Raff the cameraman was loading his gun, so to speak, Joey was making darts and dashes at her with a makeup pencil, trying to correct her eyebrow line on the run without destroying her vision and Chelsea was screwing lights into sockets, while she struggled not to trip over tripods that kept opening of their own accord.
Here we are, folks, sang the bellhop. Try to get my left side, he said sotto voce to Raff as he flung open the door of the suite.
Da-dum! Welcome to the Tahoe Jungle Suite!
Ah-h-h, Faith moaned.
Me Tarzan, Cabot muttered.
The five of them hovered outside the door of the suite. I cant go in until Ive had some food, Joey said.
Im not going in without hip waders, Raff said. The bride and groom can test the waters while we set up for the shoot.
Cabot still didnt move any farther into the room, so neither did Faith. She was not Jane, and she was afraid to try it alone. Something might drop down from the ceiling, like an anaconda.
The Tahoe Jungle Suite was the realization of a decorators worst nightmare. Vines twisted up the walls and across the ceiling to form a canopy over a jungle of large-leaf plants, plants with a shine that said, Plastic! The suite was really one large room, and in the seating area, hammocks replaced sofas. The hammocks were fitted with pads covered in tiger-print satin fabric. The end tables and the coffee tables resembled sections of tree trunk. Plastic tree trunk. With round Lucite tops.
Faith focused on the bed. Enormous, resting on a platform painted to look like a rock ledge, it was the focal point of the room. The base was made of twisted boughs. Plastic boughs, of course. More animal printsleopard, zebra, cheetahcovered the duvet, the many pillows. It looked like thered been a massacre of endangered species.
She looked back to find Cabot staring at a hammock. Imagining himself there, maybe.
I didnt ask what the room theme was, Faith said limply. I thought hearts and flowers.
The bellhop gave her a youre-not-from-around-here-are-you look. This is the weekend before Valentines Day, he said. The hearts and flowers were booked fifteen months ago. The rest of the year, this is our most popular suite. He did another sweep with his arm. You have your visual effects, he said dramatically, and your audio effects! He pushed a wall switch and the space resonated with the caws of tropical birds, insect twirps, a distant waterfall and a swishing sound that Faith decided was probably the anaconda waiting patiently to pounce.
Really gives the place character, the bellhop said. He nodded with satisfaction, and his tall, boxy hat bounced on his head.
It does do that, Cabot said.
Faith couldnt bring herself to look at him. He had to be dying from sheer disgust. It was too much to hope he might be dying to laugh.
Its fine, he said.
No, its not, Faith said.
Yes, it is, Cabot said. Tippy will like the ambiance. You ready out there, guys?
Ready as well ever be, Raff called back.
Its show time, folks, Cabot said. Hold on a minute. I want to splash some water on my face first.
The next thing she heard was a roll of thunder, a crackle of lightning and a sound from Cabot that, if his voice werent so masculine, she might have called a scream. As the waiting crew muttered curses and flung down their equipment to dash to the rescue, the bathroom door opened. Cabot emerged, water dripping from his hair and clothes, clutching a leopard-print towel.
I guess that wasnt the light switch after all, he said, deadly calm.
It was your rain-forest effects, Faith said.
He stared at his crew for a long, silent moment. Well cross the threshold tomorrow, he said in the same overly calm voice. When the rainy season has passed. He slammed the door in their startled faces.
He glared at her, then turned his back and opened his suitcase. She gazed at his back, watching the elegant, black, soaking-wet suit crumple up, then opened her own large bag the bellhop had positioned on a luggage rack.
Whens dinner? Cabot said, pulling things out of his suitcase and depositing them in a zebra-striped dresser.
We have an eight-oclock reservation, she said, hoping shed remembered right.
We have to stay here until eight? There was an edge of panic in his voice.
She could understand the panic. She couldnt wait to get out of this place herself.
It will be eight by the time weve unpacked and freshened up and It hit her like brand-new information that she was sharing the Tahoe Jungle Suite with a man she found almost irresistible. And it will be time for dinner before you know it. Cabot
What? he said, sounding impatient as he unzipped a leather bag and pulled interesting-looking items out of it. Socks, underwear, turtlenecks
Faith accepted the sad but true fact that everything about Cabot interested her, even his underwear. I realize this isnt the mood you want for your honeymoon, she said. By July the demand for hearts and flowers will slow down, and Im sure I can
I already said, he answered her, bent over a suitcase, Tippy will like it just fine.
This time the familiar words didnt annoy her. She felt sympathetic, amused, willing to educate him. He didnt have a clue as to what a woman would like. Except that the woman would like him. What woman could keep herself from liking him. Wanting him. Loving him. Giving herself to him
Ill confirm the reservation, she said, and hastily involved herself in her unpacking.
Makeup and toiletries, the beautiful outfits with their matching shoes and handbags, belts, chiffon scarves, pashmina stoles. Jewelrystunning, fake, and, Cabot had told her, borrowed. The pale-blue dressing gown. With shaking fingers she scrambled through the bags, unzipping pockets and ripping open Velcro cubbyholes before finally giving up the search.
That thing that had been niggling at her as she was leaving townnow she knew what it was. Shed forgotten to bring a stitch of underwear.
6
CABOT PULLED A SWEATER over his head, and just as hed reached that point of no return, with both arms in the air and his head still trying to push through the turtleneck, he heard Faith say, I need to do a little shopping.
Forgot something? He wanted to say, something else, but restrained himself.
Ah, yes, a thong or two.
Nah, she couldnt have said that. His head popped through the sweater. What? He could see her now, and her face was flushed pink.
A thing or two, she mumbled.
Female stuff probably. All he needed to put the perfect shine on the weekend was a surrogate bride with PMS. For a second he tried to imagine Tippy with PMS, but he didnt have to imagine it. Tippy acted like a woman with PMS all the time. There are shops in the hotel. Go buy your stuff and Ill He would lie down quietly on some animals skin and try to recover from Faith, from the tackiness of the room, from having to share the tackiest room in the world with Faith, all of those things. He might even experiment with the hammock, find out just how bad the night was going to be.
Dont forget to confirm the restaurant reservation, he couldnt keep himself from adding. Lets see, Ive got all those written permissions to film. You got a separate table for the crew, right?
Dont forget to confirm the restaurant reservation, he couldnt keep himself from adding. Lets see, Ive got all those written permissions to film. You got a separate table for the crew, right?
A sepyes, of course, she said hastily.
Because I dont want to treat them like staff. Theyll do the filming between courses, and theyll be less obtrusive if they have their own table. Did you get the chart telling you what to wear when?
Ah She scrambled for a minute through a folder that had little pieces of paper sticking out randomly from three sides. Yes.
Be back in time to change.
Yes, Sir, she said, and saluted smartly.
He had to admit he was being a nag. Sorry, he said, its a bad habit.
Everything will be fine, she said, and gave him a sunny smile as she tripped out the door, her little blue crocodile sandals not making a sound on the three-inch-thick jungle-green carpeting.
HER SMILE FADED as she raced through the hotel, which seemed to be one endless casino, looking for a private spot. At last she found a small foyer with a marble bench and collapsed onto it. With shaking hands she took the restaurant reservations sheet out of the folder and dialed the number of that nights restaurantthe nicest one in the hotelon her cell phone.
Confirming a reservation for two this evening in the name Drennan, she said in her best travel agents voice.
Yezz, of courzz, came the purring response. Were eggspecting you. The voice cooled slightly. You are the ones who are going to be vilming.
Yes, Faith said. Well also need a nearby table for three, same time, she added, and held her breath.
That is quite impozzible, the voice intoned at last. We are vully booked.
But its very important, Faith said. What had she thought the crew would do? Stand around their table filming them having dinner all evening? My job depends on it.
Im sorry about your job, but I cant make a table where there izz no table. The purr was rapidly turning into a snarl.
Oh, but you can, Faith said with enthusiasm. Just set up an extra table for three next to our table. We dont mind being crowded.
Miss, zizz is not our style at Arturos of the Inn of Dreams.
Would you tell me your name, please? Faith said, feeling desperate.
Mario.
Mario, she said, maybe I should come into the restaurant and discuss this with you privately. So if necessary, she could slip him fifty dollars of her total liquid assetsone hundred thirty-six dollars and change. I hesitate to tell you over the phone who will be filmed this evening, but she has strong democratic tendencies and will be appalled if her film crew doesnt have its own table.
Izz this she you refer to afamous person?
Very.
In politics?
Oh, heavens no.
In thefilm industry?
There it was again, that sound of reverence. Im not at liberty to say, Faith said primly. Her public is very demanding. She values her privacy.
Ah-h-h, breathed Mario. He sounded as if he were starting to pant. Well, let me see, Mizzz
Im their travel agent, Faith said.
I think if we juggle here, and stagger there He seemed to be plotting it out visually. Yezz. We will have that zecond table ready for your party, Mizzz
The purr was back, intensified. Shed saved herself fifty dollars. She wasnt bad at this stuff, just always a little late. Now she had to do the same thing four more times, the two lunches and the two other dinners. She punched viciously at her cell phone.
AN HOUR LATER she stood in front of the hotels lingerie shop. Bad news, from the window display of silk and lace in Valentine colors of red and white. But surely they had plain white cotton panties and bras hidden away in the drawers, and she had about enough credit left on her credit card for two sets she could keep washing out.
I need some underwear, she told the clerk.
Doesnt everybody? she simpered. What sort of thing were you looking for?
Panties and bras. I forgot mine.
Ooh, do I ever have some pretty things for you. She whipped out a white silk thong edged in lace and a bra that neither did nor hid anything, as far as Faith could tell.
No, no, I was thinking more along the lines of
Something more seductive. Aha. The woman laid out another matched set on the counter. This time the thong was black, covered in embroidered red hearts, and the bra was red with two large black hearts forming the cups. This has been a hot number the last few days, she said.
It would be a hot number any old time, Faith said. She felt rushed and flustered, and yet she couldnt keep from imagining herself wearing all those hearts, ambushing Cabot at the door of their own tiny honeymoon cottage.
And visions of that insidious sort were exactly the reason she needed to be buying plain white cotton panties and bras. Id prefer something simple, she said, cotton, preferably.
Cotton?
Cotton, Faith said firmly.
We only have one cotton line, the woman said, casting a dubious glance at Faith. Butlucky you, its on sale.
Wonderful, Faith said. Ill take She looked down at the counter. They were cotton all right, thin cotton animal prints.
Mix and match, the clerk said gaily. Wear the leopard with the zebra, or be conservative and wear tiger top and bottom.
Theyd go well with my room, she murmured.
Oh! Are you in the jungle suite? Lucky you!
Uh-huh, Faith said. The panties were, of course, thongs. The bras scooped so low that Faith wondered why anyone would bother to wear one of them. I dont suppose you have a camisole, she said.
No, Ive got a teddy, the clerk said.
No teddies, Faith said sharply. She was running out of time. I need something to sleep in, too, she said. She thought about Cabot, and added, A pair of pajamas, long-sleeved pajamas with long pants. Neck-to-ankle coverage.