Elle blinked and widened
her eyes. What time was it? She raised her head and saw how dark it was. She
glanced at her watch and her eyes widened even further in alarm. It was almost
seven-thirty. How could they have slept this long?
She turned and shook Kali
who was still sleeping soundly on her side. “Kali, get up,” she said sounding
less frantic than she felt.
“Huh?!” Kali mumbled and
turned on her back. She opened one eye and then the other. “Elle?”
“Kal, get off your ass.
We’re late. What happened to the alarm?”
Kalina sat up and looked
at her watch, finally noticing the time. She made a face before looking back at
Elle. “I don’t know. I guess we both slept through it.”
Elle swung her legs out
of the bed and got up. “It doesn’t matter; we have to get dressed and
downstairs before everyone notices.”
Kalina nodded and hopped
off the bed.
It didn’t take long for
either to get dressed. Kalina’s mom had hinted early on that dinner at the
house would most likely be a semi-formal affair so they had packed for the
evenings appropriately.
Elle put on a cream camisole and a black knee length skirt while Kalina wore a
black collared shirt with white pinstripe pants. Elle looked at Kali with her
pulled back red hair, glasses and crisp outfit. It all made Kali look very
no-nonsense, she thought. And very un-Kali like.
Elle had always been the
more serious of the two both in personality and dress. She was earth tones
while Kali was jewel tones, sober while Kali was whimsical. Not to say that
Kali was some flighty, airhead she was just a lot more open and cheerful than
Elle.
“Ready Kalina?” Kali
turned away from the mirror she had been looking in and grinned at Elle.
Elle laughed. “I guess
so, Isabelle.”
They left the room and
made their way downstairs.
“So, uh, do you have any
idea where we’re going?” Elle asked as they stopped at the end of the
staircase.
Kali looked to the left
and the right before laughing lightly. “Not so much, no.”
A sound came from the
right of them and they looked to see two caterers rushing down the hall with
carts of covered food.
Elle raised her brows in
their direction and Kali nodded. They followed the two and very quickly after
found themselves at the doors of the dining room.
Kali shot Elle a nervous
look before taking a breath and following them inside. Elle wasn’t sure why
Kali was so nervous. It wasn’t as if she had to pretend to be someone who fit
into this world. She closed her eyes briefly and then walked inside too.
Just as she had been when
she’d walked into the guestroom, Elle was impressed with the dining room. It
was beautiful with white walls and floor length windows. A long cherry wood
table and burgundy-covered seats blended the classic with the modern and it
worked wonderfully. A long crystal chandelier hung over the rectangle table,
pooling the room with a soft light.
Elle gave the table a
brief glance and the people seated but turned her attention to a smiling woman
walking towards her and Kalina. The woman stopped in front of Elle and took her
hands, “Kalina, am I right? You are the spitting image of your mother.”
Elle pretended not to
hear the soft giggle erupting from Kalina before her and nodded. “It’s a
pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Attwater. We apologize for being late but—”
“Don’t worry about it, my
dear. Just try not to let it happen again. Because you were tardy, you missed
the aperitif. We’ll be settling in for the main course in a few minutes.” She
turned and started walking towards the middle of the head table.
They followed behind her
and stopped in front of the only two empty chairs in the room. Facing those
seated nearby, Mrs. Attwater waved a casual hand towards the two girls. “These
are our last two weekend guests, Kalina Byron and her friend Isabelle.” She
glanced back at them and introduced the others. After she was done, she left to
seat herself at one end of the table.
As soon as she was gone,
the others turned back to their conversation and ignored Kalina and Isabelle.
Elle glanced at Kalina and raised a brow in inquiry as they seated themselves.
Kalina shrugged and leaned in towards her. “We’re new and female. A combination
that girls like them aren’t fond of,” she said quietly.
Now that Kalina looked
down the table she realized that the people directly beside and around them were
only female, unlike the rest of the table, which seemed pretty even when it
came to men and women. She wondered if Mrs. Attwater was trying to find a
suitable young woman for her son. It would explain why the female guests
outnumbered the male.
“Which one’s the son?”
she asked Kali suddenly as she glanced around the table.
Kali shook her head. “No
idea. I don’t mix in these circles remember. Why?”
Elle shrugged. “Just
curious.”
“Mmm … so did you notice
how Mrs. A didn’t even greet me? She didn’t even give my last name when
introducing me, like I was unimportant or something.” Kali said her voice
filled with derision. “They are all so typical. Every one of them.”
Elle watched the girls
around them, who still hadn’t said a word to either of them and had to agree.
She wondered if the
weekend was just going to be remain like this with the two of them being on the
outskirts of the party. If so, they were going to have a very quiet weekend and
she didn’t mind at all.
“Who are they?” Christian
asked as he watched the girls who’d come into dinner late follow his mother to
the other side of the room.
Blake glanced at them and
said with a faux British accent, “More pickings, dear boy.” He grinned before
turning back to the girl he’d been flirting with on his right.
Christian smirked a
little but his eyes travelled back down the table and rested on the two girls.
His ears perked as he tried to discern his mother’s voice. She was introducing
them to the group and if he was hearing right, one of them was Kalina Byron.
He looked away and
frowned. He knew that his mother had invited her but he’d assumed that it was
for the ball not the weekend house party. He wasn’t big on the girl. For the
last couple of years their parents had been trying to get them to meet and he’d
easily avoided the meetings.
The fact that both set of
parents or at least mothers were involved made him wary of meeting her. They
were obviously expecting some kind of match, perhaps not right now but for the
future. And he’d elope with the first girl he saw before he willingly let them
decide a fiancée for him. Just the thought of being shackled into some
engagement made him shudder.
She was probably an
incredibly spoiled brat as it was. His mother was always pushing bubble headed
twits, who had more money than intelligence at him. He was going to have to
avoid Miss Blake for the rest of the weekend if he wanted a somewhat peaceful
weekend.
*