Mind the Gap

Chapter 2

“Darling, I’m so glad you’re here.” Lady Sophia Kingsley, Sophie to her friends, pushes the maître d’ out of the way as she comes around the table to hug me. Sebastian laughs as he stands to greet us.

“Hi Sophie.”

“Don’t ‘Hi Sophie” me. I’m terribly upset with you.”

“I can’t imagine why,” I say winking at my brother. I know exactly why she’s terribly upset with me.

“I’m sure you can,” she says as she sits down, very regally, spreading her napkin over her lap. “You knew I wanted in on that Monet auction.”

I leaned forward, making eye contact with Sophie my so I knew she was listening to me. She had a habit of not doing so when she thought someone wasn’t really paying attention to her. “And you knew it was a private auction that Mr. Fuller was putting together. I’m not going to jeopardize my job, even if the Prince of Wales third cousin wants to get her hand on a priceless piece of art.”

She snorted, very unladylike, as she folded her arms across her chest. We had this argument before when it came to some of the private auctions held at Sotheby’s. None of what anyone who was in the aristocratic realm of Sophie would work with me anyway. My boss, Mr. Fuller (and yes, that is what I’m to call my very proper, very British boss) handles all of those, regardless of the department they fall under.

“Ladies, could we not have a throw down in the middle of Boyd’s?”

“Sebastian, your sister and I are not so ghastly that we would resort to violence.” Sebastian nodded, waiting for what might come out of Sophie’s mouth next. “However, telling your cow of a sister just what I think of her is another thing.” She sticks her tongue out at me.

Sophie is not someone I ever imagined I’d be friends with, but from the moment we met at NYU, it’s been her dragging me along. She ended up in New York as an act of rebellion against the “Chains of the Aristocracy”, as she likes to say. She applied for admission to NYU and then threw a temper tantrum of epic proportions before her father, the Duke of Inverness, bent and let her attend with the understanding that her course of study be suitable for a Lady of her stature. When she blew into Intro to Art History ten minutes late, minus textbooks, and then demanded a sheaf of paper and a pen, I wasn’t sure if I should genuflect or run the other direction. But I soon discovered Sophie may put on airs and act very much like the Lady she is, she is also just as down to earth as the rest of us, the funniest person I know and loyal to almost a fault.

After we order our lunch and chat about how everyone is doing, we get to the reason for our lunch today.

“Lia, as you know, Daddy is determined to marry me off this year.” I nod because it’s no secret that her father wants her married and basically out of his hair. I’ve heard his lamenting too many times to count. How he longs for the days when her husband can take her in hand and curb her wild ways. We always laugh because no one dare take Lady Sophia Kingsley in hand.

“At my mother’s request, he is throwing a ball. It’s all rather regency era, I know, but it’s what we do and not something I can stop. I’m left to beg, plead really, for my best friend and her dear, dear brother and wife to say you’ll attend as my guests. I need the morale support and quite frankly, Lia is the only one that can shut me up if I start running off at the mouth.”

“Sophie, I thought we were friends,” Sebastian says as he rubs his chin. “But I think you only keep the Americans around to save you from your boring British parties.”

“I see I’ve been found out. But you’re actually there as a sort of circus act to which we make fun of.”

“Oh my God!” Kate shrieked. “How wonderful!” She had the biggest smile and she looked like a little girl who had just been given the only gift she had ever wanted. “Can you imagine, Sebastian? A ball.”

“I don’t recall ever seeing that expression on Kate’s face before,” Sophie says while trying not to laugh.

“I think she’s in shock. Give it a few minutes. After that, your stupid ball is all we’re going to hear about.”

“Ha ha,” Kate said while shaking her head. “Don’t make fun of me.”

“But it’s so much fun,” Sophie says as she sips her water. Kate sticks her tongue out at her and Sophie blows her a kiss.

Laughing, we get back to business and talk about logistics of the ball. The date sends Kate into a fit because she has so much to do in order to get ready. She pretty much ignores us for the rest of lunch as she pulls out her iPad and starts looking at gowns. Sebastian makes a substantial amount of money, but I can see him calculating how much his wife is planning on spending and cringes. I know he’ll corner me in the next day or two, begging me to help him stop whatever madness she’s about to embark on.

We sit a bit longer before Sebastian announces he needs to head back to work, demanding that Kate leave with him. Sophie and I watched them leave and then she pounces on me.

“You know that I adore you more than my own family, but I think I would take great pleasure in thrashing you right now.” Sophie looked mad and I wasn’t sure why. She had been fine during lunch, so this set me back a bit.

“What’s wrong? You were fine a minute ago.”

“What’s wrong? How shall I put this?” She tapped her well-manicured finger on her chin and stared off into space, I’m sure for affect, while she waited for me to start squirming. Sophie was good at breaking someone when she wanted to ferret out information. She should have worked at Scotland Yard or something…she was that good.

“Please explain why Jeremy Patton rang me this morning and demanded I tell him where you were staying here in London. Enlighten me on why that bloody f*****g areshole even knows you’re here?”

Sophie looked like she was ready to commit so kind of heinous act on my person, but I knew she was coming from a place of concern. She never liked Jeremy, partly because I suspect she knew a lot more about what he was doing than I did. When we broke up, she was more than willing to share what she suspected, but by then I didn’t really care anymore. Why beat myself up about how big of an i***t I was.

“He’s called a couple of times.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know why he’s calling.”

“Don’t be daft. Do you answer? Why do I bother, of course you do. Why do you continue to answer his calls? I’m fairly certain he has nothing nice to say, considering what the bastard said to me. So why would you put yourself through that? You’re done.” She contemplated for a moment and then I saw a spark go off in her eyes. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this eons ago. Hand me your mobile.”

“No.” She was started to sound very much like a shrewish mother and I didn’t want to play by Sophie’s rules right now. She wasn’t getting my phone.

“Give me your mobile, Amelia.

“No, Sophia.”

“Stop acting like a child. You either give me your mobile so I can delete that tosser’s information or you do it with me sitting here. One way or another, it’s being deleted.” She down the rest of her wine and continues on her rant. “Have you ever considered he continues to harass you because you answer when he calls? A normal person would ignore him when he rang, especially when he had a special ringtone assigned. But not you. You answer, every time, and continue to allow that man to control you.”

“You know what, Sophia,” I say as I lean into the table. I may be pissed at her, but I don’t need the entire lunch crowd at Boyd’s hearing us. “I pick up his calls, but he can’t do anything to me when I’m an entire ocean away. I’m sorry he called you, but that doesn’t mean you can turn this into a ‘let’s fix Amelia’ session because I still have his number in my phone.”

“I don’t trust the man. I don’t care if there is an ocean between you. I. Don’t. Trust. Him.”

“Well trust me, then.”

Looking at each other across the table, I could tell that she didn’t trust me when it came to Jeremy and that stung a little bit. OK, more than a little. I broke up with his cheating ass and moved to another country. I figured that said volumes.

Grabbing my purse off the back of my chair, I stood and looked back at my best friend. I was pissed and didn’t want to be around her right now, but she was still someone I counted on.

“I’m done for the afternoon. I guess when you can trust that I know what I’m doing you’ll call.”

“Lia.” She said softly as I walked away. I wasn’t willing to stick around to listen to whatever other shortcomings I may have. With a headache building and my feelings hurt, I needed to let go for a while. I knew exactly where I was going to go