"You're only telling me about this now!?" Celeste exclaimed at Jess, who had just mentioned in passing that Noah, the new editor he was hiring for Truncheon, had invited him to a New Years Party at Terminal 5.
"I figured we'd just stay home," Jess explained his simple thought process.
"Yeah, but it's probably a good place to meet contacts, right? He invited you personally, you said. That means that he's serious - he wants you to meet some people. If he just had spare tickets he would've just sent them to the office or something," Celeste explained her much more experienced point of view in these things. As she'd understood Noah was not just some average junior editor, he came with a contact network of his own and had been one of the big fish of this world back in Germany.
"Yeah, he did. But I don't want to spend my free evening mingling, I want to spend it with you," Jess clarified intensely, not really getting why she was getting so worked up about this.
"You're adorable! I'd be coming with you, silly," Celeste said, playfully scolding him.
"Are you really sure you'd be up for that?"Jess worried, his tone calming momentarily.
"I'll take a nap before, I'll be fine," she replied. As long as she was able to, she was gladly his wing-woman on these business ventures.
Jess drank the rest of his coffee in one sip, knowing he needed to get ready for work soon.
"Do you have the invite?" Celeste asked, trying to think practically, as she sat at the dinner table eating her smoothie bowl.
"I should have it somewhere," Jess pondered, "I'll find it by tomorrow," he added.
"Jess, if we're going to go, I'm going to need it now. Dresscode, RSVP request and so on…," Celeste demanded, holding out her palm demonstratively.
"Fine, I'll go look," Jess said with a sigh and headed towards the foyer to go through his laptop satchel.
"April said she was coming on the 4th, right?" Celeste asked in passing, making a note in her calendar that was still surprisingly busy considering she was supposed to be taking things easier from now on.
"Yeah," Jess called from the foyer, adding, "found it!"
Jess returned, handing her the invite, having not even taken it out of the envelope it came with.
"You should be really glad you showed me this today, not tomorrow, and I'm beginning to regret I suggested we'd go - it's a costume party," Celeste sighed.
"So we don't go," Jess replied, feeling like that was the easy fix.
"No-no, I think I can think of something," she replied, showing him the invite, her through process already flipping through the contents of her wardrobe and Jess'. Sure, she wasn't going to fit into most of it, but the 20s theme might be solvable fairly easily if she got a little crafty. It wasn't what she did best, but surely she could think of something. "You got any suspenders? Bow-tie?" she asked, knowing Jess did have some vests that might do the trick. As a bonus he always did look very handsome in his suit vests.
"I should have a bow-tie," Jess replied, sighing at the prospect of an elaborate event, that he doubted he was going to enjoy much. Sure, it was probably a notch down from the HPG gala, no press, and actually perhaps a few interesting people, but he still expected it to be work, and he was probably going to have to sustain from drinking to be able to drive there, not wanting to have to worry how to get Celeste back home late at night.
"You do?" she replied surprisedly. It didn't seem like his kind of thing.
"Yeah, went to a wedding a few years ago," he replied, briefly.
"Right," Celeste replied, going all thoughtful for a moment, being reminded of how little she really knew about Jess's history. Sure they'd talked a little about how his career had gone, about his friends and where he'd travelled, but there were on occasion these little things. The ex-girlfriends and the struggles that he didn't really like to bring up. She didn't mind, but she just didn't like being reminded that there were parts of him that she knew little about, most of the time feeling like she was joint at the hip with him, both of their lives having changed completely in less than a year.
Jess knew this, and he wondered whether he should elaborate that the wedding had been his ex-girlfriend's sister's wedding in Montauk. He stood behind her as she sat, massaging her shoulders gently, as if assuring, it was nothing, and before he had a chance to say anything, which probably was for the better, she stood up.
"Alright, you've got to go to work! I'll think of something," Celeste assured, kissing him goodbye, as she began the long climb up to the third floor guestroom where she kept her old gowns. She recalled having something there with feathers - perhaps enough to make herself a headband or something that she could spruce up one of her semi-formal bodycon dresses for one evening.
She was nearly on the third floor, panting from the climb, when she heard the door close downstairs, knowing she was on her own for the day. She didn't have much planned for the day, accepting a grocery delivery and checking her stocks, both of which she could easily deal with later in the day.
Now she stared at the sizable walk-in wardrobe that she hardly used on a day-to-day basis, filled with her eventwear she had shipped from London. She wasn't even sure why she'd done that, the shipping itself having cost a fortune, and it wasn't as if she'd planned on having many occasions to wear those gowns. And now and perhaps in the future as well, it was quite unlikely a lot of those would fit her. She began by finding the Enzoani dress with a feather tail - surely taking one feather out of it's hem wasn't that big of a deal?
As she browsed, she felt a little sad for her dresses, them being just abandoned up there like that. She briefly considered what she could do with them - sure they had plenty of market value and she could theoretically just attempt to sell them, but then again many of these were custom made, photographed at red carpet events and could be traced back at her. And it wasn't like she desperately needed the money.
There were a few of her favourites, that she wanted to keep around, even if just for Evie or just to keep as a memento for herself - among the latter were a gorgeous black and white Valentino, a simple sparkly nude Gucci that was a little stretchy that she might actually be able to fit in someday again, a few vintage pieces and her favourite - a deep yellow Vera Wang that she'd worn to one of the biggest events she'd ever thrown in her career carrying a lot of sentimental value.
But the rest… they just reminded her of a lot of family events, work - and feeling a sudden urge to purge, she began sorting through the dresses placing the ones she wasn't planning on keeping to the left. There were a few gorgeous Elie Saab moody princess gowns, a couple of Armani suits - clearly not mom-wear, Dior's dotted ballgown with a matching coat, a dark green Guy Laroche gown and a few more from YSL and Givenchy. At some point she lost count. It was probably just her hormones, but there was a certain sadness to parting from these - another confirmation that that part of her life was perhaps really past her - the elaborate spending on designer outfits, every other weekend attending some fancy event and being in the public eye. Strangely enough she didn't miss it - not in the current life she was living it offering her just the right amount of excitement and possibilities to get put out her best side. Perhaps these outfits had also been in a way the replacement for all the things she'd been missing back then, and that she no longer lacked. She knew she'd need to either call someone to come pick up the dresses or have Jess take them, hence making a mental note to look online which of the charity organizations would work best in this situation - that would also keep the anonymity of where they came from.
It was late afternoon, and Celeste had just put their dinner, sweet potatoes, chickpeas and leftovers from last night's chicken, into the oven, expecint Jess to arrive in an half an hour or so, when she'd decided to call Rory, knowing she was now back from Nantucket and they hadn't spoken in a couple of days.
"Hey!" Rory picked up cheerily.
"Hey! Glad to hear you're still alive from all of the travels," Celeste commented.
"Barely," she replied with a sigh.
"Planning on staying home on New Years Eve I guess?" she asked.
"Definitely, I don't think I want to leave the apartment again before I have to," Rory grumbled, having missed home.
"When do your classes start?" Celeste asked.
"I have three weeks to spare, thankfully," Rory replied. "Any New Years Eve plans for you guys?" she asked.
"Oh just this last minute 20s theme party in Terminal 5, Jess almost forgot to tell me about," Celeste said with a note of sarcasm. She wasn't really mad - this was just typical of men in general.
"Sounds fun," Rory noted.
"Yeah, I figured it might be one of the last things we go to while I am still in once piece, plus it's good him, good for contacts. It seems to be a bit of a freelancer slash writer's party," Celeste explained.
"You mean the one that the Guild throws? I went there a few years ago, it was pretty cool," Rory noted.
"I think that's the one," Celeste added, with the limited knowledge she had based on the RSVP address. "Hey, how did it go with your mom?" she inquired, recalling that Nantucket had been a pretty significant crossroad for the two.
"I asked her, she helped. She helped a lot actually," she admitted. "But it's still a little awkward," she added.
"Good," Celeste commented, adding, "I'm sure it'll get better, even if just a little," not wanting to pressurize her. "And you yourself are now well rested and relaxed I hope?" she asked cheekily.
"Getting there," Rory replied, not wanting to go into too much detail with Logan nearby.
"Good," she sighed. "Listen, another thing - do you know what is the best organization to donate old designer gowns to?" Celeste asked, adding, "I just went through my closet," with a sigh, figuring that statement didn't really requite much more explanation to Rory.
"Oh, I know. I did a piece on this type of charities a few years ago. I don't know how relevant all of them are these days but there was one called Operation Prom, Becca's closet I think one was, and then there's always Goodwill and places like that if the dresses are a little older," Rory explained.
"Alright, I'll look into it. Boy, some girl is going to have a fun prom once she realizes she's wearing a 6000 dollar Givenchy," she chuckled.
"It's a good idea, money definitely going to the right place, even if they themselves decide to sell it and buy 20 regular dresses instead," Rory noted.
"True," she replied. "I just want an organization that is trustworthy - both so they won't just end up on ebay for profit nor be traced back to Odette, you know," Celeste explained.
"Yeah, I get it. Well if you're really worried, you could always have me contact them and hand the dresses over or something," Rory suggested.
"I think I can handle it, but thanks for the offer," Celeste added.
"Alright, I got to go, Finny is a little cranky today," she added apologetically
"Say hi to Logan for me," Celeste added.
"And you to Jess," Rory replied, before hanging up.
They got to the venue fashionably late - the one-man band, a renowned Slovenian electronic music mixing with dubstep, glitch and hip hop - probably something more on top of that, already blasting away. The music was really quite good, though an odd combination with the dress-code, they both thought.
"You look good," Celeste commented, as he glanced over her husband, who'd handed away his winter coat, now dressed in slim pants and one of his dark blue suit vests on a light dress shirt, wearing a bowtie, as she wrapped her arms around his chest assuringly.
"And you look absolutely gorgeous," Jess replied, kissing her hairline. She'd gone with a simple black velvet dress, which was a little shorter than she was used to wearing on most days, only really having worn it for one of the launch parties before. She'd made herself a feathered hair piece with a fake jewel using one of her necklaces as the head band. She'd worn heels tonight, thick but high and having not worn them for a while they made her a little wobbly, clinging onto Jess' arm for support. But she just couldn't resist - the short dress looking infinitely better with a pair of heels.
The venue wasn't fancy, but had definitely been decorated to meet the occasion, red drapes and sofa covers used along with plenty of mirror balls. The event was catered, serving salmon puffs and melon-prosciutto skewers among other things, making Celeste's mouth water just at the thought.
"Well if it isn't Jess Mariano!" a voice approached them, making them turn around and look, just as they'd entered and walked no more than 10 feet.
"Spike!" Jess exclaimed on a positive note. "It's been a while!" he added, extending him a half-hug.
"Tell me about it!" Spike replied.
"This is my lovely wife Celeste, Celeste this is Spike Greer, he was one of my first reviewers, the first one that didn't hate my stuff. He kind of mentored me with the second book," Jess explained.
"Lovely to meet you," he replied, shaking her hand.
"So Spike, how have you been?" Jess asked.
"Oh, you know, a little of this and that, been travelling between Boston and NY a lot these days," he replied. "What about you?" he asked.
"I'm managing Trunchedon New York," Jess replied with some pride in his tone.
"Oh wow, big step, congrats! I heard HPG took over and made a new branch but I didn't know you were involved," Spike replied.
"Well they didn't take over per se, just steered it a bit, they're not that bad," Jess commented.
"Yeah, I guess the blood change did the HPG some good," Spike replied.
"It sure did," he replied, speaking loudly as they approached the music hall.
"Alright, I'll talk to you later, I got to go find someone I was supposed to meet," Spike added, trailing off with a friendly wave.
"Want to go get something to drink?" Jess asked Celeste, having to speak near her ear, the closeness feeling quite sensual.
"I'm good now, but you can get yourself one," Celeste replied smilingly. God, how she loved that the two of them still had a little bit of a flirt going on whenever they went anywhere like this.
They headed towards the bar, Jess ordering himself a small beer, knowing that it'd easily be out of his system by the time they went home.
"There's Noah," Jess gestured towards the towering blonde man by one of the standing tables speaking to two others.
"Well, let's go then," Celeste urged.
Noah was wearing a simple two row suit and a white fedora and black-and-white wingtip shoes, clearly having taken the dress code more seriously than most.
"Hey man," Noah greeted Jess as he saw him. "Glad you could make it!" he added, shaking his hand.
"Hi," Jess greeted everyone by the table. "My wife, Celeste," he introduced her. God, how he enjoyed saying that.
"Greetings gentlemen," Celeste replied smilingly.
Noah did a quick introduction round, explaining what each of the men did, one of them was a writer himself and the other a literary scout, with whom Jess found quite a few things to talk about, Celeste only really budging in with some supporting questions, when it seemed helpful, Jess's hand supportively around her hip.
Noah led them towards a few other contact's he'd wanted Jess to meet, some agents who were quite unfamiliar with the small players, such as Truncheon NY certainly was, but who seemed genuinely curious once they'd heard Jess introduce them the company. While Jess knew that Noah came with Logan's sign of approval, he couldn't help to wonder that perhaps the man was slightly overqualified for what he was hiring him for, and while he was no big fan of the administrative bits of his own job, he couldn't help but to feel a little threatened by the guy. Noah was probably not much older than he was, but with his international background and way better contact network than he seemed to have, left him with some hesitation on his part.
At some point they were left alone, Jess having found a vacant sofa in the corner, snuggling into each-other's side to take a break. They'd been mingling and standing around for a couple of hours now and while he'd kept an eye out for Celeste to make sure she wasn't too tired, having provided her with sparkling water and snacks in between just to make sure, he figured she could use a break.
"Thank you," he whispered into her ear over the music. He'd met at least a dozen people already who might prove useful in Trunchedon's operations - for finding new authors, for having a few freelance editors on standby if they needed help, and so forth.
"For what?" she asked loudly.
"For making me come," he admitted, raising the corner of his mouth.
She kissed him in reply - of course she was going to push him a little when she saw it necessary. This had been her job, it was the least she could do and for her husband of all people.
"The music is pretty good," he commented, glancing at the time casually.
"And the food," she replied biting onto another salmon puff.
Jess smiled in response.
She slid her feet out from her shoes making rounds with her feet like she'd learned at yoga class.
"Your feet hurt?" Jess asked with concern.
"A little," she replied, regretting her choise in shoes. While hot, clearly overdoing it a bit.
Jess gave her a mildly scolding look for not having worn her flats instead, but he wasn't going to say anything, recalling how good she'd looked in them.
"I might go get my flats from the car," she mentioned.
"You brought them?" he asked. Of course she brought them - that's what she did - she thought things through.
"Keys?" she asked, deciding suddenly now was as good as time as any to go, still an hour left before midnight.
"I'll go," he suggested, not wanting her to go wandering alone late at night the couple of blocks to where they had parked the car.
"Yeah, but then I'd be stuck with the heels," she added.
"I'll take them to the car," he suggested, not wanting to drag her along either, if her feet were already tired.
"Oh, alright," she relented deciding that surely she could manage for 10-15 minutes without her shoes if she just kept sitting there. Kissing him once before he left.
"I'll be right back," he assured and headed off.
She browsed her phone and sipped on her water, observing the crowd around her in passing. She'd seen a few of the people at the HPG gala as well, but didn't really know them, it being still a slightly less corporate, more of a freelance or alternative publishing type of scene.
"He should really know better than to leave a beautiful woman like yourself alone on an event like this," Noah approached, gesturing towards the seat next to her whether it was okay if he joined her.
"Oh, he just went to get me some better shoes from the car," Celeste explained humbly, slightly taken aback by the borderline-unappropriate compliment.
"He's built himself up pretty well, I heard," Noah commented.
"He has," she agreed.
"Logan spoke highly of him," he added, speaking over the music.
"As much as I heard Logan spoke highly of you too," Celeste mentioned.
"You know him?" Noah asked.
"Yeah, I'm friends with his wife," Celeste replied, having decided a while ago that half-truth was much easier than claiming otherwise in cases like this.
"Alright, small world," Noah commented.
"So what brings you back to the states?" she asked curiously, having missed the discussion at the HPG gala.
"Hamburg was beginning to feel like a very small pond," he chuckled, adding, "and I guess I just missed home. I grew up here, but moved to Germany when I was a teenager."
Celeste nodded in response, knowing very well how sometimes the individual country markets that were language based, could feel like that, but not wanting to have to explain how she knew that.
"I'm sorry, but do I know you from somewhere? You seem so familiar," Noah asked her after a brief pause, observing her closely.
"I guess I just have one of those faces," Celeste replied, glancing around uncomfortably, while taking a sip of her drink. Could it be that he did know her? Or even recalled her in relation to Logan? After the HPG gala she was already so sure, that she was through with this, but apparently, there was never any guarantee… not until no-one remembered Odette had existed.
"Maybe.. I still think I've seen you somewhere. Where are you from?" he didn't relent.
Celeste swallowed the last of her drink, taking a moment to try to recall her cover story which she hadn't really needed that many times.
"Born in Paris, but mostly Montreal," she replied briefly, not really caring to go into too much detail.
"Oh, right," he nodded in response.
Thankfully it was then Jess returned, placing her flats on the floor and she slipped her feet in them, mouthing a thank you to Jess.
"Good to see you two talking!" Jess noted, adding, "I was beginning to worry you'd get bored without me."
"I was just telling her that she seems familiar somehow, I can't put my finger on it… but who knows maybe I'm just imagining it," Noah explained. It didn't seem like he had bad intentions by the sound of it, his curiousity seeming just that - curiosity.
Jess glanced over to Celeste questioningly to see how she was doing - whether this was something either of them needed to worry about, Celeste shrugging in response.
They talked a little more about when Noah should come by the office. They were still in the negotiation process when it came to the contract, but as HPG was endorsing this, it was just the matter of reasonability, more than anything. Soon Noah scattered off to some of his other friends leaving Jess and Celeste alone.
"You know him?" he asked.
"Not that I know of, he could've seen pictures or he might know me through Logan maybe?" she pondered. "It's probably nothing, but he does make me a little uncomfortable," she added.
"Anything in particular or just this…?" Jess asked, beginning to ponder whether he should reconsider hiring him based on her best interest.
"I don't know… It's probably nothing, or maybe we can just talk to Logan real quick to be sure. He seems to know the guy quite well," she added. "Come on, let's enjoy the evening. I heard they have a rooftop with heaters," she suggested, grabbing his hand, not really wanting to spend the rest of the night pondering about potential ghosts from the past.
The rest of the evening they didn't really bother with mingling, only saying an occasional 'hi' to a couple of people, focusing instead on each-other. The rooftop was beautiful, string lights illuminating the humble lot. The band that played there, played slower tunes, allowing the two to do some dancing as well, the evening taking a welcomed romantic turn.
As the countdown approached they switched off some of the string lights to allow better view of the fireworks, some already illuminating the sky before midnight.
"It's been a really good year," Jess whispered to Celeste's ear.
"The best," she replied, as the countdown finished and the crowd cheered, kissing him deeply, momentarily forgetting where they were altogether.