Beautiful People | wlw

Twenty-five: Swimming

She told him of the suspicion she had developed earlier that afternoon, and Jay's eyes went wide.

"Troy went to the yacht party, too, right? Fuck. Carmen better be ready to serve the tea because a bitch-" he gestured to himself "-is parched."

They continued to speculate as Vera got changed and fixed her hair and makeup. Despite what she'd said to Lily, she did make an effort to save her dead phone. The hotel staff were reluctant to provide a bag of rice, and the hairdryer seemed like a risky choice for all those delicate electronic bits. Eventually, she remembered the packets of desiccants she had put in the garment bags with the gowns. She wedged the phone and two dozen desiccant packets in an airtight container supplied by Jay and sealed it tight.

"Fingers crossed."

Vera climbed back into the water taxi while Jay and Lily had a furious, whispered conversation on the sidewalk. Tapping her fingers on the seat impatiently, she watched them argue, unable to hear a word they said. She started to reach for her phone to find the time and had to check herself.

At last, Jay clambered in beside her. Lily followed, once again sitting quietly in the back.

Vera gave Jay a meaningful look. He shrugged.

"The deal, remember?"

The deal that he would sort out his Lily situation and she would sort out her Sharise one; he was saying he needed a chance to follow through. Although she was grumpy about it, Vera just made a face and said nothing. Maybe Carmen wouldn't let her in, and Lily would have to leave, as embarrassed as the tumble into the canal had left Vera. A girl could dream.

Jay offered to find the video of her, so she could see how bad it was. She refused without hesitation.

Carmen's hotel was a luxurious five-star affair that might have once been some merchant's palace, with stonework fine as lace, tall, arched windows, and staff in immaculately pressed uniforms who looked like they wanted to bow. The sheer amount of wealth on display - fabulous artwork, gilt-framed mirrors, handwoven rugs that probably cost more than six months of LA rent - awed Vera, even though she had now spent half a year in the company of obscenely wealthy people.

They gave their names and were directed to the top of the building, Lily trailing after them. A person wearing white gloves did, in fact, bow to them as they held open the door and beckoned them through onto the rooftop terrace.

Vera gasped.

The roof stood higher than the neighboring buildings, giving them an uninterrupted view of the city glowing against the spangled night sky, and in one direction, the inky water of the lagoon reflected warm lights far below. To their left, an open archway led to a row of cozy, candlelit tables draped in snowy white cloth and a well-stocked bar where a handsome bartender caressed a copper cocktail shaker. To their right and up several stairs, the long, narrow pool shimmered a hypnotic blue, lit from below. Soft but energetic music drifted from hidden speakers.

But what really surprised her were the people.

"Did Carmen bring the whole party with her?" Jay murmured, his eyebrows in his hair.

Vera had expected to find Sharise and Carmen; maybe Andre or a few people who had worked on the Merry Sanders film. Instead, milling between the candlelit tables and dipping their toes into the cerulean pool were at least thirty people, with even more trickling in as they stood there gawking. Vera recognized almost every single one of them, not because she knew them personally but because they were all the sort of people who could ruin your Hollywood career if you didn't recognize them when you should.

Carmen had organized a competing party.

Vera was very glad she had chosen to wear the slim dark high-waisted pants and red silk cropped blouse instead of the more casual linen dress she had considered. For a moment, she wondered how many of the people here might know she had taken a fall into the canals tonight. Then she shook that thought off. As if these people would even know or care about that, or recognize her if they did.