Даниэла Стил - Neighbors

She watched them all diligently, and ran some of them again. Her conclusion at the end of it was that Julia had talent. She used her grandfather’s last name, and mother’s maiden name, as a stage name, Julia Price, not her grandmother’s. Her real name was Julia Holbrook, Kendall’s married name, which Meredith would have liked better than Scott’s name.

Her audition tapes were excellent, and so were her small parts in the two series she’d appeared in. Meredith had a few of the tapes on her desk. She told Charles about it on Friday night, and showed him some of them. He said his trip to Seattle had gone well, and he was fascinated by the video material Meredith showed him. Her granddaughter was tall, like Scott, and beautiful like her grandmother, with long wavy red hair. She was only nineteen and had played both teenagers and sophisticated women. One thing shone through every example. She was a born actress, like her grandmother.

“What are you going to do with all this?” Charles asked her, curious, after he’d watched it with her.

“Nothing. I just wanted to get an idea of whether she has talent, or is wasting her time in L.A. She’s good. Could be great one day, if she works hard at it, and hones her skills. What I really want is to meet her. Maybe I can encourage her, or introduce her to some people. Kendall said that Scott is helping her, but I’d like to put my two cents in too, if she’ll see me. She hardly knows me. I haven’t seen her since she was ten, and she might not want to meet me again now.”

“Are you going to invite her up here?” Charles asked her.

“Eventually. But I’d like to go to L.A. to see her. I have no idea if she’ll even respond to a call or email from me. I think Kendall poisoned her against me for years.”

“Try it. The worst she can do is refuse.” He wasn’t sure how hurtful that would be to her grandmother, but he thought it worth a shot and said so. He was excited that Meredith was reaching out instead of hiding. She had gotten braver and braver. “I’ll go with you if you like,” he offered. “I have several clients down there I can meet with while you see her. And we can have a little fun ourselves.” He wanted to do things with her, and get her back out in the world she had abandoned. He was encouraging her gently, but didn’t want to push her.

“I’m thinking about it,” she admitted. “I’m not ready to write to her yet, but I will soon.” He wasn’t sure what she was waiting for, but suspected she was just trying to muster the courage to meet her granddaughter. It wasn’t easy after so long, or even to explain.

—

She and Charles were happy to see each other again after his trip to Seattle. It had gone well. He had devised a massive personal protection plan for a very important CEO who had been receiving death threats for several months, because of the environmental stance of the company he worked for, and he was afraid for his wife and kids. The people who were threatening him had bombed someone else’s home, and he didn’t want it happening to them. It was exactly the sort of thing that Charles was good at. His agency did some industrial counter-espionage work too, which Meredith found fascinating. He was modest about his work, but he had had the highest security clearance given by the government, and was highly respected in his field. He had made a few suggestions to her, and she was planning to implement them with her own security people. He thought that she needed even more protection than she currently had, and underestimated the danger to herself. Charles had tried talking to Jack about it, and he dismissed it, and said they had all the systems they needed in place.

On Saturday, she was excited about the dinner. She arranged the flowers from her garden herself, and had picked the menu with Debbie. They were having lobster bisque to start, Cornish game hens, and chocolate soufflé for dessert, with whipped cream and crème anglaise. It was one of the things Debbie did well.

She told Jack that she hated to waste her talents on Meredith’s intrusive neighbors, but Meredith had thanked her profusely several times, and was grateful, so maybe it was worth it to solidify their bond with her again. Things had deteriorated considerably between them while the neighbors were staying there, and Debbie made it clear how much she disliked them.

“You need to lighten up on that,” Jack advised her, and she thought he might be right. As soon as Debbie put some effort into the menu, Meredith was happy with her again. She obviously wanted to impress her new friends. Or that was Debbie’s take on it. In fact, she just wanted to spend time with them, and good food and great wine were part of it. Debbie was making pizza margherita for Will and Daphne, with French fries and ice cream sundaes. Meredith was delighted with the menu and Charles was impressed by how beautiful the table looked, with Meredith’s magic touch. There were candles on the table, and she had used some pretty plates with a floral design in bright colors. It all looked very festive.

As soon as the guests arrived, it was even more so. They were offered martinis, margaritas, or champagne, with hors d’oeuvres Debbie had made. They congregated in the living room and the library, and Tyla noticed very quickly how close Ava and Peter seemed. They followed each other from room to room, and spoke in hushed tones.

“Is something going on with Peter and Ava?” Tyla asked her, and Meredith smiled mysteriously, and then whispered to her.

“Arthur offered her a job as an assistant. She’s living there now, and she and Joel broke up.”

“Holy shit! There’s a major change,” Tyla commented. “When did that happen?”

“Last week, I think.”

“Is that why Joel’s not here?”

“She says he’s in England, but maybe he wouldn’t have come anyway. She says the breakup was bloodless and very civilized.” Tyla knew Andrew would be disappointed not to see Joel. He arrived late, and asked for him immediately. Ava gave him the party line about his being in London on business, and didn’t explain the rest. They weren’t ready to announce anything, but preferred to acknowledge it when people guessed. It seemed tasteless to Ava to make any big statements so soon after the breakup with Joel.

“What a whore,” Andrew commented to Tyla under his breath. “Joel goes out of town for five minutes, and she’s crawling all over Peter again.”

Tyla didn’t like to hear him talk about her friend that way, so she straightened him out. “They broke up. I think she may be seeing Peter now.” She didn’t tell him they were living in the same house, but he figured it out when Arthur said she was his new assistant. Andrew’s eyes glittered with hatred and envy as soon as he heard.

During dinner, which everyone praised to the skies, they all got the very clear impression that Meredith and Charles were dating. He beamed every time he looked at her, and she seemed peaceful and happy. They all loved the food, and Daphne said it was the best pizza she’d ever eaten. Will ate a whole plate of fries. They devoured the ice cream sundaes, just as the adults did the soufflés.

Meredith made Debbie take a bow for the delicious dinner, and she positively glowed at their compliments, which were well deserved.

They had after-dinner drinks in the library, which were left on a silver tray. Charles helped Meredith bring in coffee, while Debbie and Jack cleaned up the kitchen. Debbie was mellower than she had been for a long time, with everyone so appreciative of her cooking, and they gave her a round of applause. She was preening like a peacock when she told Jack, and Meredith had hugged her for the first time in weeks. They were slowly sliding back in.

Everyone left after midnight, since they didn’t have to work the next day, and she and Charles sat in the library alone afterward, discussing the evening. It was one of the things Meredith had always liked when she was married, being able to talk about a party afterward, and they both thought it was sweet that Peter and Ava were together and looked so much in love. When they’d exhausted the subject, they went upstairs to her bedroom, climbed into her bed and turned on the TV to watch a movie, but they were both asleep halfway through it, after agreeing it had been a lovely evening.