The Billionaire's Wife(23)
“Oh what a gorgeous dress, it is simply darling! Of course it wouldn’t look as great on me,” she lowers her voice just a little “effects of gravity on a middle aged woman and all that” she laughs and snorts at the same time and I flash her a smile. More of a confused smile than a comic smile but she accepts it for the latter and continues to bombard me with the woes of being a middle aged woman. As she tells me about her inability to lose weight, her drooping breasts and her constant hot flashes I try desperately to get Gideon’s attention. Each time he turns in my direction however, I feel that hand upon me again and after the third time I have to remind myself of why it would be a bad idea to slap her hand away. I’m trapped and short of excusing myself to the bathroom I can’t get away from this overbearing stranger who is convinced that she has met me before.
“Of course, you don’t have to worry about any of this yet my dear, but just you wait until you’re my age. It’s like one day you wake up and someone has flipped a switch and nothing works the way it’s supposed to anymore. Your breasts have fallen down to your knees, you sweat like a pig, you have a permanent spare tire around your waist and ugh, don’t even get me started on the joys of sex after menopause.” I am quite certain that my jaw is on the floor and my eyes are as round as dinner plates. I have never in my life met anyone quite so obnoxious and so unaware of appropriate levels of sharing with strangers. On the other hand, I was supposed to know her already, just how well did I know her? Had she and Mrs. Lambert been good friends I wonder. If that were the case though, she would most certainly have seen her since this time last year.#p#分页标题#e#
As the woman continues to prattle on I finally catch Gideon’s eye and beg him to come and rescue me from the strangest person I have ever met in my life. He looks at the woman and then back at me with a smirk on his face and a knowing nod.
“Ahhh, Mrs. Dubois.” Finally Gideon comes to my rescue, sliding his arm around my waste. “It’s so very lovely to see you this evening, thank you for holding such an impressive event yet again!” She halts the intimate conversation as soon as Gideon approaches and flashes him a brilliant smile that is, undoubtedly, all caps or in the very least a good pair of dentures.
“Ah, Mr. Lambert, I was just telling your dear wife how much we missed her last year!” Gideon nods and I see a faint trace of disappointment flash across his face briefly before he nods.
“We certainly did, still, all better now aren’t you darling?” he turns to look at me with an adoring smile and for a moment I imagine what life as a true billionaire’s wife must be like, at least a well loved wife of a billionaire. I can’t help but wonder at what point his wife was no longer a well loved wife. What had she done to become the unloved wife? At what point did Gideon decide that she was no longer the wife he wanted or, worse yet, the wife he was going to get away with killing.
My train of thought is broken by the obnoxious laughter of the incredibly irritating Mrs. Dubois. As she laughed she made sure to settle her hand on Gideon’s forearm and I flash her a daring look as if to say ‘hands off my husband you bitch.’ She snatches back her hand with a brief smile and turns her attention to me again.
“We really should get together for tea one afternoon dear, I’d love to get some ideas for the next fundraiser and it would be lovely to catch up.” I can’t imagine that Mrs. Lambert had ever had any interest in any extracurriculars with Mrs. Dubois, simply because she was everything that a person couldn’t stand all rolled in to one. Still, I nod my head.
“That would be lovely, I’ll have to check my calendar of course but I’ll get back to you.” I wonder if she sees through my response, if it’s something she gets quite a lot. If it is she doesn’t seem to show it when she smiles and nods in acknowledgement.
“I’m sure you both will have a lovely time” Gideon says, rubbing his hand over my back. “I hope you don’t mind if I steal my wife away for a moment though, Mrs. Dubois. There is someone I would dearly like her to meet.” I feel relief take over my body as Mrs. Dubois nods and Gideon takes my hand in his and pulls me in to the company of the elderly couple he had been talking to.
“Of course you know Mrs. Lambert.” Gideon introduces me to the elderly couple, the woman with a large poof of grey hair and a string of pearls wrapped so tightly around her large neck that they look ready to pop off. I smile and offer my hand to her.