His eyes narrowed and a satisfied snarl crept over his thin lips. He chuckled quietly to himself. His course of action had changed radically.
OH, DEAR. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, after all.Amanda’s worried eyes flicked quickly back and forth between a deadly looking Cissy and a grim-faced Christine.
Get to know what Christine thinks, Marc had said, referring to Antonio’s posing. Hopefully get past her initial reaction. That would mean meeting Christine away from their group, Amanda had surmised. Find out who Christine was, how she thought.
Her worldly classmate would also more than likely have a few well-chosen words of advice concerning “relationships.” And this morning Amanda had felt she could afford to listen to a little advice coming from a different perspective.
And then she had the bright idea that Cissy should be added to the mix. Maybe between the two Amanda could figure out if she was handling this thing with Marc right. Being very careful, of course, not to reveal his true identity.
She was feeling totally conflicted caught between wanting to build slowly to make sure her affinity with Marc was solid and built on a firm foundation. And at the same time wanting to leap into his arms and worry about the consequences later.
Lord, how long could a girl hold out?
So she had called them both for lunch and they all met at a lovely, little place on West 23rd.
“I’ve always felt theimportant thing was to find someone you could spend therest of your life with.” Cissy’s white-knuckled clinch around her wine glass belied her frozen smile. “Someone who could takecare of you, and keep you in the manner in which youshould be kept.”
“Bull, baby.” Christine was having none of it. “Love ‘em and leave ‘em, ‘cause that’s exactly what they’re going to do to your little, hot loins.”
“You sound like you’ve had someunfortunate experiences,” Cissy said, pity seasoning her voice. “And that’s anawful shame. But we mustn’t allow one or two bad apples to spoil the whole fruit basket.”
“One or two? Look at me, you little…you young one.” Christine swept her hand grandly from her hairdo down to her martini. “Do you get the feeling I’ve been there and done that? Several times over? If Amanda is so dense as to think she’s going to get the perfect ‘relationship’ out of this thing with…what’s his name Mr. Horn Rims…then it’s probably going to be as deadly as they come. He backed off when you told him to?” She turned an incredulous face toward Amanda. “No balls. I say jump in his pants, get what kicks you can and dump him for the first replacement that comes along.”
Amanda felt chilled. The air conditioning must be very high.
“Now if we were talking about the Naked Hunk we’re going to get the chance to slam our peepers on again tonight, youknow there’s no more there than meets the eye. But it’s great eye candy. You think because this Marc stud treats you like Little Miss Princess he’s gonna keep treating you that way when the wedding cake gets cold. Get real.”
Cissy’s tight features took on a look of true concern. “GoodLord, Christine, you sound like you’ve been treatedvery badly along the way. Maybe, if you were a little more subtle with your make-up?”
Amanda cleared her throat in shocked warning.
A moment’s hesitation and Christine laughed raucously.
“Cissy-belle, I gotta hand it to you. You’re either naive as cotton candy or you’ve got more guts than I give you credit for, to take on an old war horse like me. I know I’m painted like a fun-loving merry widow, but it keeps the uninitiated out of my life. I’m no teacher at this stage of the game.”
“But I thought you and Nathan…” Christine whirled on Amanda, stopping the words in her throat.
“I have… my weaknesses.” The look of pain startled both the other women as Christine downed the rest of her martini.
“You mean thattacky, self-centered, young…” Cissy’s harsh comment trailed off. Her face instantly softened into a look of motherly concern. “Oh,honey, youknow better.”
Christine woefully nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
“Oh Lord, he would make your lifemiserable.”
Christine again nodded dejectedly. “Has made. But he’s such a great talent and he’s throwing it away.” She looked angrily at Amanda. “On those god-awfulthings you publish. It’s okay for old Angeli to blow what talent he’s got left, but Nathan… You should see the stuff he’s got on his walls.”
At Amanda and Cissy’s surprised reactions, her false lashes dipped and her chin lifted proudly. “Yeah. I’ve been in his bedroom. Yeah. We did it. Yeah, I’m carrying a damned torch ‘cause we’ll probably never do it again.” Her eyes brimmed. “He was… so gentle. I felt fifteen. As if I remembered fifteen.”
The tears overflowed. Cissy was instantly at her side, her arms enfolding the shuddering shoulders with protective youthful assurance, a tissue at Christine’s eyes, cooing soothing counsels of understanding.
Amanda watched, amazed at the revelations.
Christine sighed deeply, dabbed at her face and gave Cissy a thankful pat.
“At least I’ve got that night to remember. I had this goddamned foolish thing about being his… muse. You should see his stuff, Amanda. I swear it’s as good as the drawings I’ve seen hanging in the Met. Like old masters. I went home and did some of the best sketches I’ve ever done, I was so absolutely inspired.” She gave a self-deprecating guffaw. “Yeah, right. By his art. You know anything about art, Cis?”
“Well, I…”
“To have gone to bed with a kid that can put pen to paper like that. I guess I can die happy. But I ain’t happy…” The tears started again. Cissy was again at her side, spreading soothing understanding and commiseration.
Amanda sat stunned.
Nathan.
…And maybe Christine.
The life class at the Art Students League was starting to get tense.
DAVID Parkerson entered jauntily, a few minutes late, surprised that young “Antonio” hadn’t already shown up to pose for the session. He assumed the young model would be along shortly and proceeded to extol to the class his extraordinary good fortune in being chosen to assist in the new Metropolitan exhibit.
He had a particular expertise in the field of art the exhibition covered, he noted modestly without going into further detail and knew the class would find the it most interesting when it opened.
“We would like to find this class most interesting,” Christine noted tartly. “Where is our handsome hunk?”
Amanda felt a wave of apprehension. Where was Marc? She knew how he was looking forward to this evening’s session. Maybe stuck in the subway. Surely not in a cab accident.
She forced herself to remain calm.
“You haven’t perhaps set us up for a let-down have you?” Professor Angeli was being unusually tart. “Young Antonio is not to appear tonight and you are making a feeble attempt to assuage the situation.”
Mr. Wilde pulled himself up to his full imposing height. “I say, that would be unthinkable, Parkerson.”
“Mention using those damned plaster casts again and I’m outta here.” Nathan seemed the most sullen of all.
Amanda had the sinking feeling he was on something again. He had arrived hyped and excited and had grown increasingly short-tempered as it seemed more and more likely that Antonio might not show.
Their teacher’s patience was growing thin. “You’re here to sketch, to learn life drawing. It’s presumptuous of you to be demanding. It’s I who am demanding of you to do your best work with or without a model.”