How It Ended: New and Collected Stories - By Jay McInerney Page 0,88
the director of the ballet and the mayor. At one point when they became separated, she introduced herself to Zach Hunter, the actor, who would be more or less a contemporary of Billy.
“Very nice to meet you,” he said, looking over her shoulder.
“My gentleman friend, Billy Laube, is a big fan of yours,” Alysha said. “I know he'd be delighted to meet you.”
“Billy Laube? You mean, like, the Laube Foundation?”
She nodded, pointing to Billy, who stood a head above the crowd a few yards away. “Come say hello to Billy.”
She led him over and introduced them. Billy seemed relieved to see Alysha and delighted to meet a movie star. It turned out they had a friend in common, someone in Los Angeles named Ray Stark. They engaged in an enthusiastic exchange, much of it relating to the Denver Broncos football team. When they separated to find their respective tables, Alysha said, “Who was that man?”
“You didn't recognize Zach Hunter? Are you that young? He's an actor, a movie star. At least he was. I thought you knew him.”
“He introduced himself and told me I was the most beautiful woman in the room. I thought perhaps he did look familiar. But then he kept talking to me, so I thought I would introduce him to you so he would know I had a boyfriend.”
“Wow,” Billy said. “Zach Hunter was hitting on you. And you didn't even know it.”
“Perhaps he was a little before my time, or else he is more popular here than in Europe,” she said, taking his arm and leading him to the table.
The evening was an unalloyed triumph, and anyone expecting to see Alysha nervous or humbled was disappointed. She took the stage after appetizers and introduced Billy at some length, and he gave a very charming and self-deprecating speech that she had written for him with the help of her Wellesley-educated assistant. The performances were first-rate; even Billy seemed to enjoy the show, which at twenty minutes was just long enough to satisfy the faithful without alienating the banker husbands who had to be at work early the next morning. She knew there was a little buzz concerning the events out on the red carpet, but she chose to rise above it. All that mattered was what Billy thought. The rest of them would follow in his wake.
“You were wonderful,” she told him, safely in the car shortly after eleven.
“You're the wonderful one,” he said, throwing his big lumberjack arm around her and pulling her close. “I was worried about you.”
“You're sweet,” she said, “but I don't want you to worry. I'm used to these attacks. They are jealous of me, and they wish to see me suffer, but I won't give them the satisfaction.” She buried her head in his shoulder.
“Who? Who's attacking you?”
“The children.”
“Children?”
“My late husband's children. They hate me—they want to ruin me. They are contesting the beastly will and they have frozen my assets. My lawyers tell me we will win in the end, but before we do, I may lose my house in Southampton. Maybe even my apartment. Oh, Billy, I didn't want you to become mixed up in this nasty business.”
“Well, it sounds like you need somebody to get mixed up in it. What was the summons all about?”
“It's about the mortgage. They're going to foreclose on my beautiful house.”
“Nobody's going to foreclose on anything. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
“I can't ask you to rescue me.”
“You don't have to ask,” he said, pulling her closer.
The next day, Billy canceled his lunch date and walked over to Cartier to look at rings. He'd almost proposed to her last night in the car, but he had old-fashioned ideas about propriety and presentation. He wanted to do it right. He wanted to have the ring and the proper setting for the proposal. Casting his mind about for a place, he realized that Alysha would be the person who would know the perfect location. In the past few weeks he had come more and more to rely on her. He realized that he liked this feeling of surrender, of being taken care of. She seemed to know everyone and everything. All he had to do was show up and be himself. They made a good team.
After fifteen minutes in the store, his head was spinning. Emerald cut, marquise cut, pear and princess … color and clarity. And he was shocked by how much you could spend on a fairly modest-looking diamond