Cal casually looked beside him to the sleeping Clarissa. She was with him since the day he had gone to Harvard, sharing his bed with him and been his companion for more than ten years. Not surprisingly she had never been a fan of Rose or her mother.
Clarissa yawned, hands moving beside, coming to rest on Cal's naked upper body, which to her was ideal in every aspect. Truly Cal was a great lover. She giggled as she thought about her family.
Her father had originally wanted her to marry and live a decent life. After her affair with Cal had become public knowledge however, she had been thrown out…Clarissa couldn't care less. Cal was providing perfectly for her.
She wouldn't wish for anything more.
A smile appeared on her face as she was happily examining Cal.
"I think it's going to be a wonderful day," she announced.
Cal didn't react, but simply sat up in bed.
"Maybe," he mumbled his mind somewhere else.
He enjoyed having sex with her; she was quite open-minded in this way, not like the frigid Rose. Spending the nights with her had certainly been more pleasurable than having to sit near Rose and her even more reserved mother.
Or speaking about politics with all those old men…
Frankly which idiot had ever said that you shouldn't have sex before marriage?
He detested that stupid unwritten law.
On the other hand he had to follow it as he knew how soon a rumour was making its way through society. Surely his father would've never forgiven him, if he had destroyed his reputation. Rose had been just the girl he needed to marry. She would've given him an heir, while Clarissa had always been his amusement.
Rose had never met Clarissa and hadn't known that she even existed, unlike Ruth.
Cal clearly remembered her anger, when she had discovered her at first, telling him on the spot that she would call off the marriage, if he didn't stop this affair.
'My daughter won't be compared to this whore,' she had sneered.
Cal had just laughed and asked her, if she had anyone else up her sleeve. Her eyes turning dark and full of hatred at that moment had told him everything he needed to know – she had had a passionate loathing for him from the start, but on this day it had turned into open dislike. But there had never been anyone else to marry her pour daughter.
Ruth surely must've recognized instantly that this alliance wasn't a love match, but simply about money and power. Unlike Rose had always believed, Ruth wasn't completely alien to Cal's doings. She wasn't unaware of what he did to her daughter and she despised him for it. But she didn't see a way out. The truth was that they really didn't have another choice. Ruth, being the ever so programmatic woman, had taken the risk that her daughter would be locked into an unhappy marriage, for the sake of spending a private life in high society.
Only she didn't want to be confronted with the truth. As long as Cal was acting like the loving fiancé, everything was alright. The picture of a mistress didn't fit in with this perfectly arranged union made in heaven.
Cal quite frankly had made it clear to Ruth from the beginning that he no intention to give up his bachelor-like life, whether she accepted this or not was none of his concerns.
Finally she had done so, ushering Rose in a series of dreadful days and nights.
Cal turned on the lampshade standing on the nightstand, before getting his feet out of the bed. Clarissa followed his moves, her hand touching his bare shoulders.
"Mmh…," she laughed kissing his neck.
"Not now," Cal angrily told her standing up.
Clarissa was drawn aback, making a heated sound of annoyance.
Cal took his morning suit from one of chairs and put it on, afterwards walking over to the desk to light a cigarette.
"Ah, you've to give me one too," Clarissa send thinking he would come back to bed soon.
Cal had other plans though.
Ruth had been horrified, when Cal had announced he wanted Clarissa to accompany them to Europe. Eventually she and his father had been able to convince Cal to change his plans, by explaining to him what it look like, if he took both his fiancée and mistress on his engagement tour.
But Cal had been nervous and unpleasant during the whole trip and quickly had found several replacements throughout the cities they had been visiting. Ruth had just been glad that she had managed to distract Rose. Until Jack Dawson had showed up, Rose even believed herself to be a little bit in love with Cal. In spite of her outside coldness, Rose at first had been honoured that Cal, the most sought after bachelor of Philadelphian society at that time, would choose her to marry. At once Ruth had caught her smiling after Cal had given her a nice little bracelet.
But that had been before their appalling journey to Europe and back. Something had happened there, especially in Nice and Ruth died to know what it was. Only she never had the guts to ask.
Cal blew out the smoke, turning his back to Clarissa.
"I think you should leave know," he announced not caring to look at her while speaking.
Clarissa was taken aback for a moment.
What was wrong now?
"Is this about her again, your dead fiancée? Seriously Cal, I don't understand you. You had no problem asking me to escort you both, while she was still alive and now…"
"That's exactly what I'm talking about. I don't want people to think that I've just found someone else so soon," he interjected.
Clarissa wasn't stupid. She knew that Cal most likely would never marry her and she was okay with that. Being Cal's mistress so to say was in fact better than being his wife. She could walk away every time Cal wasn't doing what she wanted. At least it had seemed so until now.
"Ah, I see, you're worrying about your status in society once more," she mocked him.
'Do you think that the presence of this woman is needed here?'
Ruth hadn't looked very happy.
"I believe it's better, if we don't see each other for some time," he told her. "I mean not until…"
"You mean not until the old witch has finally accepted that her daughter is really dead," Clarissa finished for him, laughing out loudly afterwards. "Really Cal, you seem more like a little boy around her. Why don't you just tell her to shut up?"
"It's my father as well...," Cal angrily grabbed another cigarette.
"Oh, I know, I'm not good enough for him as daughter-in-law."
"I want you out of here, when I'm back," he firmly stated before extending the room stopping the conversation, before it had even really started.
…
Coincidentally he met Ruth on his way downstairs.
Her expression, full of dislike, told him everything he needed to know.
If looks could kill…
"Good morning, Ruth. Did you sleep well?" Cal felt committed to tell her.
Ruth just shot him another angry look, while walking past him.
Cal watched her, thinking for a moment she would walk strait to his room and drag Clarissa out personally. Indeed she stood outside the door for quite some time, before finally going to her own room.
Cal sighed in relieve.
However he knew that he needed to do something about it. Hopefully Clarissa would really be away, when he returned from work. He felt that he didn't have the strength to throw her out. And there was still the problem with this Italian and that Dawson so far hadn't shown up.