Part 15 (2/2)
Inside a stall, she sat on the cold seat and put her head in her hands. What the h.e.l.l was she doing chasing down an Eastern European model who didn't have an agent when she could be in the office resuscitating her business? Her failing business. She got up, determined to drop the whole thing and go help Corky, but then the door of the stall next to her slapped open, and she heard the unmistakable sounds of a woman hurling.
Laura checked under the stall. Nice shoes. Lacroix bag on the floor. A few seconds later, there was a cough, a delicate spit or two, and the rattle of the toilet paper rolling out. She decided to help by leaving before the puker did, but no luck, the stalls opened at the same time, and she was faced with Dymphna Bastille looking fresh-breathed, even if she didn't smell it.
”Hi!” Dymphna cried as if she wasn't a first cla.s.s b.i.t.c.h. ”How are you?” The fact that Dymphna actually took a second to ask such a question meant someone must have been watching.
Laura looked around but saw no one, just the underside of Dymphna's chin as it masticated a wad of gum. ”I'm good. You?”
The model shrugged. ”I have a fitting with Jeremy in ten. They fit me when I was on a juice fast so, duh, the zipper's pulling.” They stood at the sinks, was.h.i.+ng hands, talking through the mirror.
”You know,” Laura said, ”I was wondering, I'm trying to lose a little weight. Ruby told me about these capsules she got from Thomasina that helped.”
”Oh yeah?” Dymphna stopped making eye contact.
”They were a purply color?” Dymphna waited, so Laura made something up. ”I know you don't need any of that stuff. You're one of those, 'eat anything you want and lose weight anyway' types. But me? Not as much. Anyway, I thought you might know from some of the other girls who are less, you know, natural about it.”
Dymphna looked under the stalls to make sure they were alone. ”Yeah, well, they get them from Roquelle, but if you say I told you, I'll deny it.”
Laura waved her hand. ”Don't worry. I'll tell her Thomasina told me. What's Roquelle going to do? Kill her?”
They laughed, but Laura felt dirty.
As she was about to leave, Dymphna said, ”Hey, can you tell Ruby I'm sorry about Thomasina? I mean, she was a b.i.t.c.h, but whatever. Takes all kinds.”
Dymphna was the child of a hippie commune on East Hampton, so her street language mixed with openness to human diversity wasn't surprising. What was shocking was that she seemed to know Ruby and the world's most expensive supermodel were... how should she even talk to herself about it in her mind? Intimate? Sleeping together? Doing it? It all seemed weird.
Dymphna interrupted her train of thought. ”What's this?” She tapped the brochure Laura had left on the vanity.
”You know this girl?” Laura asked.
Dymphna took a closer look at the photo, jaw working like an oil derrick. ”Never seen her.” She looked more closely. ”No, wait.” She stopped chewing her gum for a second.
”What?”
Dymphna shook it off. ”I saw her at a housewarming. Senator Machinelle just had her penthouse redone. G.o.d, it was all mirrors and marble. And the decorator was this blonde carrying a poodle. Oh Em Gee, I'm so not voting for her next time.” She handed the booklet back and started away. ”I have to go.”
”Wait! Who was she with? This girl?”
Dymphna called back, ”She was the decorator's a.s.sistant.”
CHAPTER 16.
”What's going on with your face?” Ruby asked.
Laura realized she was standing in the hallway outside the bathroom, staring at the floor. ”I'm thinking.”
”Does it hurt?”
”Thomasina wanted to bring girls here, right? Find them jobs?”
”Pretty much.”
”Did she say she'd actually done it yet?”
Ruby shrugged. ”We didn't talk about that sort of thing a lot.”
Laura walked toward the elevator, pulling Ruby with her. ”Are you ever going to tell me about you and Thomasina? Or are you just going to be embarra.s.sed forever?”
”I'm not embarra.s.sed.”
”Then, what is it?”
”You didn't like her, not from the start, because she was rich, and rich people make you uncomfortable.”
”She was also a b.i.t.c.h.” She was sorry the second she said it, and Ruby didn't waste that second making a point.
”You'd never say that about my lover if it was a man. Especially my dead lover.”
The Nordstrom's buyer came out of the showroom just in time to hear. She had thick black gla.s.ses and red lipstick, and she smiled as if she and her two Binder Girls hadn't heard an argument over a dead lover. As they crowded into the elevator, Laura had not one word to offer that could ease the tension or change the subject. Ruby mentioned something about her next appointment, and Nordstrom's said something about lunch, and they were all out in the autumn air sixty seconds later.
”I'm sorry,” Laura said. ”I suck.”
”Yes, you do. I still have to pee.” They went to Veronica's and ordered sloppy pasta dishes.
Once Ruby got back from the bathroom, Laura asked, ”Thomasina knew Bob?”
”Ivanah, mostly. She helped us get the backing if you remember.”
”No, she didn't.”
Ruby shrugged. ”Having her around didn't hurt. It gave a good impression. Overall. That's important even if you don't believe it.” They ate in silence for a minute before she broke in, ”You want to ask me things, but you're afraid. Specific things, not that stupid, 'What was going on?' which puts all the responsibility on me to figure out what you mean. I don't know what you're afraid of, but it's, like, coming off you in waves. It's freaking me out.”
”It's a little heavy, Rubes.”
”Yeah.”
”Did you love her?”
Apparently, Ruby expected a more mechanical question because she looked taken aback. That, however, was exactly what Laura wanted to know, not only because it could help modify the tone of subsequent questions, but because it would clue her in to how much she'd missed while her head was buried in her work.
”I did,” Ruby said, blowing cold air into the balloon of guilt Laura carried.
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