Chapter 6

"He was a better dad than my ‘real' father." Lacey offered to pour Nadia another glass of rosé. She declined, but only because she didn't want to get too tipsy to hear everything her date had to say. "Helped me with my homework, told me what kind of bullshit not to take from boys, drove my friends and me around before we got our licenses…" A nostalgic look claimed Lacey's features that were currently cast in dusky shadows. Flickers of candlelight illuminated her colorful makeup and nails. "I miss that man. Don't get to talk to him much anymore since he divorced my mom, but I kept the last name. My real father's name was ‘Papadopoulos,' which is a mouthful."

"Isn't that Greek?"

"Yes. My mom was only married to my birth father for a year. It was a shotgun marriage out of college. She never talked about him much, and I didn't ask a lot of questions. By the time I thought to, Luis de la Cruz was asking to marry my mom, and she made our last names ‘Cruz.' I like it. I think it suits me."

"Doesn't he reach out to you? Think of you as like his daughter?"

"Eh, it was awkward after the divorce. I was already an adult. My mom cheated on him. It's probably hard for him. We speak sometimes… I'd invite him to my wedding if I were getting married. It's all a reminder that he wasn't really my dad, according to everyone around us."

Nadia sighed. "The way you speak about your adolescence is… wistful? It's so much more interesting than my childhood. Small town girl with the same parents as always."

"Come on. You don't strike me as a woman who would have a common childhood. Your looks alone must have drawn attention."

"Believe it or not, there were two other redheads in my class. I wasn't special. They were way more popular than me. Had the right physique for the 2000s, and I didn't."

Lacey cocked her head in curiosity. "Now, how could they have the ‘right' physique, and you didn't? Forgive my forwardness, but you're an incredibly attractive woman, Nadia."

Plenty of people called Nadia attractive. Some deigned to herald her beautiful. Those who specifically wanted to kiss up to her and Eva dropped all sorts of flattering comments on a woman who was used to receiving them. You quickly figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to compliments. For every creep visiting the Thomas-Cole building who had to comment on Nadia's body, there was a dearth of women like Eva who eventually got it through that "No, really, I want to treat you like a queen, because you do things to me that no other woman has."

When Eva flirted… whew. Nadia had to fan herself.

As it so happened, Lacey had a similar effect on her, and Nadia didn't know if it was a genuine attraction or a rule of their game.

"If I may be a bit self-aware," Nadia said with humility, "I was not quite the put-together lady you see before you today."

"No, I suppose not, but we were all awkward high schoolers once. You're the exact kind of girl who would have distracted me from whatever milquetoast boyfriend I had at the time. How else does a young woman discover that part of herself? It takes the right classmate to bring that out of her."

Nadia giggled until she realized how silly she sounded. Yet when she clipped her mouth shut and drank in the darkness around them, she noticed that Lacey was still looking right at her, the candlelight flickering in her eyes.

"I used to be bisexual," Nadia said in the break of awkward silence. "I mean, I used to date like that, but I realized it didn't work for me. I'm not trying to imply that you magically transform into a different label overnight… or that there's anything wrong with being something else… or…"

A hand larger than Nadia's reached across the table. Such a gentle touch immediately stopped Nadia's running mouth.

"Life is funny that way," Lacey said before retracting her hand. "I gave up chasing labels a long time ago. I tell people I'm pansexual because it either intrigues them or sends them running. The ones who run aren't people I want in my vicinity anyway. Definitely don't want to date them." Her cheeks lit up when the waiter brought them their entrees. Nadia's salmon ni?oise salad was heavenly to the nose and succulently colorful in the provided candlelight. She had completely forgotten what Lacey ordered as part of their complimentary dinner provided by the charity. Most people would probably order the most expensive things on the menu – which in this restaurant's case included grilled eel, filet mignon, and elk steak – but Lacey had commented when ordering that she had to take it easy on "meats and cheeses," and Nadia did not ask why.

"Have you dated a lot?" Nadia asked.

Lacey's fork clattered against the rim of her plate. "Is that your polite way of asking if I favor one sex over the other? Because I can tell you right now that nothing pleases me more than a night out with a gorgeous woman like you."

All right, laying it on thick. Nadia had promised she wouldn't question motives, but the more Lacey charmed her, the more Nadia wondered how genuine it was. I would never, ever cheat on Eva, but… There it was. The legendary "but." If I were single, I'd be putty in this woman's hands.

It had been over seven years since Nadia last considered herself single. Wasn't there some saying about seven years? Like, how itchy it was?

"I rather feel the same way, which is why I consider myself a lesbian now."

"Isn't it wonderful? How people can roll like waves through their lives? You're in one place one second, and a completely different another. I think it makes us fascinating."

"Suppose so."

Nadia looked away before touching her food. Lacey cut into her dish and ate like the kind of refined lady Eva pretended to be when the event called for it. Yet Nadia was so entranced by the hypnotically bright lights of the Strip beyond their window. This high-rise restaurant's calling card was its "dark, romantic dining" experience. While other "dark" restaurants focused on trying new foods, meeting strangers you couldn't see, and becoming reacquainted with other senses, this one was all about the focus between two diners. Yet Nadia was so entranced by the Ferris wheel, the Bellagio water show, and the cars coming and going on Las Vegas Boulevard that she almost forgot she shared a meal with a woman who wasn't her wife.

I wonder how Eva's evening is going.

"What was my wife like in college?"

Lacey was caught mid-chew, but Nadia didn't mind waiting a few seconds to receive an answer. It gave her time to remember her dinner.

"May I ask what kind of curiosity prompts that question?"

"I met Eva when she was in grad school. Maybe a bit before, I don't quite recall." Her first meeting with Eva was a hazy memory at best, anyway, and the only reason they constantly crossed each other's paths was because of Nadia's job. Ethan is close friends with my brother-in-law Henry, who is married to Ethan's ex-girlfriend Monica… Such a small town at the end of the day. Even if Nadia quit her job at Thomas-Cole, she would still bump into her old boss all the time. Including at Warren Manor, where Ethan sometimes had dinner when Jasmine was gone.

So, she might as well keep things weird!

"I ask because I hear all these stories about her wild college years. To be fair, I've seen some of the pictures and videos online. I mean, it's not hard to find tabloid nudes of my wife in the depths of the internet. There's even one of her when she was dating this model from Brazil… let's say the yacht wasn't far enough away from shore." At least Nadia had her proof that the model probably wasn't faking that face of ecstasy. "I wonder how much of it is true. She can be full of false bravado."

"Sounds like that's one of the things you like about her."

"What? That she's desirable? It has its ups and downs."

Lacey took another methodical bite of her food. She doesn't even bend her neck to eat. The morsels of dinner delicately traveled up to her bright pink lips via a fork small enough to be used for cake. It had been a specific request when Lacey ordered her entrée, and she had explained to Nadia that it helped her "slow down her eating." The implication was that every bite was to be savored – but Nadia also thought it a good way to not overeat.

"Eva ruled that campus. Even men knew her. Straight girls? There was a lot of experimenting going on, and both Eva and I were at the center of it. Except Eva was a specific kind of fantasy. She made you forget about everyone else completely. You abandoned whatever sexuality you thought was true about yourself when she entered a room. If she paid you attention… well, she probably didn't have time for you because she was also dating women from elsewhere. That's kind of fascinating, too. One woman could have so much charm and gravitas to her that she defies everything we know about queer courtship. Boys left her alone, but they knew her. The few guys I dated in college would talk about her before I had the chance to bring it up."

"Really? What were they saying?"

Lacey snorted. "Mostly, they wanted to know if we ever dated."

"Eva told me you guys didn't even hook up."

"That's true. Don't get me wrong, Nadia, you have a very attractive wife who knew what she was doing, but I wasn't much for hookups, and that's all Eva really offered. I also didn't have many dry spells between relationships, and I'm deeply monogamous when I am in a relationship, so…" Lacey shrugged. "I have a feeling that you and I aren't so different. Which makes me wonder how she eventually got through to you."

"Trust me, I wasn't into her for many of the same reasons. That and I get enough rich idiots in my life every day. She seemed like the cream of the crop for them."

"Oh, boy. I believe it."

"She's mellowed out since we got together," Nadia said. "I've also changed. I guess couples do that to each other. We're supposed to meet each other in the middle."

"Hmm? That's an interesting way of looking at it. Suppose it's good to hear she's matured since getting married. Do I hear the pitter-patter of little feet in your future?"

Nadia laughed. "Not at least for another few years. We're still talking about it."

"Now that would be something to behold. Eva Warren, mother."

"If you want to annoy her, ask her how our prenup stipulates such kids would be born."

"Don't tell me she's the one expected to carry a baby!"

"Oh, God, no. That's the assured destruction of the Warren line, assuming her brother never had his own kid. But her brother's involved. Their mother was very adamant that any babies I bear with the name Warren will be genetically related to her."

"I can see why Eva doesn't want to talk about it. She's the kind of girl to be excused from sex ed because seeing a diagram of the testes makes her pass out."

"You ain't kidding. A lot has changed about her since we met, but not that. I wonder how she would handle having a son."

Lacey grinned. "I'm sure that would be different."

"You sure? Because even with the team of nannies she's sure to hire, I'm making her change at least one diaper a week. She can't get out of it!"

Between bites of her food, Lacey clasped her hands before her face and peered at Nadia through steepled fingers. It was that touch that made Nadia decide that, while Lacey put on a show to make this "money well spent," there was a genuine attraction between them. It excited her, of course. What woman didn't want to feel desirable to another, even if she were happily married to someone else? Attractions happen. Look at Eva, she still flirts with everyone on the feminine spectrum. She and Ian were at one of the quintessential Vegas shows tonight. Half-naked women in flashy outfits would surround them, and Nadia didn't care. She knew that Eva wouldn't touch any of them on purpose. This was the woman who audibly shared her love for her fellow females with her wife, who either agreed with her, told her to cool it, or leaned into it if Nadia thought it might end in some well-deserved fun.

Yet… this was different. Nadia had gone into this with the assumption that it would be frivolous fun. Hell, I thought I'd be having a pretend date with a man for something different. Nobody questioned why Eva's wife bid on another woman – she was gay, wasn't she? – but that was the most dangerous connection of all.

Nadia loved women too. Especially women like Lacey, who was a lot like Eva in her ostentatious style, her aloof attitude, and carried herself with such confidence that a more insecure woman like Nadia couldn't help but be drawn to it. Rub some of that off on me, would you? Nadia could brush her hair and cinch her dress to accentuate her curves, but she still put herself down for both.

"When's the last time you dated somebody?" Nadia asked.

That question took Lacey by surprise. "You mean genuinely dated someone, and didn't just meet them on some app for an evening of average fun before never speaking to them again?"

Is that what dating is like now? I thought it was bad seven years ago… "Yeah."

Lacey had to think about it for a moment. "Since my breakup at the start of the pandemic. That was my last relationship and the last person I went on a ‘real' date with."

"If you could do anything on a ‘real' date, what would you do?"

"Am I in Vegas in this hypothetical situation?"

"Absolutely."

Lacey grinned. "I can think of a few things I'd love to do."

"Do you want to do those things with me?"

"Nadia, I can't think of a better woman to spend my hypothetical date with." Lacey soon amended that. "Just don't let your wife kill me."

Nadia had no intention of that ever happening, but her mind also raced with a few ideas of her own.