Christian glanced toward the table as he followed the others offstage, his gaze finding Carolyn. Much to his shock she gave him a tentative smile when their eyes met and Christian felt something unclench a little in his chest.
He'd been worried sick about how to woo her ever since she'd fled the table earlier at his approach. It would be impossible to woo her if she wasn't around to woo. However, it appeared that Gia's brilliant idea was actually working.
He couldn't wait to hear it.
Unfortunately, he appeared to be the only one eager to get to the office. Everyone else was moving at a snail's pace as Marguerite gushed with praise over the performance.
Christian forced himself to be patient. He'd waited for Carolyn for five hundred years, another five minutes wasn't going to kill him... hopefully.
"All right." Christian closed Genie's office door and turned to glance from his mother to Gia. "What's this brilliant idea?"
When Marguerite and Gia exchanged a glance, he felt trepidation crawl up his spine again and narrowed his eyes.
"Well?" he growled.
"Now, dear, I just want you to take everything into consideration here before you react," Marguerite cautioned, just increasing his trepidation. "You have to think where Carolyn's head is at."
"She was super-freaked at being attracted to you," Gia put in solemnly. "I mean, seriously, ready-to-run-and-never-come-near-the-lounge-again freaked."
Christian frowned, but wasn't terribly surprised. This not-aging business could be a real pain in some ways, but he supposed it wouldn't have been any easier had he looked five hundred. Then she wouldn't have given him a second glance.
"And?" he prompted, when neither woman continued.
Gia glanced to Marguerite. When she nodded encouragement, Gia cleared her throat. "So I got her talking to try to figure an angle. It was obvious that just trying to convince her to overlook your age and give you a chance wasn't going to work. She's not the kind of woman who would be comfortable with a boy toy."
"A boy toy?" he choked out, and then scowled when his father snickered.
"Yes, well that's how she was thinking of you, Christian," she said, and then pointed out, "We do look a lot younger than we are."
"Right," he growled. "So?"
"Well." Gia paused to lick her lips. "I got her talking about her friends... Genie and Bethany and... er...
Brent."
Christian stiffened, eyes narrowing. "Brent?"
"Yes, he's... er... well, he was her roommate in university.
Actually they were all roommates. They shared a house," she added quickly when he began to scowl.
"Brent was a good friend. Kind of like a girlfriend."
Christian blinked. "Kind of like a girlfriend?"
"Yes, well, you see... er... Brent is gay," she explained.
Christian relaxed. That was all right. He'd started worrying there that Gia was going to tell him Carolyn had some long-lived, unrequited love for the guy.
"Okay, so she has a g*y friend," he said, not getting where this was going.
Gia glanced to Marguerite again and shifted her feet.
"Well, see he wasn't openly gay, he was in the closet, and she used to pretend to be his girlfriend on occasion to help him stay there. It's called being a beard, apparently."
Christian waited.
Gia shifted nervously again, and this time he noticed that she was shuffling a little away from him. When his eyes narrowed, she continued, "And then it struck me. She was very sympathetic to this Brent. They were good friends and she felt bad for the struggle he had and so on..." She paused and shuffled another step away before blurting out, "And so I told her you were gay."