Chapter One: Part Three
Kate had been the first person Dee had come out to. It was during their last year of high school. After several hours of uncharacteristically nervous and tentative behaviour, she had nervously stammered it out. When Kate had finally decoded her confused speech and realised what it was that Dee was trying to say, she laughingly explained to Dee that she had known forever, gave her a hug, and that was that.
Dee and Carrie had fallen in love at first sight. During their second year of tertiary study, Dee and Kate had met Carrie during a rock and roll concert, and sharing a late snack after the show, they became the three amigas. Carrie’s natural inclusion into Dee and Kate’s strong friendship was both instant and effortless.
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Standing in the checkout queue at the supermarket, Kate was thinking about how quickly her life had turned around in such a short space of time. Kate became an essential part of every gig from that very first night, and the three months since then had simply flown by.
Her mind went back to a special breakfast only five weeks ago when, over coffee and croissants, Dee and Carrie had announced to her that she was now a full partner on an equal 25% share of the net profit. Kate knew that a 25% share went back to the business; it had been her suggestion. As far as Dee and Carrie were concerned, Kate’s partnership was exactly how things were supposed to be, and they told her so.
With a smile, she remembered Carrie meeting all of her reasoned objections head-on, saying, ‘Catherine Jones, it’s your own damn fault. You bankrolled us and you refused to let us pay you back. We love you and you are too bloody good at your job for us to let you go, so you’re our partner; deal with it. Case closed!’ She had even crossed her arms and ‘humphed’. When Kate blew back a raspberry and crossed her eyes in response, they all laughed and the matter was settled. Still smiling at the memories, she paid the clerk for her groceries and walked into the bright afternoon sunshine.
The amigas were enjoying two very rare days without bookings. Carrying the shopping bags into the apartment, Kate found Dee on the phone. She was saying, ‘Thank you… It’s our pleasure. I will call Juanita tomorrow morning and we’ll be there at four o’clock … yes sir, myself and a business partner … thank you … you too … goodbye.’ Smiling wildly at Kate, she made a great show of checking that the call had ended before announcing, ‘Holy-Hot-Damn! We’re doing Dominique Savagewood!’
Carrie heard her happy shouts and came rushing from the kitchen to find out what was going on. Dee said to her, ‘We just landed Dominique Savagewood! Saturday, two weeks’ time, afternoon and evening gig for fifty-five!’ They hugged and danced happily.
‘Who?’ Kate asked, unsure of why this gig was such good news.
‘Only the dreamiest damn man alive,’ Carrie said, continually surprised at her friend’s lack of interest in the social pages and celebrity gossip.
Pointing to the groceries, Dee said, ‘I’ll put that stuff in the fridge. Get dressed my loves, we are celebrating tonight, and Alberto’s is happening!’
She was physically pushing them into action with one hand whilst dialling Alberto with the other, knowing he would have them eat with him in the kitchen before he turned them away. As soon as Dee knew that Alberto had the seats available, she sent text messages to their five casual staff, inviting them to join the celebration. An evening at Alberto’s was always fun and they all agreed instantly.
Halfway down her hallway, Kate realised that Carrie had just described a man as dreamy. More strangely, Dee had just stood there nodding and grinning like a smitten schoolgirl instead of objecting. That was very odd she thought with a shake of her head.
Kate’s little black dress and work heels came to her rescue. She darted to the bathroom to freshen her makeup, determined to find out over the course of the evening why getting this guy’s gig was something so worthy of celebration.
Looking at her makeup bag, Kate smiled. Carrie had handed it to her on the morning of their first gig. A terrible fibber, she’d glowed red as she tried to tell Kate that she had ‘accidently’ bought all the wrong shades and said to her, ‘since I’ve lost the receipt, why don’t you use it, Katie?’
~~~~~
That evening at Alberto’s, Dee announced the gig to the enthusiastic cheers of their small staff. When Kate tried to find out more about Dominique Savagewood, the effusive responses she received to her questions were clearly based on rumour and social page captions.
The frustrating inconsistencies suggested that Savagewood was a late-thirties to early-fifties male, very straight but possibly gay, a monastic kind of playboy who was reclusive and ‘out-there’. The only common points of agreement were that he only ever appeared in the society pages at interesting events with interesting people, and that he was gorgeous. Kate ended up settling for the notion that everyone knew of Dominique Savagewood, but nobody actually knew anything specific about him.
Alberto served food and drink to his guests with traditional old-world generosity and the evening became a happy blur for everyone. He insisted on arranging taxis for everybody who didn’t have a sober driver in their party. Alberto had even spent fifteen minutes convincing the girls that the night air was still too cold for them to walk the two-and-a-half blocks home. They couldn’t help but smile when their driver revealed himself to be Alberto’s second cousin.
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