Joline wasn’t going to confirm or deny her mother’s speculation, although she did wonder where her mother had heard such a rumor. “I spent the weekend with a friend of mine from university,” Joline responded. “Where did you hear about that anyway?”
Martha laughed softly. “Dear, you have to know by now that I have a wide range of people who tell me little tidbits of information. How do you think I’ve found all of my husbands over the years? I need my spies in order to confirm or deny rumors, don’t I? It wouldn’t do to become interested in a particular man, only to find out later that he couldn’t afford my lifestyle. Wasted efforts, you know.”
Joline sighed, more than slightly repulsed by her mother’s mercenary attitude. “I’m sure your spies are very good at ensuring that your next husband has enough money to keep you in your lavish lifestyle,” she said.
“Exactly!” Martha confirmed, unaware of or unconcerned with her daughter’s sarcastic disapproval. Martha had an amazing ability to ignore anything that might cause wrinkles to form on her beautifully botoxed and surgically lifted facial features. Stress, anything controversial and anything that her mother didn’t feel like acknowledging, were summarily dismissed from her awareness.
“So who is next on your list for husbands?”
“Oh, I’m perfectly satisfied right now with my current lover,” she explained. There was a murmur in the background and Joline cringed, wondering if the voice was from the newest man in her mother’s life. Her mother laughed seductively, confirming Joline’s suspicion. She heard a muffled comment before her mother came back on the line. “What were we talking about, dear?”
Joline shook her head, not about to remind her mother about the rumors she’d heard. “Where are you, mom? Last we spoke, you were heading to the Swiss Alps for skiing.”
“Oh, that was lovely! Marcus is a fabulous skier.”
Marcus? “I thought you were dating a guy name Julio,” Joline said, and then cringed because she didn’t want to know. Another man, another lover…the men that came through her mother’s life were always wealthy and powerful and all of them loved to spoil her mother rotten. Her mother’s career was collecting men, jewels from the men and stocking up her bank accounts, courtesy of the men in her life.
“Marcus is in banking,” Martha explained, knowing that mentioning another man’s name would be in bad form. There were several things her mother did extremely well. One was finding extremely wealthy men to take care of her and another was making that man feel as if he was the center of her universe. Until he wasn’t any longer. Which was sometimes sad. When Joline was little, the men came and went in her life so often that she’d eventually learned not to grow attached to any of them. The marriages lasted only a couple of years before the sizzle wore off. Or perhaps the man’s bank account was drained, which was the same thing in her mother’s mind.
“Where has Marcus taken you?” Joline asked, trying to keep the subject on her mother, normally a very simple task since her mother was extremely self-centered.
“We’re in Paris right now but we’re leaving for London in a few days. Marcus has meetings and I’ve agreed to accompany him.”
Great! London! Of all the cities where she truly didn’t want to run into her mother…well, that wasn’t exactly true. There weren’t any cities in which she’d want to run into her mother. They kept their distance, exchanged presents at Christmas and birthdays and that was about it. Joline’s mother knew that having an adult daughter hanging around would age her. Or a teenage daughter. Or even an elementary school daughter which was why Joline had been raised by nannies for most of her young life and sent off to boarding school for her teen years. That had been hard, but once Joline understood her mother’s “career”, she’d actually preferred the boarding schools to coming home and being introduced to yet another man or worse, a step-father.
“I’m sure London is lovely at this time of the year,” she said, but couldn’t really care less. She had a lot of work to do and wasn’t interested in hearing more about Marcus. “I really have to go, Mom.” She’d figure out a way to avoid her mother when they were both in London. It was imperative that they maintain separate lives. She didn’t intend to be introduced to yet another man that her mother had scrounged up.
“Oh no you don’t!” she chided her only daughter. “You haven’t even told me if the rumors are true! What’s going on, dear?”