Double Trouble: Thirty Seven; Enlightening dinner conversation...
 by Cariad
 
 

Double Trouble
~Thirty Seven~
Julia made the most of dinner. Sitting between Theresa and Chuck Wilson, she decided she would make a little conversation. Subtly, she drew Theresa’s attention away from Aidan, and then again from searching the crowd. “Theresa,” Julia asked pleasantly, “I’m sure you remember Chuck Wilson?”

Theresa gave Julia a blank look after she glanced at Chuck. “Am I supposed to remember him?” Theresa asked.

Julia could hardly contain her laughter, but she managed. She turned to her dining partner. “Chuck, do you recall Miss Lopez-Fitzgerald?”

Chuck gazed at Theresa, contemplating her visage. “The name isn’t ringing any bells at the moment. Weren’t you the one Ethan was engaged to at some point in time?” he asked.

Theresa paled. “A-at one time,” she stammered.

“Oh,” Julia remarked, “because I was almost sure that in one of his letters, Ethan mentioned that you, Theresa, had been dating a certain Chuck Wilson. Of the family that designed the paper clip?”

Chuck sipped from his water glass. “That is my family,” he said, “but I never had a relationship with this lady.”

An awkward silence ensued. Julia drank it in. Perhaps she could not sit next to Jonathan, but she certainly could make Theresa squirm.

“I remember!” Chuck said finally. “It was a couple of years ago, and I had been getting tennis lessons from a certain Whitney Russell, she was helping me out on my back hand. Well, Ms. Russell came to me with a favor one day. I had to pretend to be someone’s boyfriend to help one of her friends out of a jam. All I needed to do was show up for lunch at the Country Club, meet Ethan and Gwen, and dispel their fears that Whitney’s friend was after Ethan!”

“Really,” Julia drawled. She shot a glance at Theresa, who looked uncomfortably nervous. “I am so relieved!” she said with false cheerfulness. “And here I thought that all throughout dinner, I’d have to be sitting between a pair of ex-es.”

“It was really a harmless charade,” Chuck commented.

“Then you hadn’t heard?” Julia asked quietly.

“Heard what?”

“That the night before Ethan’s and Gwen’s wedding, he dumped Gwen for Theresa. Isn’t that true, Theresa?” Julia asked pointedly.

“I hadn’t heard all that,” Chuck confessed. “I just knew that Ethan decided against marrying Gwen, and a few months later, asked Theresa to marry him. I didn’t know he exchanged one for the other.”

Conversation was halted as the salad course arrived. Julia surveyed the crowd, finding someone in the exact situation she wanted Theresa to avoid. She turned to her stepmother and in a reassuring tone asked her, “Do you see Charity Standish?”

Theresa swallowed past the nervous lump in her throat. “Yes?” she said.

“That is the reason why you weren’t allowed to wear gloves. See how she still has them on? It is impolite to wear gloves while eating. One is supposed to remove one’s gloves and fold them discretely in one’s lap. We couldn’t have you embarrassing yourself that way, now could we?”
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Holly squirmed between Jonathan and Luis. She could barely believe the hatred emanating from Theresa’s older brother, which left only Jonathan as a conversation partner. But she could not both watch Reese and pay attention to Jonathan at the same time for her head could not be twisted in two directions at once.
She concentrated on the plate of greens in front of her, not really tasting the dressing.

“You don’t like tomatoes?” Jonathan asked with interest.

“No, I hate them. I can’t stand the texture. Would you like them?” she asked, trying to be polite. Jonathan forked a cherry tomato off of her plate and popped it into his mouth.

“I thought Julia liked tomatoes,” he said blandly.

“I’m not Ju…” Holly began. “Oh damn,” she swore under her breath.

Jonathan laughed, drawing curious eyes over in his direction. He blissfully ignored them. “Smile, Holly,” he warned, “and pretend you’re having a good time.”

“I’m not that good an actress,” Holly replied coolly.

“But I saw you with Underwood,” he countered, “and you looked mighty convincing then.”

“Could it be that Underwood has more charm than you?” she asked pointedly.

Jonathan took a moment to skewer another cherry tomato from Holly’s salad plate. Holly sighed and continued picking at her salad. On her other side, Luis sat like a stone statue, and it did not take Holly long to figure out why. Rebecca was regaling Gwen with several racial slurs directed at Luis and his family.

“Mother!” Gwen said finally. “You will not ruin this evening for me—even more than you already have. You will silence yourself immediately.”

“It’s all right, Gwen,” Luis said quietly.

“No, it’s not all right,” Gwen replied with a cold look directed at her mother. “Whatever beef I have against your sister is between her and me. I don’t see a reason to condemn a whole family because one member did something to upset you.” Gwen directed her next comment to Luis. “Obviously you can’t be that bad,” she said, “if Sheridan found it in her heart to love you. You know that.”

“I need some air,” Luis replied. Gwen trailed after him as he left the room.

Holly felt greatly torn after their absence for there was now no one blocking the way between herself and Rebecca Hotchkiss. She was saved further attention from Jonathan as the lights dimmed and the stage was illuminated.

Diana O’Leary, in all her splendor strutted on stage and began to sing. Holly leaned forward and caught Julia’s eye as here sister had the same idea. Diana O’Leary was wearing a brown wig!

Fifteen minutes of bluesy jazz later, Diana left the stage to riotous applause, and dinner was served. A few minutes into dinner, Gwen and Luis returned.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the initial silence when the plates were placed in front of the amassed diners, Julia turned back to Chuck, not bothering getting Theresa’s attention. If her stepmother cared for her hide, she’d be listening in. “So anyway,” Julia began, “it appears that Gwen had some reservations about Theresa early on. She thought that Theresa was after Ethan. Well, Theresa kept prattling on and on about a rich boyfriend, and when you showed up, it put Gwen at ease. So, knowing that Theresa was not after Ethan, Gwen hired Theresa on to arrange Gwen’s wedding to Ethan while Gwen took care of family business.”
“Understandable,” Chuck replied.

“But the tragedy is that Theresa really WAS after Ethan the whole time,” Julia dropped her voice to a whisper, “and she used that time with Ethan to steal him from Gwen.”

Chuck’s smiling visage fell into a mask of sorrow. “I helped ruin Gwen’s life.” He said mournfully. “I would hate me for that.”

Julia patted Chuck’s hand. “Well, Ethan found out about a bunch of Theresa’s lies, and dumped her on the spot. And he went back to Gwen, but this time, Gwen took matters into her own hands and she refused him. She said it wasn’t the same.”

“I should apologize to Gwen,” Chuck said with determination. “I had no idea what was going on. If I did, you must believe that I would have had no part in it!”

Julia smiled grimly. “That’s Theresa for you. Everything gets twisted and confused when she’s around. And now she’s after my brother Aidan.”

At the mention of Aidan’s name, Theresa finally whirled. “Did you say something about Aidan?” she asked innocently.

Julia smiled patiently. She could barely believe that Theresa was older than she was! “I was telling Chuck how kind it was of Aidan to escort you.”

“Oh!” Theresa replied happily, and turned her attention back to the Crane at her side.

Chuck stared at Theresa in amazement.

Julia nodded knowingly. “If you ask me, you helped Gwen with a favor. Ethan’s my brother and all, but if he would willingly give up Gwen for… well…” Julia struggled with the word.

“That,” Chuck added gracefully.

Julia smiled her thanks. “Then Gwen is better off without him.”

Chuck sat back in his chair. “I remember seeing her this evening,” he commented.

“She came with Aunt Sher’s former fiancé,” Julia replied. “It’s a therapy thing for both of them. A no-pressure evening.”

“Gotcha,” Chuck replied.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So tell me, Holly,” Jonathan said, absently wiping non-existent crumbs from his sleeves. “Why are you so determined to avoid me?”
“You really need to ask that?” Holly replied with an arched eyebrow.

“Humor me.”

“You wanted cooperation, correct?” Holly said sweetly. “Well, instead of dragging myself to pretend good humor this evening, you get your happy cooperation and I get my time away from you!”

“Therefore, you put Julie up in the dress I picked out for you. Though I must say, you also looked wonderful in that red number. I almost thought I was loosing my ability to tell you two apart.”

Holly glared at her half-eaten plate. “So you can tell us apart? May I ask how? Even Father can’t tell us apart when we don’t want him to.”

Jonathan chuckled under his breath. “I’m not going to disclose all my secrets, my dear. Just don’t try to pull anything again, because I will know.”

“Are you threatening me?” she asked lightly.

She received no answer for once more, the lights dimmed, and Diana O’Leary appeared on stage, dressed in a different gown, still in her brown wig. She began a poignant love song, and Holly heard a deep sigh on her right. She saw tears in Luis’s eyes.

“I can’t take it, Gwen,” he said under his breath, “Everywhere I look, I’m reminded of her. I look at Diana O’Leary and all I see is Sheridan’s face.” Abruptly, he pushed away and left the table. Once more, Gwen followed him.

After Diana finished her second set, to more applause and damp eyes, dessert was served. “Follow my lead,” Jonathan hissed into Holly’s ear, and in a well rehearsed move, stood and drew her out in front of the main table until they were standing in front of Julian and Rebecca. Holly immediately suspected something as she felt the blinding heat of a spotlight settle on her and Jonathan. And then he dropped to one knee.

“I thought you promised not here and now,” Holly whispered.

Jonathan grinned up at her. “I promised not in the park at noon.” He removed a small, square box from his jacket pocket and opened it up to show her the ring. “Holly Katherine Crane,” he said in a loud voice, “Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

Holly glanced at the sparkling diamond, nearly obscenely large, and gave a frantic look out into the audience. With the spotlight in her eyes, she could see nothing but brightness.

“Don’t embarrass me, Holly-hocks,” Jonathan said softly.

She stared back at the ring for several seconds, and with a feeling of terrible doom, she reached out a trembling hand and took the box with the ring. In a blur of motion, Jonathan rose and placed a chaste kiss upon her lips while a loud cheer erupted throughout the hall. If anyone saw the tears on Holly’s face, they thought them tears of joy.

“I can’t do this,” Holly whispered. “I still have college.”

“I’ll wait,” he replied, escorting her back around the end of the table.

“I’ll never forgive you for trapping me like that.”

Jonathan wiped a tear from her eye. “And I’ll always remember how you chose not to make a fool of me.”

Holly steeled herself and got her emotions under control. Finding a shred of self-respect, she reached into the silver purse and removed a slightly worse-for-wear wrapped box. “And I have something for you,” she said with a level of calmness which surprised herself. She handed Jonathan the week-old Christmas present he had given her.

With gritted teeth, Jonathan accepted the small gift and tucked it inside his jacket pocket.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julia stared at the pageantry with disbelief. In one fell swoop, her ideas for her future had been destroyed. But that was not her primary concern. She could find another way out of the Crane family. Chuck at her side did not seem quite so bad. Julia’s primary concern rested on what she saw in her sister’s face before Jonathan kissed her. Unlike the rest of the guests, Julia knew what the tears staining Holly’s cheeks were truly for.
“That’s so romantic!” Theresa breathed by her side.

Julia did not bother correcting Theresa. The event was not romantic. The event was a set-up, and she wouldn’t be surprised if Grandfather Crane had his fingers in the pie. Holly would never embarrass someone in public—not unless they truly deserved it. Julia pushed away from the table, and in the general applause, she snuck around to the other side of the table and took Luis’s empty seat.

“Are you all right?” Julia asked, giving Holly’s had a squeeze. Julia could not help but notice the forced smile on Holly’s lips.

“Fine,” Holly replied tersely with an unspoken warning, saying, “if you make me talk, I’ll make a huge scene right here and now.”

Julia sat patiently by her sister’s side, giving Holly all the moral support she needed. Their mother soon joined Julia. Ivy dispensed all society rules and hauled Holly to her feet.

“I know what you’re going through,” Ivy whispered in her daughter’s ear. Ever so subtly, she drew Holly away from the eyes of the crowd, as Chuck, Aidan, and several other gentlemen of status began to congratulate Jonathan.