Lovely

“Alessa.”

The soft diminutive of her name made her realize that someone had touched her arm. She looked up at Leon, his smile was soft and sympathetic.

She was reading the guest book that was left at the art show in the gallery. The gallery assistant had handed it to her, smiled when Alessandra gave her a coupe of champagne. Some of the bubbles splashed onto the pages, but Alessandra did not care.

“She came, Lessa, but she was in the private room, and she left.” Leon looked at her with a kind expression, but she knew how hard up she looked. Looking to see if Eliza had written some comment for her in the guest book when if anything, she should have come up to her and said something to her face to face. Then suddenly she heard what Leon had said.

“Eliza was here?” she asked quietly, looking at him.

“You are so beautiful,” he said and held her chin to kiss her. “This luscious mouth.”

Leon kissed her gently.

“She was in the private room, and she looked at the painting for a long time. Then she left.”

Alessandra looked through the guest book, desperately hoping to see Eliza’s fast handwritten scrawl on a page, and then she saw her script.

Lovely.

The word was tattooed in her mind because she kept wondering if she meant the painting, her, or both.

Leon put his arms around her and lured her away from the table to hand her own coupe of champagne.

“Come on,” Leon said. “The after-party is down the street. Right Rabekkah?”

“Almost, it moved a few blocks over. I can take you and Ms. Wagnall there,” Rabekkah nodded.

Alessandra stared at Rabekkah. The younger woman obviously was starstruck and wanted to hang out with her. Her eyes looked like stars, and Alessandra was vulnerable enough to want her there because she felt so low about Eliza.

Rabekkah put on her jacket and led them to the bar where there was more champagne. She handed glasses to Alessandra and Leon. Alessandra squeezed Leon’s hand because she knew he had pretended not to know where the restaurant was so Rabekkah could be alone with her.

Rabekkah was lovely. She had thick long dark just like her own that she had just taken out of a bun, and she moved to leave the bar when Leon, of course, stopped her and said,

“Stay.”

If Alessandra was not in the state she had been in since Eliza rejected her, she might have been more up for Rebekkah.

But she was still so sad and “lovely” and was still tattooed on her mind.

Maybe Leon was right, and she should hook up with Rabekkah, who had not taken her eyes off of her all night. And maybe she knew that from the way she had smiled when she handed her the coupe of champagne for the guest book.

They sat close to each other at a high-top table, and Leon got a costly bottle of champagne for them.

The night had just begun…

More Wicked Wednesday here. Read my other series here.