Playing Perfect

02. Serpent

Her father was already waiting, dressed in a fitted suit with a thick cigar between his fingers.

Where her mother was all dark hair and slim figured, her father was wide and grey. Their world was different for him. He didn't have to try and hide his age. He didn't need to buy attention through appearances. He commanded it.

When Alice entered the room, he stood, holding his hands out to her. Alice smiled, stepping forward and giving him a feather of a kiss on his cheek. Light enough that her lipstick would not come off on his skin.

"You look wonderful, dear," he said, his voice low and stiff with politesse, as usual.

"Thank you, father," Alice replied, equally robotic.

She turned to see Emily. She'd let her hair down in large, billowing curls over the lilac lace dress she'd lent her. Emily smiled when she saw her and raced forward, grabbing her arm with little regard for etiquette. Alice tried not to show her disapproval, keeping herself steady and neutral. Quiet.

Girls in high society had no place for standing out. There were moments for that, but now was not the time. Now, she needed to blend. Fade into the background. She had to become a second thought.

Eyes needed to drift over her. Notice her prettiness, her outfit, her politeness, and then move on until her father demanded otherwise.

She didn't mind it. She preferred it over the opposite—over the men whose eyes stuck on her far longer than she felt comfortable with. The men whose hands drifted low and stayed there, even after she pulled away.

The men who would deliberately choose a seat beside her at dinner, trapping her under societal rules. Whose wrinkled fingers would find their way to her arms, or worse, her knees.

The men who would smile sleazy grins at her and call her nicknames like darling or sweetheart when all she could do was smile and shift uneasily, attempting to steer the conversations elsewhere.

Those men made her want to take hot showers that burned her skin red.

"Thank you so much for the dress," Emily squealed quietly in Alice's ear. "I love it!"

Alice smiled in reply, keeping her composure, and said, "It looks much better on you than it did on me."

Emily frowned at her. "That's impossible, you look good in everything."

"You're just saying that because you want more of my clothes," Alice teased with a laugh.

Emily laughed with her, shaking her head. "You know me so well."

Their banter didn't last long.

Soon, the front doors were pulled open to welcome their first guest and Alice was whisked away to make her usual rounds that she was required to at every fancy dinner or party her parents held.

"Welcome, Mr and Mrs Ryder, it's so lovely to see you again!"

"Mrs Barrington! How's Ashley? She should be starting middle school this year, is she faring well?"

"Lovely to meet you, Mr Gedge. I've heard some great things about you from my father. How's the antiques market these days?"

"Bonsoir, Monsieur Addison. Comment allez-vous ?"

She tried her best to ignore the surprised faces on some of the first-time guests when they saw a Chinese looking girl greeting them at the Traver's household, speaking French, no less.

She kept her smile up when a balding man exclaimed, "Your English is excellent!" and when a woman her mother's age handed Alice an empty champagne glass, she forced a polite laugh.