hair fell. How it blew in the wind. She knew every characteristic of Koko's hips when she moved. She knew her stroll, her run, how she danced. Yet, nothing compared to Lilly's favorite characteristic—Koko's smile. Lilly felt her entire body and soul soar into the stars at the thought of it.

She felt Koko's clothes should do nothing less than take away breath. Koko had always been long and thin, so at the prime age of eighteen, her five-foot-eleven frame offered Lilly an ideal canvas on which to design. Her tummy never ended. Neither did her legs. The length and thinness of her feet made shoe-shopping tricky but Lilly helped as much as possible since she lacked the resources to fabricate her own footwear.

Lilly tirelessly practiced with jean material for the past year. Its dense, weighty, cumbersome nature intimidated her at first but as time went on, Lilly taught herself to control the fabric instead of vice versa. All that practice led up to her latest style of denim's debut on Koko for the morning of her meeting at Ludavine. She fashioned a seamless pair of black jeans stuffed into half-calf silver boots that made Koko tower over her even more. For Koko's top, she fashioned a delicate, airy jacket that slipped on from the front and zipped up at the back. Lilly finished the ensemble with a buckle-less, tangerine belt that clasped together at the front for a streamlined look.

Lilly felt proud of how chic and sexy Koko looked as they approached the Ludavine front entrance with confident strides. They descended a wide hall lined with digital in-house ads, marketing campaigns, some movie marquees, album covers and, right before the expanse of several glass doors, a stand-alone marquee of the agency's Talent of the Month. Mariska Tarasova held that honor, a pouty, Russian model and actor in her mid-twenties who instantly took the cinema world by storm. She raked in a few awards for her performance in Director Vivienne Tiben's re-telling of Anna Karenina, a period drama with a heart and production value that left audiences and critics in awe. Ludavine and the film's production company threw everything they had behind her campaign for the most coveted accolade of them all—the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Koko rested her hands on the copper bar that would push open the door to the rest of her life. She paused a moment, took a breath and looked to Lilly with a smile that turned every one of Lilly's ball-and-socket joints to melted butter. Ready for anything, Koko pushed open the door between her and the future of all her dreams.

Nothing her grandfather told her about Ludavine Talent & Model Management compared to what she and Lilly found in that lobby. Their eyes needed a minute or two to take in the grand scope of it all as they stood at the precipice of the wildfire-tiled floor. Rustic, earthy tones spattered with turbulent reds, blacks and burnt oranges leant the lobby a frenetic energy that coupled perfectly with the boozy trip-hop that played over the sound system.

Koko and Lilly marveled at the nonlinear architecture as they approached a front desk that curved like a wilted flower. Not a single straight line existed! The sitting area with several high-back loveseats, beanbag chairs, some angular coffee tables and floor-stand lights with interesting bends to their metal frames distracted them so much they bumped into that front desk. A young man with short, champagne-blond hair and chiseled features hardly hid his annoyance but kept it civil when he looked up to them and asked, "How can I help you ladies?"

"I have a ten-o'clock with Mr. Fellows," Koko said, all smiles.

"Oh… I'll send a message up. He's been tied down all morning."

At that, a belligerent voice penetrated the tranquil air. "That isn't how the world works, Fellows! Your days of brown-bearing every honey pot in town are far behind you!"

Sir Ben Sibelius emerged from one of several glass-encased lifts that came from the fourth floor where the executive offices resided.

"Imagine what your mother would say, to see you devastate every friendship—every trust you ever forged! Good thing you cremated her! She'd be bouncing off the walls of her coffin as she rolled in her grave and never have rest!"

"You have some nerve!" a second elder voice yelled.

Lilly and Koko stared on from below while Saffron Fellows, owner and founder of Ludavine, marched after Ben. He held onto the gaudy rails that overlooked the lobby and shouted with his booming voice while Ben waddled down the stairs.

"When did you forget that this is a business?" Saffron asked as he quickly descended the stairs. "I don't know what's crawled up your ass, Ben, but you can't barge in here spouting nonsense like this! You need a doctor! You need a psychiatrist!"

"I didn't forget a thing, not one thing!" Ben said. "You're the one who's lost sight of our original goals. We started all this to be better than everyone else—to be people again instead of pimps. We agreed to care for our flock! To give a damn!"

"And you couldn't just phone this scolding in?"

"You can't hang up on me when I'm standing in front of you! Dropping that girl is nothing the Saffron Fellows I've known all my life would ever do, let alone lure her away from us in the first place."

"What? You're still sore Ivy left Moonglow? That was ages ago, Ben—and just business! Are you drinking this early?"

"Stop trying to make this about me!"

"Ben… Please get a hold of yourself. You know I love you but I won't tolerate this lawlessness! This isn't Moonglow. We have rules and codes of conduct around here!"

"Why, how dare you!"

Just as Ben gripped his cane, two uniformed security guards descended on the scene. Needless to say, he did not go quietly.

"Make sure someone sees to it he gets home safely," Saffron shouted after the guards who escorted Ben out the front doors by both arms.

It took a few moments for Saffron to settle his nerves after the incident, but he handled it with tact and turned his attentions to Koko and Lilly.

"Sorry about that," Saffron said as he shook with them both. Once he had a solid look at Koko, his jaw nearly hit his shoes. "Wow! You look so much more like your grandmother in person! I'm Saffron Fellows. I feel odd introducing myself but it's been a good decade since we last saw each other."

"Thanks so much for this, Mr. Fellows! I'm beyond appreciative," she said as he turned to Lilly.

"And you must be Lilly," he said as he held her hand in more of a cradle than a shake. "This is the first time we've met. You were always sick or with your father when I came around Dean Family Time. But I remember one of Marshall's birthdays that I saw a lovely seven-year-old little girl with copper hair and a yellow dress playing the most beautiful, gentle tune on the piano. I thought to myself, That child has a real gift and will go great places one day.

"That was you," Saffron said with a warm smile as Lilly beamed and blushed. "Marshall snuck me some of your recordings. You're destined to be a household name."

"Put your eyes back in your head, Lilly," Koko said.

"Thank you but… I don't know what to say. It's always been just a hobby."

"Right. Let's continue this in my office." Saffron and Koko started for the stairs while Lilly hung back unsurely. She turned to the array of seats behind her when Saffron stopped and said, "All of us."

=^-^=

"It's hectic up here," Lilly said as she maneuvered through the hustle-and-bustle of Ludavine just beyond the lobby. Her body language said much of how she felt about crowds.

"We've been a lot busier lately but with our varied clientele, it's to be expected," Saffron said as they stepped into a lift bound for the fourth floor.

They reached the top in seconds and proceeded through a wide hall with gray and gold floors, maroon walls and a much calmer flow of activity that eased Lilly's nerves.

"Just up here," he said before a sweet female voice with a Russian accent called out.

"Saffron!" Mariska Tarasova came around a left corner in a wispy cream maxi dress and skyscraper heels. "We could hear you and Ben filleting each other. Is everything all right?"

"For now," he said. "I'll call Shell later, see what she knows about Ben and sporadic outbursts. —Here, I'd like you to meet Koko Dean and Lilly Morgan, very talented young ladies!"

"Read your contracts carefully! He asks for ovaries in the fine print," she said as she shook hands with the apparently star struck pair. "Well, I won't hold you up. I'm meeting Ruby at The Five Gems for breakfast." She mimicked the knock-back of a spot of booze with her hand, pinky and thumb extended, other three fingers curled inward. "You know how she turns to a harpy whenever I'm late for anything."

"Maybe because you're late for everything!" Saffron said.

"Ha-Ha," she returned with a sarcastic drawl. "It was nice to meet you both. Good luck!"

She took a few steps forward but turned back to address Koko. "By the way, I absolutely love your outfit! Is it Ungaro? Or Paula Class?"

Koko stood tall, pigeon-chested and looked at her best friend with pride. "Uh… Actually, Lilly made this for me!"

Mariska spun Koko around by the shoulders. "Wow! The tailoring is exquisite. Do you show at all?"

"No I uh… It's just a hobby."

"And you assembled this yourself?"

Lilly nodded as her blush-pink cheeks bunched up. "Stitch by stitch."

"Spray paint me impressed! If this isn't just a fluke of genius and you stick around, I'd love to see what you might wrap me in sometime!"

Lilly couldn't find further words. She simply stared on in disbelief, so Koko nudged her in the side and coaxed something sheepish from her. "I'll bring some stuff in for you to see."

Mariska gave her a wink and trotted off with a final, "See you around."

Once the lift carried her away, Lilly looked to the others with eyes wide as golf balls. "Pinch me so I know I'm awake!"

"Let's get to my office, at least," Saffron said. "After the theatrics all morning, I may need some pinching too."

The success of the meeting enthused Koko so much, she signed papers even though she didn't fully read them. Lilly warned her about that but she didn't care. She needed an opportunity such as this to get her foot in the door. She didn't intend to stop there, either. She felt determined to kick the door down and make Ludavine her permanent home.

Saffron Fellows would be her personal manager. He setup all the preliminaries which included participation in Ludavine's Model-Trainer program where Koko would learn how to work a catwalk, the ins and outs of photo shoots, how castings worked, etc. They decided her Southern accent was part of her charm but she would need to learn how to control it. He also scheduled her for screen tests to gauge her quality before a camera.

Saffron took Lilly on as well and assigned Natalie Church, Ludavine's primary music artist agent, to handle her. She would start work on demos of her original songs, a couple of covers and lay down tracks for distribution through Ludavine's affiliate record label, Genuine. They were master marketers at Ludavine, so Saffron had every confidence they could net her enough exposure to drum up a few sales in preparation for some live performances. Ludavine often placed a new client's song on a popular TV or Eye-show as a publicity tactic. There were plans for that but Lilly had so much material, it would take a bit to go through it all, critique it and decide its place in the sun.

The P.R. hounds would drum up attention to her fashions. Saffron Fellows knew it would be a work in progress so he planned to start her slowly and introduce her apparel to the world through skillfully marketed in-house designs, perhaps even a red-carpet outfit for Mariska Tarasova.

Koko thought it best to live in the moment. She never knew a day where so many moments bathed her in so much bounty. Her world felt perfect. Lilly could almost say the same thing.

Almost.

To complete such a series of good fortunes, Lilly needed Koko in a way she didn't think Koko understood, or wanted to. She would give it all up in exchange for Koko's heart. She wanted to celebrate with her lips pressed against Koko's—she really did!—but worried the risk of a kiss might spoil the day for her best friend. Therefore, Lilly swallowed her desire and simply watched Koko radiate with glee. She decided to save it for another day—again.

CHAPTER THREE

"Okay! Chomp it!" Charlie Hilst shouted. His echo boomed inside one of Moonglow Model Managements' largest studios with ridiculously high ceilings and retractable skylights. He stood before a set stage of vibrant, auteur proportions with an immense screen that displayed the nighttime Moonglow cityscape, a bustling panorama of the glossiest, most frenetic district in the city across its slightly curved surface that stretched from one end of the studio to the other.

Rena Hilst posed front and center of the display as a bladeless fans kept her hair in motion while she bit into a Trifecta candy with melodramatic nuance. The pastel pink and periwinkle drizzles complimented her pink and blue cocktail dress, a low cut number that flirted with Rena's cleavage and tapered with her waist for a perfect silhouette.

The day's photographer was close to Rena's heart. Her twin brother, Charlie, had been a photo-hobbyist since before he could speak. As a child, he always liked to play with cameras—toys, new ones, old ones, broken ones, the throw-away variety. He didn't care. He loved them all but his favorites were those that actually spat back an image.

They always joked that they didn't look alike, just fell out at the same time. It wasn't all together true. Both had similarly sinuous, full lips, somewhat Elvish noses and towered in height. Their personalities were fairly in-synch, as well. Some marked differences—aside from gender and sexual preference—were Rena's green eyes versus Charlie's blue and that she wore her fine, straight hair proudly while Charlie kept his head cleanly shaved.

He held a Cam-Orb in both hands, a multi-lens sphere that hovered in the air and spun as it snapped three-hundred-sixty-degree shots in their entirety. It brought art photography that utilized motion to grand new levels. He focused it, held it high then let it hover on its own as Rena took that bite of Trifecta. Set to half rotation, the Cam-Orb kept Rena in focus while its back-lens randomized the openness of its shutter as it darted side-to-side to create beautifully chaotic, wispy tracers.

When he brought it back down, he attached it to a chord on his wrist and stared down the top of it with goggles that gently shimmered with a purple and opal glow. That activated a mode that allowed him to review the complex layers of the photo recently captured.

"So?" came from way across the studio. "Are they serviceable enough for passports, at least?"

It was J.D. Staley with a bitchy tone that matched his swagger. His hands and arms swayed as if he meant to decapitate a field of corn.

"Who knocked over a cereal box and spilled you out?" Charlie asked.

J.D. stopped beside Charlie, took the camera away and held out his other hand in wait.

"Yes, your highness!"

J.D. took the goggles and slipped them on to survey the goods. "I have to say, Charlie, these are better than the usual corner-store postcards you snap off."

"I try my best. It would help if my subject wasn't dressed like some drunk, garish gypsy tossed off the cast of Carmen."

J.D play-smacked the camera and goggles into Charlie's chest and called to Rena as Charlotte approached her with a large silver bowl.

"Sorry this was the best I could find for you today, Reenie! At least he was free!"

"All's forgiven!" she shouted back as she held the rest of a Trifecta to her lips. Charlotte motioned for her to drop the candy into the bowl but Rena wouldn't have it. She threw her darts for eyes and smacked Charlotte's hand away as she reached for the treat.

"She's hoarding those, isn't she?" J.D. asked.

"More like defeating," Charlotte said as she showed him the barren interior of that bowl.

"There's nothing in here! Reenie, how many have you had?"

"Lost count," she said with a shrug, a fresh glass of champagne in one hand, a candy in the other.

"Rena, behave! You'll retain something—water! Something! Couldn't you lose yourself in a sea of Satay or Crudité?"

Rena smirked, chased her candy down with champagne and stared into J.D.'s eyes with her trademark mischief.

He turned back to Charlie and begged, "Help me!"

Charlie laughed, held his hands up and walked off.

J.D. looked back to her with a defeated face as she gobbled another Trifecta and more champagne. It was hopeless. There was no telling her what to do, for good or ill. In that regard, she and Charlie, indeed, were twins.

"I should have known better than to get you two in the same room!" he said and stomped out of the studio.

=^-^=

"I feel awful for not being able to come out today." Shell's voice filled Rena's sports coupe as she rode in the driver's seat with Charlie shotgun, down a long stretch of coastal road.

"Don't worry about it, baby. I just hope you get to see Ben," Rena said. She referenced Shell's first attempt to visit Ben Sibelius since his sick leave from Moonglow as Charlie passed her a flask. "We have that thing tonight, anyway. Or, is that tomorrow night?"

"Tonight, so don't get all kanpai'd out too early. The party will be a tour of Madame Tussaud's without you."

Rena drank from the flask in a ginger manner, so as not to make any sloshing sounds. "Don't worry. I'm on my best behavior!"

"The more you tell me not to worry, the more I do."

Charlie held his laughter and took the flask back.

"I love you," Rena said.

"I love you," Shell replied. "Care and condolences to Shannon. Please, apologize for me."

"Will do. Send Ben my best, okay? I'll see you tonight."

Shell closed the call with the sound of a kiss, as she always did.

"Shameless!" Charlie said.

"Oh, loosen the noose. Ali won't get the usual memorial chug from me today!"

"Aha. And kittens will suddenly spill out of my ass!"

"Whatever! I have equalizer!" Rena kicked her car into manual drive and floored it.

They were off to Fae Banna Beach, a secluded stretch of sand nestled beneath a range of cliffs. For those who bored of the faux nature modern technology had provided them in the indoor preserves and bio-domes, Fae Banna was a place where one could get away from the getaways—where Rena, Shannon and Ali always went. Even when Rena wasn't around, Shannon and Ali frequented their sanctuary as often as time allowed. A meadow of yellow and peach flowers led up to a short cliff the girls claimed for themselves. Rena and Charlie found Shannon Sadoveanu there, sullenly perched on the hood of her silver convertible.

Rena had long since put her car into flight mode so she hovered over the flowers. The only floral casualties that day were those poor petals beneath her tires as she gently set down next to Shannon's ride.

"What a maudlin sight," Charlie said at the visual of Shannon seated alone on the hood of her car, legs criss-crossed as she gazed out to the never-ending vista.

Rena watched the ocean breeze billow Shannon's hair as the gin in her system took over her emotions. Her eyes welled with tears when she thought of plans that would never materialize with Ali gone. Ali and Shannon were to marry the following spring. Rena would have been the ring bearer while Aber and Charlie photographed the entire event. J.D. already had mock-ups of their dresses, but those designs would never see the light of day.

"Hey," Charlie said. "I miss her too."

Rena sniffled and set out the car. She adjusted her skintight jeans that crawled into uncomfortable places and strolled up beside Shannon, Charlie in tow.

"Scoot over."

Shannon slid aside so that Rena could prop herself up on the hood of the car.

"Shan-Shan," Charlie muttered as he kissed her on the temple and Rena put her arm around her shoulders.

"Three months today. Whoever said time heals all wounds was full of shit." Shannon turned a crystal, palm-sized locket bejeweled with sapphires, adorned with a Celtic Heart over in her hands. It was Ali's favorite symbol due to her Irish heritage. The locket was never out of Shannon's reach because inside were Ali's ashes.

"I think about how I come here two or three times a week. One of these days, it may be once a week. Then, maybe only once every monthly anniversary. Every yearly anniversary. That's what time really does, depletes our resolve so we forget."

Charlie extended his flask to her.

"I have my own, but thank you," she said as she unscrewed the cap on the locket that held Ali's remains.

"I send a bit of her off on the wind most times I come but I wonder if I'll ever be able to let all of her go." Her statuesque face fractured and she began to cry. "I sure as hell can't now. I can't let go of all that I have left of my baby…"

Rena cried herself while Shannon dabbed some ashes into her palm and blew them into the air. A somber moment of silence passed before Shannon drew up her own flask from between her legs. Red-eyed, Rena reached over and snatched Charlie's away.

"To Ali! Kanpai!" she toasted with a quiver in her voice. She and Shannon clinked and chugged with abandon.

Charlie said nothing. He could have reminded Rena of that night's plans, about her word to Shell, but he felt he had no right to impede on their moment. In the spirit of if you can't beat them, join ‘em, he simply took the flask back from Rena and had a healthy swig.

They sat in Shannon's convertible—top-up—while they tended to their ritual. They were absolutely blasted by the time an hour had passed. On the monthly anniversary of her death, gin and lines were the regular menu items for mourning Ali.

Shannon eventually blacked out in the passenger's seat of her car with Rena seated behind the wheel, turned sideways to face the back where Charlie sat.

"This is so you. In the face of an important evening, you blow your brains out hours before."

She threw Charlie a beady-eyed glare and had a couple more lines before she passed the mirror they shared. "I'll be fine. I always am."

"You sound like Andi."

"I really wish you'd let up on her, Charlie. You suffocate her with all the drums you bang in her name."

"Your eyes are bloodshot and you're slurring like a stroke victim. That's fine to you?" His tone tried to change the subject.

"This is my last drink, I swear!" She emptied the remaining contents of Shannon's flask down her throat and paused a moment, eyes closed, as the alcohol washed over her in a steady wave.

Charlie sighed and shook his head. Even though his sister never could gauge when to call it quits, he could tell she reached capacity. The way her eyes bugged and glassed over, how the tip of her nose and her ears reddened raised the white flag.

Rena looked to Shannon beside her with a long face. "It breaks my heart to see her like this, all slumped into herself that way."

"She lost what you take for granted."

"You really have to do that? Right now?"

"I'm not trying to start anything, Sis."

"Then why is every opportunity to call me out a good one for you?"

"I'll knock it off, but you need to knock it off real soon too!"

"I can't believe the sermon I'm in for, after what you and Andi did to me!"

"What has living in the past ever gotten anyone?"

"Oh, I'm not! I've moved on! Even rejected Andi's occasional flirts at every turn. Thing is, sometimes you ride around on a horse so high it takes a trampoline to mount and I enjoy knocking you the fuck off it!"

Charlie pinched a nerve in his sister, but instead of fuming back at her, he just smiled.

"You know I love Shell more than anything…"

"I know." Charlie capped his flask and leaned forward to slide it into the car's console.

"No, I'll take her home. If she wakes up, I want to be there to say a few more words before I head back and recover for tonight." Rena gave Charlie a sincere stare. He did his best to gauge her eyes, however intoxicated they were.

"You better behave, Sis. Remember someone in this fake, fucked up world loves you."

Rena kept silent. She was too drunk, wired and churned up for anymore combat. She knew he meant Shell and that he wanted the final dig so she let him have it and sent him on his way with her car keys.

Her greatest challenge would be to sober up before the J.D. Staley and Lina Andel preview party later that night. It wouldn't be the first time she showed up to an event under the influence but as she set the car in auto-pilot to fly them back to Shannon's place, vision and perception began to melt and she felt the itch of her thirst rise again.

CHAPTER FOUR

Shell arrived at Sir Ben Sibelius' mountain glade palace per the behest of his hospice nurse, Leon McClain. He called Shell in the early morning hours of a somber day—the three-month anniversary of Aber and Ali's murders. It caused anxiety for her to think that Rena and Shannon would be as hammered as usual considering that evening's event, but she had to trust Rena's word. Even if Rena did overdo it, she hoped Rena had the sense to keep it to the bare minimum end of the excess spectrum.

She had called Ben's home for the better part of a month to no response. Her Eye messages went unanswered, as well. Once he finished oversight of the preliminaries that would lead to Shell's inheritance of Moonglow Model Management, he dropped off the face of the Earth.

Just when she felt she had no choice but to show up unannounced, a young man who sounded no more than mid-twenties called and opened the door back into Ben's life. He apologized for the cold-shoulder treatment and explained that Ben had been quite the cantankerous handful. Leon informed her that Ben could use the positive reinforcement from the one person he spoke of the most—the most important person in his life—Shell. She leapt at the opportunity and sent Rena off with Shannon and Charlie without her.

Shell admired Ben's resolve to live on the ground, far from the hoi polloi of topside society. Down below was a welcome change of scenery with all the natural greenery, endless concrete ribbons of road that snaked through hills and valleys, and the scent of the sea that rolled just a bit beyond Ben's house as Shell flew with her windows down.

When Shell landed outside Ben's gated community and drove up to a security checkpoint that resembled a border crossing with its striped, neon bars that controlled an array of force-fields, she thought of how long it had been since she last visited. She gained entrance by way of a spoken code Leon provided. Apparently, Ben had it changed when his illness arose.

She drove through a lonely winding road from there, passed several mansions nestled in the nooks and crannies of that green, hilly valley in which Ben setup shop and arrived at a place she missed very much.

Ben was always one for a constant stream of houseguests. It was always a treat to come down from the lofts of big city life in the concrete and steel canopies of Moonglow City for some—in the literal sense—down-to-Earth whimsies. All that slowed the older Ben grew, especially after his longtime companion, Frederick Gray, died seven years previous. It dwindled to non-existence when he personally fell ill and went recluse.

When she pulled up, Shell just about hallucinated over the exterior of Ben's sprawling two-story mansion and saw it how it used to be with its white stone columns and myriad of windows elaborately decorated and lit for guests and glee. Then, the reality of where she sat took over. She noted the shades of every window drawn. The mansion's façade was faded and drab. The foliage was overgrown. Ben's hover-car was still where he always parked it, on the left side of the house adjacent to a side door but it had company—a white hover-van with a red medical logo on the back.

Armed with the notion that Ben had ignored her calls and Eye messages for his own reasons, Shell took a deep breath and poured out the car, ready for anything. She climbed the short flight of stone steps, the mansion's huge, mahogany doors in her crosshairs.

She thought about Leon's tone when he called to invite her earlier that morning. Although polite enough, the concern in his voice alarmed Shell. Leon alerted her to a contradiction in Ben. Even though he acted like he wanted to stay invisible and die invisible, the melancholia woven through his conversations about the old days—his work, his legacy and Shell—suggested something else.

Leon felt the lack of Shell in his life drained sand from the hourglass of whatever time he had left. Ben needed Shell—in his bleakest moments, more than ever.

With the security code Leon fessed up loaded in her Andromeda, she gave it a go. Sure enough, with a gentle chime and audible release of a lock, the door cracked open ever so slightly. The scent of Ben's home escaped through the bleak separation between door and threshold, hooked her by the nostrils and escorted her inside.

Shell inched through the dim confines of what was once a boisterous, vibrant foyer with eyes unbelieving. She thought of how so much had changed in so little time as she crossed sparse streams of sunlight that infiltrated the solitude through breaks in the shades. The atmosphere was night-and-day compared to what Shell had always known. Ben's cascading chandeliers glowed no longer. Shell could hardly make out the figures in his towering oil-on-canvas works of portraiture and still life without the museum picture lights that regularly bathed them in vitality. Only emptiness remained where fresh flowers once occupied stone and marble vases. Even a thin mist of dust hovered in the air, as if a hundred years had passed since Shell's last visit and it weighed heavily on her heart.

From the distant right came a rustle that sent Shell into retreat through one of two large archways that led into a lavish sitting room. She loomed behind the modern European Country sofa she had passed out drunk on twenty-five years previous at the first Ben-hosted party she attended. She saw a young man with butter-blonde hair in a seamless white uniform carry a tray of food and tea from the kitchen, through the foyer and up the stairs.

"Mr. McClain?" Shell called out in a pitch just above a whisper.

On the third step up, he spun around and motioned with his head for her approach.

"Give it a few minutes then come up after me, okay?" he suggested with a greeting smile. "Even if he's bent at first, he'll get over it."

"I still don't understand this aversion."

"It's common, but it's also gone far enough."

At that, Leon pranced up the stairs. Before he took a left toward Ben's room, he turned back to Shell and said, "Nice to meet you finally, by the way."

"Likewise."

In better times, the climb up those prominently placed central stairs felt like a graceful ascent into the stars. Yet, as Shell climbed, hardly a sliver of the ebullience that once enchanted them remained, as if the house reflected the spirit of its owner.

Shell made a left across the second floor and crept across the rich, crimson carpet as quietly as possible, through shadows cast by the Palladian windows that lined the adjacent wall of what Ben sassily referred to as Chateau Sibelius.

Even though Leon suggested she hang back, Shell had to sneak a peek. She saw Ben and Leon from the bedroom threshold, across the room at the far right end where Ben sat, propped up in bed in his favorite blue satin robe, the one with his initials in a white Calligraphy font and embroidered white moon sewn in silk thread over his heart.

It seemed Ben enjoyed himself as he and Leon chit-chatted, no matter how frail, pale or bald he appeared. Indeed, he lost all his hair. The sight of it almost made Shell gasp. She minded herself, though, unsure when she would make herself known. In fact, a fleeting moment suggested she turn around and leave, content to have seen him one more time—perhaps, one last time.

She did well to kick that fleeting moment right in the ass. At that thought, Ben's eyes drifted upward and met her own.

Ben nearly spilled his tea and nervously held a slice of toast up in front of his freshly flushed face.

"She's behind me, isn't she?" Leon asked.

Ben said nothing. The shock of Shell's sudden presence apparently staggered his power of speech.

"Ben? As if it weren't bad enough you've ignored me for all this time, you would further salt such a wound by hiding from me behind a piece of toast?" Shell asked as she baby stepped toward him.

He dropped his toast back to the plate and glared at Leon with death-ray eyes.

"I don't care how mad you are, Ben," Leon said. "All that Sullen Sally bullshit has gone far enough. You've had every chance to make this happen yourself. But games, Ben? Always games? Not under my watch. Not anymore. She's here now, just like you wanted." With that, he left Shell and Ben to reconnect.

Shell took off her jet-black overcoat, loosened scarf and sat on the edge of the bed at Ben's side.

"You really should fire your hairdresser…"

"It's not so bad. The wigs fit better!"

That gave Shell a laugh that scrunched her face enough to squeeze out a tear or two. She leaned over and hugged him for dear life.

"Ben… please, don't ever do that to me again!"

"I don't have many more agains left in me, Shell."

His hopeless acceptance of a sullen fate bothered her. She never knew him to look or sound so defeated, and it made her want to do everything in her power to fix that.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Well, this time, what you see is what you get. I'm dying."

The conversation moved beyond Ben's bedroom, across that succession of windows at the precipice of the stairs as she accompanied him on his daily exercise routine.

"Your nurse is a right gem," Shell said.

"He's certainly one to take initiative."

"He was worried about you, as I've been."

"I insisted he leave you be. You have enough to handle without the stress and woe of some old codger."

"Have you any idea how much that hurts me?"

"How do you think I feel? I didn't want you to see me this way."

"Thinking back on the parties that used to go on here, I'd say I've seen you much worse."

Ben snickered at that. "I'm glad you're here,"

"Why don't you submit to treatment? Such degenerative conditions are common practice for doctors these days."

At that, Ben's knees jellied. He almost went down but Shell caught and steadied him. It alarmed her but she held it together in the spirit of support.

"This happens often?"

"Not as often as it seems, but yes. That's why I wear these Frankenstein probes. They even me out—usually." He referred to two small cubes jettison from his neck just under his ears.

"Perhaps we should go back?"

"No, no, I'm all right."

Shell took her time and withdrew her grip but the viscosity of the grave look she bestowed upon Ben was enough to catch him if he fell again.

They made their way to the kitchen where Leon quickly served up Shell's favorite tea—Vanilla Rooibos.

"Whatever psychic hunch tipped you off to my favorite tea, my compliments!"

"Psychic, indeed," Leon said. "You're all he talks about!"

Ben gave him death lasers for eyes.

"All, I say! I know your favorite underwear, your worst girlfriend, allergy to pomegranates and how much champagne it takes you to pee endlessly! Oh, and that you recently started to snore!"

"An exaggerated point, I assure you," Shell said as Leon placed an ochre dish of individual creamers on the table between the two.

"I'm going to get your bath ready," Leon said to Ben as he turned and breezed out of the kitchen.

"No sugar… He knows I haven't a sweet tooth. Good to know you've kept my memory alive, at least," she said.

"Talking about you has been holiday from talking to you. Getting a word in lately has spoiled me rotten!" Ben's face broke up in chuckles and his tired lungs wheezed between cackles that made Shell laugh too.

Ben missed that face. As cool and collected as she always behaved, it took an investigative eye to see what she felt most of the time. She could convince someone all was well even though the end of the world loomed. Nevertheless, Ben knew her better than anyone else did. She licked her lips when she spun a yarn or was drunk. She popped her thumb knuckles as she figured something out. When she laughed, though, she hid nothing. Laughter illustrated Shell's most honest, most pure form.

"Ben, why did you shut me out?"

He didn't answer at first. He took a moment's distracted detour in the steam that rose from his tea before he granted Shell the honesty she deserved.

"Put yourself in my shoes, Shell. When was the last time someone told you the game would end soon? I've never been sick a day in my life. At least, this sick. I've never spent a day in hospital. All of a sudden, my life is an hourglass? How does one go from invincible to interred so swiftly?

"Sometimes, I'll be lying in that bed—the bed Frederick and I shared for many years—and everything looks just as it did in better times. I can smell the good ole days. Frederick fresh out the shower. His cologne. The lingering scent of vacuumed curtains. He always did that. Freshly squeezed orange juice. Hot black tea… Then, I open my eyes. Only the stale scent of medicine remains. The room is monochrome, far removed from the vitality of once-upon-a-time. It's like a bad dream and I want to wake up."

Shell reached out and placed her hand over his as she let tears flow.

"I just wanted to disappear. I'm sorry I hurt you, Shell. I really am."

"And you say all that dry-eyed."

"Oh, I'm all out of tears. I cried my hair out! Trust me, these wells are spent."

"Well, things don't have to stay this way. You know as well as I do there are options for this. You could have many more years, Ben. Good years! Of course you won't live forever but who does?"

"I'm tired, Shell. I've said this before. I'm lonely! I don't know how else to express this but to be perfectly blunt. I don't want to be here anymore."

"You've resolved this? Thrown in the towel? If so, please tell me where you've hidden the Ben I've known for the past two and a half decades, doppleganger!"

"Shell, please—"

"—I just don't understand this. If there's anyone who taught me to never give up, it's you. And what about everyone else? Do you hear how selfish you sound? You speak like you're already gone."

"Shell, you're coming out of your bag—"

"—And everyone that loves you? What about them?"

"They're all dead!" he shouted with enough rapture in his voice to give Shell pause. He might as well have shot her head off and set her remains on fire. Her demeanor sank from inspirational to ashen in the blink of an eye.

"How can you say that?" she asked with that low tone like wind that whistled through the crevices of an old house. "What about me Ben? What about ME!"

"I misspoke…"

"After all these years of, not only being my friend, but a father to me—after you taught me everything I know about this business and so much about myself. After we've shared each other's ups-and-downs at every turn imaginable. How could you be so dismissive to me? What do you think? That I've been your lap dog for twenty-five years so I could rake at your stock in the agency? Tell me I'm wrong," she said as she gradually stood, knuckles planted on the table. "Please! Tell me I've taken it all the wrong way and you had no intention of eviscerating me!"

"You're wrong. You've taken it all the wrong way. I had no—"

"—Now you mock me," she said as she made her way to the threshold.

"Shell!" His call stopped her before she vanished through the doorway. "Please. Don't go."

What was he up to? In the twenty-five years she knew him, he never treated her that way. Of course, he was never in such dreadful circumstances. Shell figured it part of the degenerative disease that plagued him, in line with what Saffron experienced the day Ben blew a gasket at Ludavine.

"I'm not leaving," she said without looking back. "I'm just going to wash my face."

Shell quickly freshened up in one of Ben's more elaborate guest restrooms. On her way back downstairs, she saw Leon stride her way up the hallway, a sharply pointed rock of some sort in hand.

"Shell, a moment?"

She eyed the rock he held in his hand with alarm.

"Oh sorry!" he said. "It's a Caro Salt rock. A few minutes in his bath water and he's set for a super charged soak. It slows down the whole deterioration process on his joints."

"I know what it is. I'm just on edge."

"Needed an intermission so soon?"

"It's been a bit overwhelming, I'll admit. I'll adjust."

"Whatever happened, he isn't always like that. Sometimes he's better. Sometimes he's worse. But he's always kept you at the front of his mind. I feel like I know you better than you know yourself!"

"Then, why the detachment for so long?"

"Why did it take me to get you out here?"

"I just figured he needed time. I've never been one for imposition."

"Oh? Or were you scared?"

"Absolutely not! I'm not sure what I was but scared was far from it."

By the look Leon gave her, he didn't buy it and she understood why. It was a complete lie.

"Well, perhaps it was for the best," Leon said. "The worse he got, the angrier he got. He was too much to handle at the beginning."

"Is that why the house is gutted? For as long as I can remember, it always looked like something Lord Tennyson would envy. Now, it's like…" Her eyes watered and her voice quivered. "It's like the house is dying with him."

"That was all Ben. He tore into all the décor that first week. Trashed all the flowers. Shattered every picture frame. Collapsed every Pic-Cube. I saved what I could. Would you like to see?"

"No. Not now, at least. —Is there no way to convince him treatment is a good idea?"

"He didn't tell you, did he? He tried, Shell. He looked into it, was evaluated. He's beyond what medicine can do."

"Shouldn't this sort of thing be routine?"

"It's his genes. He's too frail for the kind of gene therapy someone in his position needs anyway. I wish I had a different answer for you, but I don't. Now, the goal is to make him comfortable until it's time."

"So that's why he kept on with the excuses. He won't admit that hope is out of his hands, even to me. He makes it all sound like his grand plan—his choice."

"Let him. He knows better, but it's clear he enjoys games. I just let him. He knows I know the truth. Maybe he'll be more honest with you. You never know."

Shell left him to attend to Ben's bath as she made her way back down the stairs, across the foyer and to the kitchen where Ben still sat. She stopped at the threshold where their eyes locked and all the essence of forgiveness set in. They both knew it was time to end the games and enjoy each other's company as best they could before it was too late.

CHAPTER FIVE

Rena gave into that thirst she felt in the car as she popped the cork on a fresh bottle of champagne recovered from Shannon's kitchen. She found the apartment without Ali greatly troubling because her best friends weren't just lovers, they were sisters, soul mates. The bond between them broke the barriers of whatever mortal hearts were capable.

She sat on the bed and nursed her champagne as she watched Shannon fidget and roll on her side to face the other way. There wasn't enough booze in all the distilleries of the world to numb the pain Shannon felt, and it broke her heart to hear Shannon's sniffles. Although her body began to cry, she knew those tears really came from her soul. It missed the only other soul in the Universe that completed it. It made her think of the venerable wreck she'd be if anything happened to Shell. She imagined herself in a similar position—drunk, wired, high, depressed, in a bit of a limbo. It made her go far beyond mere sympathy for Shannon, into downright empathy. What Shannon and Ali had knew no equal.

Rena snuggled into bed and spooned Shannon in the only way she knew to console such an aching heart. She only knew the consolation of closeness—how the warmth of a human spirit could endear to another full of solemnity. All Rena wanted was to be there for Shannon, near her, not to fill in for Ali but to illustrate that holding and hugging, and silent comfort did exist beyond tragedy. They were best friends, after all. They had survived almost everything a friendship could.

She gripped Shannon's shoulder to pull her closer and the spinning-world effect of her inebriation magnified as Shannon's hand crept onto hers. Rena's hibernated desires betrayed her best intentions and she couldn't help herself no matter how much her common sense pleaded with her not to make a move. She just couldn't help it. She was too drunk and wired to help it. She kissed the back of Shannon's neck. After a few tearful heaves, Shannon rolled over to face Rena. Nose to nose, they were stuck and all their excesses made sure they couldn't escape each other.

Then, they kissed.

Rena felt unable to stop herself. She was over the crush she had on Shannon since they were kids—or so she thought. She had come to terms with the girls she saw behind Shell's back as little more than sweet indulgences—or so she thought. As Shannon's mouth waltzed with hers, Rena realized she wasn't thinking at all.

She was feeling.

Rena fantasized about Shannon in her arms for years, yet kept it hibernated out of respect for the very foundation of their friendship. With every gyration of their tongues, she felt the longing that fogged her heart for so long dissipate more and more. With every gentle press of lips against lips, she felt their affection swell with urgency as clothes shed.

Rena eased herself down Shannon's body. The smoothness of Shannon's neck was appetizer to her small nipples that erected in Rena's mouth. She took them in, one and then the other. She slowed her pace and peppered Shannon's belly with kisses and quick licks, and lingered when she reached Shannon's pelvis. She needed a second to process the moment fully as her breath eddied between Shannon's legs. Then she tasted what she had always wanted to taste. The lingering scent of the morning's shower mingled with the warmth and taste of Shannon's sex, and it filled Rena's senses as Shannon's thighs gave her head a squeeze before they fell open in submission.

When Rena had at a girl, she took no prisoners. Her primary drive to please her partner trumped her own needs and fueled her desire to provide the best ecstasy for which a girl could ever dream. She figured it made her an ideal lover and felt better about herself because of it. In fact, full climax from experiencing what she did to another girl was one of her favorite ways to orgasm.

Their session was passionate but short-lived. Several moments where they seemed to consider the gravitas of their situation passed but nothing derailed them. Maybe Rena wasn't alone in her desires. Maybe Shannon wanted this for years, as well.

=O_O=

Rena jolted awake, her head foggy with little to no recollection of what came before, but as seconds marched by, it all flooded back. Total recall came in stages—Shannon's apartment, Shannon's bed, her apparent lack of clothes. She had a splitting headache, possibly a hangover. She knew what it all meant and she couldn't believe the day reached that point.

Rena threw aside the lilac sheets and leapt out of bed. The remains of the afternoon sun that beamed in from breaks in the sloppily drawn curtains forced her eyes to squint and warmed her skin as she re-wrapped herself in her wardrobe strewn about the floor.

Rena didn't notice the sound of the shower until it stopped. She thought it would be best to flee the apartment between pained pangs in her head, but what message would that send? She had never run from anything in her life. Why start over an awkward situation that involved a friend? Not just any friend either. Shannon!

Instead, Rena slipped into her sneakers and put to rest that final half-bottle of champagne. In an instant, she felt the headache dwindle and her bearings steady.

"Still here, huh?" Shannon asked when she stormed into the bedroom.

"Shan look—"

"—What Rena, what!" Shannon's snarl backed Rena up against the wall. "All these years, you've been biding your time or what? You were always the voice of reason when Ali was alive. The second she's gone, you slither into my bed and I fucking let you! I let you!"

Shannon cradled her tummy on the edge of the bed and broke down in sobs. Rena tried to approach her but all she received was the coldest of cold shoulders. "Save it, Rena. I don't want you near me right now."

Rena understood. J.D. Staley always said she had too much love in her. If only she didn't get so messed up all the time. If only she had the resolve to put down the bottle for good or, at least, have the sense to call it when enough-was-enough.

As she lurked down the long stretch of navy-blue carpeted hallway toward the roof where she parked, Rena hoped it wouldn't be the last time she used its gold diamonds set straight up the center as guides. She had a talent for damage control, but after what just happened, she wondered what it would take to make up for the lack of self-control she displayed with her face buried between Shannon's legs.

It took two to tango, of course, but she thought of how Shannon said she was always the voice of reason. Maybe she mourned that image of Rena, the one who always made the right call, always had things figured out. Apparently, Shannon expected Rena to say we can't do this. She expected Rena to say no.

She needed to give it time. She knew Shannon needed some time to allow her boil to cool to a simmer. She and Rena had been best friends most of their lives, after all. Nothing deserved to fracture that, what happened in the bedroom that afternoon included.

Once home and showered, it mulled in her head so much she lost track of time. She threw her fashion sense to the wind and hauled out her front door in white sneakers and the first thing she saw when she opened her closet. She hoped red-carpet critics would consider it a playful statement instead of what it really was—the product of a distracted mind.

Beyond the immediate wreck she made of her relationship with Shannon, there was Shell to consider. Rena knew Shell brushed off her extracurricular bedroom activities for the most part, but in a case like Shannon, Rena imagined it would hit a bit too close to home if she let on anything happened. On top of it all, Charlie was onto something. She wondered how she would feel about the situation if roles were reversed. She wasn't a jealous person, she never had been, yet the thought of Shell romping with someone else put a crease in her brow and a sigh in her breath.

Rena always told herself that if Shell ever saw anyone else, she would stay cool and collected. However, Shell never asked or even brought up the subject of unfaithfulness so neither did she.

Shell said long ago that she was happy and had no interest in other women. It made Rena feel terrible every time she kissed someone else, hugged someone else or slept with someone else. Regardless, it was an unspoken element of their lives.

Shell and Rena had planned to meet up at a party hosted by J.D. Staley and Lina Andel, a Czech fashion designer whose relationship with Ludavine Talent was similar to what J.D. had with Moonglow. Their co-designed collection for iconic American label Harmony's seventy-fifth anniversary would have a pre-fall runway debut that promised to be more fun than anything the runway had seen in a long time.

Shell arrived before Rena so they walked the red carpet separately, which was a weight off her shoulders because she felt uncomfortable beneath Rena's favorite brand of limelight. She knew right away that Rena met her booze quota the second they found each other, which gave her some mild comfort because it meant Rena would drink much less, if anything at all at the party.

"I can taste the booze in the pockets of your mouth," Shell said after she pulled away from their greeting kiss.

"Relax, it's worn off."

"You're merciless, aren't you? You're like a hyena for a good round."

"I took it easy! You should count your blessings!"

"Let's find J.D. before gulping your own saliva puts you down for good."

"Sweethearts! You're on time!" J.D. said from behind the pair just before Shell acted on a passing impulse to scold Rena for obviously overdoing it earlier that day "What do you think of the place?"

"J.D., that's the whitest suit I've ever seen," Rena said. "You'd blind people if you took that thing into the sun."

"What, you don't like this!" he asked in astonishment.

"Consider all criticism from Rena a term of endearment."

"Or stakes through the heart!" he said. "Come, let's go save Lina. She's captive over by Lilly Morgan on piano, under Natalie Church's whip!"

A tall man whose skin was so tan he looked like a bronze statue stopped Rena and instigated a boisterous conversation, complete with everything from greeting hugs and kisses to subtle hops up and down. Shell glanced over her shoulder and gave Rena a forgiving grin, a kind of permission to linger behind.

As they kept walking, J.D. started on something she was in no mood to discuss.

"What is it with Ben, Shell? Campfire talk is blazing! I have to know!"

"Have to, no less?"

"Word is you're inheriting the kingdom."

"Whatever you've already heard is about how it is," she said as they arrived at a moderately occupied stretch of dance floor.

"I need to know who I'm gonna be dealing with for sure. It's you, right? Please don't say Beresford."

"Beresford? Ben hates him!"

"Oh, you really think that?"

Shell fell silent. She folded her arms and clenched her jaw because she knew the subject of everyone's gossip.

"I'm almost insulted you'd bump me down the ladder so."

"You don't give star-rated blowjobs, Shell."

"Save your crass mouth, J.D.… It's me."

"Oh, thank goodness!" he said with a sigh of relief

"Well, now that's settled. Mind if I enjoy myself?"

"Testy, testy tonight!"

"I don't mean to be…"

"At last! I'm saved!" a young woman's voice that cut through the music and chatter said. It was Lina Andel. She propelled herself up to the pair and threw an arm around each of them.

"Lina, dearest!" J.D. said. "I thought you'd be strapped to a chair with your head in a rat cage by now!"

"It's felt that way since this started," she said with a velvety Czech accent. "Ugh, some of the people that come to these things, I swear!"

"I see you don't have your champagne shield up," Shell said.

"I've had a few but it's tough to get away without seeming evasive even for the second it takes to grab a drink!"

"And to think! The night's just begun!" J.D. said as he tapped his glass against Shell's flute of bubbly.

"You could just punch me in the face, J.D.," Lina said. "It would be more merciful than saying that."

His solid white Andromeda chimed. J.D. set a piece of it in his ear and took the call, a call that melted his face with utter bother.

"Enough! Enough! I'm coming," he said and hung up in frustration.

"Looks like I have to abandon ship, ladies. Our idea for the show Friday isn't gonna work, it seems."

"You mean your idea," Lina said.

Shell's face fell in an instant. "Oh, don't tell me…"

J.D. nodded. "We have to get over there."

"I told you that thing was ridiculous!" Lina said. "When did the disembodied head of a snowman ever have a place in fashion? And why do I have to stay stranded here? It's my show too!"

"Someone has to hold the fort!" J.D. said as he and Shell left Lina both champagnes, which she extinguished with a frustrated sigh.

Headed out, Shell was lucky to find Rena still occupied.

"Rena! A moment?" she interrupted. Rena excused herself and trotted off, out of earshot from the talking statue who seemed quite annoyed by Shell's interruption.

"Sweetheart, I have to go."

"Why? What for?"

"That ridiculous prop J.D. has been adamant over seems to have gone up in literal smoke. It fried. The whole thing fried! They about have it out of there and there's no getting another so I need to head out with J.D. and assess the damages, do some planning for recovery."

"Can't it wait till tomorrow?"

"Probably but I hate these parties anyway. Best to get the surveying over and done with, I think. Keep your head on while I'm gone, okay? I'll go straight home and wait for you."

"With that look in your eyes, you won't be waiting long…"

Shell kissed Rena's lips and turned to leave, but Rena muttered her name and caught her blouse. When Shell looked back, she saw a peculiar mix of stress and sweetness. It reminded her of whenever Rena had her mushy moments and spewed undying love, ad nauseam. She felt something dangle on the tip of Rena's tongue but it wouldn't unhinge.

"What is it? You look as if you want to cry or kiss me again, or both."

Rena did just that. She moved in and planted a soft, delicate kiss on Shell's lips. With her eyes closed and breath heavy, there was honest passion behind it. Shell felt like the only person on the planet in the eyes of the girl that loved her. When Rena pulled away, Shell needed a few seconds to land back on Earth.

"It's a bit early in the evening for one of the best kisses of your life, isn't it?"

"I just…"

Shell couldn't place that look in Rena's eyes. She felt sure it had a lot to do with all the excess in which Rena partook over the course of the day, but something else—something new—lurked in those huge green eyes.

"See ya tonight," Rena said with a recuperative smile that worried Shell. However, the business-at-hand did not allow her the clarity of mind to consider what could possibly have churned Rena's emotional waters. She decided to save it for later and left.

Rena crossed the dance floor toward the piano and snagged some champagne off a waiter's tray along the way. She noticed Lilly Morgan's familiar face at the keys with her unmistakably huge, violet eyes, and felt instantly enamored with her sound, a catchy blend of rock and pop. When Rena expected a certain chord, another resounded. Where she felt a bridge might expire, it lingered, built tension then gently transitioned to chorus. Lilly's song fluttered into discordance, and then exploded with those steady, unpredictable chords that evened out into a breathtaking harmony.

"She rocks, doesn't she?" a familiar Southern drawl behind Rena asked. She turned in her seat to see Koko Dean invite herself to sit, a fresh drink in hand.

"I wondered where you might be hiding!"

"Powder room! I've had too many of these so…" Koko said with a shake of her glass.

"Whatcha havin'?"

"Tom Collins! My grandpa's drink. I figured I'd give him a nod this way since he's the reason we're even here."

"Does grandpa know the kind of party you're really into?"

Koko's eyes thinned as she released a hearty laugh at Rena's candor. "Are you always such a smart ass? Please tell me you are. For better or worse, I get along best with brats!"

"Dance with me and I'll tell you a lot more," Rena said as she raised her glass to toast a girl she just couldn't resist despite every ounce of common sense that told her to cool her heels.

Lilly's glance caught that toast and a cascade of disappointing visions instantly spit in her mind's eye, visions that saw someone else enjoy Koko's affections the way Lilly had wanted for years. It always happened that way when Koko chatted up another girl or was actually with one, had for years, and it destroyed Lilly every time.

Lilly couldn't let her silent love impede on her time to shine. She had fine-tuned her ability to utilize the emotions Koko stirred in her over the years, so she compressed the vibrations of her sore heart and channeled them into her flagstaff song, Atmosphere. She wrote it for Koko a year ago and always wondered if Koko had any idea.

The first verse began when her fingers hit the keys. She sang into a silver microphone perched on the transparent Baby Grand piano—eyes closed, soul bared—and did her best to lose herself in her own lyrics, but when she opened her eyes and glanced out to the dance floor, she saw Koko and Rena in each other's arms as they slow-danced.

As they rotated so that Rena's back faced Lilly, Koko glanced across to her with an oblivious smile. Lilly quickly darted her eyes away, but when she peeked up again, she watched as their rotation brought Koko's back to her, Rena's face in view. She couldn't help herself. Her toxic stare ensnared Rena in anguish, as if to ask why, and Rena felt it. If only she could plea to Rena, beg her to understand how close she was to that grand confession.

Eye-tag went on twice or thrice more before Lilly about wrote Koko off for the evening. Toward the end of her piano solo, she saw Koko whisper what she felt was a sweet nothing in Rena's ear so she just closed her eyes and finished out her tune with the most viscous emotion she could summon, and a small band of applause swelled around her as her echo dwindled.

Lilly saw that Rena and Koko were gone when she opened her eyes. Her imagination ran wild once again, but the disturbing visions were short lived. She just couldn't keep up with her own jealousy. She needed a break. She needed a drink. Luckily, Mariska Tarasova whisked her away when she pushed herself up from the piano. If anyone could keep her distracted, Mariska was the girl because she honestly admired everything Lilly did and never stopped talking.

"I really can't get over you!" Mariska said as she poured Lilly a flute of champagne from a bottle that sat in ice atop her cocktail table.

"I'm so jealous, I could puke," Mariska's eighteen-year-old girlfriend, Ruby Melville, said. "I'll mount your stage and crash all your concerts if we don't sing something together!"

Mariska keenly watched Lilly blush away the praise. "You're not accustomed to flattery, I can tell."

"I just… I just don't think this whole situation has sunk in yet," Lilly said.

"You wrote that song for her, didn't you?"

"Ruby!" Mariska said with a nudge of her elbow.

"I'm sorry, Mari, I can't sit here and ignore the elephant in the room, least of all that elephant—the one that's juicing her girlfriend up with that shit she used to feed you, as we speak!"

"They're not together, Ruby," Mariska said as Lilly nervously kept her eyes on her champagne.

"Yeah, well they should be. If someone wrote me a song like that, I'd weld myself to their hip!"

"Do you hear what I have to put up with?" Mariska asked a giggling Lilly.

"She writes songs, you know!" Ruby said. "But she won't play me one, won't even let me see one!"

"They aren't ready! I'll show you when they're ready!"

"That excuse won't work forever! It's already beyond its zenith!"

"What if I'm saving them for our anniversary? Did you ever think of that?"

"Lilly!" resounded from across the dance floor. Everyone at the table looked across to Koko's frenetic waves as she and Rena strode toward the group.

"There you are! Wow! You're set was so fantastic!" Koko said as she and Rena sat with them.

"I agree! Your music has a life of its own. You're so raw! I love it! I play a bit myself, you know," Rena said.

"Thanks. What do you play?

"The Old Welsh Kazoo," Mariska said.

"I play some synthesizers but my ultimate love is percussion, trap set and piano at the top of the list—and bongos!"

"Yes, if Rena can bang it, she's there."

Koko choked on and sprayed the rest of her near-empty Tom Collins toward the floor as the others laughed at Ruby's quip.

"I'm in your crosshairs tonight, aren't I?" Rena asked, to which Ruby simply blew her a purse-lipped kiss.

"I better get another drink. Anyone want anything?"

The table turned Koko down, so she excused herself and left Rena to face Lilly's frosty stare.

"I know what you're up to," Lilly said with thin eyes.

"Excuse me?"

"You better not hurt her…"

That caught Rena off guard, and visibly surprised Mariska and Ruby as well.

"Did you ever think you're the one hurting her by not telling her that you love her?" Rena asked.

"It's complicated!"

"What's so complicated about saying how you really feel? I saw you staring at us! Do you know how awkward that made me feel?"

"You felt it too, huh?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah. That song is like her personal serenade. Did you tell her you wrote it for her?"

It took Lilly a few seconds to admit it to Rena. She realized she sat in the face of direct competition and it frustrated her to the point of explosion. Frustration aside, she had to be honest and said, "No."

"Lilly look… I know how it seems but I have a girlfriend."

"Oh please, Rena! Your reputation precedes you."

"I won't lie! The first sight of Koko jellied my knees. Talking to her is like an oxygen-high. She's so bright! But I don't want to step on anyone's toes and it seems like you have enough problems."

Lilly didn't know what to make of that. To hear Rena surrender so suddenly made Lilly suspicious and the thinness of her eyes showed it.

"I'll back off, but you need to show her your truth before someone who doesn't give a fuck the way I do comes along."

Rena didn't stick around much longer. The party's atmosphere grew too thick for her addled mind, so she made an excuse and escaped to a place occupied by her own romance, devoid of icy glares and scrutiny.

Shell wasn't in the friskiest mood, so Rena played up their need for rest and eased her into a cuddle session in bed. As the sound of Shell's subtle snores rocked Rena to sleep, she thought of how she took the woman of her dreams for granted, and it made her feel like a selfish, spoiled bitch. The last thoughts that crossed her mind as she drifted to sleep were the first time Rena ever felt something remotely similar to regret. She thought of Shannon, then Koko and finally promised herself never to sleep around on the love of her life—again.

CHAPTER SIX

"The day I have to grease the doorway to slip your fat ass inside is the day I remind you of this very campaign," J.D. said. He stood between Rena and Shell while they stared out the glass wall of Shell's office suite at Moonglow Model Management and marveled at a digital, full quarter-building's length ad of Rena as she savored a Trifecta.

"Does that shot ever rotate? I wanna see me, already!" Andrea Melo said as she hoisted her stunning, Brazilian self off Charlie's lap and sauntered her way to the window with the others.

"Come back, Andi! I'm getting cold!" Charlie said from a dark maroon sectional sofa in the center of the office.

"She's paper thin! She can't keep her own blood warm let alone a surly Texan like yourself." J.D. moved Andrea in front of him and hugged around her waist. "Hide with me, sweetheart. I'll protect you from that rabid gunslinger!"

As they faced out to the ad across from M.M.M., the image dissolved to Andrea and Rena as they quarter-faced each other and fed each other candies.

"Oh, come on! You're like a bad rash!" Andrea said.

"I still think the logo is all wrong," Shell said. "We'll have to talk about that tomorrow."

"Must you piss all over their unveiling?" Charlie asked.

"It lacks elegance!"

"It's candy!"

"Which can be sexy. If they want to fortify a division of their brand with these Trifectas, they need to reconsider using a logo that looks like yours and Rena's childhood finger paintings."

"Oh, he still paints that way," Rena said.

"Wait until all of you see the new portrait Charlie did of me!"Andrea said with a swoon.

"Will it replace that regal number hanging in your foyer?" Shell asked. "It makes visits so awkward. One never knows whether to scoff or genuflect."

"You either bow or I'll have you escorted out the building by the ear and belt loops," Charlie said.

The ad across from them swiped away to reveal Andrea solo as she balanced a Trifecta on her nose. The kaleidoscopic glow of the twilight cityscape bathed Shell's office and all faces present in a rich fluorescence that helped illuminate Andrea's gleeful, "Yay!"

"Of all the shots to choose!" Shell said. "She should be eating it, not playing with it. Don't you think?"

"I think it's fine," Rena said, which inspired a nod from J.D.

"There are a dozen in the rotation, Shell. Plenty with which to show the growing girth of their hips!"

"She's just miffed Reenie talked her into this whole thing in the first place!" Charlie said.

"You're right, I am. Did you see the quality of Covington's advertising before Rena swooped in? Quality becoming of flyers passed out on street corners! It's not like they lacked the budget or anything. They're just a clueless lot with a remarkable product."

Charlie cranked up his sarcastic mockery."Shell Dawes! Fashionista extraordinaire! Agent! Well-traveled business woman of the world! Ingénue of international style! Yet, remembered most fondly for her hand in makin' bacon for a backwater candy company—with Yummies in its name, no less!"

"You're going to eat something very hot, very soon, and scald that forked tongue of yours," Shell said as she turned and crossed the room toward a mini-bar on the far end, opposite the group. "Drinks?"

"Thanks but no. We have reservations."

"Oh? Where at?" Rena asked.

"Home!" Charlie said as he playfully smacked J.D.'s hands away from Andrea. "I'm cooking!"

"Botchulism Au Poivre on tonight's menu, no doubt," J.D. said. Andrea kissed him and Rena on the cheeks before she wrapped herself around Charlie so they could leave.

"Reenie, I'll call you in the morning, okay? I'll pick you up so we can get some spa in before fittings!"

"Even though you wake up way before any rooster I know, okay."

Rena knew Andrea's idea of morning preceded the crack of dawn by a long shot. Even though Rena was a morning person, there were limits. She planned to catch a bit more shut-eye while she enjoyed a massage at their favorite spa, The Litany.

=^-^=

Rena and Andrea chose their favorite wing of the spa for their morning at The Litany—the Desert Oasis. The décor captured every nuance of an authentically arid atmosphere, from the furnishings to the scent of the air.

"I love the way you looked this morning, Reenie," Andrea said from the massage table she laid cheek-down upon, her silky auburn hair tied back in a ponytail.

"I'm glad, Andi… I love sleep, personally." Rena said from a parallel table, cheek down, eyes closed. She slipped closer to full sleep with every second that passed, a sensation she loved almost as much as an orgasm. It took hardly seconds for her to drift into some kind of dream state that often felt like she hovered between sleep and wake, on another plane of existence. What she saw, felt, smelled and tasted in those periods was so real—realer than real. Pity Andrea wouldn't stand for her to enjoy it.

"Rena?"

"Hmmm?"

"I was thinking of our first time, when we were fourteen…"

"Andi, where is this coming from?"

"I've missed Memory Lane lately. Everything's been going so fast. This is my first chance to breathe, really."

"You don't have to change your life, you know. Look at me! I've waved off every offer to go beyond modeling."

"What are you scared of?"

"You know me better than that."

"Exactly why I'd ask again."

"Andi… I'm too tired for this.

"You didn't boost up this morning, did you?"

"No way. You know how Lina is."

"Like that's ever stopped you?"

"I just don't need it right now. To be honest, I've felt bogged down by all the partying lately. I think I need a break."

"Words I thought I'd never hear."

"I just think I need to clear my head. It's good to clear your head sometimes."

"Did something happen? You sound kinda dreary. You haven't been the same since that party. Since you got so bombed in Ali's honor. Did you and Shannon fight?"

A suspicious hush fell over Rena. "What makes you ask that?"

"She's been weird, too. She doesn't mention you anymore. Last time I brought you up in passing, she completely ignored it, and she gets this look in her eyes. I can't put my finger on it."

"We're fine, Andi, we just… We overdid it that day."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you have to get this high, this early? I'm in no shape for twenty questions."

Andrea felt she heard all the confirmation she needed that something dire happened between Rena and Shannon. She worried that Charlie's assessment may be accurate, but she had no idea how to bring it up. She settled on the easiest way—bluntness.

"Charlie thinks you fucked."

"Andi!"

"Tell me you didn't! Tell me you didn't and I'll believe you!"

Rena said nothing, just as Andrea suspected she would.

Masseuses invaded before Andrea could follow up with Rena's silence. It was the perfect interrupter because Rena sincerely had no place to take the conversation. She felt awful enough that such a thing with Shannon happened at all. She knew she had to face the music about it soon, but she didn't intend that morning to be the time. She had to clear her head, focus her energies and get to work before the swelling regrets in her soul completely crushed her focus.

=~_~=

What a difference the spa made! Rena tried to settle down, but the morning's pampering gave her a jolt of energy she hadn't felt in awhile. She drummed her thighs with her fingers and patted her bare feet against the sandy carpet of Lina's studio as a young redheaded woman adjusted the shoulder seams on the back of her blue pleated jacket.

"Hold still already!" Sonja Koehler said with a delicate German accent.

"Sorry… The music in me is taking over!"

"You're going to have a needle in you soon if you keep it up!"

"So, when did you start here with Lina?"

"Last week," Sonja said as she went on her haunches. She let some fabric drape from the front of Rena's red skirt, which exposed some enticing, frilly green panties.

"Enjoying yourself down there?" Rena asked.

Sonja blushed and continued her work as she moved behind Rena once again for further adjustments.

"How's it look back there?" Lina Andel asked as she strutted up to Rena with a glass of champagne in each hand. "Breakfast?"

"No thanks! I was just telling Andi, I think I need a break."

Lina gave her a strange look and set the full flute on a nearby drafting table.

"There's almost no point to any of this," Sonja said. "You have her measurements down to a science."

"Have you seen how she inhales those Trifectas? That campaign may be the end of her career—and her waistline!"

"That's J.D. talking!"

"How do you like this outfit?" Lina asked.

"I love it! For a jacket fabric, this is amazing. It feels like cornstarch!"

"These colors are great on you—a nod to your country and to mine!"

"And the bag?"

"The one you should be wearing on your head?"

"What do you mean?"

"You haven't read the Eye?"

"You know I don't read anything anyone says about me. Ever."

"You're all over the fashion feeds," Sonja said. "You and Koko."

Rena's demeanor fell through the floor. "Are you kidding me? All we did was dance!"

Lina stepped up to her with a vibrant gossip article projected up from the Andromeda banded to her arm. The headline read Not A Shell In Sight! in obnoxiously large, dark letters over a crisp full-motion snippet of Koko's face moving toward and smothering the side of Rena's head.

"She's practically tongue fucking your ear!" Lina said.

"She told a joke in my ear! All we did was dance! Who shot that?"

"Gaston…"

"What the fuck, Lina? He's your friend!"

"Only when it benefits him. I had no idea he had his eye on you. Shell is the one he's focused on now that Ben is phasing out. I guess you're caught in the crossfire."

"Ruby cubed those frames for the breakfast nook," Sonja said as she fully fastened the fabric around Rena's waist. "She asked me to tell you, Congratulations on your latest cover!"

"You talk to her often?"

"She's my sister-in-law," Sonja said as she pulled Rena's waist in a bit too tightly, which made her eyes bulge from surprise and the squeezing sting.

"Rena, look," Lina said as she closed in and spoke softly, seriously. "I know we've had our fun in the past despite what you and Shell have, but… you've been together four years now. Don't you think it's time to put your appetite behind you?"

Rena felt incited at Lina's choice of words. She never really thought of her occasional flings as appetite—more like temporary lapses in judgment that happened in the moment and ended there, too. However, she realized Lina might be onto something. Lina was one of those close friends that had no problem laying on the brutal truth, so she took those words as the authentic perspective of an outsider and felt horrible because of it. Maybe all she ever did was make excuses for herself. Maybe it was time to stop.

=C.C=

"This is my favorite outfit for you," J.D. said as he trotted up to a completely naked Andrea Melo with a white gown accentuated with a rust-hued symmetrical design down one side.

"Wrap her up! Koko will be here any minute! She'll think she's walked into group therapy or something," Lorenzo Dilbert, J.D.'s head tailor, said.

"If Andrea's allergy to clothes is acting up, there's nothing to be done. Have you ever tried telling a cat to sit?" J.D. asked.

"Yes, actually. It didn't listen so I sat on the bitch!"

"I think the skirt starts too high," Priscilla Bantz, J.D.'s casting director, said.

"Oh, it's always the same thing with you, Pris! If it isn't a toga, you're beside yourself."

"She may be right on this one," J.D. said as he pawed over the fabric. "Either you grow half an inch overnight or we need to take it down a bit."

Andrea tried to suppress a back-draft snort, but the drain of the Skit she snorted before the fitting trickled down her throat and triggered it.

"I know that sound, Andi," J.D. said. "You know I don't like you showing up here juiced through the roof and antsy."

J.D. gave her silence a stern look over a pair of stylish, rectangular glasses. "Please tell me you've eaten something. What have I always told you about fresh fruits? Or nuts?"

"I had a frozen yogurt before I got here," Andrea said. "And a champagne!"

"'Renzo, when she's done here, take her to get a little something, please? And not your usual bacon and butter brûlée, okay? Something mindful."

"Mmmmm, he always takes me awesome places. Even took me home to mama a few times!"

"Well, you know I just want you in a better place than that stuff puts you. If I can't get you to slow it down, at least I can get something in your stomach."

Andrea snorted the drain down but said nothing. She knew J.D. cared about her and meant well. She wanted to snicker at the way he looked as he peered over those granny-glasses, but she held back out of respect.

"Sorry I'm late!" Koko announced as she burst into the studio.

"Koko!" Lorenzo rushed to her with open arms. She returned his bear hug as best she could as he hoisted her up and spun her round and round.

"You look radiant!" he said as he set her down and fiddled with her hair. "I'm swinging on rainbows that we get to do some real work together! Gone are the days of playing dress-up at Grandpa Dean's!"

"Don't think you're excused just because you're Miss Big Britches now. No cookies?" Priscilla said with her million-dollar smile.

"Like I'd ever let you down!" Koko produced a fancy ribbon-and-bowed box from her bright blue gym bag and set it on a table beside Priscilla and Andrea.

"Peanut butter, macadamia nut with white chocolate chunks and dark chocolate drizzles—and the sexiest accent of cardamom! Your favorite!"

"They'll sing folk songs about you one day!" Priscilla's bright blue eyes made it clear that a sure path to her heart was a good cookie.

"Koko, I'd like you to meet Andrea Melo," J.D. said. "Of course, you've probably seen her smeared all over every gossip rag and bathroom stall from here to Helsinki."

"I'm huge in Helsinki! Is jealousy the only size your pants came in?"

"Hi, I'm Koko!" She approached Andrea with an energetic, outstretched hand.

"Did your mother give you that name?"

"My real name is Katherine. But call me Koko, everyone does!"

"Ah. Well, call me Andi, everyone does. Nice to meet you."

"You too…" Something about Andrea's sarcastic tone took the wind out of Koko's sails as far as getting to know her any better was concerned.

"Over here, sweetheart! Lose the threads and stand on that gray circle on the floor, please," J.D. said as Koko marched up to his desk, her long white legs in a brisk stride. "Try not to be nervous. There's nothing you have none of us haven't seen before."

"Except for me!" Andrea said.

Soon after Koko shed her clothes, a cylinder of ocean-blue light rose from the floor to the ceiling and encapsulated her for five or six seconds. The wall behind J.D.'s wide, trapezoidal desk came alive with a full life-like scan of Koko that slowly spun between a menu of various hues, fabrics and outfits

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" J.D. asked.

"Yellow, definitely." Lorenzo dragged a yellow swatch from the left side menu to a space beside Koko's digital self. A cascade of thin lines shot from it and began to stitch a garment over her.

"Amber would work too, I think."

"What about the floor length mustard?" Lorenzo asked.

"I was thinking of putting a redhead in that. "

"What about the forest green and tangerine? In fact, let's think about the tiled and gradient outfits first."

"Not to interrupt but I'm not a polar bear," Koko said. "I'm freezing!"

"Get your clothes and go in the sewing room for a bit," J.D. said. "There are some comfy shawls there you can warm up with. I apologize but we have to keep it cold in here because of 'Renzo's high blood pressure."

"So cruel to me!"

"Will I be waiting long?"

"Not long at all," J.D. said. "We'll have you and Andi prancing up and down in no time."

In the neighboring sewing room, Koko found many rows of sewing apparatuses sprawled before her, each with a sole, small amber light that blinked in the right corner of their desk-mounts. A faint sky-blue hue radiated from beneath their hoods, just enough to show a shape, but Koko still had to paw her way across them to feel her way toward three lit stations at the far left end of the room. She also found some fabric and garments to keep her warm while she waited, so she nestled herself into them and called Lilly.

"Hey! I was starting to think you wouldn't answer," Koko said after almost too many rings.

"Yeah, we just finished rehearsing a track. I heard your call ringing as the music faded so I hurried over."

"Which song?"

"Your favorite!" Lilly sang the chorus to an upbeat tune with carefree lyrics.

"I love that so much! I'm not bothering you, am I?"

"You never bother me. Walk with me! I wanted to grab a nectar anyway."

"Banana?"

"You know me too well!"

"Well, I'm just waiting here," Koko said with a sigh. "It shouldn't be bad though. J.D. doesn't like the computer doing all the fun stuff for him."

"Were you still gonna come by the studio when you're done?"

"Do you think you'll be there that long?"

"Till mid-afternoon or so. Three or three-thirty, perhaps."

"There's another girl here. I hope she doesn't drag things out. Today was too early a start. I kinda just wanna go home and hibernate."

"Who?"

"Andrea Melo."

"Oh wow! Andrea Melo? How is she in person?"

"Honestly? She's kind of a bitch."

"Awwww! Well, if what rumor says is true, she's probably lit up like a space station."

"I guess. She's beautiful, though. For a total Skit-head, she has amazing skin."

"I don't see banana…"

"That's something out there telling you to try something new."

"Never mind, found it! I win!"

"Wanna just go home after all this and watch some shows or something, Lilly? I think we've both been too busy for our own good lately. I miss you."

Lilly paused. Something in Koko's voice didn't sound so casual. Granted, they were never separated as much as they had been lately, but Lilly felt she knew the difference between typical distance pains and longing. Koko's voice reminded Lilly of longing. Then again, maybe it was just wishful thinking.

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Lilly said. "We're gonna lay that track down so I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Okie-dokie. Toodles." Koko always said that but it felt and sounded shaky. She didn't want to say goodbye. Goodbye was so final and somber. Never goodbye! See you again! was her motto.

"That was that Siamese-Twin singer of yours, wasn't it?" a voice hidden by the darkness asked. Andrea Melo emerged from the shadows as she munched one of those cookies. "These cookies are fantastic!"

"Yeah. Lilly," Koko said with a forced smile. She wasn't amused that Andrea eavesdropped, let alone overheard being called a bitch.

"Like the flower?"

"No. Actually, her parents named her where they made her—Lilly, Georgia. So, it's two Ls, not one."

"Ah… interesting! How long have you two been together?" Andrea asked as she polished off the cookie, sat opposite Koko and produced a small, clear vial of Skit with a shiny, silver scooper.

"We're just best friends—ever since we were fresh out of diapers."

Andrea gave her an odd look like she knew better. "Serious? Everyone thinks you two are married."

"We get that a lot. —It's no wonder you're not cold," Koko said in an attempt to change the subject. She preferred to not have that conversation with someone she'd just met.

"Yeah I know," Andrea said with a giggle. "I've probably done too much as it is. Would you like some?"

"No thanks. I'm no saint but I can't do it in the morning like that."

"Makes you want to party all day, doesn't it?"

"I just feel icky. I like exercise and orange juice in the morning!"

Andrea just smiled and inhaled a few bumps in quick succession that washed apparent relief over her entire body.

Something about the way Andrea looked made Koko feel sympathetic, as if she just won a marathon. Koko enjoyed a few lines herself but Andrea seemed to need it instead of want it and that was disheartening.

Koko turned down an offer to dine with Andrea and Lorenzo after fittings. She said she needed to unwind given such an early start, but that was only half the truth. Really, she just wanted to relax, lounge around with Lilly, munch on caramel popcorn and watch a show. Her heart starved for her best friend. Being apart so often lately magnified that starvation and inspired Koko to realize something she knew long ago, even if she did her very best to suppress it.

CHAPTER SEVEN

"You're hosting J.D.'s New Year party! He just confirmed," Shell said into her headset as she kept a quick pace from one office to her own and a howl from the other end blew her eardrum out the other side of her head.

"I knew you'd be pleased," she said as she took a load off in her favorite chair in the world. "As if he'd choose anyone else."

"He did once," Rena said.

"You had food poisoning."

"No excuses!"

"You're still in fittings? Andrea is already out and home."

A tall, tan-skinned woman with shoulder-length, jet-black hair sashayed into the office and took a seat across from Shell's desk.

"You know how Lina is," Rena said. "Beautiful work but she rebuilds Rome every session."

"Quite right. Well, Virginia is here. We'll celebrate tonight."

Shell ended the call and looked to Virginia who wore a disapproving scowl.

"You're making that runway face of yours again. That look alone could sour a crème brûlée."

"You saw what Style High ran. The second you left, she snatched the first blonde that crossed herpath!" Virginia said with a faint German accent.

"A little less of this, perhaps? She can't sleep with everyone!"

"Again!"

Shell sighed and held out her hand, set on a change of subject. "Your designs?"

Virginia handed over a digital tablet. It was clear by her expression that the conversation on which she walked in upset her and so did Shell's denial. Virginia Dornheim was one of Shell's best friends, once Moonglow Model Management's most prized Indo-German supermodel. With that stage of her career behind her, she focused her energies on production design for catwalks, especially elaborate shows like the upcoming J.D. and Lina collection.

Shell slid her finger across the pad to tab through the designs that radiated from its generous-sized screen. "These are fantastic!"

"If one word could say what you think of the direction I'd like to take the layout for this, what would you say?"

"What's there to say? It's perfect. Everything's simply perfect! Who needs a centerpiece when the band can have free reign, dead center. You really gave our conversations wings!"

"Does that mean I win dinner with you? We can talk. I know you're hiding how upset you are."

"Virginia…"

"You can't bottle it up all the time! That's how people die of broken hearts."

"I'm not upset! That jackal, Gaston, shot something he thought would give me heartburn. He has it in for me. He's always had it in for me."

"Shell, listen… I don't hate her. I just hate the way she treats you."

"Directly, she's very sweet to me."

"Indirectly, she behaves as if you don't exist."

"I love her, Virginia. I know you mean well, but could we have this conversation another time? I have four or five full plates steaming in my face. With everything going on, I can't think about it right now or I'll get nothing done."

"All right, but you owe me a heart to heart!"

Shell thought about Virginia's insinuations after she left. She knew those snide remarks came from a good place because Rena really did have some bad habits—aggressive partying, she drank too much, other women—but Shell felt that we love the people we love for certain qualities and in spite of others. She felt determined to stick with Rena through thick and thin.

Virginia felt that if someone cheats, that's it—no second chances, no excuses. Shell both admired and envied that sort of resolve. Yet, she wondered what doors that attitude closed. She also wondered if the time to clear some air with Rena was near.

=C.C=

Lilly's brain and heart were in such a tizzy that the drive from Ludavine's sister music studio and record label, Genuine, was one she had to manually navigate herself. Automatic transportation was convenient but when something festered in her head, she had to drive—just drive. It helped her keep a focus more powerful than whatever troubles she had in view.

Lilly constantly thought of how strange Koko sounded when they spoke. She was used to a bubbly, oblivious-toned Koko but their entire conversation, albeit short, made Lilly feel as if she hung off the edge of a tower. It sounded like Koko genuinely wanted to spend some time with her, but reality set in and she pieced apart how well she knew her best friend.

It reminded her of when Koko fell for a girl. Every time, like clockwork, the butterflies got the best of her. She spoke nervous, shook nervous, moved nervous. It gave Lilly a knot in her stomach to think of what starry-eyed harpings waited for her at home. Did she develop a crush on Andrea Melo? What if they had at the Skit, maybe each other, and the whole thing was simply Koko high on Cloud Nine? She mentally prepared herself to nod, smile and play best friend yet again.

What if it had something to do with the cover of Fashion High with Koko and Rena wrapped around each other on the dance floor? Lilly did her best to forget the imagery of that evening, but there it was, emblazoned all over her entertainment-news feed. She figured the report was little else than the harpings of a scandal maven bent on rocking a boat over at Moonglow Model Management, but it still bothered her. Everything bothered her when it came to Koko and other girls.

It magnified how fed up she was with it all. With every breathless sigh that escaped her mouth and nose on the ride home, she fought with herself over how to handle it. Perhaps it was time to say enough! Perhaps it was time to profess the love she felt all her life. Even though she had everything to lose, she also had everything to gain.

An appetizing scent hung in the air as she nervously stepped into her home. There were hints of cinnamon and toasted coconut, something nutty, perhaps cardamom as well. As she rolled up the sleeves of her caramel sweater, she heard music echo from the kitchen. It was sweet, peppy and progressive. In fact, it was one of her songs.

The sounds of mild toil with plates caught her ear as she crossed her foyer. She kept quiet, peeked over the corner of the wall into the kitchen and saw Koko nearly juggle a couple of pure white dessert plates. Her hair was up in a twist and the butt of her dark-denim jeans wore flour handprints. Lilly hung back and watched Koko do her best to arrange some little balls of what seemed to be pastry on each plate. Lilly felt nothing but sweet admiration as she watched Koko under the rich amber kitchen lights that washed her in a sun-shiny glow, in her jeans and cream t-shirt and the way she sloppily tied her apron's bow at her side instead of her back. Was this Koko's way of softening the blow of whatever she had to say?

Here we go, Lilly thought as she stepped into the kitchen, leaned against the wall and joined her own voice in song as the tune ended. A magical harmony spun Koko around on the heels of her white socks as the two Lillies held a note until the song faded out.

"Lilly! You got here so fast!"

"What's all this?"

"I wanted to surprise you," Koko said as one of Lilly's best love ballads began to play. She moved the two plates of pastries rolled in toasted coconut, from the far counter where she worked to the messy kitchen island.

"You made Laddu?"

"Yeah, your favorite! Your dad hasn't brought any back in awhile so I took some initiative. Try one!"

With a stunned yet flattered face, Lilly took up a Laddu and had a bite. As coconut drizzled down from her mouth, a look of instant gratification flooded her eyes.

"Wow, Koko, these are so good! The pistachios are perfect! Did you use Chef Abby?"

"Yeah, but shhh." Koko sarcastically said with her finger held up to her lips. "Don't tell Lilly. It'll be our secret!"

Chef Abby was a standard culinary-aid equipped in all modern kitchens. It was the holographic image of an eight-year-old blonde girl in a peppy white sundress that didn't just speak to its user; it spoke with its user. It had an endless database of recipes and full range of tutorial videos with detailed instructions that either projected from overhead or materialized from the kitchen units themselves such as counters and stoves, throughout any customized kitchen layout. It was the equivalent of a live-in professional chef.

"Wow, I'm impressed! What's the occasion?"

Koko's eyes tenderized and she gobbled up a Laddu in a single bite. She used the time it took to chew to fish for words. There were several moments where Koko almost spoke. Her lips stopped every time they formed a word and drew into a fine line. The more her face broke up, the more that merciless knot in Lilly's stomach tightened. Lilly stepped around the island as tears streamed from Koko's swollen, red eyes. Then she glided away, down the hall and up the stairs in a hurried wave of emotion.

Lilly had a feeling in her heart that resembled what a trapeze artist might feel each day. What she suspected to be the same-ole-same-ole routine from Koko seemed something else, something more. Was she in love with Rena? Was she in love with someone Lilly didn't know about? Was she planning to move away due to it and couldn't amp the courage to say so? Was she quitting Ludavine? Was she sick? Was she raped?

A million crazy possibilities crossed Lilly's mind as she hurried up the stairs. She pushed open the door to her room and met the sounds of soft sobs. She found Koko nestled in one of their favorite beanbags, so she sat beside her with a face and heart full of worry.

"Koko? What is it? You're worrying me…"

A sniffle. A shudder. A quiver of lip. As the pale sunlight that snuck in through Lilly's partially drawn curtains made a tear that rolled down Koko's cheek glisten, she said, "I love you."

Be still, beating heart! After all those years, Lilly finally heard the words she longed to hear, yearned to hear, needed to hear. The sincerity in Koko's drenched eyes told Lilly she'd meant to say what she said for a long, long time.

"Koko… I love you too. I've always loved you. All those songs I wrote—those mushy songs! I wrote them because of you. I wrote them for you!"

"I know," Koko said as she pulled her knees up to her chest. "I've always known."

Koko looked up to Lilly and met her incoming kiss half way. Their lips waltzed, softly at first, and then escalated with frustrated passion and the faint taste of coconut. They held each other's faces as they kissed coconut kisses. Clothes practically shed themselves. Every stare communicated a mix of starvation and disbelief until they were naked and in Lilly's bed, neither sure about where to begin.

Koko found herself virginally uncoordinated in Lilly's presence even though she had more experience under her belt. Lilly was like a sister. She practically was a sister. Something about that would never be the same and Koko knew it, but she didn't care. In the heat of passion, the heat of the moment, neither had the time or mind to think of consequences.

Once the disbelief wore off, Lilly took charge and did every single thing she ever fantasized about to Koko. She licked, suckled and kissed every inch of her.

Koko had her share of orgasms in the past but she never came so hard or fast as she did with Lilly. Lilly's violet stare from between her legs studied her every reaction, intent on wasting not a single second. When Lilly came up for kisses, the way she gently lowered her chest onto Koko's so that they kissed breasts-to-breasts electrified Koko beyond any experience she ever had with anyone else.

Koko even fumbled in her favorite scissoring position. It sometimes grew routine with other girls, but it felt different with Lilly—much more passionate, more gentle and pure. It took a bit to fall into a rhythm, which gave them a few chuckles, but once their hips and legs flowed, every gyration, every press, felt harmonious.

Koko never felt more conflicted. Making love with Lilly had a natural ease to it, yet she never wanted to impress anyone more. She suddenly realized she had a lot to learn because she felt something with Lilly that intimidated her, something she never felt before.

She felt the power of true love.

"That's the best sex I've ever had," Koko said as they rested on their sides, face-to-face.

"Me too."

"Hey, Lilly?"

"Hmmm?"

"What do I taste like?"

"Down here, you mean?" Lilly playfully tickled between Koko's legs.

"Yeah. You never get to taste yourself the way you taste other girls, ya know?"

"Hmm… Guacamole!"

Lilly allowed their giggles to settle before she waxed serious. "So, what took you so long?"

"I never felt I deserved you. I'm not gonna lie. I know how I can be. I always thought that, if I just kept a wall up, you'd find someone better than me—someone worthy."

"You're all I've ever wanted, dumb ass," Lilly said with water in her eyes and a quiver in her voice. "We could have been happy a long time ago."

"Well… We can be happy now, can't we?"

Lilly's heart melted to see her best friend so vulnerable. It made her ache for a love she denied herself for so long, the same way Koko had. She said nothing. She just slid into Koko's space and kissed her softly. They merged into gentle, passionate kisses that confirmed what they both felt. They wanted each other and only each other.

The answer to Koko's question was yes.

CHAPTER EIGHT

"I wish this was over… I'm so nervous!" Koko said as she peeked around the backdrop of the elaborately Avant-garde, snow-drenched set Virginia helped salvage from the clutches of J.D.'s overactive imagination.

"You're so lucky! For a show like this to be your mainstream debut? Count your blessings!" Andrea said as she latched onto Koko's arm and pulled her into the bright radiance of the runway stage. "Come on. Let's take a stroll through the snow."

"This is like a dream. Everything looks so delicate!" Koko said as her feet fell over pillows of fake snow.

"Just try to focus on rehearsals, go with the music. If you follow your natural rhythm, you'll do fine, even if you dance your way through! A show like this magnifies you, so be yourself."

"And try not to fall over when Lilly winks at you," Rena said from behind the pair. She sauntered toward them while she fiddled with a sleekly styled cam-orb. "Miracle practically gave this to me to sabotage. That's what she gets for having to pee!"

"She's gonna kill you when she gets back!" Koko said as her eyes combed over Rena's bare legs. She didn't even have a chance to fight that natural habit of hers. She couldn't help it. The snug, green shorts Rena wore cuddled her hips so enticingly Koko almost skipped a breath. She realized her wandering eye needed some restraint because she really did want to stay true to Lilly now that their relationship evolved.

"Both cover girls at once! Lucky me! You're interrupting my moment of sagely advice!" Andrea said.

"Did she tell you about the first time she walked this kind of show?" Rena asked Koko.

"No!"

"Never mind you tell it at every party and have told it at every opportunity since we were kids!"

"She clearly had too much of a good thing going and didn't survive her pivot. She sailed backwards, off the catwalk, right into the lap of Nessi Axelsson herself!"

"Bitch!"

"Did she publish your obituary?" Koko asked Andrea.

"She was a good sport about it, actually."

"The ole battleaxe isn't so bad," Rena said. "She may be jaded and mean at times but her observations are usually spot-on."

"Even when she says your smile seems powered by a hand-crank?" Koko asked.

"Well, when it comes to that one, she can politely kiss my ass," Rena said as she quickly finished setting the cam-orb for a picture. She let it go so that it hovered in mid-air and a small, amber light blinked as a timer counted down until shutter fire.

"Quick! Everyone in!"

Rena hurried to gather Koko and Andrea on either side of herself. They struck the dorkiest, most ridiculous faces and gestures they could think of as the speed of that blink escalated. With a whir and a flash, the camera fired several shots in rapid succession.

They rushed to the camera and previewed it, which spread mischievous smiles across their faces, but something else spread through Koko's bones. The way she and Rena looked together sent a cascade of butterflies loose in her tummy. When she looked to Rena, she noticed a glimmer in her eyes and knew she felt it too.

=C.C=

The energy through the DNG Tower intensified with the onset of red carpet arrivals. Stars of stage, screen, fashion, print, digital broadcast and sound crawled like ants across the high-rise entrance, eager to absorb the highly anticipated offerings of J.D. and Lina. That was the nature of a pre-fall collection. Celebrities fawned over the outfits in preparation for a forthcoming awards season.

"Leave the press to me, J.D.," Lina said as she inspected a model backstage. "We already know how much you hate the term pre-fall."

"Fine by me! —Look at that," J.D. said with his sights aimed at the front row.

"What?"

"Shell and Saffron are sitting together, carrying on like ladies who lunch!"

"Oh yes, I saw—and smiled!"

"That's a smile we share, dear heart. Not to sound harsh but Ben has grown into a complete miser."

"Well, he's sick, J.D. He's been sick for a long time."

"I know. I just miss the old Ben. For what it's worth, he could not have passed the torch to a better person."

"He's not dead yet."

"In this business? He's been dead and the daisies he pushed up have withered away as well."

Lina said nothing. She didn't appreciate J.D.'s pessimistic tone but understood the severity of Ben's illness. Lina liked to think hope always existed, but in Ben's case, the well of hope seemed quite dry.

Showtime soon arrived. Masses quickly filled around the faux icescape while rows of girls stood backstage, in wait for the gentle sound of harp and chimes to dissolve into some sassy, upbeat trance that harmoniously blended with traditional instruments.

Rena watched the lighting for her queue instead of the short, round woman with bleach blonde hair and dark roots that acted as traffic director. It was dim out there, but she kept her eyes on the floor as it flickered with winter hues. Then the dazzles stopped, the iridescence of pure white light raced across the tiles and Rena set out just as she always did. She breathed deeply, propelled herself forward and let her soul do the rest.

While she made her way around the backdrop, she felt that surge of self-satisfaction given to her by the eruption of camera flashes. Every bright burst energized her march. This is me! This is me, she thought as she pressed further into the glamorized landscape. The Harmony holographic logo, a thin sinuous H, hovered just above where Lilly Morgan and the rest of her band performed. This is me! This is me! echoed in her mind over and over with the music, her thoughts in concert with the beat. It was how she stayed focused, aware and individual.

Every outfit that blazed across the stage sported the show's theme-textile, Illuminate. The technology behind it allowed various levels of radiance without any residual heat, so all the girls glowed in the chicest way possible. Devoid of obnoxious blasts of light, each ensemble gently pulsed with irradiant accents that recalled the flirtatious bats of eyelashes. Rena, Andrea, Koko, Mariska and a host of the industry's top talents all looked pretty as pastries in clothes that celebrated confidence and femininity.

Koko felt as beautiful as she looked when she closed the show. She took Andrea's advice and had some fun with her walk. She danced a bit, skipped a bit, even tossed around her long blonde curls. She did a slow twirl at her apex and stole a glance at Lilly as she sang her heart out all over the band area.

Lilly and Koko exchanged I love you signs with her hands before Koko pranced away as the disco-lights of the triangular stage raced in a clockwise pattern. Lilly took that as her queue to return to center-stage where her bone-white keyboard atop a clawed, ice-sculptured stand awaited. The iridescence of her immediate area eerily lit up her blood red, girl-tux jacket, and the platinum tips of her otherwise auburn hair blazed with an ethereal glow beneath her black knit cap riddled with thin red threads that stood out like pulsing veins in an onyx eye. Her bold appearance contrasted against the soothing serenity of the snow all around her, just as planned.

The music morphed from racy to rather heart-rending and majestic when her fingers hit the keys. A deep drum-and-bass beat accompanied the full cast finale as fake snow fell, and the collection's slogan erupted overhead in holographic splendor: All Woman, All the Time.

=^-^=

"Lilly! You have to meet this girl!" Koko said once she found her amidst the post-show hustle and bustle backstage.

The most ethereal beauty strode up to her at Koko's side, all smiles, with hair so gold and skin so flawless, Lilly lost the power of speech.

"This is Fayina Galayeva—"

"—I fell in love with your music tonight!" Fayina said, cutting Koko's introduction off. "We should play together sometime!"

"Thanks so much, I… um, what do you play?"

"Trumpet!"

"Isn't that wild? Can you imagine how awesome a giant Belarusian beauty like this looks blowing a horn?" Koko said. "I play guitar with Lilly sometimes. Want to jam this week?"

Lilly's confidence sank as Koko and Fayina negotiated a forthcoming jam session. Koko promised her she'd reign in that wandering eye, so she really didn't want to take things the wrong way. She tried to force her emotions away from smoldering jealousy at the first person she saw Koko speak to since they got together, since that run in the scandal rag Fashion High, but it was difficult. Koko and Fayina were so animated together, so lively. Even though she wanted nothing more than to trust Koko, Lilly couldn't help but worry.

"Will you take the stage tonight, Lilly?" Fayina asked with her velveteen Belarusian accent.

"I'd rather not. I'd love to relax after this. My head is still spinning."

"Well, if you feel up to it, I'll talk to the twins. I play with them all the time, so you'll see me up there!"

"I'll keep it in mind."

Lilly hid her suspicions the best she could once Fayina left. Years of practice with emotional suppression allowed the evening to smoothly transition from the DNG Tower to its neighboring restaurant and nightclub, Rigsby. Only time would tell if those suspicions belonged in a dark hole, buried for all time or if Lilly needed to keep on her toes. She knew the answer deep inside, and it wasn't the one she wanted.

CHAPTER NINE

"KANPAI!" Rena shouted like a war cry, with a bottle of champagne in each hand. In her left, one well behaved. In her right, a foaming mess she used to fill extended champagne flutes from those around her. Charlie hovered around the central pack to fill anyone she missed.

"Here, let me take those," Lorenzo insisted as he wrapped his chubby hands around both of Rena's bottles.

"No! Just this empty one!"

"But I was gonna get you a glass!"

"This is my glass!"

"Oh, here she goes! I'd better go light some candles…," Lorenzo said as he marched off with the empty bottle.

"Look at her! Just look at her!" Virginia said as she and Shell watched Rena cheer and chug from one of many tables close to the vibrant, diamond-shaped bar. "Having at that bottle like a mother's teat. How long before she mounts tables—or the bar? You must hate yourself to believe she's the best you can do."

"If only you knew her the way I do," Shell calmly said. "When we're together and there's nothing else—no one else—there's so much love inside her. I admit, I'm jealous of it. Sometimes, I wish my heart were my carriage that way. Once upon a time, it may have been but now, perhaps…"

"Perhaps you're a fool."

Shell watched Rena a moment, in her element, the life of the party, and knew what Virginia saw. She saw someone in a phase of life that Shell had long surpassed. She knew Virginia wondered if a majority of their relationship was Shell's desire to relive the glories of youth, or some such nonsense as that. It wasn't, far from it. She truly loved Rena, a fact she believed lit a fire beneath Virginia's feet. That love would never change. If anything would change, it would be what Shell did and did not tolerate. She could handle the parties, the school of hard knocks Rena still attended and the youth factor, but the fooling around weighed on her. Even if others exaggerated the situation, Shell realized she didn't have to swallow and lump everything in her own relationship. She had every right to draw lines in the sand.

"Perhaps. Excuse me a bit," Shell said as she rose to set off to the ladies' room and left Virginia to grumble herself through more champagne.

Shell took a moment to breathe in the restroom. Everything had gone so well. The show was a smash. The party raged. Yet, she stood there beneath lush fluorescent white light, stared at herself in a long stretch of mirror and questioned what it might take to dislodge the weight wedged in a valve of her heart. For all the success and prospects that lay in wait, her emotions felt distracted.

She questioned Rena's love for the first time in a long time.

Maybe she only left it on the back burner out of fear. Was it fear of confronting insecurities that permitted her to allow Rena's behavior? Was it fear of the possibility that Rena was not the one for her after all?

The door swung open and banged against the wall. The roar of the party eddied in and interrupted Shell's reverie, as did the sound of bare feet that pattered up beside her.

"Oh, hi baby!" Rena said with a slur while she dug in her handbag.

"You're red as a beet and lost your shoes."

"Yeah, I dunno. Miracle's gonna lend me some sneakers. You know how she is with shoes. She'd wear extras as earrings if she could!"

Look at her! Just look at her! The echo of Virginia's words rang in Shell's head, but she knew it best to act as if nothing bothered her. She could address her qualms another time, another place. Rena was too drunk to be receptive anyway.

"How was Ben today?" Rena asked.

That surprised Shell, but also reminded her of the Rena she fell in love with, the kind and thoughtful girl that always thought of the person beside her over herself.

"Well, he's north and south, but then the compass stops spinning and he's the Ben I've always known."

"I love what you're doing, baby. I'd like to see him sometime."

Shell's heightened spirits plummeted when Rena produced her vial of Skit and asked, "Want some?"

"You know I don't…"

"Right, right," Rena did a few bumps and leaned her back against the dividing wall between a full view of the sinks and restroom door. "You know what this reminds me of? You and I here? Alone in the dunny like this? Remember that time in Puerto Vallarta? We were staying at that hacienda on the beach. Celia got us plastered around a campfire."

"I remember. You were almost in tears, moaning that all you wanted was a marshmallow. You were so drunk, you burnt them all."

"You helped me tie my top and sarong in the restroom. I felt like a little girl having her shoes tied."

"That was one of our best holidays, even if you only remember two percent of it."

"It was! Any time spent with you is the best of times." Rena closed in on Shell and squeezed her lovingly, like a child's favorite stuffed toy. "I love you, Shell. I really, really love you."

"The way you say that—do you mean it or are you just drunk?" Shell asked as she returned the embrace.

Rena pulled away just enough to look Shell square in the eyes without crossing either of theirs. With the sweetest smile in the world, she replied, "Both!"

The party raged on inside Rigsby, decorated like a rustic town festival with tables draped in various plaids and wooden chairs with bulky cushions. The salad and dessert bars were various classic cars from the dawn of the automobile era, all replications, of course—a Model-T here, a Model-A there. There were curved-dash Oldsmobiles, introductory model Cadillacs and Duryeas, Mercedes and Rolls-Royce models. They were all over the place, conveniently spaced across the vast hall so that no matter where one was, one easily found something to munch.

"That is fucking cool!" Lilly said, her head thrown all the way back as she gazed up to the skybox above. A grand fireworks show set against a night sky peppered with stars filled the view above. She and Koko sat at a table not far from where Virginia awaited Shell's return, fiddling with each other's fingers and holding hands beneath the multicolored bursts.

"Reminds me of New Year!" Koko said. "I like how they keep the booms low and distant. Blends with the music!"

Lilly's gaze fell to Koko's radiant face from the pyrotechnics above. Here they were in the swirl of success and lap of luxury—together! Holding hands, no less! She felt encapsulated by the look of Koko's long, slender neck bent back, her statuesque jaw, perky pink-glossed lips and the cutest nose in the world. She gave into the butterflies she felt in her chest and kissed Koko on the chin.

"I can hear the sloshes of cuteness from the cheese car across the room," Ruby Melville said as she crept up beside them.

"What's wrong, Ruby? You look pouty," Koko said.

Ruby flicked her chin at the main entrance where a rather lively Mariska Tarasova posed for photos, surrounded by press, and invited herself to sit.

"She's practically tanning in all those camera flashes!"

"I thought you talked to her about that," Lilly said.

"I did! But it's always the same thing! I blow up. She takes it like a champ, all quiet and calm. Then she gives me those huge Russian eyes. A few kisses and I lose the power of speech."

"I"m sure everything will calm down once she wins that Oscar," Koko said.

"That's what pisses me off! Who is she dating? Me or fame? I mean, look at you two. I watch you cuddling like that and I wanna set your dresses on fire! I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just… I wanna do that with my Mari… You're even sharing a drink!"

"Well, we're taking it light tonight," Lilly said as Koko sucked on one of two straws jettison from their Piña Colada. "We wanna get outta here once things simmer down and just chill out like old times."

"Look how pigeon-chested you are when you say we… I'm happy for you both, I really am! I'm just jealous, I guess."

"Speaking of pigeons, there's Rena," Lilly said as they watched Shell and Rena mosey up to the table where Virginia sat.

"That has to be awkward. Virginia hates her. Virginia looks drunk enough to puke if she tries to stand," Ruby said. "I can't imagine how Shell must feel on a daily basis—smiling and shaking hands, knowing that any number of those hands were probably up her girlfriend's ass at some time or another."

They watched Rena excuse herself and trot off through the crowds while Shell reclaimed her seat.

"I have no idea what Mari saw in her back then," Ruby said with a scowl. "I mean, she's pretty and all but when you get to know her…"

"They were together?" Koko asked.

"Off and on. Mari says it was purely physical, but I see how they are together. I think they loved each other. Love has many levels, of course. They reached one, I think. That's why I'm so antsy when they're alone! Mari is allergic to saying no, and Rena carries drugs like dogs carry fleas."

"Don't you trust her?" Lilly asked.

"I do! Rena's the one I'm weary about! I don't trust anyone that bubbly. Real people have bad days. Real people bitch and complain, and don't sign every autograph begged of them. I think she hides behind that smile, to be honest. I hate people who hide behind anything. Either that or she's sailing through life on mescaline."

"Is Mari going to Utsukushisa with us?" Koko asked.

"No. She wasn't on Kyomi's list. She couldn't go anyway. She has that bullshit in Ontario with her movie. —Would you two like another one of those? 'Cause I need another one of these," Ruby asked with a shake of her empty glass.

They declined, so Ruby set off for a refill. Meanwhile, Koko and Lilly discussed the upcoming exhibition of Kyomi Daishi, an elder matron of Japanese fashion etched in the Parthenon of haute couture. In the rare instances she worked with non-Japanese models, she always sought the talent Ludavine represented, but Saffron Fellows convinced her to consider some of Moonglow's top talents to help support Shell in her new role as head of the agency.

For Koko and Lilly, it meant serious time apart for the first time in their lives. Lilly had obligations to her music and blossoming fashion designs, so she couldn't tag along. She also figured Rena would be at the top of Shell's export list, which meant Rena and Koko would have quality time together in a far off land, far away from Lilly's ever-watchful eye.

Half across the venue, Rena snuck up on J.D. Staley as he hovered over a vehicular salad bar loaded with olives and various pickled items. He had a sway to his stance that told her he was at least one sheet to the wind, perhaps two, so she crept up behind him with an impish smile. As he clumsily loaded his salad plate, she finger-jabbed him in the back with a hearty boo! that put the start of his life all over his face and sent the goodies on his plate into the air.

"What did I do in another life to deserve you?" J.D. asked as Rena fell all over herself in laughter.

"Sorry but your face was priceless!" Rena said as a small robot that looked like a black, reflective egg came out of nowhere and siphoned up the spilled treats through flexible tubes that extended from the sides of it.

"Ugh, Lina and her Slivovitz… That stuff castrates me every time for some reason. And she's fine, spinning and laughing while my world does a pirouette!"

Rena lingered as J.D. did his best to reload his plate and noticed something off about his demeanor. The usual J.D. Staley was quite rambunctious at after-parties. He usually combed a room from end to end, toasted with and hugged anyone he could. The J.D. that stood before her wasn't the one she'd known for years and it worried her.

"J.D.? You realize I notice you're moping, don't you?"

"I can't shit sunshine all the time! Aber should be here. He looked forward to this show so much. You can imagine how bittersweet today is for me," he said as his eyes misted over. "I can hear what he would have said about things as if he was standing next to me, but he isn't there."

Rena didn't know what to say so she wrapped her arm around J.D. and let him sulk. Aber Ralston had been as much a staple figure in her life as J.D. They were staples in each other's lives, as well. They broke into fashion around the same time and evolved together, worked together, even loved together. They may have never become the couple J.D. hoped, but they had a future in store as best friends and artists, a future cut short by the lifestyle Aber led.

"Hey," Rena said with a quiet, compassionate voice. "You know Aber would piss all over us if he could see us this way."

"What if he can? I think he's watching us right now."

The hopeful expression on his face broke Rena's heart.

"I don't know about any of that, J.D. But I do know his memory deserves better than us standing around using each other as tissues."

"You're right," he said after a sigh. He popped an olive into his mouth, chewed it up and looked to Rena with his best game face. "To war!"

Rena smiled brightly and swept J.D. away with her arm around his shoulders. As they approached the bar, Lina Andel practically skipped past them and asked, "Where are you taking him?"

"To finish what you started!"

Lina knew it was time to butter up the press on her own. She wasn't the best public speaker in the world, so she usually knocked back a drink or three before she braved their serrated claws. She recalled how Ruby Melville looked at the bar as she held herself up by a shot glass and arrived at the reason for that—Mariska Tarasova on a publicity binge.

"Here comes Lina!" a chubby reporter shouted. The rest of the press-mob beckoned her forth with howls and roars, much to Mariska's chagrin. She threw Lina a glare of flaming arrows that she quickly suppressed into a warm welcome of smiles and hugs.

"Is she good company, everyone?" Lina asked while the crowd of media rambled with praise and queries.

"Presenting Lina Andel! The woman behind what women really want to wear!" said Mariska.

"I'm here to take over! Ruby is looking for you, Mari," she said with a smile that contradicted her eyes. Thankfully, Mariska took the hint.

"The floor is yours!" she said before she excused herself. Lina motioned to some glowing flowers behind them with her eyes and winked. Mariska gave the slightest nod as she snapped one out of a planter and made her way into the heart of the party at Lina's behest.

"Lina, could you tell us what you strove to accomplish with this collection?" The portly reporter asked.

"Well, J.D. and I were honored that Harmony invited us to design something fun and accessible. He's worked with the label before so we came into this on a bit of pedigree. We wanted to celebrate women and what it's like being a woman today. As women, our history is rife with balancing what is tough and what is feminine—what is sexy and what is too much. I think that we live in an era where we, as women, know what is best for us. What makes us happy. What makes us feel as glamorous as we really are—and that no one's opinion matters as much as our own. We wanted women to just relax and have a good time in our clothes! So that's what we aimed for. We aimed to make every woman glow," she said, clearly and distinctly.

"And all that neon? Gimmick?" another reporter asked.

"Invention! The Illuminate is just beyond! It's fun, it's dazzling! With our collection, we're accentuating something the Cherokee people of North Carolina have put decades of research and development into. What they grow glows! I think this will transcend trend as time goes on."

Over at the bar, Sonja Koehler sat on the last corner seat along the row with Ruby as Sonja ordered her sister-in-law flights of her favorite drinks.

"Sounds like the jackals are leeching good sound bites from your girlfriend," Sonja said.

"A little higher, Sonja. The hole you keep stabbing is bored out by now," Ruby said, followed by a creamy liqueur shot. "How can you drink so much of this stuff?"

"You know my sweet tooth.

"Let's try that other one you said."

"Aren't you a bit drunk for a Violent Fuck?"

"All things considered, I'll take what I can get."

"My heart breaks when you sulk that way," Sonja said as she hailed the bartender. She ordered a round of Violent Fucks, which he fixed in record time and garnished with a cherry at Sonja's request.

"I dunno. Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill," Ruby said. "What's in this again?"

"Orange liqueur, gin, sweet and sour, some orange juice. Try it, it's good!"

"Ugh, the cherry should have tipped me off. More carnival candy in a high ball glass courtesy of Sonja Koehler!"

They toasted and had a civil sip, but Ruby immediately pushed it and nearly extinguished her drink with a brazen gulp.

"Ruby, why don't we go to Grisi this weekend? Catch some rays, enjoy the beach… We could go fishing like we always used to!"

Ruby chuckled and built the stomach to finish the sweet concoction before her. "Remember that time you caught a bird of some kind?"

"Yeah, wasn't that the luck? No fish but I snagged some squawking bastard! That was fun."

"You know what? Let's do it, let's go! Not like I'll see much of Mari this weekend anyway. She has screenings and round tables in Ontario. I was gonna go but for what? I've seen that fucking movie so many times, I hate it. Then, we party all night. She parties all night, rather. By the time all is said and done, there's no energy or sobriety enough to do anything else but start all over again with mimosas for breakfast. Bellinis for brunch. Limoncello for lunch. Then! Cocktail hour! And, it goes on and on and on…"

Sonja felt a crack form in her heart as Ruby trailed off with her eyes on the ice in her glass. Ruby and Sonja were thrust together by marriage. Ruby's older sister, Rebecca, and Sonja's older brother, Matt, had been married for several years. As sisters-in-law, they spent a lot of time together. Good thing they had so much in common, from music to movies to their sexuality. It was through Ruby's affiliation with Ludavine that Sonja was able to land her internship with Lina Andel.

"What are you staring at?" Ruby asked when she noticed Sonja's eyes fixated on something—or someone—down the bar.

"Blondes."

Ruby turned to her left and saw Rena toast with J.D. to her famous tune of, "KANPAI!"

"Shit! She's everywhere!"

"I told you I finally met her? At fittings?"

"I know that tone, Sonja… Not you too!"

"What do you mean, not you too?"

"Does she fart happy gas or something? Everyone is just so taken by her. It's nauseating!"

"If I didn't know you any better, I'd call you jealous."

"It's not that, it's just… I wish I knew Mari the way she did back then, you know? What she was like. I wish I could have been there in their wildest times, maybe kept Mari from the wildest of them. I wish she didn't sweat hypnosis. I wish the stink of her didn't wipe good sense completely out of one and all."

"That's what we call jealousy, Ruby."

Ruby shrugged and folded her arms on the bar as she crunched some ice in her mouth. She noticed Sonja's stare shift to a place above her and began a spin in her barstool as gentle blue light washed over her profile. She met Mariska's outstretched hand that held one of the glowing snakeroots from the entrance and glared into her apologetic eyes.

"How pissed do you take me for?"

Mariska simply leaned against the bar and mouthed, I'm sorry.

"It's okay, Mari. It's always okay, isn't it? Always fine…"

"She's been wishing me dead, hasn't she?" Mariska asked Sonja in an attempt to lighten the mood. Sonja just winked and sipped her drink.

"Seriously, Sonja, with your taste in drinks, I wonder if it's a sucrose coma or the booze itself that blacks you out,"

Sonja stood with her glass and stopped beside Mariska on her way down the bar.

"What was it that Tolstoy's translator said about your current claim to fame? No one may build their happiness on another's pain." She looked to Ruby, then back to Mariska and left the couple to their problems.

Sonja sauntered down the bar and contemplated her motives. She couldn't deny how attracted she was to Rena, but she knew a cloud of intrigue swirled around any situation that revolved around Rena's niche for other women. Sonja wanted to flirt just to see where it led but she didn't want to end up scrawled across a gossip rag.

It was impossible not to see her approach. Rena's glassy eyes drifted past a babbling J.D. and engulfed the sight of Sonja's stunning red dress, in which she looked like flesh-and-blood fantasy. Rena guessed her around five-foot-nine barefoot because she was good at that sort of thing considering her job. Her rose-dark red hair and electric blue eyes stunned Rena so much she could no longer hear J.D. All she heard was the music in the room and the vacuum in her head. If circumstances were different, it may have been love at first sight.

"So much for taking a break, huh?" Sonja asked.

"It's perfectly within my rights to take a break from taking a break! I'll get back on the wagon tomorrow."

"Mind if I hover? Things were going south at the other end of the bar."

"Mi casa es su casa!" Rena said in slurred Spanish, followed by a peppy, toothy laugh.

"Behave or I'll stuff you in a sombrero," J.D. said.

"What are you having?"

"You'd hate it. You're a gin girl, aren't you?"

"Ha! You do your homework!" Sonja met Rena's words with a wink.

"Your sister-in-law needs to float back down to Earth," J.D. said. "Fame is a jealous lover. More jealous than anyone could ever be."

"It just hurts to watch her have to learn that the hard way."

"Well, I know Mariska pretty well," Rena said. "She's pure peaches and cream. I think she's just caught up in the whole whirlwind thing, ya know?"

"You think she'll realize what she stands to lose if she doesn't change?"

"Oh, look, there goes Lilly," J.D. said. His stare directed the others to look down the bar where Lilly bounced up to Ruby with clear excitement. "She's practically hopping."

"Must be a rescue mission," Rena said as Lilly egged Ruby off her seat and Koko hung back, all smiles.

Once Ruby stood, there was a brief exchange with laughter between them and Mariska before Lilly and Koko led Ruby away by the hands. They hurried toward the far end of the venue where an ostentatious stage awaited, back-dropped by a sprawling vid-screen.

"If they mean to get her up on stage…"

"This is gonna be sweet!" Rena said as, sure enough, Koko and Lilly led Ruby up a brief set of steps to negotiate with the band on the organically designed stage that seemed to burgeon out of the floor, the ceiling and walls. A pair of twin women no older than thirty and Fayina quickly agreed to whatever ideas they pitched around, so technicians quickly produced extra equipment to suffice the new arrivals.

"I didn't know she could play," Sonja said as Koko took up a guitar from a variety that sat further back near the drummer.

Lilly took a place behind a keyboard. One of the twins who wore her short, blue-streaked hair somewhat in her eyes abandoned it for a guitar of her own. The other twin hovered with her own guitar and Ruby took center stage at the microphone. Then, the music erupted with a rock song Ruby wrote for her latest album.

Those combustive, visceral sounds took everyone by surprise. What a treat to have Ruby Melville, Lilly Morgan, Fayina Galayeva and one of the hottest, most successful modern music duos, Taylor and Gemma Sieben, on stage together. For live music and concert nuts like Sonja and Rena, it was bliss.

Virginia watched Rena and Sonja from her nearby table with ire in her eyes as they danced to the beats. Shell maintained a preoccupation with conversation between Lorenzo and Priscilla, which upset her even more considering how drunk she was. She wanted to draw Shell's attention to what she saw but found it even more difficult to get a word in when Saffron Fellows showed up.

"Room for one more?" he asked.

Shell looked up to him with surprised, albeit welcoming eyes.

"By all means!"

He took a chair from a nearby table and sat beside her. A round of greets with the others went over well but something looked sour in the corners of Virginia's eyes. As her gaze drifted back to Rena and Sonja, it was clear to Shell that Virginia was on the verge of a major snarl.

"Mercy! With the way she navigates all varieties and qualities of meat, she should have been a butcher!" Virginia said. "I bet she dreams of vaginas. Hallucinates them too! I bet they sing to her in the shower and talk to her in the toilet! Vaginas everywhere with this girl!"

Blank shock covered the faces around her as she continued to spew. "You practically live with her. Tell me, is the soap she bathes with pink and pussy shaped, as well? I hope it was molded with a clit. It may be the only way to wash all this KANPAI nonsense out of her mouth!"

"Virginia! That's enough!" Shell yelled.

The dance of her eyes between everyone at the table showed that it took that bark from Shell to make Virginia realize what an obnoxious ass she made of herself.

"I'm sorry, Shell. I'll let it alone. You know what I think. You know what I see. That'll have to do for now."

With that, she stood and staggered off into a mess of people.

"Well, one thing's for certain, Shell. You certainly drive people to drink!" Saffron said.

"I'll let her believe I'm upset for a while. The notion usually inspires her to swill herself to sleep."

"Since we're on the subject of drama queens, how is Ben, Shell?"

"Yeah, you never update us," Priscilla said.

"Well, he's no better, but he's not much worse either—at least, not to me. I'm biased, of course. I know I want to see his glass half-full, but he loses his balance when he tries to get around—not all the time but often enough. The times I've had to catch him on the plunge, he felt so frail. If there's a quality Ben never had, it's frailty. You know this better than anyone," she said to Saffron who nodded in agreement.

"Sometimes he doesn't make much sense. He always knows who I am—his hospice nurse, Leon, as well, but given the state he's in, he frustrates easily and his temper goes. Then he can be belligerent. I notice a distance in his eyes. A distance I never saw before, as if he's holding on for dear life. I can see his grip weaken by the day."

"Shell, could I see him?" Saffron asked.

"You know Ben. You know his pride. I can't say for certain either way at the moment but I'll ask him."

"I could surprise him. We could surprise him!"

Shell didn't expect such candor from Saffron, but his eyes were sincere.

"There's no mercy tonight, is there?"

"Apparently not," Lorenzo said.

Shell looked to the direction he pointed and her eyes practically deflated in their sockets as Lina, all smiles, approached with the photographer and journalist responsible for those images of Rena and Koko, Gaston Rostand.

"Remarkable! She's leading the slaughter to the lambs! They're coming to get you, Shell," Priscilla mocked in a tone reminiscent of the classic horror film Night of the Living Dead.

"Shell, Shell, Shell. Your nerves can't dance the Jitterbug forever, especially when you're the official matron of Moonglow," Saffron said.

She did her best to smile, but it didn't work very well. Lina arrived faster than she needed to get on a proper game face.

"Here! Get a shot of me between the queen and queen here!

Saffron glared at her as Gaston, a strapping structure of a young man in his mid-twenties, leaned over and stared at the pair as Lina situated herself between them. One of Gaston's eyes radiated a rich, phosphorescent blue before it flashed with a gentle whir and took the picture.

"Thanks!" Lina bounced up and ushered Gaston away.

"Let's hide on the dance floor before she comes back for us!" Lorenzo said to Priscilla. He practically swept her away in his burly, ebon arms and headed for the stage where Koko, Lilly, Ruby, Fayina, Taylor and Gemma rocked the night away.

"I didn't like that look," Shell said as she watched Lina pose for Gaston with Rena and Sonja, after which Rena shot him the finger with both hands. He snapped that, too.

"I think they botched his upgrade. He looks cross-eyed!"

"It's a test, I think. Jasper manufactured scandal with Ben and Beresford back in the day. Now that he has his own rag, he's commanded his little imp to do the same with Rena and I."

"He won't win. I've seen you irate. I've seen you smear people!"

Shell simply winked as a dainty voice interrupted their conversation. She turned to see Miracle Molendijk rush up to sit beside her in a whimsically patterned sundress and excitement in her eyes.

"Shell! Can I talk to you a moment?

"Forget it, Miracle! The next dance is mine!" Saffron said.

She politely greeted him but her sharply focused eyes concerned themselves with Shell alone. "I know this is out of line but I have to ask…"

"You're so anxious, sweetheart. It's like you'll ask me to borrow the car!"

"It's about Utsukushisa. Would you please submit me for that casting?"

"Are you trying to R.S.V.P.?" Shell asked as she and Saffron tried to hold back snickers.

"I've wanted to get back out to Japan, but we've been so busy. I haven't had the time. This would be the perfect opportunity for me."

"I can tell by the look on your face that you won't sleep tonight if I dodge a straight answer. Kyomi Daishi has already chosen her models."

Miracle's face drooped, as she was one of those people who always expected the worst.

"She requested your presence, specifically. Something about your lips reaffirms her faith in the human race. I was going to announce all this tomorrow. She made a list of those she preferred for her campaign. Rena was number two. You were number one."

That turned Miracle's frown upside down and she practically squealed with glee as the music melted into a harmonious rock ballad—not too slow, not too fast and rich with bass.

Mariska nursed a drink at the end of the bar, her attentions split between Ruby, Miracle and polite greetings as friends and acquaintances passed her by. That song, one of Ruby's bitchier tunes, claimed her full attention, though. The angst in it had roots in a sobbing heart, so Mariska wondered how much responsibility for that was her own. She really didn't mean to put Ruby beneath her notoriety, but when the cameras and glitz orbited her, she lost sight of everything else.

She thought of ways to make the night up to Ruby but that song took over her entire mind. She took a hearty sip of her champagne to prepare for the chorus, and that's when it hit. She and Ruby locked eyes, then there it was—that lyric!—the song's namesake.

"You need me more than I need you."

Ruby executed that line with pungent heartburn. That lyrical pail of tar dumped all over Mariska stung worse with Ruby's glare as the feathering to seal the sentiment. Mariska couldn't take it anymore. She tore her stare away from Ruby's watery eyes and marched out the venue without even finishing her drink.

Ruby lasted five and a half more songs before she needed to take a cab home. Anymore libations would have put her on the road to alcohol poisoning, so she took some good advice, heed of her gut instinct and called it a night.

The music reverted to D.J. spun trance fare as Taylor, Gemma, Koko and Lilly took a deserved break at a far-off booth. Koko and Lilly were good to leave soon anyway. The lull in the live music gave Sonja and Rena the chance to sit in seclusion near the kitchen doors and get to know each other in an intimate booth of their own.

They instantly hit it off. With so much in common, conversation never dulled, laughs flowed and sparks unmistakably flew. Rena learned they had something else in common—boyfriends at one time or another. Sonja's early years were spent seeing what the whole guy-thing was about but it never went anywhere, save for the gutter. Once she hit seventeen, she realized happiness existed in what she related to the most—other girls.

"Gemma is so cute. Don't you think?" Sonja asked, her eyes focused on the twin in a white jacket with neon blue streaked hair that dangled over her left eye.

"Definitely. I'm just glad she went with the streaking. Otherwise, I can hardly tell her apart from Taylor."

"There are other ways," Sonja said. "Gemma has cuter ears. One is a little pointy and she opens her mouth wider when she sings."

"Obsess much?"

"There are a few things on her I wouldn't mind obsessing over."

"Look at you with those bedroom eyes! Why don't you talk to her?"

Sonja took a moment to answer. A pause gave her the choice of two paths; carry on in the spirit of cordiality or go where her desire and the alcohol led.

"I'm talking to you."

Rena chuckled, both surprised and flattered by Sonja's candor. "You know I'm taken, dontcha?"

"I'm not," she said with a clear confidence that Rena found insanely attractive.

Rena found herself speechless for once. She realized the poor taste it would be to flirt like a teenager with Shell on the other side of the venue—especially with Gaston lurking about—so she did her best to let the comment fade away when a shout and crash of a glass washed away the moment.

"Let them see, for fuck's sake!" J.D. yelled at the top of his lungs as Rena watched him slam his glass into the floor with a resounding shatter. She shot to his side at lightning speed with Sonja in tow, and tried to help Shell hold him up, to no avail.

"Rena, you know what I mean! They can't bring him back! So what if they see? They can't bring him back," he said with an alarmingly magnified slur. "You know all this is bullshit without Aber. It's all bullshit!"

"Absolutely," she said as he clung to her and stared into her eyes. "But let's talk about it at home, okay? They ran out of Aber's favorite scotch here and I wanna fix you one special in his honor. Okay?"

It took a moment for the notion to compute with J.D., but he soon agreed as Lorenzo came up on the group and took charge.

"Let's get him out of here," Lorenzo said with a mutual nod from Shell.

"Let's take him out upstairs. They'll melt him with camera flashes if we go out the front," Lorenzo said.

Shell and Rena agreed to take him home. It was a short drive from Rigsby to Gold Gallow District, where J.D. lived for the past twelve years. The Gold Gallow building itself was one of the more conservative residential sky-rises in the area, home to a near-exclusive litany of artists. Not monolithic by any means, its construction was a sleek, thin spire that pierced the sky like a syringe. Transparent materials, as well as steel, gave the building an ice-palace aura with its dock lights of white and blue that gently throbbed.

"We're home, J.D., come on," Rena said.

"So glad we're here," Shell said as Rena unlocked the door. "Drunk weight is next to dead weight."

He muttered something no one from Earth could understand as they led him through his living room, and plopped him on a long stretch of sand-colored sofa.

"Shell?" he repeatedly said as he pawed out with red, glassy eyes until he caught hold of Shell's white jacket sleeve.

"You're home now," she said. "Time to pass out and regret it all tomorrow."

"Shell, she loves you! She really does. I know how she can be, but she really loves you. Do you know? You know right?"

"I know," Shell said as she and Rena locked stares while Rena pulled off his shoes. "Get some rest, okay?"

Rena hovered over him as Shell drifted out of the way so she could say goodnight. "J.D., we're gonna go now. You have some sweet dreams and don't puke in your sleep! The world still needs ya."

"Rena, don't leave me!" J.D. said. All the sly middle-agedness about him flushed out, replaced with the babbling insecurity of a ten-year-old boy who fought sleep in fear that the parent that hung over him wouldn't be there when he woke.

"I'm not, big guy. We're just going home."

"Rena, promise me something…"

"Anything, buddy."

"Promise me you'll live forever," he said with the last of his strength.

Rena needed a moment after that one. She knew J.D. took a massive hit when Aber died, so his drunken state of mind applied the pain of loss to someone else he just couldn't imagine life without—Rena. She did her best to be there for him any time or way he needed, but she could only do so much. In that moment, the least she could do for J.D. was humor him.

"I promise."

=<.>=

"Ugh… think I'll sleep in the shower tonight. Wear a snorkel or something," Rena said as she made her way down the stairs of Shell's flat with a fresh set of dress-down attire in hand.

"Rena?" Shell said from the living room sofa, a tall and wide glass of red wine in hand

"Yeah baby?"

She couldn't do it. Shell wanted to finally have that talk, have that heart-to-heart she hoped would clear the air between them, but the sight of Rena there with her hair in a ponytail, barefoot and doe-eyed, nearly deterred her.

"Never mind—enjoy your shower."

Rena almost did just that—almost.

"Something's up… Shell, what is it? Flags have gone up around you all evening."

"You weren't even with me all evening."

Rena wasn't sure what to say. It wouldn't be the first time she upset Shell unawares, but the way her lover hovered over that glass of wine, glumly, sullenly, alarmed her, so she sat next to Shell and dug in.

"Baby?"

"Reenie, do you love me? Do you love me the way I love you?"

The question hit her like a ton of bricks and her face showed it.

"I'm worried you even have to ask that."

"All right, I'll be frank…The other women. Do you love them too?"

Rena never anticipated such a question. She had nothing creative to say, so she obeyed her instinct and spoke honestly.

"I do… but not the way I love you. Not the way you think."

Shell's instantaneous tears crippled Rena's composure, but what could she do? Some things could not be unsaid.

"Baby! No… look! Don't cry! Look… There haven't been many. It's not like I wander through the day looking for ways to hurt you or people to hurt you with."

"Are you seriously going to say that one thing led to another at every turn?"

"No. I'm saying that whatever happened was in the moment and passed like all moments do. You're not a moment to me. You're my life."

"I understand you're young—much younger than I. That's why I've never mentioned any of this. I didn't want to rob you of life experience. But I don't want life to rob me of you either."

"Shell, I—"

"—No more, Rena. Okay? I won't ask how many others there have been or who they were. All I want is to be the only one for you the way you are for me."

She leaned in for a kiss but Shell was quick to raise a finger between their mouths.

"Promise me before you kiss me."

"I do, I promise."

They kissed a slow, soft, passionate kiss of reconciliation, a kiss that marked two possibilities. If Rena honored her word, it would be the beginning of a real life—a solid, uncompromised life, devoid of anxiety, full of true romance. However, if she faltered, it would be the end of that life—the death of a dream-come-true.

Once again, she promised never to sleep around behind Shell's back, but not just to herself this time. She made that promise to Shell's face—to her heart, mind and soul.

There was no turning back—not anymore.

Dare she?

=<.>=

The morning after, more damage control took place at Ruby Melville's apartment in Moxi District, a district with an amplified local music scene and the youngest demographic in all of Moonglow City.

"No, don't wake up. I like to watch you sleep," Mariska said in a soft whisper as she lay fully clothed beside an absolutely wrecked Ruby.

Ruby struggled to peer through the foggy sleep in her eyes as a throbbing rattle in her head brought her back from dreamland. The first thing she saw, although blurred and overly bright, was Mariska's watchful face beside her.

"So that you don't have to listen to me bitch?"

"Don't be silly. How do you feel?"

"Like I should have stayed home last night."

Mariska slipped off the bed and stepped over a mess of clothes strewn over the bedroom.

"Coffee?"

"Sure," Ruby said. She forced herself up and into the adjoined restroom to wake up and freshen up.

Mariska appeared in the threshold with two pink mugs engraved with sloppy white outlines of hearts. She watched Ruby with her entire head beneath a cascade of running water in the sink and felt pangs of guilt because she knew that her self-absorbed behavior the night before drove Ruby to over-drink. She had many apologies to make but tried to bide her time. She waited for Ruby to have that total recall dreaded by all before she brought anything up.

"You know there's a brazier dangling from your chandelier, don't you?"

Ruby shut off the water and stood up straight as Mariska set a mug on the counter next to her and handed over a towel.

"I don't remember much. Things are coming back in patches. Did we have sex?"

"No."

"Did we have a fight?"

"No."

Ruby took her coffee and her puzzled expression back into the bedroom where the disaster she made of her curtains allowed diffused sunlight to illuminate the trashing she gave her room the night before.

"I must have thrown a fit in here when I got home," she said. "I remember you left the party."

"You won't believe me if I said I had a headache, would you?"

"I remember being pissed at you—and now I remember why. You did it again, Mari! You blew me off the entire night! I was hardly a handbag for you, let alone your girlfriend!"

Here we go, Mariska thought as Ruby stood for battle.

"I don't know how long you think I can keep this up, keep taking it all in stride! I sit here on the sidelines watching you beam in the limelight and I'm happy for all your success! I really am! But who the fuck are you dating? Me? Or is it the cameras, the flashes, the press, your fans? Fame?"

Mariska set her mug down and approached Ruby with a sincere face of regret, but Ruby wouldn't have it—not yet, at least.

"What? Don't I fit in the same frame as you anymore? Are you bored of me; is that what happened? You're tired of me?"

Ruby showed more insecurity than anger for the first time in Mariska's presence. She ran out of shouts, out of barks. All that remained were the tears she took to her window to cry. For once, she sounded her age, if not younger.

"I dunno what to do to get your attention anymore. Do you wanna just go, is that it? You don't want me anymore?"

Mariska softly stepped up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist.

"When I arrived this morning, I could tell you cried yourself to sleep. It made me feel horrible. I know I don't deserve all the forgiveness you give me but… Another chance? Hmm?"

It took longer than usual, but Ruby finally caved. "Why can't I stay mad at you?"

Ruby asked that more of herself than her lover. The answer still escaped her. With her eyes full of tears, she turned her head to meet Mariska's mouth and slowly spun in her arms to complete a full embrace and reconciliatory kiss.

Mariska knew she most likely met her last chance. She didn't just buy time till her next gaff, either. Ruby deserved better than she had provided, so she promised herself there would be no more nonsense. With Ruby in her arms, Mariska resolved not to take her relationship for granted anymore. There weren't enough awards in the world to make up for losing Ruby so that's what she meant to avoid.

=^-^=

That week ended with all reconciliations theoretically secure as couples parted ways. Shell saw Rena off at the Moonglow International Airport, a sprawling construction that defied reason with its quadruple-skyscraper base that supported four levels of endless hustle and bustle.

"No pit stop at the fountain of good cheer?" Shell asked when she passed a watering hole decorated in neon effulgence.

"No," Rena said. "I'm gonna cry enough as it is."

"You won't be gone any longer than usual."

"I know but…" Rena looked to Shell and stopped just as they were about to pass a fanciful, two-level food court with a staggered, double-tiered dining platform at the center of a myriad of food stalls. "I don't feel like being away from you right now."

That made Shell blush. "The mantra of my mind every time you're off on assignment. I feel that way when you trot off to pee! I'll tell you a secret… Whenever I'm front row and watch you walk away, disappear into the backstage sea, I imagine it's the last time I'll ever see you. I don't know why I do it! I just do. It always wells up my eyes. My throat closes off. My heart stings. Deep inside, I'm testing myself, I think. I wonder if the day will come when I won't feel that way when you vanish. but every time, like clockwork…"

Rena said nothing at all. Instead, she closed in on a teary-eyed Shell with a face full of affection. She wrapped her arms around her love and gave that kind of firm squeeze reserved for children and their favorite stuffed toys. They stood there and just held each other as if they were in the center of outer space, surrounded by quiet and nothing else. For a few moments, nothing and no one else mattered. They were the center of their Universe.

Lilly watched the romance with damp eyes from a square table-for-two on the second-tier of the food court's dining stage quite high above Shell and Rena.

"Here Lilly! I had 'em praline yours. That always works with banana," Koko said as she set a small pink cup of ice cream in front of her.

"Lilly?" Koko asked as she sat across with her own pale green ice cream topped with something lilac and crumbly. She followed Lilly's gaze to Rena and Shell's embrace, and couldn't rationalize what about it inspired tears.

"You're staring at Rena of all people and crying?"

"Huh? Oh! No," Lilly said. She ran her finger across the table that bustled with colorful advertisements and slid a news article to Koko.

"That."

"Koko looked confused as she read it through. "I don't get it. This is a rave about you. If this makes you cry, what happens if you're ripped to shreds? Self-flagellation?"

"No, it's just—" Lilly took a moment to find the right words to describe how she felt. "They love me up there, Koko. I mean, they really, really love me! I wasn't expecting to read anything like that. A miracle among vocal miracles. A bona fide contributor to the future of pop."

Koko interrupted and read directly from the article. "Artists like Lilly Morgan are why we became music journos in the first place. The hope of bearing witness to a creative meteor shower such as Morgan lends purpose to our own craft—reporting that which is relevant to the world. Lilly Morgan is, indeed, relevant."

Koko looked up from reading the table with a proud smile directed at her sweetheart.

"It's just surreal," Lilly said. "You know how I don't like reading about myself this way, but I thought, Why not? So, I'm sitting here waiting for my ice cream, paging through the stuff I told Natalie to never show me and I just can't believe it. I can't believe we've come this far! Everything is just so perfect. The music. The raves. You… It's almost too perfect."

"Lilly come on… Just enjoy yourself!"

"I want to, I do! I'm trying. I am, I mean—ugh!" Lilly didn't know what else to say so she distracted herself with attention to Koko's dessert. "What is all that on your ice cream?"

"Lavender cookies!" Koko said as she rushed a succession of spoonfuls into her mouth.

"You're gonna get an ice cream headache."

"Gladly! Pistachio and lavender are worth it!"

Lilly pecked at her dish of pale yellow ice cream, but something hung with prickly suction cups on her mind and Koko noticed.

"In theory, ice cream is supposed to make you smile," Koko said.

"You're not gonna slip on me are you?"

"Slip? What does that mean? About what? Her?" Koko flicked her chin toward Rena down below.

"Not the first thing on my mind, but since you brought it up…"

"Lilly, I won't hurt you from half a world away."

"And the drugs?"

"We made a pact, didn't we?"

Lilly just stared at her. It wasn't what she wanted to hear. "You're supposed to promise me. Pretend we're living in some romance novel and gush to me!"

"I love you too much to lie to you anymore. You have nothing to worry about, Lilly. In fact, maybe we can take a few days off when I get back and do absolutely nothing else but each other!"

That reassurance would have to do. Lilly saw sincerity in Koko's eyes, so she resolved to trust the girl she loved. She could use the exercise in trust, anyway.

Down below, Miracle Molendijk crept up to Rena and Shell, still wrapped around each other, oblivious to the world around them. She lifted one of her more moderately sized cameras and couldn't help but capture the moment. The snap of the shutter brought Shell and Rena back to Earth.

"You two looked so adorable, I couldn't help it!"

"It's fine. I thought it was Gaston," Shell said. "He sent a message this morning but I haven't responded… yet."

"I want that framed!" Rena said.

"It'll be my gift to you both, I promise!" she said with sweetness in her eyes as they cut their way through the terminal.

Lilly and Koko caught up with the others and pitched around their hellos. When they reached the gate, Miracle went ahead with Koko to allow Rena and Shell a private farewell.

"Call me the moment you land? I'll be at Ben's, most likely."

"Don't miss me too much, okay?"

"I miss you already! But I'm good at keeping occupied—"

Rena swooped in for an encapsulating kiss before Shell could finish her sentence. When Rena pulled away, it took their eyes a few moments to flutter open again but when they did, Shell had something for Rena's eyes to meet. She held a small, forest-green, velvet case that swelled Rena's eyes with instantaneous shock at the sight of it as her world melted into surrealism.

"Dare we?"

Shell stared deep into Rena with her trademark calm. Rena covered her mouth with both her hands and let the tears flow as she repeatedly nodded with quick jitters of her head. Shell opened the case to reveal the most expensive looking ring Rena had ever seen—a silver band encrusted with a pattern of diamonds that looked like glittering stars. An opal-framed diamond that trumped a knuckle's circumference rested at its center. It looked like a moon, so bright, so clear.

Shell removed it from its white, satin bed and slipped it onto Rena's marriage-finger.

"I can't believe you, Shell! I can't believe you do this just as I'm about to board a flight!"

"I'm a villainess, I know. Perhaps this can be where we truly begin?"

"You're lucky I have to leave… Under normal circumstances, I'd have locked the door and drawn the shades by now. And no one would see either of us for weeks!"

"On that note, you'd better board, sweetheart."

Rena nodded and gave Shell one last kiss before she set off with Koko and Miracle. Before she passed the terminal threshold, she turned and gave Shell the warmest, most satisfied smile she'd ever given anyone her entire life. When she finally disappeared beyond the gate, Shell felt all doubts concerning Rena's character dissipate. She wanted so much to trust Rena and send her off with the promise of together forever.

She didn't just want that. She needed it. Shell claimed Rena for her own, wholeheartedly, with that ring.

Lilly stepped up to the terminal's vast expanse of glass windows beside her to watch their lovers' shuttle rise and vanish into the horizon. After a polite greet, Shell's mind drifted to that age-old feeling. She felt the same way she did when Rena departed down a catwalk and disappeared behind a backdrop. She felt longing, anxiety, as if it may be her last sight of Rena. That's how Shell reminded herself of the true love she found in someone half her age.

As she stood there in Rena's afterglow, she never felt happier.

Shell resolved to have a drink at the airport bar and just enjoy the moment. She couldn't help but wonder what everyone would say. How would Ben react? How would Charlotte react? To what degree would Virginia detonate? Would it be a firecracker or nuclear explosion? She had a mother to tell, as well. She was more excited than she'd ever been in her entire life. Whether it was all for the better or worse was beside the immediate point. For the time being, Shell was happy and that's all that mattered.

CHAPTER TEN

"Come on, Reenie! Help me decide!" Miracle Molendijk said. She stood before a hologram of herself nearly indistinguishable from the real thing as it modeled a maxi dress that stabbed Rena in the eyes.

"Nothing should be that orange, Miracle. What would it take to talk you into a little black dress?" Rena asked from a king sized bed adorned with layers of plum, wine and burgundy silk sheets as she fawned over a message from Shell that projected up from her Andromeda.

"You know me better than that. Tear away from her love note for two minutes to give me an honest opinion, please!"

"Okay lemme see!" Rena said as she used her phone's capabilities to raise the volume on dance-inspiring pop music that filled the room. She hopped off the bed and stepped up to the Miracles with contemplative eyes.

"Hmm… dance!" Rena shouted, which made the hologram groove to the music.

"I dunno. You look confined in this."

"So the red bandage dress is better?"

"I wasn't kidding about the L.B.D. Sometimes less is more." At that, Rena started to dance with Miracle's digital visage.

"Of all people to say such a thing!"

"Try a few!" Rena did her best to keep her hands hovered over Holo-Miracle's hips as they undulated. Whenever the projection overlapped her diamond-decorated ring, rays of prismatic light darted across the rich, deep plum walls and wheat-amber borders of the bedroom like sparks from a welder's torch.

"Well, get your hands off of me so I can figure this out!"

"No-can-do! We're just getting warmed up!"

"Hello? Who else is here? We hear music!" broke through the tune from elsewhere in the suite, accompanied by howls of laughter.

"Novie?" Rena excitedly rushed out the bedroom and stopped dead center of a lavish rotunda that led into a lengthy hallway lined with Japanese art. She saw familiar faces bustle around the living room beyond the hall. One of those faces froze at the precipice of that hall, but before she could thaw and rush forward, Rena shot like lightning up to her and hoisted her into the air with a greeting howl.

"Novie!"

"Reenie!"

November Aisling dropped the bags she carried and did her best to return Rena's aggressive embrace, but Rena's enthusiasm knew no equal.

"I've missed you! What sorcery does it take for you to answer your messages?" November asked as Rena put her down.

"Hey! You're the one that nearly dropped off the planet! When Shell said there was a surprise for me in Utsukushisa, you were the last thing I expected."

"And your other surprise from her…?"

With a blindingly bright smile, Rena raised her left hand and showed off the monolith she wore on her finger.

"You could go bowling with that thing!" November said.

"What?" a velvety English accent asked as Rena spun her hand around to show Amanda Larkin the ring. Her hazel eyes just about fell out of her head and her jaw hit her shoes.

"That thing must be worth two or three small islands. Why didn't you tell me?"

"What's everyone on about?" Fayina Galayeva asked as she hopped over a white sectional sofa and jogged up to the others.

"Don't look, Fay. You'll break out in hives!" Amanda said.

"You're getting married?" Fayina asked with wide-eyed disbelief once she saw the rock.

"Is it that shocking?"

"Yes actually! I never thought you'd settle down!"

"We're in love, Fay! It's just time!" Rena said with a dreamy lift in her voice. "I'm slowing all that other stuff down anyway. Gradually… but it's happening."

"Really…? Rena cooling her heels? Without your drink and drugs, how will you know who you are?"

November popped the top on some champagne at that verbal whack Fayina delivered.

"You should be nice to me, ya know!" Rena said. "Didn't I show you everything you know?"

"And everything I shouldn't! I guess I have to find a new snort buddy, huh?" Fayina asked as she and Rena stepped up to the mini-bar where November stood, armed to wet the whistles of one-and-all.

"I said I'm slowing down, not quitting…"

"Just quit, Rena. No harm in doing the right thing for once," November said.

"I'll keep you posted! Meantime, I think we should vote on what Miracle wears tomorrow. I suggested an L.B.D. but I'm afraid she's gonna go the bunny-ears and serape route," Rena said as Miracle arrived in her frilly white undergarments, Holo-Miracle in tow.

Rena quickly recognized how fully encompassed Amanda became at the sight of Miracle in her unmentionables. She knew the sight of a girl crush thick as quicksand when she saw it.

"Did aliens abduct our friends, Fay? Reenie's getting married and Miracle's gonna wear less than 5 colors!" Amanda said.

"I'm just not feeling this, Reenie," Miracle said about the dark maxi dress her holographic counterpart wore. "I haven't seen him in months! He doesn't know me to wear this sort of… frock. He'll think I've joined a nunnery or something."

"I have one of those costumes—and different styles of habits! Want to borrow?" Fayina said.

"You're no help!"

"Want to see what I'm wearing tomorrow night?" Fayina massaged at her right temple and entered a state of sharp focus.

"Pasties and tiaras are nothing new to the people in this room," November said.

Fayina rolled her eyes before they glazed over with a faint sky blue glow. Suddenly, she seemed two places at once—in the room she stood and somewhere over the rainbow of her mind. A digital visage of herself appeared beside her, just like Miracle's double, in a staggeringly gorgeous ensemble of faux ebon leather with blood-red metallic clasps, trims and buttons that complimented the biker style of her jacket and tight pants. With matching boots and a richly crimson scarf, her hair was the gentlest aspect of the look with a long, blonde braid interwoven with hair dyed the seven primary colors of the rainbow.

"Kick ass, huh?"

"I have it! What do you think?" Miracle's excited screech interrupted Fayina's show-and-tell and commanded the room's attention to her counterpart's solid white ensemble. She looked prissy, clean and quite ethereal.

"Magical!" Amanda said with noticeable dreaminess. The rest shouted a variety of approvals that Miracle met with a smile as wide as her face.

"Look at this…" Fayina said as she focused her mind on a far wall opposite the sitting area. The glow of her eyes pulsated and the entire wall dissolved to invisibility. She revealed the Utsukushisa skyline from their airborne suite high above the rest of the city, a two-story lodging no larger than an average condominium called a Kumo Suite.

The Japanese word for cloud was the perfect description for it. What would it be like to live in a cloud? How would it look, feel and smell? That was the architectural perspective behind the Kumo Suites and it showed with so many smooth, seamless surfaces and altitude almost as high as real clouds themselves, a height that offered the girls one of the most breathtaking views in the world.

Fireworks seemed to ricochet between two monolithic spires nestled in the distant heart of the city. Their comet trails raced side-to-side as they climbed, shot from an oblong, oval platform rife with smaller platforms and ridges that rotated between the towers. Beams of multicolored light dazzled into the sky from those ridges, where they formed a variety of inspirational quotes in Kanji, vibrant neon advertisements for snacks, drinks, music and promotions for a variety of products. Effulgent firework explosions peppered the dim dusk sky and wove perfectly with the digital displays that hovered over the buildings like picture-book daydreams.

"Just look at that!" Fayina said. "No wonder you never left, Novie!"

"I've never been any place prettier. Setting a foot outside Japan would be like leaving my heart on the table."

"I'll drink to that! KANPAI!" Rena yelled in toast. The others joined in and washed their champagne down as fireworks burst and boomed with exuberant, kaleidoscopic flare across the skyline.

=^-^=

The week began with Kyomi Daishi's highly anticipated gala to ring in her new fragrance campaign which coincided with a collection for Japan's Fashion Council Museum—an ever-evolving, ever-expanding showcase of stylized immortality that displayed year-round.

"Of all the nights to be late…" Rena said as she rode up to Kyomi's penthouse with Miracle, Amanda and November. The panoramic view from their lift was encased in optically enhanced glass that made all that dazzled dazzle more.

"I knew Fay would scuttle off with the Ludavine girls," November said. "It's like it hurts her feelings to peel away from Koko, or something."

"This lift can't move any slower!" Miracle said with boiling impatience. "I look okay? I'm pretty?"

"You're a lot of things. Pretty may be one of them."

"You look beautiful," Amanda said with that unmistakable twinkle in her eyes that bothered Rena because Miracle clearly had someone else in mind. Amanda seemed unaffected by it, which Rena knew would only lead to heartache.

They reached an extensive Muromachi-style foyer with edgeless Tatami panels artistically situated across the black lacquer floor faintly veined with crimson streaks. The Tatami seemed to float over the endless abyss beneath them, and with every step, something in the tapestry of the panels burst underfoot with subtle, shimmering plumes. A small, well-dressed group hovered around an entrance centered below a range of windows that protruded from the wall like bubbles waiting to burst.

"Here they are! Welcome! Welcome!" Kyomi Daishi shouted from the midst of the group as she pushed her way through. She looked every bit of her seventy-years but never admitted to anything over sixty-two, no matter how many birthdays she celebrated.

November formally introduced her colleagues to the short, round woman with proud, pigeon-chested posture.

"I can't wait to show you these clothes in person. Unlike anything you've ever seen before!"" Kyomi's eyes swirled in her head like coins that descended to the bottom of a wishing well.

"We're excited too!" Rena said in Japanese.

"And the others?" Kyomi asked as she peeked around the tall forms that surrounded her.

"On their way," November said. She kept it brief, sure not to upset Kyomi with excuses.

"Well, indoors! We have much to discuss. And you must meet my assistant, Zoe!"

Kyomi led the girls through a staggeringly harmonious living room full of well-dressed guests and metallic orbs of shimmering silver that hovered back and forth with trays of drinks they carried with thin, robotic arms.

Rena hoped some champagne would calm Miracle's nerves because she looked like a little girl lost in a mall the way her eyes darted around the dreamily hued room. She didn't find what she sought, so her face contorted with disappointment the closer they came to Kyomi's gold and glass lift that led up to the top floor of her penthouse.

"Zoe! They're here! Some of them, at least," Kyomi shouted as they stepped off the lift, into a coliseum-styled studio.

"Fantastic to finally meet you girls!" Kyomi's personal assistant said as she walked into the studio from a far-right office.

"This is Zoe Grice. I'd be dead without her!"

"Well, I'm glad you're here! Our Eye-Fits went so well, I doubt anything needs changing, but just to be certain, we'll have another round in the morning. Come, Miracle! What do you think of this?" Zoe summoned her up to the closer of two dresses displayed in the pit. It was auburn, yellow and silver with bushels of gold fabric that looked like plumes of flower petals at the breast. Ribbons of a strange textile seemed to slither over the arms of the featureless mannequin it clothed.

"This dress is alive… It's yours!" Zoe ran her hand over the ornately embroidered stomach of the piece as Miracle gawked at its explosion of colorful fabric at the ankles.

"How can I walk in this?"

"We'll go over the details of the presentation tomorrow," Kyomi said.

"Touch it," Zoe said.

Miracle ran her finger down the left arm of the dress and the fabric reacted like startled Touch-Me-Nots.

"It feels like nothing's there."

"These dresses are much more stunning in person! This looks like a tornado of chiffon. It's fascinating how the material appears to be moving but it isn't!" Rena said as she orbited a floor length gown beside Miracle's piece. It was a light rose at the neck that bled into a deep carnal crimson at the ankles.

"This is Fayina's look," Zoe said. "I was hoping she'd be here early but there's plenty of time for all that later. Right now, I think we should get downstairs and enjoy ourselves!"

Small talk accompanied their descent to the life of the party. Kyomi rambled on about the latest innovations in fabric and her artistic vision for the campaign. She also touched on what the next week's schedule might be like.

All the while, Zoe watched Miracle's body language. She identified so much anxiety, she had to say something but waited until the lift reached the party and all had poured out, into the mass of guests.

"Miracle?" Zoe caught her by the arm. "What's the matter?"

"Oh nothing! I feel a bit strange. Travel lag, I think." Zoe didn't buy it and Miracle knew it by the peak of her eyebrow.

"I know we just met but we're going to be joined at the hip for the next month. Might as well skip the bullshit and be instant sisters, don't you think?"

Miracle sighed. The edges of her mouth weakened a bit and her shoulders slumped. "I hoped to see someone here. He said he'd be here but I haven't been able to reach him since landing this gig."

"You must have it bad for this guy. Love at first sight? Love at morning-after?"

"It was love at first everything." The crease in her brow and sharpness in her eyes told Zoe she wasn't kidding. It also told her there might be something borderline obsessive about Miracle's character.

"Who's the lucky lad?" Zoe's Irish accent peaked along with her curiosity.

"William Mezrel. You know him?"

"The art collector?" Zoe's tone dried up. She knew William's reputation as a bed hopper. Apparently, everyone did but Miracle.

"That's how we met. He liked my photographs. One thing led to another—and another, and another…"

"Well, you're on the wrong floor. He's upstairs, but you won't like what you see."

Miracle's face fell so Zoe just put it out there. "He's here with someone else."

Miracle took a few moments to think through her options. She could put it aside, swallow her disappointment and get lost in the true purpose of the party. She could barge up there and make a scene, as well. Erupt. Break a glass, maybe. She never thought of herself as a drama queen but Miracle knew she sometimes let situations get the best of her.

"I could see your horns sprout from across the room," Rena said as she came up on the pair from behind. "What happened?"

Miracle turned to her with eyes full of tears.

"I see Fayina and Koko! I'd best introduce myself." Before she moved away, Zoe put her hand on Miracle's shoulder and whispered some good advice. "Don't let him win. He can have him."

She gave Rena a look and nod before she approached Koko and Fayina who had developed a small crowd over by a pristinely lit bar. When Rena turned to see Zoe reach them, she caught sight of how chummy Koko and Fayina got on. They inhaled every bit of attention as Fayina modeled her look in vogue pose and Koko drew attention to her rainbow braid that everyone seemed to adore.

"Did she say he?" Miracle asked with a vortex of disappointment in her eyes.

"Don't look at me like I had any idea. I don't keep a gaylodex of the globe!"

"I'm not! It's just… You don't know how lucky you are, Rena! You're happy as can be in your own little world. You have it all figured out with Shell. You have the world on a string and the moon on your finger!"

"If you imply what do I care, I'll pull your hair!"

"It's just that I was looking forward to this… so much! Now, I don't know what to do. Part of me wants to go up there and hang him from a chandelier. Part of me wants to forget I ever met him. Part of me wants to leave."

"I think you should keep in mind what this is all about," Rena said as she wrapped her arm around Miracle's shoulders. "You were handpicked for all this—top of the list! I think you should finish your champagne, grab another and enjoy yourself with the rest of us."

"I'm not like you, Reenie. I don't solve all my problems at the bottom of a bottle."

Hiss! Rena removed her arm and inched away from Miracle's side. She swirled her champagne and stared at the bubbles rise from the bottom of the glass in awkward silence.

"Reenie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"

"—Yes you did." Rena looked up to her with firm yet forgiving eyes.

Miracle gave in and drained her champagne. Her cough and wince that followed made Rena chuckle because she really wasn't used to drinking like that, but she needed something to smooth over her bruised ego. Rena convinced her William didn't deserve the energy it took to be upset. There were better things to think about—much better things!

As the night went on and the party raged, Rena felt more and more at home. There was a unique energy to Japan she couldn't quite explain but everyone she knew felt it. November, in particular, took a job in Tokyo a year previous and never left. Eventually, she adopted Utsukushisa as her home and worked mostly with her Japanese agency, Yuen Models. She apparently made bosom-buddies of Kyomi Daishi and Zoe Grice in her stay, and was a force behind the International nature of the campaign at hand.

Fayina and Koko were inseparable. When Rena greeted them at the bar, they practically hung off each other. They playfully poked each other after every joke and stole drinks from each other's glasses. Fayina fingered at the fabric of Koko's dress, a dress Lilly made once upon a time. While they squirmed closer and closer together, they giggled and whispered in each other's ears. Rena almost didn't believe what she saw but had little room to comment considering how she carried on in the past.

Koko and Fayina crept off between the pucker-lipped pleasantries of the party and caught a lift up to the tower's top floor. It was a Japanese five-star molecular gastronomy restaurant decorated out of another time and place called Musei, which formally translated to wet dream. Before they crossed the threshold into the restaurant, a foray of holographic depictions of every dish served inside greeted them in sweet, savory and umami splendor, rowed up like chorus lines.

Inside, the cascade of iridescently glowing white tables and tangerine, corduroy upholstered chairs surrounded an oval, neon-trimmed bar that stretched for ages. Fayina took charge and requested a private observation booth, called a pod, from the young woman that greeted them. She led them to their best available, which was like a small cabin that allowed ample room for two to snuggle in luxury as the world gently gyrated around them.

"That's one thing I love about this place. The entire floor spins! It's the best panorama in Utsukushisa. Even better than the Kumo Suites, I think!" Fayina said with bright, wide eyes. She and Koko left their shoes in a cubby beside the door and nestled into cozy blue cushions trimmed in gold.

"I've never been to a restaurant like this before. It's like something out of a dream!"

"That's why I wanted to bring you here. There will be other parties. The parties never end! But the chance for this to be one of the first things you see in Japan… I came here with Rena for my sweet sixteen. We had a great time. The next week was my first major runway so we celebrated that too."

Koko felt over the Lazy Susan between them for the pimpom button. "You did small jobs before, right?"

"Of course. But I had to wait till sixteen like everyone else for the big gigs."

"Where's the menu on this thing?"

"In the center, here." Fayina pressed a groove in the middle of the carousel and a menu materialized.

"Thanks!"

"You really should get wired, Koko. You'll do it eventually! Why not get it over with?" Fayina asked as her eyes glowed like before in the Kumo Suite. They jittered left to right as if she read something only she could see.

"I dunno. I don't trust it. Not yet, anyway." Koko browsed her menu while she kept an eye on how Fayina slipped in and out of the world in her head.

"It's fine, trust me! It takes four surgeries. First, they do your limbs. My legs tingled a lot at first but not for long. My arms and fingers felt fine. Before they do your eyes, spine and brain, they take care of the middle of you. A receptor goes in your chest that helps, umm… comfort your organs."

A server came in with hot tea, water and packaged toweletttes. Koko's brow furrowed at Fayina's description of the whole wiring process.

"It's nothing to freak out about. It helps tell your organs everything is okay. They might shock out without it."

"What if something… malfunctions?"

"What is life without risk? Are you always better safe than sorry?"

"No…"

"What do you think of the menu?" Fayina changed the subject, pleased and impressed to get a straight answer from Koko, devoid of double-talk and philosophy.

"I don't understand any of it!"

"Tap the bottom corner. Next language is English."

Koko did so and took a few moments to browse the near-endless selection of appetizers, entrees, sushi, sashimi, noodles and more.

"What did you get?"

"A bit of everything! Well, not really… but enough for both of us! Have you ever tried eel? Or sea cucumber?"

"Never!" Koko watched Fayina dip into the cyber-reality in her mind once more, then return with a wider smile than ever.

"I ordered something special for you!"

"Should I be worried?"

"Did you lie about not always playing safe?"

"No. I don't think lies work well on you, anyway."

There was mischief in Fayina's smile as a server came in with a small rectangular gadget. She spoke rapidly, far too fast for Koko who pretended to follow and understand anyway. Fayina found the wide-eyed, goofy expression on her face quite cute.

When she was done, Fayina nodded, thanked her in Japanese and pressed her thumb against the device. Her eyes urged Koko to do the same so she did after a pause.

"What was that for?" Koko asked as the server left.

"It's an agreement. The restaurant is not responsible if anything happens to you. It will make sense soon."

"Jeez, what did you order us, poison?"

"Yes, actually! But enough of that for now. Tell me more about you!"

"Are we gonna play twenty-questions now?"

"Favorite color?"

"White."

"Blue for me. Favorite season?"

"Summer."

"Spring! Favorite food?"

"Cheesecake."

"Lobster! Favorite position?"

"What do you mean?"

"Position in bed, silly!"

Koko wouldn't normally answer such a thing but something about Fayina disarmed her inhibitions.

"I can't believe you're asking me that! But anything face to face, I guess."

"Me too… I'm very intimate."

"I can tell! —So, you and Rena… did you two…?"

"Oh no! Nothing like that. Well, not that I would mind. I adore her! But she's like my big sister. We've kissed, I won't lie! But that's all."

"I see. I thought we were going that route, but she was swift to diffuse."

"She has her bouts but what she and Shell have is in another league. I think it's fate, personally. They're just meant to be together and nothing can change that."

The mention of fate gave Koko pause. Thoughts of Lilly scrunched her fun away from home. She assured Lilly she would be on her best behavior and there would be no tomfoolery abroad. In her heart, Koko intended to honor those guarantees but look where she was! If any psychic were to read her mind, they'd see Fayina bent, folded and pretzel-twisted in ways that would make a contortionist blush. They'd see Koko lick her chops over the all-you-can-eat buffet of Fayina's long, slender body.

"I saw that!" "Where did your mind go? Where did your heart go?" Fayina knocked off Koko's mental slip. The instant distraction of her relationship with Lilly was impossible to mask. She loved Lilly so much, the guilt of what she thought and where she was surpassed the undivided attention she tried to give Fayina.

"Nothing gets by you, huh? Just the whole fate thing… I know what that's about."

"Don't be so nervous! I'm not a home wrecker. I'm curious, though. Why so sheepish about Lilly?"

Koko couldn't answer right away. Even though everything inside said she shouldn't be there, she couldn't find the gumption to veer off the path she was on, wherever it led. After a good sigh, with eyes unable to hide, Koko admitted one of her most prominent flaws.

"I have a problem keeping my hands to myself. I promised myself things would be different but… I can't stop staring at you… staring back at me."

Fayina laughed at Koko's candor as three servers ushered in a variety of dishes.

"I'm making a terrible first impression, aren't I?"

"Quite the contrary! This is much better than pretending you have no interest in me—or, playing games! Hard-to-get, yes-then-no, guess-my-mood… you're being honest. Me likey!"

The way Fayina twitched her eyebrows up and down when she lifted her tea to her lips gave Koko the warmest giggles she'd felt since arriving in Utsukushisa. She loved this type of girl—sugar-sweet yet mischievously daring, blunt… risky.

"Here, try the unagi! It's eel! It's fantastic!" Fayina scooted closer to Koko's side and lifted a morsel of eel up to Koko's mouth with chopsticks. "We're violating every law in Japanese etiquette like this."

"You're the one armed with chopsticks!"

"I'll crash course you on the whole thing later. November says Miss Kyomi is a battleaxe when it comes to table manners."

"Will she fire me if I ask for a fork?"

"Come on, try it!"

Koko sniffed the piece of darkly glazed, glossy eel. Enticed, she took it into her mouth and the tops of her cheeks rose in a pleased smile.

"That's yummy! It tastes aquatic but not like all fishy, ya know?"

Fayina held something stiff-yet-gelatinous up so close to Koko's face it crossed her eyes. It didn't look appetizing, but the scent of the citrusy Ponzu sauce that Koko dipped it in aroused her senses.

"That looks like a frozen breast implant on the thaw…"

"Don't think! Try! It's Namako! Sea cucumber!"

Koko's nose wrinkled with every chew. The taste was fine. The Ponzu was a perfect balance of tangy, sweet and savory with a hint of heat that married well with the ocean freshness of the chewy creature. However, the texture left much for Koko to desire. "That's one of the weirdest things I've ever put in my mouth…"

"Now this one…" Fayina delicately drew a thin slice of something opaque up to Koko's mouth with a grin that showed off her adorable dimples. "This is Fugu—Pufferfish! It's poisonous but when prepared properly, you survive the indulgence."

"You sure know how to wow a girl. Five-star-dinner, a beautiful view, attempted murder…"

"Don't be a sissy! It will tingle and numb your mouth a bit, but unless the Chef fucked up, you'll live!"

Reservations about her personal luck froze her decision. The possibility existed that, of all restaurants in the world that served Fugu, hers would be the one marred by technical error. She imagined the chew, the tingle, the swallow, the collapse.

The longer she delayed, the more Fayina's eyebrows Hopak-danced up and down her forehead. "Come come! My Takoyaki is getting cold!"

"Is that deadly too?"

"No! They're octopus balls. Now, are you going to try this or not?"

"I dunno, Fay… I kinda like being here—alive, I mean."

Fayina sat in front of Koko and gazed so deeply into her eyes, she could have shoved Fugu into them with the strength of her stare alone. "I'm going to kiss you now, but I'm keeping this in my mouth. You can turn away if you like—recoil—and I won't bug you about it anymore. But if you don't move, my kiss of death may be the best you've ever had."

Fayina put the Fugu on the tip of her tongue and crept into Koko's orbit. Koko knew she should turn away, but her body refused her mind's inclination. She remained, eyes steady, breath accelerated. Her lips fell open just a bit as Fayina's mouth encapsulated hers, and as they kissed—softly at first—tongues took hardly seconds to introduce themselves and get their waltz on. The Fugu wafted between their mouths and spread its numbing tetrodotoxin as lights from the metropolis below cast swarms of gentle brilliance throughout the pod.

Koko knew they eventually had to get back to Kyomi Daishi's party. She also knew she was falling into her old habits behind Lilly's back. Those thoughts fluttered further and further away the longer they kissed. In her heart of hearts, she knew her soul belonged to Lilly. However, while half a world away, she felt the desire for her body to belong elsewhere surge and she wasn't sure how to cope. Would she give in? Would she lie to Lilly whenever they spoke and assure her that everything was fine and chaste? Would she sprout some self-control and set boundaries for Fayina? She had no idea, and for the time being, Koko knew only one thing.

She was enjoying every second.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Thank you for this," Shell Dawes said as she rode shotgun beside Priscilla Bantz who adjusted some settings on the steering wheel of a large moving truck.

"I should thank you, Shell! You have no idea how much I've needed an excuse to get down here."

The stretch of scenic ground-level road went from curvaceous to straight-shot as Priscilla set the autopilot and glanced into the back of the truck to be sure of their cargo's security.

"I hope Charlotte is better soon. I'd feel worse than I do now if I had to ask any more favors of you."

"Shell, it's no trouble. Really! I'm happy to help. Charlotte asked me to do this before you did, anyway."

"Did she really?"

"She's only my best friend. Not like this is the first time I've filled in for her."

"Well, with Ben in such a state, he'd have me swing from the gallows if I marched in a crew of strangers." Shell trailed off with a distant gaze Priscilla noticed after a few silent moments.

"But you said he's improving. That's what you said, wasn't it?"

"Yes, but I can't help the idea it's all too good to be true. I've seen it before. My own grandmother on my mother's side was practically bed ridden for months. All of a sudden, she's down in the kitchen fixing tea and toast, grumbling expletives over misplaced Vegemite. Not days later, she was gone."

"Did she fall or something?"

"No, nothing like that. Passed peacefully in her sleep."

"My condolences."

"It was a long time ago but thank you."

"All the same." Priscilla pressed a final button and the box-truck slowed, rose, withdrew its tires and hovered onto its destination. "That's all we can hope for in the end, isn't it? To go peacefully in the night? That's how I wanna die."

"Can't say I'd complain. I'm not picky. I would like to see my dad again, though."

Priscilla said nothing. She knew Shell lost her father when she was quite young, so she felt Ben helped fill that void in her life. She also figured Shell filled that emotional gap with the self-satisfaction of caring for him in his twilight.

Talk was small for the rest of their way to Chateau Sibelius. Leon appeared from the entrance when the boxcar came to a halt and parked itself as close to the porch steps as possible.

"Just in time, girls! His appointment at Metro got pushed back so it's running long." Leon introduced himself to Priscilla then hurried some tall, crystal vases stuffed with abnormally huge carnations inside—Ben's favorite flower.

"How was he this morning?" Shell asked as she followed him inside with more décor.

"I'm at a loss for words. Even though tests show him no better or worse, to look at him is to think the only way he's gone is up. I don't know what healing elixir pulses through your veins, but he's been that way since you came around."

"He has been on the bright side lately, hasn't he? But is he, though? Could he be psyching himself out somehow? Or, can mood really do that—spin around the hands of time?"

"Stranger things have happened. For all that hasn't changed—for all that can't change—his mind has. That's what matters most at this stage. He's happy, Shell. All thanks to you."

Shell reflected on the notion that she was the peace in Ben's twilight as Leon and Priscilla ushered in a hefty, floral wreath, and found the prospect not only humbling but also bittersweet.

They made quick work of decorating in a way that recalled glory days of lore. Shell did well to source items that enveloped the foyer in nostalgia only she and Ben could appreciate. As she stood in the window of his refreshed foyer, she recalled the scene through that window and the warm Sunday afternoons twenty-five years ago. A few cars from which well-dressed guests spilled were always rowed up just beyond the porch. On the air of nostalgia rode the chatter of no less than four ethnic accents from days gone by—Russian, American, English and German the most common. Her memory felt the brisk outdoor breeze powder her skin the way it did back then when Ben or his servant, Cloris de Beauchamp, flung those entrance doors open in welcome.

The flit down memory lane made Shell miss Cloris more than ever. The boisterous, frank and witty Scot with a throaty voice and soulful eyes died two years after Ben's husband, Frederick, at eighty-three. Her sudden, massive stroke sealed the deal on Ben's loneliness.

While Shell waited for word that Leon and Ben were on their way from hospital, she thought of all the surprise parties she threw for her boss over the years. Occasions varied but spirit remained the same. Sometimes, it was a surprise birthday party. Other times, the party was for him and Frederick's anniversary or just-because. She tried to keep him guessing but she knew Ben suspected yet feigned surprise every time. Previous experience made her wonder if he had a notion something special awaited at home. It didn't matter. She was sure the menial restoration undertaken would have an impact, no matter what.

Priscilla interrupted Shell's reverie with her hand on her shoulder. "You didn't even hear the phone ring."

"Hmmm?" Shell was startled but soothed when met with Priscilla's warm, childlike smile.

"They'll be here any moment!"

Shell and Priscilla stood on the porch as Leon drove up to the house. To Shell's surprise, Ben was out of the hover-van first and met her with a hopeful smile. Hand on hat, he approached unaided, a bit slow but of his own volition.

"At this rate, the dance floor is nigh," Shell said with a smirk.

"Ever the smart ass!" Ben said as he took each step one-by-one, and raised his hand in gentle protest when Priscilla tried to help him up. "I've got it, love. I've got it."

He stood level with the others when he reached the top step. With a sigh of relief and postured pose, he turned his head to Shell and grinned in a way only the two of them understood. For all the years between them, words often failed their emotions. Compared to the eyes, the tongue was powerless.

Ben's look said, And you thought I gave up?

Shell's said, You did, what happened?

Ben's look confirmed what she already knew. With almost telepathic clarity, it said, You.

Tears formed in the wells of her eyes as he proceeded into the house. He froze in place when he found himself surrounded by the flowers in which he once took such pride. All his antique brass sparkled once again, as did his crystal chandeliers. Even the paintings he lacerated once again hung in splendor.

"You've outdone yourself this time," Ben said as she stepped up to his side.

"Bit of a lady's touch was all she needed."

That massive wreath Priscilla and Leon marched in commanded particular attention. Back in the day, Ben snapped instant photos of party guests and pinned them to a huge decorative wreath kept in the very spot in which Shell had them set it. He stood before it as faces from decades past materialized before his eyes like nostalgic leaves grown from a wreath of recollection; faces he had seen fade over the years one-by-one. No way could he contain the tears that escaped.

It got better in the living room. Ben stood before a portrait-sized painting of Claude Monet's Madame Monet and Her Son that towered above the mantle, framed in gold—forgery of a forgery, of course. Ben always felt a connection to that work because Madame Monet reminded him of his mother and the Son, himself.

"I didn't expect this, Shell. Thank you."

"I can't take all the credit. I had partners in crime here." Shell's mention made Priscilla and Leon beside her smile.

"Partners in crime, indeed. So stands my burial chamber. Is that what this is? Ancient Egyptians did the same thing…"

A hush fell over the room. Shell didn't know what to say or what he meant.

"You never were one to let anything go. I've already set these memories free. We had the best of times, but that's over now. All this is long over! These memories belong to another time, another life. You had no right, Shell… no right to disturb their rest."

"I'm sorry, you were saying thank you?" she asked, clearly bewildered.

"I've given you a lot of advice over the years, haven't I? Let me give you some more," he said as he lumbered up to her. "You'll find the greatest love in the world when you love something enough to let it go."

Shell never felt more unappreciated. She also felt insulted because she knew Ben always said her relationship with Rena was more about infatuation than love. She saw in his eyes that he meant, if she really loved Rena, she should let her go, set her free. She just couldn't handle the insinuation, so she turned and breezed out the living room before she said something she'd regret.

On her way, she met the surprise of surprises in the form of Saffron Fellows.

"Saffron! What are you doing here?"

"Hovering. Eavesdropping. I got tired of waiting for an invitation. Getting around the gates isn't rocket science either."

"Well, no use protesting now. I suppose you heard all that…"

"You don't have to look so embarrassed. I endured him long before you came into the picture." The stress she felt dissipated by the second in Saffron's reassuring presence.

Shell took a hiatus in the kitchen since Saffron assured her that he'd calm Ben down. She needed something. She needed a drink. She strode up to the last overhead cabinet on the left and pulled down a full bottle of top shelf gin. She made quick work of fixing her nerves some medicine as Priscilla and Leon walked in.

"Look at you going all Rena in here!" Priscilla said as she stepped up to the table and let down her long red hair. Leon, right behind her, went straight for the stove and fixed himself a cup of tea.

"I just need to plateau. Taking everything in stride isn't always so easy. Care for some?"

"Maybe… I'm kinda hungry though."

"There's a gourmet selection of sandwich fare in the fridge," Leon said. "Ben spares no expense on shaming the best topside delis with his cold-cut stock—meats, cheeses, veggies. All imported from a variety of obscure cracks in the world. Help yourself."

"Not staying for Golden Dawns and girl talk?" Shell asked. "I'll bust out the Calvados."

"Too much paperwork to pour over! Besides, you know I don't drink."

"It was worth a shot. Thanks for everything, Leon. No matter what he says, I know his heart better than he does. He was pleased."

"Don't mention it. We're in the same boat here," he said before he walked out, tea in hand.

"Is there any grapefruit juice or something? I can't take gin straight up." Priscilla said.

"Certainly! And I'll fix you a sandwich. What's your preference?"

"Oh, Shell, you don't have to. I'll do it!" Priscilla was half up when Shell insisted otherwise.

"Not at all! After all this bother, it's the least I can do." Shell already had a plate and a wide, white pitcher on the counter. "So what's your fancy?"

"Um, turkey club? That's my favorite."

"Coming right up! I hope you don't mind rye. It's Ben's top loaf. Leon and I don't eat much bread so…" Shell cut over to a wall-installed bread cabinet and took some out.

"Fine by me!"

"And the bacon? Do you indulge?"

"I do," Priscilla admitted with a grin.

Shell snickered and took a long, thin tray from the fridge. From it, she took three strips of vibrant, thick cut bacon rife with crushed, black peppercorns. A portion of the wall slid open as she ran her hand across it, in which she placed some bacon on a wire rack. The wall slid closed and ten seconds later, a gentle ding signaled their doneness.

"Ugh! I wish I could afford one of those!"

"Handy isn't it?" Shell washed her hands and waved at the wall once more. The hearty aroma of porcine pleasure filled the air as she extracted perfectly cooked, sizzling sin, and continued her preparation.

"You don't seem upset by Ben's outburst."

"I'm not. I was annoyed at most. Time has a way of diffusing any inclination to stay sour for long." Shell served the sandwich and poured Priscilla a tumbler of gin and juice on the rocks. "Did Saffron settle him down?"

"Sure did! Walked right up to Ben and planted one on him! One of those silence-inducing kisses you only see in the movies."

"Saffron is the only one who could get away with that. Even Frederick stayed at arm's length when Ben was being a brat."

"Wow, this gin is so smooth. There's no gasp or gag at all! A girl could get used to this," Priscilla said before she chased a bite of sandwich with booze.

"Indeed. I understand why gin is Rena's drink of choice. There's nothing hidden. What you see is what you get. What you taste is what you get. It's clear, apparent and refreshing, just like her."

Priscilla choked on her drink at that one.

"What was that for?"

Priscilla tried to play it off but her eyes told another tale. "Excuse me! I dunno, must be those huge chunks of pepper! Pepper makes me do that…"

Shell took a towelettte from a nearby dispenser and handed it over as Saffron walked in with Ben at his side.

"Ladies! We hate to interrupt but Ben has a request!"

"Sarma's!" Ben said as the grin that spread across his face reminded Shell of his most mischievous heyday.

"What are you on about? You've had a long day!" Shell said. "You should rest and recharge, don't you think?"

"Bah! There's been quite enough of that." He swallowed his pride and offered his utmost sincerity. "I was an ass, Shell—a complete and utter ass! I don't mean to bribe your forgiveness. I want to get into the spirit of things, this spirit you've invoked. It's been years since we've been together this way—you, Saffron, myself. It'll be like old times… with guests!"

"Uh, what's Sarma's?" she asked with a bulbous cheek-full of sandwich.

"It's a restaurant out on the ocean, just off the western coast. There aren't many of its kind left, but Sarma's was always a bit of a haunt for us," Shell said.

"We'll have to talk your caretaker into this?" Saffron asked.

"He'll submit! I don't intend debate over this. I want to go!"

"I'm not fit for anything but a soup kitchen like this! Is it swank? Do I need a dress or anything?" Priscilla looked anxious. Such spontaneous outings irked her because she was very particular about her appearance. Without ample time to coordinate, she felt self-conscious.

"Don't worry. You can borrow one of Ben's," Saffron said.

"It's not that kind of place. Just freshen up and stay close together when we get there. If Anna tries to stab me, I'll have a consummate wall of defense to hide behind!"

=^-^=

Leon flew the dinner crew in via the hospital-van because of the comfort it provided Ben. The nearer they came to the island, the clearer and crisper her spunky effulgence radiated like the kaleidoscopic colors of a carnival. That approach was always Shell's favorite part of the visit, even over the exquisite Latvian cuisine.

"Not much has changed, has it?" Shell said as they crossed the lot just beyond the docks that accommodated those who parked on the water like Leon.

"We'll see. If Anna curses the air I breathe, nothing at all!" Ben said. He looked better than ever in a dark purple suit and matching fedora, no tie.

They stepped up to an unattended podium at the front of an intimately lit patio lined with well-filled tables for four and picnic-style tables for more. They watched a tall, blonde woman in a billowy white blouse and breezy peach skirt laugh it up with a jovial group as they toasted to a couple in flashy wedding garb. She seemed to feel a presence behind her. She slowly turned to look over her shoulder and, when she did, her late-thirties face lit alive at the sight of Shell, Ben and Saffron.

She shouted excited greetings as she rushed them, arms outstretched, and nearly cracked Shell in half with the strength of her hug. Saffron received the same embrace, but when she turned to Ben with full-moon wide eyes, her demeanor sank to something that resembled caution. "Ben… I'd hug you but I'm afraid I'll fall through. I'm not seeing things, am I?"

Ben just smiled warmly and opened his arms. Her face went cupcake-sweet as she slid into a tender embrace. "I've missed you, Ben! You need to stop disappearing like that!"

The woman pulled away with a light sniffle and wiped at a few tears. "Well come on in! There's a wedding party going on. They were married on the beach this afternoon. Now they're working on not remembering it. —Table for five?"

Shell took that as a queue to introduce Priscilla and Leon to Dallas Balodis, the granddaughter of Sarma's owner, Anna Balodis.

They sat at the end of a vacant picnic table a space away from the party crowd. Dallas presented them with some old-fashioned laminated menus, took their drink requests and excused herself to fetch the orders and alert her grandmother to the latest arrivals.

"Why did she go to pieces over you, Ben?" Leon asked.

"Ben is her godmother!" Saffron said before Ben had a chance.

"It's true. Frederick and I took turns spoiling her rotten. Dallas even did a bit of modeling with Moonglow but the life wasn't for her. She belongs here in the calm of it all."

"Aija Balodis is her younger sister," Saffron added.

"No way! The actress?" That excited Priscilla as she quite enjoyed Aija's movies.

"Those two were always worlds apart, weren't they? Dallas would battle bouts of homesickness when on assignment but Aija… impossible to contain," Shell said as Dallas arrived with a tray of drinks.

"Would you like more time to decide or have at the aukstais gald? The wedding party has invited everyone to help themselves."

All agreed the buffet would suit them just fine.

"Dallas, where's Anna?" Ben asked.

"She didn't want to see you. But you know what that means."

Ben hopped to his feet before she could finish her sentence. He took a hearty drink of his favorite dry, white wine and was about to pass Dallas before she took the lead.

"Follow me. She changed offices about five years ago."

Dallas led him toward the back of the house, through the guests and some crystal-clear glass doors, out of sight.

"I can't predict how that's gonna go," Saffron said.

"Should we be ready to run, you think?"

Saffron shook his head. "Nah. I think Anna will realize all Ben is guilty of is being Ben."

Shell shrugged. That was true. One of Frederick's elder brothers had married into the Balodis family. That made Ben family by marriage. When Frederick died, he began to shut down. He stopped calling, responding, anything social, like his family ties to the Balodis name died with his husband. It was a ridiculous way to behave but in step with Ben's character. Shell felt it had something to do with fear. She just couldn't put her finger on the particulars.

"Say!" Saffron looked to Leon. "The music is sweet. The air is crisp. Would you flatter an old man with a dance?"

"You're a hell of an ice breaker, aren't you? I have two left feet!" Leon said through blushing cheeks.

"So do I!" Saffron stood and extended his hand, unwilling to take no for an answer. Then, they were off for a gentle spin about the dance floor to moderately paced romantic jazz that flirted with traditional Latvian instruments.

"This is so good!" Priscilla said after a taster's sip of her rather large Pina Colada.

"Koi could swim in that thing. It's the size of your head!"

"I've never had this Black Balsam stuff before, but it's perfect with the coconut sweetness! A girl could get used to these!"

Shell noted the speed at which Priscilla gulped down her drink. It reminded her of Rena. "I want to thank you again. I hope being out here hasn't put a damper on your plans."

"Shell, really. I had nothing going on. I never have anything going on. Pathetic, I know…"

"There must be someone out there to share your Hollywood smile with!"

"That's just it. I guess I'm a lot like you. I'm not interested in flings. I want something more meaningful than I can comprehend."

"Well, things work out for the best. Fate has a way of bringing the right one along at the perfect time—often when we least expect it. Look how long it took me!"

Priscilla aimed tolerant eyes at Shell. Truth be told, Rena wasn't one of her favorite subjects. To pad that tolerance, she just about depleted her drink and cringed a bit at the cold-headache it induced.

"I spent most of my life so focused on where I was going, I gave who I was going with little regard," Shell said. "And the years just flew by. But all of a sudden, Rena came into the picture and everything made sense."

Priscilla stayed quiet and kept her eyes on the vanishing level of her drink, which Shell took as a no comment gesture. Then her eyes drifted past Shell as Dallas stepped up with a fresh Pina Colada.

"You're a mind-reader!"

"I could see the need for refills from inside," Dallas said as she sat next to Shell with an open bottle of white wine.

"You're doing something right, Dallas. I had to lead by example to get some gin in her earlier."

"I'm not much of a grand guzzler! But who wants to be rude, right? As for this, my favorite thing in the world is coconut. I'd live off them if I could! Something about the way it all blends perfectly in this fishbowl of a glass is just magical!" Priscilla said.

Priscilla and Dallas chatted a bit about the house recipe for a Black Balsam Pina Colada. Shell took a few notes on what she read into Priscilla's lines. She sure did remark out-of-synch with her thirst. The speed at which she swilled reminded Shell of Rena. The difference was that Rena made no effort to mask it.

"Dallas, you're sure it's okay to attack that buffet?"

"Help yourself!"

"Great! That cheese wheel is calling me!" Priscilla referred to a huge wheel of caraway cheese that was about sixty-percent spent. She balanced her way to the spread, grabbed a nearby silver plate and had at it.

Dallas took the opportunity to pick Shell's brain some. "So the rumors are true?"

Shell knew there was no way to sugar coat it. Life's atmosphere had favored full-fledged honesty lately so she just nodded. "The doctors say there's nothing they can do. All we're really charged with is injecting some comfort into whatever time he has left but—"

"—I guess I knew. For a long time now… Funny the things your heart can tell you. What does he have? They've named everything from cancer to cooties in the press."

"Marris Syndrome."

"Shit." The light of hope in Dallas' eyes clearly snuffed out. As a cure for cancer neared society and AIDS had long since been purged, Marris Syndrome took their place as humanity's most confounding affliction. Named after its first victim, the disease mostly tussled with the elderly. At only several years into its limelight, the most science could figure was that it had something to do with a still-mysterious genetic anomaly.

"They say the degeneration is in advanced stages but I see things differently. Thing is, he's more capable now than ever. Not just in thought, but how he gets around. I think he's defying odds! Coming here, for instance, as if whatever drives him inside has taken over."

Dallas just stared her down, a stare that wreathed together their unspoken beliefs.

Ben was saying goodbye.

=<.>=

Ben arrived at Anna Balodis' office via a copper and brass lift that gently chimed when it ceased its ascent. He paced his way through a lushly decorated office-loft where cluttered shelves and illuminated display cases full of character and history divided the sections of the space he navigated. Beyond an ornate iron and stone piece of installation art—a nude man and woman that waltzed with White Wagtails resting on their shoulders—he saw her and his heart hit his shoes.

Before a panoramic glass window that overlooked the resort's lobby and outdoor patio, Anna Balodis' stood in her apparent workspace, beside a rich mahogany desk unkempt with messy stacks of paper and books strewn about it. With her back to Ben, she saw his reflection in the glass and her body visibly shuddered.

"I felt an arctic draft billow in from behind… but it's just you. Same thing, I guess." Her voice wasn't angry or shrill—it was wounded.

Ben wasn't sure what to say. All he could do was keep up his gradual approach.

"Why did you come? After all this time, why now?"

Although Ben had three or four different answers for that question, his voice could iterate none of them.

"What they say in the press is true, isn't it?" Anna spun around to face him as he arrived before her with a face full of surrender and regret.

"What is it?"

"Marris Syndrome. I'm on a clock…"

"I don't understand, Ben. Your eyes are kind as ever. It seems to me that all you've lost is your hair. Why did you shut us out for so long? Shut me out? Have you any idea how much you hurt me? Hurt us all? Have you any idea how embarrassing it was all those times I stood on your porch, ringing an answerless doorbell?"

"I'm sorry, Anna! I'm so, so sorry!" he said as he began to cry. "After Frederick died, I thought of following him but I couldn't do it. I banked on dying of a broken heart but, alas… I just fucked up… per usual."

Anna joined him in those tears. She caved to nostalgia and gripped him in an all-encompassing embrace full of forgiveness. She could have been more aggressive, angry, catty and snide. Once upon a time, that may have been the case but Anna shed that skin a long time ago.

"I expected you to harpoon me on sight," he said after he pulled away from the best hug he had felt in many years.

"What would the point have been? It wouldn't have changed the past, or made anything right. It's better to look ahead at our age, don't you think?"

Ben just smiled. Anna's good heart overjoyed him. He felt undeserving of her forgiveness, but he knew it couldn't be helped. She had her abrasive moments in their younger days, like anyone else, but she always showed the sweetest soul when it really mattered. That evening, it mattered once again.

=^-^=

"Check this out, Shell! Snails!" Priscilla plopped down with a pale concoction gathered to one side of her plate and noticed Shell's apprehensive glare.

"Oh, come on! You've never had them in all your travels?"

"I have! They weirded me out. It's a texture thing."

"But you love oysters. I've seen you go comatose after binging on oyster shooters!"

"I can't explain it. It's like they wished they were mushrooms, or something!"

Priscilla giggled as she forked some steamy chopped snails into her mouth and chewed them up, contemplatively. Then, she lit up as if she basked in a steamy facial.

"Did you just orgasm?"

"These are so good, so garlicky and smooth! You don't know what you're missing!"

"I'll suffer, contently. Reenie's phobic to those things, you know. Not to the point of panic or anything but snails and slugs definitely bring the 'fraidy-cat out in her. Quite adorable, really. She's gotten better about it, but one could literally rob her at snail-point once upon a time." The wine took over and Shell's face glossed over with Rena on her mind. Priscilla didn't seem so amused.

"She should eat 'em. Would probably help her get over it."

"You may be onto something." Shell grinned and her eyes rose to a tall, young server with long, dark, frizzy hair and a beautifully chiseled face. She set a fresh Pina Colada before Priscilla and a sweaty gin and tonic before Shell.

"I'll check up in a bit to see if you need anything else, okay?" They just nodded, transfixed by the look of her.

Priscilla waited for the girl to be out of earshot to comment. "She was born for the runway."

"I'll keep her in mind. I'm not here to work, though. She isn't going anywhere." Shell took a hearty swill of her drink and closed her eyes as the alcohol sting cascaded down her innards. "If Reenie were here she'd have had that girl scheduled for tests tomorrow."

"Reenie, Reenie, Reenie… I hear it enough from J.D., Shell, seriously!"

"I just have her on my mind, is all. It's quite consuming."

"Do you really think you're the first and last thing on her mind while she's over there?"

"If you had asked me that a year ago, I wouldn't have known what to say. But today? Yes. I'm confident she's being equally annoying in my honor. And you're slurring."

Priscilla waved off the comment about her speech. She moved on from her snails to some sloppily served portions of black forest ham and smoked eel. "Where did Saffron and Leon go?"

"I saw them head off to the shore. If I know Saffron, he's milking Leon for all he's worth. Deep inside, he cares for Ben very much. I'm sure he feels Leon is the key to understanding exactly what's going on."

"He doesn't seem that sick. I'm sure he has good and bad days but, by the sight of a good day like this, I'd figure him a picture of health."

"My sentiments exactly! Odds were made to be defied, after all! But I don't think Dallas shares my optimism."

Priscilla's slurps interrupted Shell's train of thought. When she raised her head and slid her glass aside, she shut her eyes, burst into pleasured giggles and rubbed at her forehead in part embarrassment, part booze-induced giddiness.

"Shell, I'm sorry! I'm just… it's been a long time since I could just let loose, you know? It's been non-stop with J.D. lately. Work, work, work! Even 'Renzo is beside himself, and he's a tank! Ever since J.D. had that meltdown, he's been different, and not in a good way."

"Have you said anything to him?"

"I tried, but it's gone in one ear and out the other. He's having major issues right now, I guess, and the only one he talks to that intimately is your fiancé. With her far away, he's kind of spaced out. Not to get back on that subject, though."

"Pris…" Shell had taken enough kicks in the gut. "You've had it in for her all day. Did she starve your goldfish or something? Tar your favorite coat? What's with all the venom?"

"No, Shell, it's nothing like that. You're just so sweet… and comforting and patient. What are you doing with her? Seriously, what is it? And don't give me all that we can't help who we fall in love with crap either. There has to be something else. Opposites-attract gone rogue or you want to save her. Change her! Something!"

"She doesn't need saving from anything. In fact, she's saving me!"

"From what, ending up an old maid?"

Shell did her best to control her appalled gasps. Pity Priscilla was partly right. "I was sure we knew each other better than that! It sounds like your opinion of our personal life is rooted in sewing-circle gossip and all the hate-mongering that curdles behind someone like Rena."

Priscilla chuckled in some sort of astonishment. "Gossip? You realize she and J.D. tell each other everything, don't you? And I do mean everything. And then he tells me."

"Busy body much?"

"No, Shell, listen… J.D. and I are close—really close—and some of the things Rena comes out with… he has to tell someone! I care about him. Maybe I help carry the weight."

"The weight, no less?"

"Remember Las Vegas? You know which Vegas I mean. Her, Mariska, Lucy and the others? Knowing what went on in that suite doesn't bother you?"

Shell fell silent. She'd put the whole situation out of her mind for sanity's sake. The thought of Rena coiled up in at least four other girls at once wasn't conducive to mental health.

"And Japan? Lil' Miss Red Dress? She's told that story a million times! I don't think there's a position they didn't do."

Priscilla went on and on in her drunken splendor. She covered everything; from once-in-a-while flings with Lina Andel to high chemistry with Sonja Koehler. Fashion High's cover with Rena and Koko made a cameo in the conversation, too. It was as if she read from The Book of Life: Rena Edition. Each incident she dredged up was like a stab in Shell's soul.

"From what I hear of Japan so far, she's glued at the hip to Fayina and Koko. Oh, she's been enamored with Koko since the day they met at that costume ball you so graciously invited her to. J.D. introduced them!" Priscilla's speech deteriorated with every word. "And what about her best friend? What's her name? Samantha? Or, Sa-something? Shannon!"

That netted Shell's attention. A knot formed in her stomach and it felt like that gut wrenching careen down a rollercoaster. Her stare sharpened and hooked into Priscilla's glassy eyes. She expected a bomb to drop even though she really wanted to hear nothing of the kind, but figured whatever came next must be heard for awareness' sake.

"Haven't you wondered why they don't talk much lately? Why she doesn't bring Shannon up in conversation at all? That day. J.D. and Lina's party. Remember?"

Shell did. She could still taste the gin in Rena's mouth when they kissed. She also had that look about her, complete with sneakers up the red carpet. Priscilla made more sense than Shell felt comfortable to admit.

"Rena told J.D. she still can't believe it went that far. She may honestly regret that one."

While Priscilla had back at her drink, Shell's eyes erupted with tears. By the time she noticed, it was too late. All those words could not be unsaid.

"Why are you doing this?" Shell asked. "Why can't people just be happy for us? Why can't you just be happy for us?"

Shell looked away and wiped at her tears. No matter how difficult, she knew she had to put it all aside and be there for Ben. It was his night and he deserved to enjoy it.

"Shell, jeez. I'm such an asshole. I'm sorry…" Priscilla looked truly sorry for upsetting her. She cursed the booze that washed away her filters. The crinkle of her brow canopied her drowsy eyes that threatened to shut at any second.

Shell could do little else but toss her a few wounded glares then return to her drink. She could make a scene—explode—even throw a punch but what would that solve? She wasn't one for violence and, truth be told, she knew Priscilla's spout from the hip came from a good place however poorly executed..

"Excuse me, I need to find a lady's room," Priscilla wobbled to her feet and looked around aimlessly, but Shell pointed her in the right direction, to some glass patio doors that led into the dining hall through which she staggered.

Thankfully, Ben and Anna arrived at the table not long after Priscilla set off. Shell needed to keep an active mind away from all the Rena-drama recently stirred. Difficult as it was, the cheer of reunited old friends helped a lot, especially when Saffron and Leon returned from their heart-to-heart stroll.

The rest of the evening wasn't without comedy. After a few toasts, Dallas came out to inform the group that Priscilla ran out of gas inside, nested herself into an empty booth and went to sleep. She allowed Priscilla to sleep it off in her personal quarters after Leon helped her practically carry the pissed-up redhead to some much-needed slumber.

As the night progressed, there were drinks, laughs and trips down memory lane galore. Anna put all business on hold for the rare and unexpected occasion so Dallas handled whatever she needed with complete understanding.

Shell found herself distracted by the mental echo of Priscilla's rant between timeless stories of when Ben and Frederick first met, when Anna came into the picture and a specific period when Saffron gave Frederick a bitchy, tough time out of ex's-jealousy over Ben. They dished everything from lazy vacations in St. Barths to more adventurous skiing trips in St. Johann in Tirol at Ben's behest. They spoke of things they'd spoken of a million times in tone and excitement as if they happened yesterday.

The kind of joy Shell felt over the reunion was curious for a woman her age. She recalled the rare occasion that her parents fought when she was a child. They hardly ever did but everyone fights, of course. Although it disturbed her to see and hear them at each other's throats, the feeling she got when they kissed and made up was exquisite. It was like surfacing from the suffocating depths of the sea to meet the freshest, crispest, life-granting air ever breathed.

That's how she felt that night, and it gave her hope that clearer skies may really lie ahead.

After tender goodbyes, Ben insisted all stay the night at Chateau Sibelius. He argued that the fashion world could survive one morning without her queen and queen, an apparent stab at Gaston Rostand's op-ed about Saffron and Shell's reign in Ben's stead.

The way Ben inched from spot-to-spot illustrated his exhaustion. Soon enough, Leon insisted he pack it in and get to bed. Ben agreed but not without a sweet and thankful goodnight for all, brief and poignant as usual. Yet, Shell felt something else behind his words. It was tricky to put a finger on his tone and his expressions but one word came to mind—resolved.

Once Leon ushered Ben off, Saffron quickly slipped back into his jacket, which prompted Shell's attention.

"Not staying after all?"

"Of course not." Saffron said as he approached and kissed Shell on both cheeks. "You?"

She sighed and folded her arms under her breasts as she always did when her mind cluttered up. "Yes I'm staying. I'm a bit drunk. I need to think. I just need to stop moving for awhile and think."

When her eyes rose from her forearms and met Saffron's, they were ready to burst and he knew it. He knew better than to soak Shell with sappy words. He could tell the social butterfly had overstayed its welcome and she needed some solitude.

"Call me tomorrow?" With that, Shell nodded and Saffron was off.

She was alone, all alone with her thoughts, with the chorus of Priscilla's barrage and the tears would not hold any longer. Everything erupted from her tear ducts at once—Ben, the reunion, the idea that the world simply did not approve of her marrying Rena. Then there was Rena herself. Shell knew she didn't tell the whole truth about the things she did but to hear it all so plainly. To hear it in a way that accused Rena of not just half-assing the truth but bold-faced, out-right lies was far too consuming. She had to cry it out and hoped her sanity would not drain away on the backs of those tears.

=U_U=

Shell woke first the next morning, to the palest sunlight she could remember since Rena's birthday, and felt the unexplainable need to check in on Ben. As she fixed morning tea, she questioned why she didn't crack Priscilla's jaw mid-sentence the previous night. She wanted to know why, after four years, all that dirty laundry bothered her so much. She wondered if all she felt was shock and, if so, why it hadn't worn off. She didn't have answers. All she had was this feeling up and down the middle of her as if she'd spent an evening swilling tar.

She infiltrated Ben's lair armed with tea for two. She suspected he would be up soon if not already, but all she found was an empty bed, partially drawn curtains and an ajar side door that led out to the deck. When she stepped out there, she found Ben nestled in one of several chaise lounge chairs further down the vast expanse of the deck, beneath one of his favorite blankets.

"Ben, what got into yesterday?" she whispered to herself as she neared his side. She set the tray on a claw-footed table between two seats and rested her hand on his shoulder to wake him. That touch froze her in time.

His eyes were open but he was statue-still.

Dread contorted her face like plastic wrap that crinkled over an open flame. Part of her wanted to stagger backward. Gasp. Shout theatrically. She almost did but something about the look of him diffused her. He looked at peace, as if he slipped away in comfortable silence.

Shell's body and heart had no idea how to react to things in unison. She just sat in the seat beside Ben, held his cold hand and cried a quiet cry. She knew as well as anyone that day would come and with ample time to prepare, her emotions were well cushioned but that did little to fjord the totality of it all.

There it was. The man she knew as more than just a boss—as a friend, mentor and second father—was gone. She then understood why he dared not rest the day before. Whatever news the doctors broke to him inspired a need to resolve the unresolved and she wondered if Leon knew but said nothing. No wonder he agreed to the whole Sarma's-outing so easily.

She and Dallas were right. Ben was saying goodbye.

Even though the most influential person in her life for the past twenty-five years lounged beside her in death, her mind drifted back to Rena. Now, Rena was all she had left in the world, or at least it felt that way since Shell's mother wasn't much of a support-figure in her old age.

She sure could have used Rena's comfort then-and-there. There was something soothing in her grip, far beyond any romantic cliché. Shell felt serenity in her arms, something she hadn't felt with anyone else before or since.

Between Priscilla's virulent spew, Rena's non-presence and Ben's death, Shell felt gutted. At least she could let it all out. No one orbited her immediate vicinity. She had no one for which to be strong. Shell could be that blubbering bag of tears for a change as she told Ben final goodbyes in her heart and mind, and it never felt so good to hurt so badly.

CHAPTER TWELVE

"You can't hide from me, Reenie! I have a sniffle-detector!" Amanda Larkin said as she snuck up behind Rena in an empty, secluded room of Hesei, the premiere art gallery slated to house Kyomi Daishi's show that evening. I heard you leave that message. I'm sure she's just taking it hard—understandably. She'll call back."

"I should have been there, Mandy. I shouldn't have listened to her. I should have just gone! I offered! You were eavesdropping! I'm sure you heard. I would have been there in heartbeats had she not been so insistent."

"She knows you have to work. She does too! Moonglow would take a hit if you walked out on this and she knows it."

"There's something else, though. I can't put my finger on it. It's like her head has gone someplace I can't reach."

"You're letting the distance get to you, Reenie. You know better."

"Maybe. And what about you and your oh-so-obvious girl crush?"

Amanda wasn't one to look away from anyone. Some people may have lost the ability to focus, but not Amanda. She kept steady eyes with Rena, no matter how off-guard that jab caught her. "Is it that obvious?"

"To me, but I can hear your salivary glands kick into overdrive whenever she breezes by," Rena said with that unique twitch of her eyebrow that made Amanda giggle.

"What's life without wanting what we can't have, right?"

"I don't believe in can't. But not being able to hold Shell right now is giving me some insight."

At that, Rena's composure fractured and tears flowed once more. The rich forest green of her one-shoulder dress that seemed made of moth wings and taffeta appeared darker than it was with the drop in Rena's mood, but the state of her friend distracted Amanda too much to notice. It broke Amanda's heart to see her so upset because Rena was always the sunshine in anyone's sky. She lit up every room, made every experience something fun and unforgettable. To see her beside herself and rather helpless wasn't just out of character but a tell-tale sign something was off about Shell—but what?

Rena tried to lose herself in one of the most opulent vistas her eyes had ever absorbed in Utsukushisa. Through a wall-length window in that far-East corner of Heisei, she found momentary peace in how the sunset sifted red-orange light across lush greens and rich browns that cascaded across the mountainside shallows around Heisei's four-story, pentagon-shaped construction of shimmering glass and steel.

It didn't work, no matter how beautiful the scenery.

Amanda had known Rena for only two years. Before they were friends, she always felt anxious to meet the infamous Rena Hilst since her reputation preceded her in every way, and when they finally came face-to-face, Amanda's expectations were exceeded entirely. In her second week with Moonglow Model Management, she landed a gig as an extra in a nightclub scene in which Rena starred, shot by Aber Ralston. Amanda's only duties were to hang out, dance and look beautiful.

It took no time at all for her to realize nothing of the shoot would be routine after styling. As if Rena's laughter and party-howls weren't boisterous enough, the sight of her ping-ponging from DJ station to dance floor, table-top to bar-top, set the stage. She embodied an element Amanda had never seen before, a chaos she never associated with a professional set and it confused her. Beneath gyrating club-lights of orange and blue, Aber's bright white strobe-flash bathed Rena in a revealing glow that made her seem larger than life. It was then—through a sea of coed models dressed in couture party garb—that their eyes met. Amanda froze in the path of Rena's stare as she slithered down from atop a sprawling marble bar. The way her thin blonde hair dangled in her face in sweaty tangles and her lips formed a pursed snarl set Amanda up for an attack of the nervous butterflies. Having identified the green behind Amanda's ears, Rena locked her target and closed in with a lioness' finesse, Aber and camera close behind.

Rena leaned in and pressed her lips to Amanda's ear like she was about to lick her eardrum clean and said something that not only broke the ice, it melted every shard and snowflake blown across the room. Amanda never repeated it. She divulged to no one what Rena said that day but they laughed and fell over each other like age-old friends because of it.

Those images of Amanda and Rena set the standard for Aber's shoot that day and became the editorial's flagship pictures. Even though they had just met, there was an intimacy reserved for life-long mates in that spread. The adorable-factor of it all jettisoned Amanda to instant stardom within the fashion world and she just about had Rena's candor to thank for it.

Something in their dresses read their emotions. The superfluous tiny feathers of Amanda's coral-and-burgundy shoulderless dress fluttered rapidly as if a summer breeze blew right up and over her. Rena noticed that it looked like a million baby butterflies preparing to take flight but the moment to say anything passed when Amanda pulled her in to hold her close. Rena let the soothing arms of a best friend settle the upset in her soul.

With their eyes closed, neither noticed the fabrics of their respective dresses stir and cuddle in an unmistakable way. The dresses hugged each other too.

=C.C=

"You realize how fussy you are before a show gets on?" Trudi Park asked as Zoe Grice picked, poked and prodded at tuning a bone-white violin.

"This has to be perfect, Trudi…"

"Give it here." Trudi inched up beside her in a tight, belly-baring ensemble that seemed formed from a million interwoven skinny ribbons. She slipped the instrument away from Zoe and brought the bow up to its strings, but before she made a sound, her eyes rolled back and closed. Her breath grew shallow. Trudi's hair and the fabric of her clothes billowed ever so gingerly, much the way Amanda's dress fluttered only moments before. A note began to spread in the immediate air as if spirits gathered around her to hum the most pitch-perfect C, a note not only heard but also felt by Zoe and the few sublimely dressed guests that had recently arrived.

The C she played in perfect unison with the air-hung pitch froze people in their tracks. They gathered off to the side of an elaborate, ivory runway that snaked from the corner of two towering black walls built from an organic textile similar to Daishi's dresses. The stillness of those dark walls rippled and swayed like wheat in the breeze as Trudi matched every note up and down the scale in flawless harmony.

She embodied her musical genre with that spectacle, one that increased in popularity as more people felt its effects. For its impact on the physical world and its influence on how people felt, a sub-category of every genre prefixed as 'psy' quickly climbed the charts. Trudi's forte: Psy-Pop.

"Set!" Trudi said as she relinquished the violin and made kissy-lips to Zoe before she strutted back to her synthesizers amidst a gentle swell of applause.

Backstage, Kyomi and Zoe did well to finalize the readiness of their catwalkers while Trudi entertained the swelling number of guests out front. Even though there were only twelve girls in twelve looks, (four from Moonglow Model Management, four from Ludavine, four from Japan's Yuen Models, November amongst them), preliminaries took as long as a cast twice that thanks to elaborate hair-and-makeup and the delicate nature of the clothes.

Rena stood at the vertex where both walls met as she snuck peeks at the masses that had gathered just beyond that snaking white runway. Fayina sauntered up to Rena's side in her remarkable crimson gown and joined in the voyeurism. Rena nearly lost her balance over the staggering elegance of Fayina's complete look, with hair tightly pulled back into a cascading horsetail of untamed curls and a face glazed with pale foundation and dusted with an opalescent, glittery powder. Swirls of canary yellow and deep rouge amplified the ocean blue of her eyes, and tiny, dazzling diamonds glued along the contour of her bottom lip. She looked magical.

"Isn't this stuff amazing, Reenie? A mere gesture and it tries to escape you." Fayina brushed her hand across a portion of the black wall and the fabric billowed like hundreds of leaves disturbed by a stiff breeze. Most of the wall came back together but some of it stayed on the sway.

"I'm mesmerized by all this. I dunno what they're up to out here but none of it seems real. It's like a dream."

"Shall I pinch you? Make sure you aren't dreaming?"

"I'm not falling for that again. You mean it when you pinch!"

"Reenie, I'm sorry about Ben. I know he meant the world to Shell. And all the doors he opened for you…"

"Thanks. I'm worried about Shell, though."

"She'll be all right. I'll jump off a bridge the day something comes up Shell can't handle."

Although Rena appreciated the sentiment, she needed to refocus her energy, so she tried to shift the subject onto one of Fayina's favorite subjects—herself. "You look really beautiful, Fay."

"Awww, thanks! I'd say you're my fiercest competition but did you see Koko? Plum is so her color…"

"Speaking of that, Fay, how hot and heavy is it getting between you two?"

Fayina's smile slowly melted away at the can-of-worms Rena opened. "I dunno. We enjoy each other's company is all. Where's the harm in that?"

"You know she's taken, right?"

"Yes I do, actually. Are you really instigating this conversation? You of all people?"

"I know! But if you only knew Lilly—"

"—We've met…"

"So you know how sweet and dedicated she is! Koko really doesn't know what she has. Lilly is the kind of girl people like you and I wish we were."

All whimsy drained from Fayina's face. She postured herself and gazed at Rena in complete disbelief. "Wow. I've never seen this side of you, Rena."

"What side is that?"

"The fake side."

Hiss! Fayina gave an I win twitch of her eyebrow, turned and disappeared behind the backdrop to take her place in line.

Rena had no chance to retort. She had no problem with saving it for another day, so she kept focus on two portly men that peeled up some protective plastic from the runway and lurched toward her. Once they breached the black walls and dragged the plastic beyond Rena, she knew her queue was seconds away.

The house lights dimmed and the catwalk glowed with focused illumination from overhead as Trudi and Zoe broke into evocative, chilling music. Trudi's voice and synthesizers frosted the air while Zoe's violin penetrated the very bones of one-and-all. The black walls split at their vertex, parted like classical red curtains of stages past and revealed Rena backlit by ominous amber phosphorescence. She crept up that runway in a slow-motion rendition of her trademark walk. Her floor-length, one-shoulder gown was a world of greens with outer-space-black mingled at the waist and through a huge plume of organza at her left shoulder. She effortlessly fell into the mood of the show thanks to the music, the lighting and strange nature of fabrics but something struck her odd. She felt happier than she ever felt since she arrived in Japan, perhaps happier than ever.

Rena descended a short flight of steps off the right of the runway, sashayed her way through some cocktail tables populated with the well-to-do and took her place on a hauntingly lit, pyramid showcase off to the side.

One by one, each girl slithered up that winding ivory path in a variety of neo-classical styles and hues. November Aisling followed in a commanding white gown embroidered and embellished with remarkable metallics—copper, bronze, and silver amongst them. Koko Dean looked particularly enchanting in a cacophony of plum, violet and lilac. Fayina just about oozed down the runway in all her passion-red and blood-crimson finery. The gems along her bottom lip caught light where they could and dazzled like stars rowed up in a constellation. Amanda's strikingly youthful face and piercing stare magnified her look. Something about that fluttering fabric married with her presence and grace made it seem like she floated from start to finish on the wings of burgundy and coral butterflies.

The black walls sparkled in unison with every shade and hue that strutted down the catwalk. Whenever Rena wondered how such a thing was possible, pure cheer instantly replaced her curiosity and it bothered her that her emotions no longer felt like her own.

The runway faded from white to dazzling gold when Miracle appeared to close the show. The music reached a stirring crescendo when her chiffon-like hem took on a life of its own and practically carried her forth, as if she rode a tumbleweed made of rainbows. The sinuous ribbons that rode up and down her arms reached out to the black walls like mercury that longed to reconverge and the fabric petals of her bodice looked like golden cactus flowers in time-lapse bloom with every gentle step she took.

Miracle struck a champion pose at apex, engulfed by the flurry of fabric she wore while the music reached a heart-rending tone. She felt a swirl in her soul thanks to the marriage of Trudi's voice and Zoe's violin as if sound itself delicately folded everything she felt into the very clothes she wore.

As she crept to the pyramid, she thought her ascension would be troublesome but the prismatic billow at her ankles just about carried her to the top where she took her place to a swell of applause. A tidal wave of glee she couldn't identify rode on every musical note and all Miracle could do was smile.

The pyramid glowed even brighter than before and shimmering streams of light darted throughout the venue as Kyomi Daishi stepped out. She kept it brief with some quick bows, and disappeared backstage, which signaled the girls to make their way back too.

The tune changed to a more progressive melody. Rena stepped off first and led the snake of models backstage. Miracle watched an attitude of mischievous romance permeate through the cast, the crowd, and felt so proud to have closed the show. Just before her descent, a face in the crowd caught her eye and her mood shifted south. She saw William Mezrel.

He sat as close to the pyramid as possible, in an expensive maroon suit with his dark hair slicked back and his irresistible stubble that caught light wherever it could. Seated oh-so-close to his side was the butter-blond beefcake of whom Zoe warned. She instantly understood the attraction but that didn't excuse the thoughtlessness.

A million things swarmed her mind—bit of anger, touch of hate, pinch of self-pity among them. She hoped he would find the decency not to stare her down directly, and she tried not to look but couldn't help it. Their eyes met and her wade through the crowded tables became a crawl. She gave William harpoons for eyes, akin to the shattered, defenseless look an animal offers an executioner pre-slaughter. Apprehension. Submission. Confusion. Loathing. That mixed bag of emotions and his shameless face full of indifference sped her pace up as quickly as it slowed it down.

Then everything changed.

A distinct sensitivity to light glazed over her world and every highlight, every sparkle in the room glared. She felt caught in a staring contest with the sun, so she shut her eyes to relieve the strain, but a strain on her concept of reality replaced whatever that brightness made her feel when she opened them again. She saw children at play just beyond the black walls—one no more than twelve, the other nine or so. They peaked out at her, all smiles and giggles. Their faces sent an arctic chill up her spine but that unseen swell of better feelings engulfed Miracle yet again.

She trampled backstage with the full support of whatever force drove her dress, propelled by a blend of curiosity and disbelief. Then, she saw them again.

They hovered around a buffet table decorated with fresh flowers, unaffected by the frenetic pace typical of show's end around them. Miracle lost all concept of sound as she closed the distance between herself and these figures she could not believe were real. Were they? They were as solid as any model or assistant that buzzed around backstage, but how could they be real?

Miracle lowered herself onto a vacant loveseat in what felt like slow motion as the taller girl turned to face her and grinned nonchalantly as she sniffed a jasmine. She saw herself—her younger self—and her eyes welled with confused, nostalgic tears. Then, the nine-year-old glanced her way and smiled a smile she hadn't seen in well over a decade. She saw a childhood friend she lost in what felt like another time, another life.

"Miracle?"

A hand shook her shoulder and her surrealism fractured.

"Miracle?" Amanda's concerned voice that startled her so much ripped her out of her reverie.

She felt all the air inside and around her siphon away. Her vision violently spun as the dizziness she felt rattled her equilibrium. She felt a heat so profound, she began to hyperventilate and squirm, and and claw at her dress as if she needed to not only crawl out of her dress, but her own skin too.

"Get it off… I can't breathe! Get it off!"

Miracle bounced up and wildly flailed her arms. She flung Amanda into the loveseat with the force of her tantrum and scraped her own flesh as she tore that dress from her body in gashing handfuls. Sound all around her slowly faded back once she stripped herself naked. She quickly dropped the remaining fabric carnage gripped in her hands and collapsed on that loveseat. Amanda wrapped her in a spare tablecloth from near the buffet as she hugged her knees close to her chest with the face of a thousand frights.

Kyomi rushed through the gathered crowd, gasped and bemoaned the limp mound of gold and rainbow strewn about the floor. She lifted it, held it with a face of complete grief and said, "You killed her."

"What the hell happened?" Rena shouted as she beat Trudi and Zoe to the scene.

"My thoughts, my sight, my breath… What the fuck was that?" Miracle's pale face looked like she had seen an army of ghosts.

"I felt something too," Amanda said as she cradled her friend and Rena took a defensive stance between them and everyone else.

Kyomi and Zoe exchanged a knowing look as Miracle rested her head on Amanda's shoulder and sobbed.

"It's a side effect," Zoe said. "We don't understand it yet, but all we've experienced are positive things. People who tested wearing all this said they felt happy. They remembered happy things, the best of things. They described it as wearing euphoria."

"She looks euphoric to you?" Amanda aggressively asked.

"This has never happened before!" Kyomi said.

"You should have warned us. And why didn't we feel anything during rehearsals? I felt fine all day, but something almost took over me when the show began."

"The music… I felt surges inside that matched her voice." Amanda's blameful eyes locked on Trudi.

"Miracle," Zoe said with a few steps forward that Rena interrupted with an aggressive thrust of body language.

"Stay away from her!"

"Rena, please! I just want to know when it began—the bad stuff."

"I don't want to talk about it. I just want to go home."

Amanda held Miracle closer and could very well have beheaded Kyomi, Zoe and Trudi with her eyes.

"You two may leave," Kyomi said. "We'll talk things over another time."

"I'm leaving too," Rena said in a tone that left nothing to debate. "With everything that's happened back home, I need to be with my fiancé."

Kyomi nodded with sympathetic eyes and left the room with Zoe in tow. They seemed more concerned with the tragic passing of their dress than anything else.

Trudi hung back as the crowd thinned. Rena and Amanda helped Miracle up and made to leave but Trudi's presence gave them pause.

"You can probably tell I have a pretty good hunch about things," she said with a face full of concern. She gently brushed Miracle's hair back behind her ear and gingerly held her head as she thumbed at her temple. "See a doctor when you get home, okay? Then call me. I want to know how you're doing."

No one knew what to say. They just watched after Trudi as she gave a weak wave goodbye and took her leave.

The girls quickly gathered their things and got Miracle into her street clothes. On their way out the main, pale-lit dressing area, Fayina caught Rena at her station as she finished packing up the personal trinkets she took to every shoot.

"Rena? Can I ask a favor, please?"

"I didn't bring anything, Fay. I—"

"—No, nothing like that. I want to show Koko the sunrise from that special spot you showed me back then. Remember? She'd beam to see how the streams look as the fog fades away, and how the sunlight makes love between the trees. Would you please give us a wake-up bounce a good hour or so before dawn? No one ever woke me up better than you! The way you hop on the bed till you're kicked off!" She gave Rena a nostalgic laugh. "We'll party all night but we can sleep after the scene."

Rena didn't bother to be flabbergasted. She knew Fayina and knew her well. For all the hearts she'd broken and values she'd violated, all she could think of was Lilly's feelings from half a world away.

"I'm not going to like what I find in the morning, am I?"

"I don't know, Reenie, I just…" Fayina sighed as her eyes danced around the room before they fell onto Rena's disapproving stare again. "I just want to spend whatever time I can with her. She's so fun and sweet and different and…"

"…And?"

With a tender sincerity rare for Fayina, she swallowed hard and had out with it. "She reminds me of you."

That hit Rena in the heart. She knew it wasn't some kind of obsession Fayina had with her or any kind of void an unrequited love creates. Fayina always said Rena radiated an energy that reaffirmed her faith in a good world; that made her happy to see the day begin and end. Rena figured she found that again in Koko and saw an opportunity to play the big-sister Rena was for her once upon a time.

Roles changed. Time changed. Rena's little sister had grown up and it made her want to cry.

=^-^=

Miracle scoffed at all the scenic transparencies back at their Kumo Suite. She only wanted to keep grounded, as grounded as one could whilst suspended above the world. She lounged on the sofa beneath one of Amanda's burnt-orange cotton sheets and sipped steamy chamomile-and-rose tea sprayed with just enough lime. Rena's special trick was a play on the Peruvian Limonada de Rosas. She floated a fresh rose in the deep midnight blue cup so that every time Miracle lifted it, the first thing that flooded her senses was a rich rose scent.

"You make a mean cup of tea, Reenie. I've never had one so soothing. Thank you."

Rena smiled from the threshold that led down the hall to her own bedroom. "I hope it helps you get some rest. You don't have to tell us what happened just yet. Rest is more important right now."

"I'm fine now. I just couldn't deal with all those people around me."

"So, what was it then?" Amanda asked from the other end of the sofa, seated beside Miracle's feet. "What did you see?"

"Myself," she answered as she peered over the rim of her tea and stared at Amanda through the steam. "Right before me, I was twelve-years-old, flesh and blood real… and I saw a childhood friend, Naomi. I was older but we grew up like sisters. Our families did everything together. She drowned when she was nine. That's how I saw us. We were wearing the same outfits from the last time we played. The last thing we ever did together was pick flowers and sneeze terribly from sniffing pollen. But as I watched those visions or whatever they were, all I could feel was complete, wholesome happiness. That childhood happiness we forget about when we grow up. I felt it again—I was twelve again!—and all I could do was cry."

Amanda noticed Miracle needed to shed some tears and catch her breath, so she diverted the spotlight to Rena. "What about you, Reenie? What happened to you?"

"I felt… incapable of worry, and I was a ball of nerves until I hit that catwalk. Trudi's voice kinda wilted like a sunflower grown too heavy for its stem and something took over me. Creepy part is, I realized it but couldn't control it."

"I felt the same way," Amanda said. "I won't lie, though. I've never felt more confident. That's the best dress I've ever worn… Terrifying, isn't it?"

"Whatever it is, I'll let you two figure it out. I need to pack slow and get centered. I promised a wake-up visit to Fay before dawn."

Rena kissed Miracle on the top of her head and tossed Amanda a look that said, she's all yours.

"Did she answer?" Amanda asked before Rena left the room entirely.

Rena knew she meant Shell, who she repeatedly tried to reach since Kyomi's show, to no avail. With lips drawn into a thin line, she simply shook her head, dropped her stare and walked away.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, Mandy," Miracle said through soft whimpers that spun Amanda's attention back in her direction. "I was fine until I saw that asshole in the audience. He was with some goldilocks beefcake. I felt so irritated. Then, it was like a bomb went off. I couldn't hear anything. Everything got so bright I could hardly see! I felt great at the top of the pyramid but when I saw William, something inside my soul imploded."

Amanda knelt beside Miracle and comfortingly brushed her hair behind her ear. Oh, how she wanted to kiss her and make it all better.

"And now I'm worried. What did Trudi mean about a doctor? What does she know that I don't?"

"She's bonkers, Miracle. Not sure you should take what she says to heart."

"Maybe, but you can't deny she has some sort of insight—a gift, if one can call it that." A knowing gloom set into Miracle's eyes. "What if she's onto something?"

"Don't worry, please. We'll fix it, whatever it is."

"I mean, who does that? Who hallucinates so vividly, hears things and can't put a finger on the pulse of her own sad state? I don't want to be sick, Mandy! I wanted to enjoy my time here. Treat it as a bit of a vacation. Spend time with someone special… Who's going to want me like this? Who would be so foolish…?"

"Me!"

Amanda heard enough. Her stern admission clearly took Miracle by surprise, and on the positive side, helped quell her sobs.

"What? You've honestly never thought about it? Not even after some dumb chump broke your heart and I was there for you? You've never wondered what it would be like to be happy with someone like me? Scratch that. With me?"

Miracle didn't know what to say. She had thought about it from time to time but allowed her hazardously short attention span to distract her with enough dead-end dates to sour her faith in love.

"I can tell a cat's got your tongue," Amanda said as she sat on the loveseat's edge. "I care about you, Miracle. More than you know. No matter what you feel inside, you're not alone. You're never alone…"

They locked teary eyes, eyes aflame with hope and possibilities as Amanda took Miracle's hands in hers.

"I'm not asking for much. I'm not asking for a… Well, I suppose I am asking for a Miracle."

The road traveled to where they sat was not an easy one, but in that moment with most of the cards on the table, they recognized a special bond existed between them. It took a lot of courage for Amanda to say what she really felt, and wherever it went was anyone's guess. However, for the time being, they had all they needed as they held each other closer than they ever held anyone in their entire lives.

=^-^=

The anxiety of Shell's distance weighed on Rena more than ever. She didn't respond to any call or Eye-message, so this image of Shell huddled in a corner somewhere, wet eyed and withdrawn, infected Rena's mind so much it made her completely lose track of time. She always knew Shell as a pinnacle of strength, but the situation with Ben showed Rena some vulnerability in her fiancé she had never seen before. What if she retreated into a bottle and Rena wasn't there to quell her sorrows with love and support?

Rena couldn't get home fast enough, but she made a promise and meant to keep it. As she made her way out with ample time before dawn, she hung back in the dimly lit living room to absorb how adorable Miracle and Amanda looked snuggled together on that sofa large enough for a comfortable slumber.

"Look who goes there! Wouldn't be the first time I've caught you sneaking off to some girl's flat!" Amanda whispered just as Rena reached for the front door. "I'd offer to go with but I'm moonlighting as a pillow."

"You stay put. She needs you more than I do."

"I almost told her I love her. I could feel it swell in my throat but…"

"Save it, Mandy. You don't have to say everything at once."

Amanda knew Rena had a point. Although confident in how she felt, she had to organize her emotions so that she did not smother Miracle with too much too soon.

=^-^=

Rena dialed Shell once more as she crossed the soothingly lit parking dock that radiated with pulsating blue and yellow lights. Rena's heart readied to sink into her shoes after enough unanswered rings when she finally heard what she longed to hear for days.

"Hello?"

"Baby, you answered!" The sound of Shell's voice made Rena practically skip the final steps up to her dark-green rental car.

"I know, I know. I'm sure I've worried you sick. I'm terribly sorry! It's just that everything here has been so upside down, far beyond what I anticipated. I've hardly had time to pee! Seriously considering diapers at this point."

"I was so worried!" Rena said as she hopped into her car and programmed a course to that hotel near her secret sunrise spot nestled off a mountain trail where she took Fayina several years previous. "A million things short-circuited through my mind. I'm so pissed at this job. I wish I had been with you through all this."

"I know. But you would hardly have seen me for more than ten minutes anyway."

"Not true!" Rena said as she flew off the dock, onto her destination. "I could have held you at night, at least."

"Well, there will be plenty of time for that when you're home. I got your message so I'm chilling the pink champagne as we speak."

Shell sounded as sweet and witty as ever. Rena was near convinced she was too busy to talk, and that all was right with the world. However, Rena noticed a slur to some of her pronunciations. Shell only sounded that way when she drank but Rena brushed it aside. With everything she had been through, tipping a few too many was within Shell's rights, regardless of time of day.

"I miss you so much, Shell. These past few days confirmed that I have to hear your voice or I lose it."

"Your sniffles are breaking my heart. What are you doing up at this hour anyway? It must be near the crack of dawn in Japan."

"I'm Fay's wake-up call. It's a long story."

"You can fill me in later. I didn't quite understand your gripe concerning Kyomi's show. Is that another long story?"

"Even longer. She didn't call you?"

"She tried. I didn't answer."

"Well, we need to talk about what's going on out here. It would take too long to explain but those clothes did something to us—fucked with our heads. Miracle had a breakdown because of it, but she's okay now. Amanda is taking care of her."

After a few quiet moments, Shell said, "I don't like the sound of that."

"You'd like it even less if you felt what we did. Leave me off the short-list next time a Kyomi show comes up, okay?"

"I'll get in touch with her as soon as I can after hearing what you girls have to say. But I have to go now, Reenie. I took a day off today, and I need to call the agency one last time to check in. Then, I can zone out."

"I understand. I've been up all night packing so I'll probably sleep all day, but I'll call you when I get the chance, okay? I love you, wifey!"

There was a chuckle from Shell's end. "Wifey? That's new."

"Testing it out! I like it!"

"I'm on the fence! But I love you too."

"And you're sure everything is all right?"

Another pause. However, it wasn't long enough to cause alarm. "Yes. We'll talk soon."

Shell ended the call with her usual kiss that always sent butterflies aflutter in Rena's stomach. Part of her felt relieved to hear Shell doing so well, but another part of her wondered how much of that was brute-strength. She figured it would matter less when she could finally hold her fiancé in her arms again. Until then, she'd stick to her plan and sleep. Just sleep. Separation hurt less when knocked out cold.

The ride to Himitsu, (Japanese for Secret and Fayina's hotel of choice), was thankfully short and so was the trip to their favorite sunrise spot. As her car docked in a plain and rather cozy parking garage, she was thrilled to take a spot as close to the entrance as possible. With a light heart and love-buzz in her head, Rena made her way through the wide, automatic-sliding glass doors and armed herself with the passkey Fayina coughed up earlier. It looked like a solid gold cigarette that Rena found amusing.

Once inside, Rena understood why Fayina booked Himitsu. It was the most humble décor she encountered in a touristy Utsukushisa hotel yet. Plain, blonde wood-panel walls and delicate, classical Japanese tapestries that adorned them gave the small lobby a coziness that made Rena feel she walked into someone's home instead of a hotel.

The intimate layout made it easy for Rena to find the door that matched the key Fayina gave her—113-7. Once inside, she understood why Fayina handpicked that room even more with its. tranquil blue hues with pale eggshell accents in all the right places. The spacious, Western-styled unit reminded Rena more of a loft than a suite. It had wall-length windows and a raised floor far to the right where a disheveled bed lay in ruin and a brief, ambient-lit hallway led to the rest of the place.

She faintly identified someone face down on that bed where a pale white foot protruded from beneath blue sheets. She wasn't sure who it was since Fayina and Koko were of similar build, but would find out soon enough. She first surveyed the remnants of room service that sat on a chrome coffee table. She picked at some peas that rested beside some mostly-eaten porterhouse steaks that appetizingly contrasted against silver plates. She was so hungry, she could have devoured every morsel before her, but she knew better than to gorge on anything left out over night. She had to be off soon anyway.

Rena realized Fayina was the one thrown in bed by the myriad of beauty marks peppered across her back. She climbed up and took a solid breath before she proceeded to jump up-and-down with every bit of energy she had. She provoked a stir after ten solid jumps and kept at it even though Fayina groaned for her to stop.

"All right, all right! I'm up!"

"But I'm just getting started! Are you naked under there?"

Fayina looked under the sheet that partially covered her. "More or less. Ugh! Stop, Rena, please! You'll make me throw up!"

Rena flopped down to catch her breath. It had been forever and a day since they were next to each other in such an intimate setting. Sure, they never slept together—and most likely never would—but to be so close again wrapped Rena's heart in a warm blanket. It reminded her of the first few jobs they shared several years ago and the bonding time they spent roomed together.

Given their location, it reminded Rena of the time she took a then-sixteen-year-old Fayina to Musei for an elaborate dinner suspended above the city, when she introduced Fayina to that secluded sunrise spot in the Utsukushisa Mountains and when they first kissed as the fog that slowly lifted seemed to push the sun into the sky. It reminded her of the temptation to take that kiss many steps further but something difficult to identify stopped her.

Rena felt her place in Fayina's life worked best as someone who thought more of giving than receiving. Regardless, she was a year into her relationship with Shell. To dip into both sincerely extreme ends of the age pool proved far too awkward, even for Rena.

"So, did anything happen?"

"I don't remember," Fayina said. A small lantern-styled lamp on the nightstand pulsed with a faint, ghostly white glow that made their blonde hair appear a frosty platinum. "The whole night is a bit of a blank."

"Well, where did you leave Koko?"

"No idea, Reenie. I need a miracle to make that sunrise is all I know."

"Wait here, I'll go find her."

Rena bounced off the bed, trotted around to the ambient-lit hall and paced her way to a gaped door on the right from which bright phosphorescent white light streamed. She figured it the restroom and was no stranger to finding girls passed out, wrapped around the commode, so she prepared herself for a messy Koko in the worst-case scenario of her mind.

When she pushed that door open, she found much worse than she imagined.

Rena's heart fell past her stomach, her shoes, out her body and through the floor at the sight of Koko face down on the floor, adjacent to the broken frame of a full-length mirror.

"Fay!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

She rushed to Koko's side without regard for the plethora of shattered fragments beneath her and shoved as much mirror away as she could with her bare hands. She gingerly rolled Koko over to survey the damage and called out to Fayina again when she noticed a smidgen of blood on the edge of the nearby bathtub.

Fayina appeared in the threshold in a sloppily applied, oversized t-shirt and screamed the most startled scream of her life at the sight of Koko and Rena bloodied on the floor.

"Fay, call an ambulance! She fell and hit her head!"

"Is she alive?"

"Yeah…" Rena pressed her ear to Koko's chest and, indeed, heard a heartbeat. "Call an ambulance! Then, call Novie! I saw her status. She's still partying with Zoe and Trudi. They'll know what to do."

She awkwardly stepped from side-to-side with her arms wrapped around herself, eyes full of panicked tears, nerves frozen in time.

"Fay! Hurry!"

She darted off to fetch her Andromeda as Rena did her best to keep herself together. The cuts along the side of Koko's face she laid flat on for who-knows how long looked quite fresh. There was some blood mixed in the delicate blonde curls along her hairline, but the most substantial wound was the gash on her forehead from impact with the tub.

Rena knew a hit like that could mean some serious trouble. One of the worst things someone who took a blow like that could do was black out and, beyond that, stay asleep for long in the event of a concussion so Rena acted on impulse. She yelled and shook Koko by the shoulders, and patted at her cheeks just shy of slaps. Thankfully, she elicited a reaction.

Koko's eyes burst open and she scooted up the floor with electrocuted haste.

"Koko, it's me! Rena!"

She aimed a gaze at Rena but the right-eye beneath the blow to her forehead was blood red and lazy. Her other eye wanted to fix on Rena but it fluttered and threatened to close again.

"Koko, stay with me!" Rena caught her before and did her best to keep her propped up as Fayina appeared, her Andromeda clutched in both hands.

"Fuck this, we gotta take her in. Help me get her to the car! Did you call Novie?"

"I… I…"

"Just help me with her, please! I'll call when we get to the car!"

They slung an arm over each of their necks and walked Koko out to Rena's rental-car in record time. The activity had Koko semi-conscious so she was able to stagger with a minute amount of balance as they went.

Fayina sat with her in the back seat while Rena rushed to program a flight-path to the hospital Moonglow and Ludavine always used if a girl needed quick, discreet attention in any respect. Once set, she called November and reached her after hardly two rings.

The damage control crew on the other end of Rena's call knew exactly what to do. When they arrived at hospital, a team and private room were ready to greet them.

=O_O=

Lilly Morgan was a complete train wreck as she just about staggered through the fluorescent-bright, techno-luxurious hospital to which Rena had summoned her. She was in the middle of a late lunch with her manager, Natalie Church, when the call came in.

She first thought it was Koko since the call was from Koko's Andromeda but Rena was the voice on the other end. She felt entirely detached from her body when Rena informed her Koko was in hospital after a rather serious fall. Lilly hardly heard the positive. No matter how much Rena emphasized Koko was fine, Lilly's senses and comprehension went numb. All she knew was she had to appear at Koko's bedside to reacquaint herself with peace-of-mind.

Beside herself, she followed Natalie Church's lead through a series of iridescently lit lobbies, wards and elevators with eyes too wet to see clearly. Every second scathed her every nerve to the point of numbness. By the time they reached the most intimate setting Lilly had seen in the building thus far, she felt on the verge of collapse.

Lilly and Natalie gravitated to a pale beige counter where a young Japanese nurse in traditional white scrubs scanned over holographic numbers that orbited her.

"Miss Church, you've never arrived so soon," she said. "Print in and go ahead. Doctor Susumu is with her now. He'll let you know when you can see her."

Natalie and Lilly thanked her and pressed their thumbs against small grooves in the counter. They took the right path of a fork in the halls, into a waiting-area that splintered into four more directions. It looked more like a hotel lobby or posh wellness center than the cliché façade of a hospital. A warm amber glow of floor-embedded lights mingled with the growing lift of dawn that crept through shaded windows adjacent to a brief collection of sofas and cushioned armchairs. That's where she saw Fayina curled up on one of those ochre arm chairs, and beside her an unmistakable frame that nervously tapped her foot—Rena.

Lilly had her bulls-eye.

"Rena!"

Although Lilly's voice spun her around, she didn't see the bright, boisterous Rena she'd come to know. She saw anxiety's poster child, more like someone dressed as Zombie-Rena for Halloween, complete with sunken eyes, limp hair, slumped shoulders and lifeless lips.

"Sweetheart! You look like you could use one of these rooms yourself," Natalie said as they came upon her.

"Thinking about it. I haven't slept at all." Rena and Natalie embraced. Then, much to Lilly's surprise, Rena rolled her way with open arms and clutched her as if she'd float off the face of the Earth. Lilly didn't expect to feel such encompassing tenderness, as if the tractor beam of Rena's heart engulfed her own and squeezed out every poor opinion and snide criticism. It was in the way Rena's breath settled in Lilly's hair and how she clenched her fists to clutch Lilly closer. It wasn't a boringly polite hug. It was empathy embodied. She had no idea someone with Rena's reputation could radiate that way and put all conjecture to bed in one fell swoop. Thanks to the comfort felt in Rena's arms, Lilly understood why she magnetized people so much and all she could do was squeeze back.

"Tell me more about what happened?" Lilly asked after she pulled away.

"I wish I could, Lilly. I wasn't there. All I know is what I found. Fay was blacked out herself when I got there."

The anxiety that overtook Lilly's face shattered Rena's already fractured heart. It was similar to the sulfurous woe she saw the night she spun Koko on the dance floor while Lilly played that immaculate, transparent Baby Grand.

"It was just them?" Lilly asked with droopy eyes aimed at Fayina.

All Rena could do was nod. She felt too tired for smooth talk, yet she knew she needed to find the strength to be a beacon of reassurance.

"Did they…?"

"No. They were far too wrecked. Fay had it all on and Koko, well…"

Rena felt Lilly scan her eyes for bullshit but she knew Lilly was too much a mess to identify it. Considering the circumstances, she saw little harm in such a white lie. She figured that, if Koko ever wanted to clear the air about that night, she could do it herself.

After a moment, Lilly nodded and accepted Rena's word.

The door to Koko's room slid open. A Japanese doctor in his late fifties emerged and introduced himself to Natalie and Lilly.

"Well, as I told your friends here, she took a serious fall. Katherine is lucky. If she were unconscious for any longer, she may not have woken up at all."

"Can I see her, Doctor? Oh please, can I see her!"

"Yes go ahead. She's resting now but you may visit."

As Lilly rode a lightning bolt into Koko's room and Doctor Susumu excused himself, Rena caught Natalie by the arm as she made to follow.

"Nat, how did you get here so fast?"

"Private ride, baby. I have to take it right back too. Crossing time zones consecutively will kill me but it was worth it." Natalie gazed after Lilly who held herself up by the rails of Koko's bed. "She loves that girl more than anything."

"When are you leaving?"

"In about an hour. I knew Lilly would be staying before we got here. Means I get to sleep on the ride back. She needed so much consolation coming out here. Honey, I'm spent!"

"May I come?"

Natalie wasn't surprised. She had heard from a couple other girls that the Kyomi show was three parts strange, one part frightening.

"You know where the recharge station is in this district?"

"Yeah."

"Be there in an hour."

Natalie gave Rena a wink and went in to see Koko. At that, Fayina stirred from her nap.

"You're leaving?"

"And not soon enough. Did you want to take flight too?"

"No," Fayina said. She stood, stretched and tightened the elastic tie on a pair of hospital scrubs she received when they arrived with Koko. They gave her blue ankle-socks too. "I'm staying until Koko recovers."

"Good luck. Lilly might prefer you burned at the stake."

"I'm sure I can smooth things out. I feel terrible about all this."

Rena moved in and embraced Fayina. "Just don't blame yourself, okay? It was an accident."

That triggered a gush of tears that confirmed Fayina's perspective. Self-blame was a vicious seed to plant in one's stomach. When it grew and bloomed, it devoured every fiber of one's being. Rena knew that her solitary reassurance would do little to quell the guilt in her friend but she had to try.

Rena pulled away, wiped at Fayina's tears with her thumbs and gave her a final kiss on the cheek. Then, she was off.

Fayina composed herself and stepped into Koko's room where Natalie and Lilly hovered over the bed, backs to the door. In accordance with the rest of this private wing, Fayina found the room more like a hotel executive suite rigged with medical gadgetry. While shiny, the onyx floor beneath her feet felt soft and lukewarm. The walls were a soothing pastel shade of sunshine yellow and furnishings were incorporated so well that Fayina felt the decorative harmony relax her rather frazzled mind.

"Hey, sleepyhead. How are you holding up?" Natalie asked as Fayina stepped around to the other side of the bed and latched onto the rail.

Fayina slowly shook her head in disbelief while tears welled in her eyes, her stare fastened to Koko's stillness. In the brief period they knew each other, Fayina identified a complete lack of quiet in Koko's personality. She was always hopping and bouncing, laughing and smiling; joking, poking, prancing, dancing. To see her still as desert air churned contrition with the bile of Fayina's stomach and all she could do was hold her breath and try not to be sick all over the floor.

"Lilly, I'm so sorry!" Natalie quickly rushed around the bed and embraced her. She let Fayina cry into her shoulder a bit before she pulled away and offered reassurances.

"Go ahead and cry it out, but if it weren't for you and Rena, she wouldn't be here. You girls saved her life. Listen, I have to head back in hardly an hour. Did you want to go home? Clear the cobwebs?"

Fayina shook her head. "No, I told Rena too. I'm staying till Koko recovers."

At that, Lilly's attention spun from how she massaged Koko's hand in both of hers to a piercing glare aimed at Fayina.

"Thanks for everything, Fay, but we'll be all right."

"Please… I can't leave with her like this. I feel responsible."

"Hey!" Natalie snipped. "Enough of that talk. She'll be fine, Fay. She hit a snag, but she'll be fine."

Fayina's red, swollen eyes followed Natalie as she walked back around the bed to Lilly and handed over a keycard produced from her handbag.

"Stay at that place we have downtown. Fay can keep you company." At that, Lilly and Fayina locked eyes; defensively wounded versus pleading. It was an awkward moment. "Koko won't be down for more than a few days, I'm sure."

"You have to go?" Lilly asked.

"No choice. Saffron will be livid as it is but I'll handle him. And call me when you have any news!"

Lilly sent Natalie off with a barrage of thanks and appreciation, but her annoyance with Fayina shone through her typical sweetness. She knew inside that she had an ocean of thanks to soak Fayina in, but something about the previous evening's circumstances failed to sit well in her stomach. A million visions flashed before the eye of Lilly's mind, the same way they did back at the J.D. Staley/Lina Andel pre-show party where Rena and Koko slow-danced. She knew she was being accusatory but she couldn't help it.

"Lilly, you have it all wrong. Your thoughts are setting me on fire, I can see it."

"What am I supposed to think? The pair of you all by your little lonesome in a private suite? Trashed? Rena vouched for you, but when I consider the source, I'm not convinced. I don't know what went on up there, but I wasn't born yesterday and I've put up with much worse from her in the past. This wouldn't have happened if I was there. She gets too wrecked, it's true, but she's never hurt herself because I take care of her. Based on the look and smell of your hangover, I figure you can hardly take care of yourself."

Stunned silent and still, Fayina had nothing but a blank stare to offer Lilly. After a few moments that felt like static shock to the senses, she dropped her focus to Koko and slowly reached out to hold her hand, but Lilly wouldn't have it. She about lunged over Koko and smacked Fayina's hand away.

"Mine, goddammit!" she exclaimed with the quietest bark she could manage so as not to alarm the staff.

"I told you, nothing happened! Rena told you. Why are you so insecure?"

"You think I don't know how she is? And considering the company you keep, I imagine the beds you hop are spring loaded!"

"You don't even know me!"

They both felt a tug at their shirts that froze them quiet. The lock they had on each other's eyes dissolved and they peered down to see Koko's fingers do their best to clutch their clothes.

"Baby?"

Fayina's existence disappeared from Lilly's attention as she hunched over and hovered over Koko, face-to-face. Fayina took a hint and minded her place, but sneakily took Koko's hand and cradled it despite any protests.

Lilly beamed as Koko's eyes fluttered open and couldn't control her smiles, her breath, her anything. She didn't care to. All she wanted to do was kiss Koko's forehead, her lips, her nose, thankful she could gaze on that priceless smile once again.

Fayina never intended to give such a damn about someone she met so recently, someone in a rather viscous relationship, no less. Regardless of how Lilly made her feel like a third wheel, she knew a flame with her name etched in its candle burned inside Koko. Although she hardly remembered what happened before blackout, Fayina's dodgy memory began to patch itself together. There were huge gaps in the festivities, but the bits that streamed back would have inspired Lilly to throw her out a window.

The memory of her fingers entangled in those cascading blonde curls flashed before her mind's eye. Recall skipped a beat and reminded of the way Koko slid up Fayina's body, rolled her shirt up past her breasts and the way Koko kissed her. The passionate appetite Fayina experienced so few hours previous triggered a bit of guilt as Lilly glanced at her hands clutched around Koko's. Even though Lilly averted her disapproving glare quite quickly, Fayina knew she only meant to keep calm so as not to inspire anymore upset in the room.

Fayina suspected she faced an uphill battle to convince Lilly they could all be best friends. She didn't care. One meets people as magnetic as Koko very few times in life. Rena was her first friend of that breed, at least from her perspective. She did not intend to allow the second magical girl she had ever met slip away because of a jealous lover. She didn't intend to steal Koko from Lilly. She simply wanted to stay close—for now.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Rena had two hours of much needed shut-eye on the flight back. She slept cozily after a brief-yet-genuine heart-to-heart with Natalie before the same with Mariska over the phone. Natalie was kind enough to allow Miracle and Amanda on the flight, as well. Since they napped after the Kyomi show, they kept an eye on the slim-yet-spacious luxury craft Ludavine kept on-hand to spoil rotten those it transported while they chatted lightly about the future—their future.

It was heart-warming to learn that Mariska took time off from her career to remind Ruby they belonged together. They had just arrived at Grisi Tropical Towers, one of the world's largest indoor biological preserves and resorts. Apparently, Sonja and Lina tagged along for the fun and games. Speaking of which, Rena had a few calls from Sonja on her phone that she either missed or didn't answer.

Sonja was beautiful. She really was. She radiated in a unique way only redheads could. There was something phosphorescent in her personality. It shone through her fair, pale skin and swimming pool blue eyes. To see her was a want to meet her. To meet her was a want to get to know her. Whoever took getting to know her to the next level was gilded in gold luck, indeed.

That's why Rena couldn't answer. She had enough to deal with. She only wanted to get home and inhale her fiancé.

After the circus recently endured, nothing matched her relief as she stepped over her own threshold. She would have skipped in and waltzed across her living room if she had the energy, but all she could do was lumber. She heard music from upstairs—bass-deep vocal trance—and recognized the particular female singer and song. Shannon and Ali would have danced to that love song at their wedding.

Once she reached the top of the stairs, she saw Shannon nestled into the bed of a king-sized sleeper sofa that was Rena's pride and joy. With a huge wine bottle wedged between her legs and a plate of lines chopped and ready on a nightstand beside her, she was in her own little world while she played a rather impressive-looking racing game on Rena's monolithic widescreen display.

With no contact since that afternoon they flung all caution to the wind, Rena often wondered how she'd react when they met again, what emotions would swirl in her very depths. Where she expected anxiety, she felt only relief as she watched Shannon devoutly concentrate on her game.

It comforted Rena beyond anything else to see her best friend again.

"I forgive you for seducing me," Shannon said once Rena plopped down beside her. "And I figured you wouldn't mind my condo-sitting for you while I sell our place."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because that's what it is. Ours. I need a place that's mine. Ali will always enjoy free room and board in my heart but…" Shannon crashed on-screen and turned to Rena with sincere-yet-wildly-wired eyes. "I'm trying to move on."

"I'm sorry, Shan… for everything."

"You know, I had a dream about Ali after what we did. In the dream, I was so apologetic. She seemed to dart from room to room in our apartment and I'd chase her, beg her to forgive me. I couldn't stop crying, but she couldn't stop laughing. I never asked her why she was laughing but I thought it over-and-over. When I finally caught her, she looked so peaceful… so happy. She gave me the same face she always gave me whenever I overreacted to anything.

"Then she hugged me," Shannon said as her chin quivered and tears escaped her swollen eyes. "I hadn't felt that kind of serenity since the last time we kissed for hours and stared into each other's eyes as if we'd go blind tomorrow."

They embraced as more tears flowed and all the apologies either could think to vocalize dissipated. Shannon understood the importance of dreams and felt Ali indeed paid a visit from wherever she went. Her forgiveness was all she needed to get back on track with being best friends with Rena.

"I hate to do this to you, Reenie," Shannon began when she pulled away, wiped her tears and reached for her rectangular dinner-plate of drugs, "but Shell is… livid."

Rena's blonde eyebrows never crossed more. "What? What happened?"

"She knows everything. Everything between us, things you never told her." Shannon snorted two fat, sloppily chopped lines and tilted her head back to savor the drain as a look of dumbfounded confusion drowned Rena's face.

"This is when you ask me how." She offered Rena some rails, which she refused.

"I, I don't—"

"—That red head, Pris."

"Works-with-J.D.-Pris?"

"That's the one. Apparently, she was there for Shell during Ben's twilight hours. They got so shit faced, she spilled all your precious beans in a drunken tirade."

"How do you know this?"

"Shell came to see me. She looked grave when I opened the door but when she saw my jaw hit my toes, she knew… and she nearly fell apart."

"What else did she say?"

"Trust me, Reenie, I explained everything. I was honest and it seemed she understood, but I don't think it did a bit of good. She's wounded."

"This happened right after Ben died?"

"Pretty much. You didn't get my messages, did you?"

Rena sighed long and deep. "I didn't know how to talk to you yet. Something like this was the last thing on my mind. No wonder I couldn't reach her. We've hardly spoken since Ben died. But we just spoke earlier! She was so sweet!"

"She's trying, Reenie. What I'm dying to know is why you would hark so much to J.D.? Everything you ever said, he repeated to Pris."

An alarming expression of disappointment washed over Rena's face. "I thought I could trust him."

"Bullshit. You got tanked and talked too much. You know you can trust him for a lot of things, but he gets too far gone just like the rest of us. Serious cases of elastic jaw seem so trendy lately."

"I need to see her, Shan…"

"You should rest first. Looks like aliens just returned you from abduction."

Rena knew Shannon was right. With everything that happened in so short a time, Rena resembled someone hit by a bus and felt that way, too. She just couldn't delay, though. The love of her life was in distress! She couldn't just lounge back and let that ride any longer.

=O_O=

Sometimes, when a dream lingered, one felt the waking world and the dream world were indistinguishable. Shell Dawes felt the dreams of her evening nap dissolve beneath her eyelids as she woke to frantic knocks at her front door. After a whirlwind week at Moonglow Model Management, Shell took a much needed day-off. With a swamp of business on her mind—not to mention the whole Rena situation—she began her free day with cocktails, caviar and chamber music. Efforts to drown everything in excess led to white wine and love ballads. Soon enough, she heard some of Rena's favorite tunes and lost track of what she drank. She may have smoked a joint but she didn't remember. Neither was she sure of when she actually fell asleep.

Shell pressed one hand against her front door and held the knob with the other as the sound of sniffles mixed with her own name warbled through it. It took every ounce of resolve she had to open that door, even though the love of her life moaned and pined for her on the opposite side. She wished for a new reality, one where she had a special wish to make, one where she never heard the things Priscilla Bantz told her that night at Sarma's. She'd wish Rena never made that mistake with Shannon in the first place.

Who was that person she saw when she opened her door? She heard Rena's voice, heard her sobs, but the visage of her was so drenched in sorrow, she literally looked like someone else. Her eyes were swollen, smoldering pits of sadness. Her cheeks glistened with the tracks of endless tears that appeared to have bruised their path down her face. Shell never saw her move the way she jittered side to side, as if she couldn't decide to stay in her own skin or not.

"Baby?"

"You're beyond early," Shell said with dismissive eyes. She walked away, leaving the door open for Rena to follow, and went straight for a slender bottle of Limoncello amidst a variety of spirits that adorned her coffee table.

"We can talk all this out, baby. Can't we?" Rena asked as she closed the door behind herself. "We've always been able to talk about anything…"

"You reek of cheap wine. Done much talking things over with Shannon before coming here?"

"It's not how Pris made it sound. We were just wasted. In fact, today is the first day we've spoken since it happened. It almost ruined our friendship."

Shell filled a generous tumbler glass with her favorite lemony libation, chugged it, and poured another before she turned to face Rena in full ice-queen mode. "And that's supposed to set it all aside, is it?"

"No, but—"

"—A part of me might have known that day… The taste of gin was so strong in your mouth. It hid the taste of her. Maybe I did taste her but denied it to myself… as usual." Shell sat on the sofa and leaned forward, elbows on knees, drink gripped in both hands.

"Shell, look…" Rena kneeled before her, hands on her legs. "I'm sorry this happened. So, so, sorry! I can't take back my mistakes. But I can do everything possible to make things right between us."

"Even if you could take it back, you wouldn't. You don't believe in regrets, remember?"

"Baby, I've changed. It's like I hit rock bottom in the choices I made and the fuck-up-boulders I got myself stuck between, but when you slipped that ring on my finger… everything just glowed!"

"I know what that's about, Rena, but I mean… Shannon? Really, Rena! She's practically your sister. Who's next on your to-do list? Charlie?"

"Baby, please…"

"And, really, there's no better truth serum than this Nectar of the Gods. Truth poured out you both when the time was right, a truth I can't compete with."

Rena shifted to a seated position on the sofa, which shot Shell to her feet to fix another drink. She never looked more defeated than she did then-and-there, at Shell's tender mercies.

"What do I have to do?"

"You've hurt me, Rena. Hurt me in a way I've never hurt before. You've taken liberties with my heart these past four years and I've always taken it in stride. I've always understood you. Accepted you. Loved you no matter what. In turn, you've fucked every girl you threw lines with and made a complete ass of me to all our friends." Between her increasingly drunken drawl, it was Shell's turn to cry. She inched toward Rena who watched her with no defenses as she took every flaming arrow shot her way.

"Not that I care what people think but the days grow tedious when an awkward glare hits me on such a regular basis. I put it aside. I always have! Every rumor. Every girl. Every gut instinct that tells me you do little else but ram my emotions and trust through a meat grinder. All I've ever done was put it all aside, but I often lay awake at night, watching you sleep, wondering if you realize what you do to me…"

Shell gazed down to Rena with the coldest eyes she ever aimed at her lover and caressed her face with a gentle stroke full of anguish.

"Do you?"

Paralysis. All Rena could do was stare up at Shell, frozen in the first time she ever felt their age gap. She felt like a scolded child and it embarrassed her terribly.

"Shell…"

Rena bolted up and reached out but her hands caught air as Shell backpedaled and kept at her drink.

"Just tell me what I have to do to fix this, I'll do anything! I can't take this anymore!"

"I don't know, I don't know anything anymore! I don't even know if I want to marry you anymore!"

"No! Baby, please no!"

"You can't take this anymore? Put yourself in my shoes! Four years, Rena! Four years watching you carry on behind my back like I didn't exist! But I could have lived with it. I was living with it rather well! Then you take betrayal to bold, new heights! A part from betraying me, you both betrayed each other—and Ali's memory! Worse… you betrayed yourselves."

"Shell…" The upset in Rena's eyes suggested she might pass out any second. She inched forward, focused, sincere. "When I look in your eyes, I see everything I was. Everything I am. Everything I ever will be. Everything I wasn't and what I'm not. Everything I never will be. And I feel like solid gold!"

Upon her love, she took Shell's hands in hers as their tears splashed their grip, but all Shell had to return was silence. Rena's sincerity was obvious, but Shell felt wounded, pulverized inside and little made sense. She shut down. With a quiver in her jaw and turmoil in her eyes, she uttered the nail in Rena's coffin.

"Get out."

Uncontrollable sobs. That's all Rena was capable of anymore. She lingered as long as she could but, with no change in Shell's eyes, she let go and slinked away, toward the foyer, her hands cupped at her stomach as if she'd taken a gunshot to the gut.

She looked back to Shell once more and saw nothing different in the frost she radiated. She was a pillar of intolerance. She was done.

Barely able to coordinate, Rena managed to slip her monolithic engagement ring off her finger thanks to the lubrication of tears. She fondled it one last time, then set it on the end table by the door and took her leave.

=U_U=

Two weeks passed since Shell and Rena had any contact. While Shell had done her best to drown herself in work, Rena went into seclusion. By the second week's end, Shell was beyond beside herself while the echoes of serrated words she shot at Rena played on repeat in her head. She tried to call but those calls remained unanswered, unreturned. Conviction would have persuaded her to show up at Rena's door but something deep within kept her embarrassed, confused and scramble-brained. She worried that she would simply stand before that door, silent and still. She admired Rena's candor more than ever when the thought crossed her mind. If only she had the sand to throw every inhibition out a window and gush the way Rena had that day a house fell on their relationship.

Saturday evening, Shell lurked the agency in search of where she lost her mind. She wandered into J.D. Staley's studio workshop a few stories beneath her office and found the crew hard at work as they spun spools and orchestrated organza delights in preparation for J.D.'s annual New Year party, a bash that one-and-all in fashion and entertainment anticipated with baited breath. The outfits weren't for a show but for the lucky girls he chose to host the event, usually five or six with one special center of attention.

Shell found herself hunkered down at a makeshift coffee bar Lorenzo setup near J.D.'s desk. His latest obsession: Barista! Since the team was due an all-nighter, he wanted to show off his latest self-taught skill set.

"Shell, sweetheart! You wouldn't be moping here if you didn't feel enough was enough." Lorenzo said as he refilled her tan mug.

"I just don't know how to reconcile after the things I said to her. Some things one can't un-hear."

"You know better, Shell," J.D. said. He carried a flank of translucent, intricate beading to Priscilla, who busily assembled a variety of same-beaded patchworks over a mannequin. "She's just as miserable as you right now. She wants you back."

"Rather sure of yourself, aren't you?"

"Oh, she confronted us—yesterday, in fact."

"And you didn't call me? What did she say?"

"She was classic Reenie—forgiving, sweet, inquisitive. She just wanted to know the whys of it all."

"Did she mention me?"

"She was too busy crying. Did more listening than anything," Priscilla said from half behind the mannequin. They locked eyes for a moment too long and Priscilla exploded in apologies. "Shell, you don't know how sorry I am about all this! I feel like I should be whipped in town-square."

"You've apologized enough, Pris. Perhaps part of our greatest weakness was never dealing with the rust corroding our gears. And things needed to be dealt with! It wouldn't have happened had you both been more… polite."

"She wants to get beyond this too," J.D. said. "She'll be here Monday. We'll see how all this intricacy suits the girls for the first time. Why don't you come down from your bell tower and see her then?"

Priscilla watched Shell fester the notion in silence. Considering any ice between them had been shattered, melted and evaporated after her drunken barrage the night before Ben died, Priscilla approached and gave good advice her best go.

"Shell, look… I know my mouth has overstayed its welcome, but I have to say this or I'll never sleep again. What if this is your chance to walk away for good?"

"Remind me never to forgive you for anything!" Lorenzo said with a roll of his eyes.

"No, it's all right," Shell said. "Of course I thought of that. Then I thought of every relationship I've ever had. Every date, every dance… Even though the ramifications of loving Rena stress me out on a daily basis, when we're together—physically together—no one else exists. Nothing else matters. She's the only person I've ever known that makes me feel like we're all there is, like we're shipwrecked and the rest of the world is a fond, long-gone memory. It's deserted-island love and it's irreplaceable."

Priscilla was obviously touched. She didn't approve but Shell's sincerity was difficult to argue with.

"If you just can't bring yourself to run to her, I have the perfect idea to spin it special on Monday!" Lorenzo said.

Shell gave him intrigued eyes. It wouldn't be the first time Lorenzo hatched a plan to bring brooding hearts back together. He always had a sweet surprise for J.D. to spring on the late Aber Ralston when they were at each other's throats. He did the same with his other, closest friends.

She felt a lot of that helped keep him single because he spent all his energy repairing every relationship around him instead of charging those energies into one of his own. It upset her, but that was just his character. The size of his heart dwarfed the size of his appetite, and that said a lot.

Shell had to give whatever he had up his sleeve a chance.

=C.C=

Monday morning settled over Rena like pollen—delicate at first, irritating in the end since she still felt allergic to contact with the outside world. Earlier that week, it took every drop of gumption she could muster to confront J.D. and Priscilla about the theatrics with Shell, but she did so with poise and tact. They were, after all, her friends—J.D. being one of her best. A few days and a few naps helped her sort any abrasive feelings toward him. She also spent all her time with Shannon as she drowned her sorrows and snorted her cares away. Even though she fell back on old habits, she fully intended to clean up her act yet again. She just needed some inspiration to better herself to kick in. What struck Rena odd, though, is that everything exploded in her face just when she was at her best—off the drugs, easy on the booze, faithful to Shell.

She and Shannon didn't even consider sleeping together again, no matter how much they indulged. It was a bridge burnt; remnants sunk to the bottom of the sea.

J.D. and crew held their very preliminary fitting in a studio space close to one of Moonglow Model Management's scenic rooftops. With shades and tints retracted, the morning's natural light cast a dreamy glow across the limited staffers and six models scattered about—Miracle, Amanda and Andrea amongst them.

Rena and Priscilla shared a reconciliatory moment as she helped Rena into that ethereal dress made of intricate, translucent diamond and crystal beads. Priscilla couldn't apologize enough, even though they covered that ground when Rena first confronted her and J.D. All she could do was assure Priscilla that all was forgiven.

That wasn't just a polite gesture either. Rena understood the compulsion to sing from the mountaintops about things that ate at her very innards when alcohol had dissolved her self-control. She didn't hold it against Priscilla or J.D., and she made that perfectly clear. Rena had only herself to blame.

She crept up behind her twin brother while he snapped test shots of Andrea against a plain white background. She held her finger to her lips so Andrea wouldn't reveal her presence but it didn't work.

"You haven't been able to sneak up on me since we were four. Scratch that. You've never been able to sneak up on me!"

"You're no fun…"

Charlie lowered his camera and turned to his sister. "It's doing you good to be out here, sis."

"Yeah. Watching you and Andi, Miracle and Amanda… all the happy couples welded at the hip empowers my good mood by the second."

"No matter how upset you are, you're always the most beautiful girl in the room," Andrea said. She meant it, too. Her eyes couldn't help but absorb every detail of Rena in that majestic work of translucent, beaded finery. With its long sleeves and deep v-neck, the dress was the picture of elegance that dazzled and shimmered with every miniscule movement Rena made.

Andrea knew actions consoled better than words so she stepped up and gave Rena a hug.

"Everything will be okay, Reenie. Nature has a way of working things out." With a kiss on the cheek, she pulled away, winked and trotted off toward Miracle and Amanda, who were tangled up in two female assistants, Lorenzo and J.D. as they fussed with their hair and dresses that dazzled in the same vain as Rena's.

"Center stage, sis. Let's get these done."

Rena stood between the plain white background and reflectors strategically placed around the scene that bounced diffused, lazy daylight onto her in a way that made her dress twinkle.

"So, how trashed have you been these past couple of weeks?" Charlie asked while he fired his first shots.

"I won't lie. I didn't just fall off the wagon. I rolled under the goddamn thing, got stuck in the wheels and dragged 'cross country."

"And no more shenanigans?"

"No. We got that out of our system the first time."

Rena struck a vogue pose that oddly complimented her sullen mood, but no matter how she worked it, her eyes lacked that trademark Rena-Glow and it broke Charlie's heart.

"I called it that day," he said. Rena responded with a smirk and a flick of her middle finger, which he snapped.

Suddenly, as if born from the air itself, there was music—gentle, ambrosial music.

It grew slowly, steadily, distant at first, from somewhere outside the studio. Acoustic guitar lead a velvety male voice intermingled with clarinet. That male voice was powerful yet soothing, yet to sing a discernible lyric but the hums, oohs and ahs gave Rena goosebumps.

All heads aimed at the studio entrance. Beyond Miracle, Amanda and Andrea, beyond J.D., Lorenzo and Priscilla, beyond several small tables scattered with hair accessories, fabric and printed snapshots of the girls, the music stopped for a brief moment. Then the alabaster doors swung open.

A young woman dressed for an ancient Victorian costume ball crept in with ballerina-light feet, a lavender clarinet with silver keys in hand. Beneath a feathered Tricorn hat, her hair was a dense auburn with voluminous waves that reached just beneath her shoulders. Her gown was layered and whimsical with ivory lace, gold and green taffeta, green velvet ribbons and an intricate gold and silver mask that covered the top of her face.

A young man followed her in, dressed sharply in lush, Victorian decadence. The olive crushed-velvet of his caped suit shimmered in the natural light, and complimented the amber and gold of his ornate guitar. His ball mask was particularly gaudy with its bone-white hue and sapphire tears beneath an olive top.

Stunned motionless, Rena watched as they inched her way, fixed on her. The fixation was mutual. She felt like the only person in the room as they played their hearts out. The clarinet, the guitar, the jazziness, his voice—it all bathed her in saccharine sound, in love, hope and tenderness. She felt like the only girl in the world.

Either Rena had a secret admirer with platinum nerve or Shell was behind it all.

The musicians struck a string in Rena's heart that triggered tears. Not sad tears, though. Rena cried tears only true love could invoke. They dribbled down her cheeks as she lost her breath from the unabashed romance before her. What a serenade! With nervous glances, she caught tears in the eyes of Priscilla, Lorenzo and J.D., and knew they were in on it too.

After a lengthy march, the song concluded with the musicians face-to-face with Rena. That's when she noticed a vibrant, prismatic glimmer from an all-too-familiar ring on the clarinetist's finger. She handed her clarinet to her partner, slid the ring off and offered it to Rena in one graceful motion.

Then the stubble-faced troubadour spoke. "She's on the roof."

The studio erupted in applause. Rena snatched the ring and sprinted out a back exit that led to a service elevator from which she could reach the love of her life.

Passenger to the longest elevator ride in history, Rena could hardly focus on one specific thought. Her emotions were in a frenetic overdrive reserved for only the most star-crossed lovers. That song injected her heart with the most acute desperation she had ever experienced. Like that one song a couple hears on their first date; the song that becomes their anthem. The repeat those lyrics played on in her head was amplified as the lift came to a stop and the doors slid open.

Rena just about stumbled out onto a commodious rooftop where delivery vehicles docked and unloaded fashionable goods Moonglow Model Management needed to function. That's when she saw Shell straight ahead, leaned against all that separated someone at such a height from their final plunge.

Shell sensed her presence. She spun around and met one of the most majestic images of Rena she'd ever seen. Rena slipped the ring back on her finger as all that intricate crystal and diamond beading made her look like she wore light itself

Two steps forward were all Shell could manage. Rena was a lightning bolt that struck her with the force of a thousand storms. They were breast-to-breast, entwined in embrace, engulfed in an impassioned kiss to put to shame all kisses previous. It was a kiss that said everything they ever wanted to say to each other without a word—a kiss that could shut down the world.

As the city spun around them and the effulgence of their kiss radiated the most passionate, most pure luminosity, the blinding light of love overtook them and true love received another chance to glow.

THE END

\=^-^=/

Dear Reader,

Thank you for embarking on this journey through the MOONGLOW universe. I hope you've enjoyed the time spent with Reenie, Shell, Koko, Lilly and all the people you've met along the way. I am humbled and overjoyed that you've reached this point and look forward to entertaining you with future continuations of this world. MOONGLOW is something I will write for the rest of my days. I hope you'll join me and all your favorite MOONGLOW personalities for more fashion-drenched romance and drama! Book Two is already underway so stay connected with MOONGLOW at http://www.facebook.com/MoonglowRomance for all developments forthcoming! Don't forget to Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and follow us on Tumblr by clicking the corresponding links below and on the official MOONGLOW website.

Please, let me know your thoughts! Your opinion is CRITICAL to the development of the MOONGLOW universe! Please don't hold back! If you have something to say, please say it! You will find a variety of ways to contact me directly below and via MOONGLOW's website.

Would you like to see MOONGLOW made into a FILM? What about a TV or Web series? Let's hear from you! Share your thoughts on expanding MOONGLOW beyond the written page by contacting me directly and/or commenting on our Facebook.

Once again, thanks SO MUCH for joining our MOONGLOW family. I look forward to a long, prosperous relationship with each and every one of you!

Special thanks to Virginia Hilton for the amazing artwork she has and continues to contribute to MOONGLOW, including the cover art. Visit her at http://www.ainiwaffles.com/ & follow her at http://www.twitter.com/AiniWaffles

Special thanks to Cheryl Bradshaw, who gave MOONGLOW the greatest gift—a super duper edit! Check out her divine work at http://www.cherylbradshaw.com/

Above and beyond all, most rapturous thanks to the Models of the world, who have always been and will continue to be my most powerful inspirations, my everyday Aphrodites, my muses, my friends.

Thank you for making this world a prettier place to live.

=^-^=

STAY TUNED FOR MY UPCOMING YOUNG ADULT SERIES, DARK MOON

"The relationship between a young human princess and her fairy girlfriend, both sixteen, is complicated when a young member of a shape-shifting race long thought extinct enters their lives.

Book 1 of 8 Coming Q3/Q4 (August-October)

MOONGLOW

Official Website: http://moonglownovel.wix.com/mgsplash

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CHARLIE ROMO

Official Blog: Moonglow Lounge

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DID YOU KNOW I'M IN A COOKBOOK? (Yep, I'm a Chef!)

Dine With Us: A Collection of Recipes from the Authors of Indie Writers Unite [Kindle Edition] - http://www.amazon.com/Dine-With-Us-Collection-ebook/dp/B007YVAJMW