A Special Place for Women, Laura Hankin [brene brown rising strong .txt] 📗

recorder out of his pocket and held it up to Raf’s mouth. “Any thoughts on the patriarchal underpinnings that prevent women from reaching true representational parity?”

Raf flushed, uncomfortable. “Oh, um, I don’t need to—”

“You know why he’s here, Miles,” I said, and put my arm around Raf’s waist, handing him my extra glass of champagne. “Because he is a wonderful, supportive boyfriend.”

“Right, right, of course.” Miles took another sip of his drink. “You two make a beautiful couple.” He lowered his voice and continued, in a sardonic tone, “Very convincing. I would never have guessed that you’re not actually into each other.”

“You’re not into each other?” a voice said from behind us, and I turned to see Vy, standing very close, her face unreadable, wearing a canvas jumpsuit and work boots just like she’d wear to anything else, holding a napkin full of shrimp. Miles, Raf, and I startled.

“No!” I said. “No, it’s a stupid joke.”

“I was teasing,” Miles said. “Because they’re so clearly smitten.”

Vy picked a piece of shrimp out of her teeth, staring at us.

“You know, when you really like someone,” I said, “and so you’re like, Oh, I can’t stand him?”

“No,” Vy said.

“Like,” Raf said, “Um, I hate her so much that I think about her all day.”

“Right,” I said, looking at Raf, putting my hand on his cheek, “Like, Ugh, your stupid mouth is so disgusting that I just want to kiss it all the time.”

“You can kiss,” Vy said, dead-faced. “I won’t be offended.”

“Oh,” I said, “No, I didn’t mean, like, now. In public—”

“All right, well, I should—” Miles began.

“No one cares,” Vy said, not looking away from our faces as she began to chew one of the shrimp from her napkin. “So why not?”

I let out an awkward laugh as Raf shifted uncomfortably beside me. “Oh, I don’t know,” I said after a beat of silence, when I realized she was actually expecting an answer. The wheels in her head were probably turning now—first my comment during the tarot reading about how I hadn’t gotten laid in so long, now this.

“Then go ahead and do it if you want to,” she said, almost a dare.

“Um. Okay,” I said, panicking. I turned to Raf and tried to telegraph a Be cool, man message with my eyes as I put my hand back on his warm cheek. I leaned forward and brushed my lips against his. At first he was rigid, and then he put his hand on my neck and kissed me back, tangling his fingers in my hair. I forgot about our strange circumstances, the people watching us, for a moment. The only immediate thing was the unexpected, lovely feel of Raf’s mouth on mine.

We broke apart slowly, and I came back to myself. Raf’s ears were pink. Miles had a strange expression on his face.

“Okay,” Vy said.

Miles cleared his throat. “Well, thank you for the interesting quotes. Enjoy the rest of the gala.” He gave a small salute and sauntered off, right as Margot appeared, resplendent in a diaphanous, dark green gown, looking like an ancient Greek goddess.

She noticed us and made her way to our side. Margot moved through the room, through all rooms, as if she were floating on a rowboat, trailing her fingers through the water while someone else did all the paddling.

“What an incredible event,” she said as she hugged each of us in turn. Then she pulled me aside as Vy began to talk to Raf. “So the New York Times, huh? I’m glad you said yes to our little writing assignment.”

“I’m glad I did too,” I said. “It’s wild.”

She faced out, surveying the crowd, and we both concentrated on drinking our champagne, not looking directly at each other. “I’ve been talking to Caroline about what we discussed,” she said. “I made the case for you.”

“Oh yeah?”

“There’s limited space, though.” Her eyes flickered over to Caroline, who had somehow ended up talking to Libby again. “And she has someone else in mind.” Libby leaned in to Caroline like a flower bending toward the sun. The two of them laughed so heartily it was like they’d gone into slow motion, heads thrown back, eyes closing. I’d never seen Caroline so at ease. Maybe Libby’s constant adulation filled some need inside of her, proved that someone could be drawn more to her than to Margot.

Margot bit her lip. “She gets final say on this one. I owe her, and she won’t let me forget that.” A stormy expression passed over her face, a note of agitation in her voice. “I want it to be you and I’m still trying, but if there’s anything you can do to convince her yourself, do it tonight.” She put her now-empty champagne flute on the tray of a passing waiter. “Good to see you.” She kissed my cheek, then turned and tapped Vy on the shoulder. “Shall we?” Together, the two of them waded into the crowd while Raf and I stared after them, silent for a moment.

“This night is very weird,” Raf said.

“Sorry about the kiss and all of that. That was so stupid of Miles—”

“Yeah, what was that dude’s deal?”

“I don’t even . . . He’s going through some stuff.” I shook my head. “How was your conversation with Vy?”

“Well, she said she couldn’t stay long because she had to feed Anais, and I asked if that was her dog, but no. It’s her emotional support snake,” Raf said. “And then she showed me five pictures of the snake.”

“What? What kind of snake is it?”

“I don’t know. Big. And then she looked at me for a long time and told me I smelled like I had an honest heart. And then . . .”

“And then?”

Raf gave a funny little cough. “That was pretty much all she said.”

“Really—” I began. But I didn’t have time to prod him on that because Caroline excused herself from Libby and headed toward the bathroom, and I knew it was my shot to catch her alone.

“Be back in just a minute,” I said